Failure to Answer Interrogatories Didn’t Justify Cash Forfeiture

An Arkansas man’s failure to respond to interrogatories fully didn’t warrant forfeiture of about $35,000 seized from him during a traffic stop, because he wasn’t made aware that he needed to supplement his answers, the Eighth Circuit ruled.

Police stopped Christopher William Hester in November 2021 and searched his car because they smelled marijuana, the court said. The government believed the cash to be drug related.

As a result of Hester’s incomplete answers to the government’s special interrogatories, the district court found that he violated Supplemental Rule G(8) of the Supplemental Rules for Admiralty or Maritime Claims and Asset Forfeiture ...