Arizona Laws 13-4315. Allocation of forfeited property
A. Any property, including all interests in property, forfeited to the state under this title shall be transferred as requested by the attorney for the state to the seizing agency or to the agency or political subdivision employing the attorney for the state, which may do any of the following:
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 13-4315
- Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
- Attorney for the state: means an attorney designated by the attorney general, by a county attorney or by a city attorney to investigate, commence and prosecute an action under this chapter. See Arizona Laws 13-4301
- Commercially reasonable: means a sale or disposal that would be commercially reasonable under Title 47, Chapter 9, Article 6. See Arizona Laws 13-4301
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
- Government: means the state, any political subdivision of the state or any department, agency, board, commission, institution or governmental instrumentality of or within the state or political subdivision. See Arizona Laws 13-105
- including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
- Interest holder: means a person in whose favor there is a security interest or who is the beneficiary of a perfected encumbrance pertaining to an interest in property. See Arizona Laws 13-4301
- Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
- Person: means a human being and, as the context requires, an enterprise, a public or private corporation, an unincorporated association, a partnership, a firm, a society, a government, a governmental authority or an individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property. See Arizona Laws 13-105
- Property: means anything of value, tangible or intangible. See Arizona Laws 13-105
- Seizing agency: means any department or agency of this state or its political subdivisions that regularly employs peace officers and that employs the peace officer who seizes property for forfeiture, or such other agency as the seizing agency may designate in a particular case by its chief executive officer or the chief executive officer's designee. See Arizona Laws 13-4301
- Vehicle: means a device in, upon or by which any person or property is, may be or could have been transported or drawn upon a highway, waterway or airway, excepting devices moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. See Arizona Laws 13-105
- Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215
1. Sell, lease, lend or transfer the property to any local or state government entity or agency or political subdivision, any law enforcement agency or prosecutorial agency or any federal law enforcement agency that operates within this state for official federal, state or political subdivision use within this state, with expenses for keeping and transferring such property to be paid by the recipient. Property may not be allocated for official use if the fair market value of the property substantially exceeds the agency’s probable cost of purchasing other property equally suited for the intended official use. Property that is allocated for official use may not be assigned for use by any person who supervised or exercised discretion in its forfeiture unless the use is approved in writing by the head of the agency.
2. Sell forfeited property by public or otherwise commercially reasonable sale with expenses of keeping and selling the property and the amount of all valid interests established by claimants paid out of the proceeds of the sale with the balance paid into the anti-racketeering revolving fund of the state or of the county in which the political subdivision seizing the property or prosecuting the action is located. A sale of forfeited property may not be made to any employee of the seizing agency, any person who participated in the forfeiture, any employee of a contractor selling the property on behalf of the seizing agency or any member of the immediate family of any of these employees or persons.
3. Destroy or use for investigative purposes any illegal or controlled substances or other contraband at any time more than twenty days after seizure, on written approval of the attorney for the state, preserving only such material as may be necessary for evidence.
4. Sell, use or destroy all raw materials, products and equipment of any kind used or intended for use in manufacturing, compounding or processing a controlled substance.
5. Compromise and pay claims against property forfeited pursuant to any provision of this section.
6. Make any other disposition of forfeited property authorized by law for the disposition of property of the state, government entity, agency or political subdivision.
B. Notwithstanding subsection A of this section or any other law to the contrary:
1. If the property forfeited is money, and a law enforcement agency can specifically identify monies as being from its investigative funds or as being exchanged for property from its investigative property, the monies shall be remitted to the investigative fund. If there are additional forfeited monies or monies tendered on satisfaction by an interest holder that cannot be specifically identified, the court shall order the monies returned to each law enforcement agency that makes a showing of costs or expenses that it incurred in connection with the investigation and prosecution of the matter and shall order all excess monies remaining after such returns deposited in the anti-racketeering revolving fund of this state or of the county in which the political subdivision seizing the monies or prosecuting the action is located, established pursuant to Section 13-2314.01 or 13-2314.03.
2. If the property declared forfeited is an interest in a vehicle, the court shall order it forfeited to the local, state or other law enforcement agency seizing the vehicle for forfeiture or to the seizing agency.
C. Monies in any anti-racketeering revolving fund established pursuant to this title may be used, in addition to any other lawful use, for:
1. The payment of any expenses necessary to seize, detain, appraise, inventory, protect, maintain, preserve the availability of, advertise or sell property that is subject to forfeiture and that is seized, detained or forfeited pursuant to this title or of any other necessary expenses incident to the seizure, detention, preservation or forfeiture of the property. The payments may include payments for contract services and payments to reimburse any federal, state or local agency for any expenditures made to perform the investigative, storage and maintenance functions associated with the property held by the seizing agency.
2. The payment of awards for information or assistance leading to a civil or criminal proceeding under this title.
3. The payment of compensation from forfeited property to injured persons as provided in section 13-4310, subsection P, paragraph 3.
D. Each attorney for the state shall submit a copy of each forfeiture judgment, including each order of forfeiture, to the Arizona criminal justice commission within sixty days after the forfeiture judgment becomes final or after the conclusion of appellate review, if any.