Tennessee Vehicle Forfeiture Procedure Questioned by Hamilton County Sheriff

Hamilton County sheriff Jim Hammond has asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to decide whether he violated state procedure when he returned a car to its owner after it was seized during a drug-related arrest of the owner’s son. The investigation is meant to clarify the state’s vehicle forfeiture procedures so that law enforcement agencies are clear in the future of exactly what to do in such circumstances.

The owner of the car, Marcia Tenenbaum, told reporters that she called Hamilton County Sheriff in April after her son was arrested for possession of marijuana in her Lincoln sedan. Tenenbaum knew Hammond from her past. Both studied criminal justice at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Tenenbaum is merely an acquaintance of the Sheriff's and he says the the decision was not meant as a personal favor.

Tenenbaum said that she called the sheriff to say that she was disabled and needed the car to get around. Hammond apparently agreed and returned the car. However, some people question whether the return was proper. One official says that sheriffs are not permitted to release a car without a direct order from the state Department of Safety. No such order was ever issued by the agency and the car should have remained state property under that interpretation. Others in law enforcement and many attorneys say that the sheriff is well within his authority to return the vehicle. He has the discretion they say to return vehicles that his officers seized under his authority.
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Hammond says he was concerned about the decision and wanted it to be reviewed to settle the matter. To him the issue is purely procedural and not one about improper influence. Some paperwork may have been improperly filed which could have led to the release of the vehicle. The sheriff’s office launched an internal investigation into the matter in an attempt to sort out the issue.

Police officers across the state often seize automobiles when they find drivers in the possession of drugs. Tennessee law allows law enforcement agencies to confiscate an automobile that is used in to transport illegal drugs, regardless of whether the person transporting the drugs actually owns the car. The person found in possession of drugs is issued a notice of seizure and is informed that they must submit a petition to the Tennessee Department of Safety if they wish to contest the seizure.

There is an exception to a seizure under Tennessee law for those that simply possess such drugs for their own personal use.

Whether a Sheriff can return a vehicle for good cause once it has been seized under his authority without approval of the Department of Safety is the underlying issue.



Read: “Sheriff asks TBI to probe seized car procedure,” by The Associated Press, published at SFGate.com.
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Texting While Driving Leads To Homicide Conviction/Jail Time

by Jay Perry

            Recently, Aaron Deveau, an 18 year old student from Massachusetts was sentenced, to 2 ½ years with one year to serve in prison for a car crash in 2011 that killed one person and serious injured another.  There was strong evidence that Mr. Deveau (who was 17 at the time) had been texting while driving, and he was convicted of motor vehicle homicide and negligent operation while texting.  The second charge is a relatively new criminal charge in Massachusetts and applies only to cases involving injury.  Mr. Deveau also had his driving privileges suspending for 15 years.  

            While Tennessee does not have a criminal charge specifically related to texting, our vehicular homicide law prohibits the reckless killing of another when driving via “conduct creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to a person.”  Such a crime is a Class C Felony carrying between 3-6 years of punishment.  There is also the charge of reckless homicide, a Class D (2-4 years), which prohibits the “reckless killing of another.” 

            The conviction of Mr. Deveau (and sentence) demonstrates that many states are recognizing the dangers of “texting while driving”.  Text messaging while driving is currently banned in 39 states with another 5 states banning it for younger drivers.  While it is hard to know exactly how many crashes are due to texting, it is estimated that “distracted driving” was the cause of 18% of all accidents in 2010.  These accidents (in 2010) were responsible for the death of 3092 people with an additional 416,000 estimated injuries. 

Despite these laws and sobering statistics, it does not appear that many people fully understand the risks.  A recently released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study found that 58% of high-school seniors admitted to texting or emailing while driving in the past month.  For high school juniors the percentage who admitted doing so was 43%.  The survey involved questioning more than 15,000 high school students from across the country.  In many ways, these results aren’t surprising.  Anyone who has been a teenager (or who now is the parent of one) understands that most adolescents don’t fully appreciate risk.  There is increasing evidence that the part of the brain (the striatum) that seeks rewarding experiences matures earlier than the prefrontal cortex, which regulates the ability to control behavior and overcome impulsivity.

          There are underway a great many educational campaigns to help students appreciate the dangers of texting while driving.  We can only hope that as texting becomes a more and more common method of communication, these dangers are better internalized, not only by adolescents but adults as well.  The story of Aaron Deveau is a tragedy for all involved.  It was a terrible accident that took the life of Donald Bowley Jr., seriously injured his girlfriend, and has changed Mr. Deveau’s life forever.