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DA's overreliance on asset forfeiture income violates the law

Having written the other day about asset forfeiture abuses, I was pleased to do a TV interview yesterday with a local reporter from the Valley who was in Austin doing an investigative feature on the topic. Without queering his scoop (which I'll be sure to link to when his story runs), I was shocked when he showed me documentation of a District Attorney's office that received fully 1/3 of its annual budget, including salaries, from asset forfeiture income.It strikes me that the commissioners court in that county is violating Texas' asset forfeiture law, which reads in relevant part:"A commissioners court or governing body of a municipality may not use the existence of an award to offset or decrease total salaries, expenses, and allowances that the agency or the attorney receives from the commissioners court or governing body at or after the time the proceeds are awarded...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on February 13, 2009 (boomark / email).