MHPD investigators never charged the suspect with any drug crimes, only sex offenses, but that didn't prevent the department from eventually collecting more than $45,000 of the seized money in 2020 through what's called the Equitable Sharing Program, according to records. Unbeknownst to them, investigators seized the cash and partnered with a federal agency to apply for asset forfeiture, citing probable cause of illicit drug activity. The victim's family and their attorney said, at the time, an officer assured them the money would be available to one day pursue in a civil suit and in the years after, continued telling them the money remained held in property…. Records show when MHPD investigated the sex abuse case in July 2019, they found suspected marijuana, drug paraphernalia and cash inside the suspect's home. The now-17-year-old teenage victim's family filed a civil suit against Gomez-Saldana shortly after and secured a consent order for $69,130 to be turned over to her. Saldana pleaded guilty to multiple sex crimes years later in 2023 and is currently serving a prison sentence. The case is a stunning example of the misplaced priorities and perverse incentives that asset forfeiture creates for police-and of how the federal government allows state and local police to evade reforms to stop forfeiture abuse.Īs originally reported by local news outlet WCNC Charlotte, the Mint Hill Police Department (MHPD) investigated Mario Alberto Gomez-Saldana II for sexual abuse in 2019. Despite a judge's order, she will get nothing. The local police department had already seized the cash through civil asset forfeiture, and it was already gone. A North Carolina teenager was hoping to get her life back on track after a state judge ordered a man who sexually abused her to pay her $69,000.
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