DA turns over $100K from forfeitures to county general fund
The Washington County commissioners convene many meetings where they present checks for community projects, often from the Local Share of gambling revenue generated by The Meadows Casino.
Last week, District Attorney Gene Vittone turned the tables and presented the commissioners with a check for $100,000 from money and property forfeited by those charged with drug-dealing.
The amount of the check represents the proceeds from between 50 and 100 arrests, Vittone said, but he added, “The focus of what we’re doing isn’t to get property. The focus is to get drugs.”
Last year, the District Attorney’s Drug Task Force spent about $290,000, according to county financial records.
A grant from the attorney general’s office was $87,000, and the county’s general fund pays the difference.
“They’re helping to offset the difference, and we appreciate that,” said Roger Metcalfe, Washington County finance director who oversees the preparation of departmental budgets each year.
The law allows property associated with illegal activities to be forfeited.
“A lot of times you’ll see from the criminal complaints that they have hundreds of dollars on them or thousands of dollars that are the proceeds from drug activity, and it goes through a process up in the Court of Common Pleas,” Vittone explained outside the commissioners’ meeting.
“There’s a process set forth in judicial code that gives (the property owner) an opportunity to be heard. Ultimately, the court signs off on it, awarding the money to us or telling us to return it.”
Accompanying Vittone to the check presentation were Chief County Detective Jim McElhaney, paralegal and administrator Peter Glasser and the detective in charge of the drug task force, Richard Gluth, who worked in the vice unit when he was a state trooper. Vittone called his drug task force the largest group of undercover detectives in Washington County. Its phone number is 1-800-281-0070.
“We did a total reorganization in 2012 when I took over,” Vittone said.
Of the drug task force, which now has three full-time detectives, Vittone said, “We’ve made a number of arrests based on information provided by the public, so it’s been very useful throughout the county. There’s been a cooperative effort at the state and federal level addressing this problem, and it’s not a problem that’s easily solved. Information people provide to us may be the missing piece of the puzzle. We’ve made a number of arrests based on information provided by the public.”
Heroin trafficking in Washington County and nationwide has been an issue with which law enforcement has been grappling. The commissioners Thursday heard from a local man who asked for redoubled efforts to eradicate illegal drug sales, including, he said, in an alley behind North Avenue.
Vittone said the number of drug-overdose deaths was lower in 2014 than in 2013. Coroner Tim Warco could not be reached for comment Monday.