Prosecutors have made clear there are no allegations of wrongdoing against those who work, worship or attend school at the Islamic Education Center building at 2313 S. Voss or those who occupy or rent the other Alavi properties. Still the government may take the building if it proves its case some months or years down the road.
“An awful lot of innocent people get caught up in forfeitures,” said University of Houston Law Center professor Sandra Guerra Thompson, who has written about forfeiture laws.
Thompson said civil forfeitures have been used in this country since Colonial times. They became in vogue again during Prohibition, when again the means of transport was forfeited, this time the vehicles.
Innocent third parties
“The idea is the legal fiction that the property itself commits a crime or that the property represents the proceeds of a crime,” she said.
Forfeitures have also been used liberally in the war on drugs, seizing fancy cars and jewelry and sometimes a family home. The law has been used in vice cases such as gambling and prostitution too.
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