Gov’t loses bond forfeiture bid

A garment manufacturer will soon get its money back after a Superior Court judge granted judgment in their favor.

Superior Court Judge Timothy Bellas dismissed the petition of the Attorney General’s Office to forfeit Jin Apparel’s share in the $61,000 bond posted in exchange for the garment seized by the government during an immigration raid at the premises of American Langente Corporation (ALC).

Bellas said the government has not demonstrated probable cause for its belief that a substantial connection existed between Jin Apparel’s garments and ALC’s immigration violations.

Last June 25, agents from the Division of Immigration raided the offices of ALC where eight illegal workers were arrested.

Five days later, ALC picked up approximately 1,900 garments from Jin Apparel for quality control work. Later the same day, immigration officers returned to ALC and seized the garments.

In July, AGO filed a petition seeking forfeiture of the seized garments. In response to the petition, four parties including Jin Apparel filed a petition for a Temporary Restraining Order whereby the parties sought to substitute cash bond for the garments.

The court granted the TRO and the parties posted a $61,000 cash bond, of which $26,600 was shared by Jin Apparel.

In November, Jin Apparel filed a motion for summary judgment seeking to have the monies deposited with the Superior Court returned.

In support of its motion, Jin Apparel said the government did not have probable cause to seize its garments at ALC so the cash posted is not subject to forfeiture.

It is undisputed that Jin Apparel’s garments did not arrive at ALC’s premises until June 30, 1998 — five days after the illegal workers were arrested and removed from ALC.

Since the illegal workers were in Immigration detention on the date the garments were seized, it is improbable that the detained workers had the opportunity to work on these garments.

Moreover, as Jin Apparel points out, a five-day interval between the arrest and seizure is too remote in time to support a finding of probable cause that the garments were somehow connected to ALC’s immigration violation.

The court found that the government has not met its burden for relief as it has failed to set forth sufficient facts to show that the evidence it seeks actually exists or that if it exists it would be legally sufficient for the court to rule in the government’s favor.

The court ordered the Clerk of Court to return to Jin Apparel its share of the cash bond within 14 days.