In the last four years, Highway Patrol trooper Craig Beedy has taken part in two traffic stops near Jamestown that grabbed about $200,000 in seized cash. The patrol's share: zero.

In both instances, in June 2003 and July 2005, the money was turned over to the state, as required by law. Patrol Capt. James Nygaard, who is now retired, personally drove the money seized from a van near Jamestown two years ago to Bismarck.

"We never did get any money," said Nygaard.

Federal laws, and laws in many states, allow law enforcement agencies to seize money and property, including cash, homes, cars, boats and planes, if they believe it has been used for drug trafficking.

For some agencies, asset seizures are big business. The U.S. Department of Justice's asset seizure fund had $1.37 billion in assets in September 2005, which are the most recent audit figures available.

In North Dakota, most seized money and proceeds from selling forfeited property goes in the state's general fund.

Legislation that the North Dakota Senate may consider this week would give the Highway Patrol authority to keep up to $300,000 in seized cash and property every two years. It could be used to buy equipment, pay overtime, and provide matching funds for grant programs.

The North Dakota House has already approved the bill, 88-2. The Senate Transportation Committee has recommended that the full Senate endorse the legislation.

The idea worries some criminal defense lawyers, who believe it creates a conflict of interest by giving troopers a financial reason to make traffic stops.

"It's not a particularly good practice to allow the police to keep those asset forfeitures, because that then creates an incentive for them to go out and bust people," said Scott Ehlers, state legislative affairs director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The North Dakota patrol's commander, Col. Bryan Klipfel, said the new fund would not be a threat to law-abiding citizens. "I don't think it's going to … have troopers doing anything more than they're already doing," he said.

Last year, the Highway Patrol seized $34,000 in cash and $2,200 worth of property in stops on interstate highways in the state, Patrol Lt. Kelly Rodgers said. Troopers make about 900 arrests annually. Rodgers said 2006 was the first time records were compiled for the entire year.

North Dakota law says property may be seized if law officers can demonstrate it is more likely than not that it was being used for drug trafficking.

Ehlers said asset forfeiture laws generally presume property to be guilty of being involved in a crime.

"You have to go into court and prove it's innocent," he said. "It might cost a person more to go to court … and get their property back than to just give it up."

Nygaard said troopers "take each stop as they come," and he does not believe creating an assets forfeiture fund would result in an increase in traffic stops.

"If (a fund) can offset some of the costs to taxpayers so we can keep purchasing more equipment to help us win the war on drugs, I think it would be beneficial," Nygaard said.

Ehlers said the problem is when honest, innocent people get caught up in law enforcement seizures. In one New Jersey case, a woman who was an officer with a county sheriff's office had her car seized when her teenage son used it without her knowledge to sell marijuana to an undercover officer.

The case prompted the Arlington, Va.-based Institute for Justice to sue over New Jersey's forfeiture law in 2001. A trial judge struck down the law as being unconstitutional, but an appellate court later overturned the verdict, said Scott Bullock, a senior attorney for the institute.

"Our plan is to bring similar challenges to this in other states that have it, and try to stop these perverse incentive schemes from happening," he said. "If you provide people with the wrong incentives, it's not surprising that they're going to act accordingly."

Bullock said more than half of the states have laws that allow law enforcement agencies to keep some or all of the assets and cash they seize.

Some states have taken steps to rein in forfeiture laws. In 2000, Utah voters approved an initiative banning police agencies from claiming seized assets to fund their own programs. State lawmakers later added safeguards to protect innocent property owners.

A bill in the Montana Legislature this year would prevent forfeitures unless the property's owner is convicted of a crime.

Klipfel said the $300,000 cap in the North Dakota Highway Patrol's proposed asset fund should eliminate any profit motive. The agency's next two-year budget may total about $39 million.

"I don't think that's an exorbitant amount and … there's going to be years there's probably nothing going to be collected," he said. "It's just a hit-and-miss deal."

In the July 29, 2005, stop near Jamestown, Beedy seized $100,000 in cash from two men in a van that he caught speeding. Mark Friese, a Fargo attorney who defended the van occupants, declined to say where the money came from but said it was not drug proceeds.

Friese said the money was seized lawfully because cash in excess of $10,000 that is "irregularly packaged" is presumed by North Dakota law to be the proceeds of a drug sale.

"I think it's unfair, simply because it switches the burden of proof we're used to," he said.

Jay Schmitz, an assistant Stutsman County prosecutor, said about $30,000 was returned to the two men in part because the money could not be linked to drugs.

He said all of the $128,520 from the June 2003 stop was kept by authorities. That money was found in a toolbox in the trunk of a rental car, and the car's occupants had criminal records and a key to the toolbox, he said.

Beedy, who made the traffic stop, said the cash seizure was the largest in the North Dakota Patrol's history.

Rep. Ed Gruchalla, D-Fargo, who is a former highway patrolman, said introducing a financial motive into law enforcement may not be a bad thing.

"If it gives incentives to go out there and get drugs off the street, and vehicles (used in the drug trade), if that's a secondary result, I'm all for it," he said.

The bill is HB1064.