Taking A Page From The Nazis... Digging For Gold In The Mouths Of Prisoners

Prosecutors Try To Seize Gold Dental Work Of Defendants

Seriously folks, the idea of confiscated gold dental work is ridiculous and reminiscent of the Nazis at Auschwitz... In order to tap these so-called assets, the prosecution would have to pay for the dental work to remove the gold, then pay for the restoration of the bridgework using materials other than the gold... and the last time I checked, dental work of that nature cost a small fortune... It would be a wash in the end, because the amount of gold in dental work is not a whole heack of a lot.

Don't we have more serious issues to address? How about getting these bastards convicted first?

Government lawyers tried to confiscate the gold tooth caps known as "grills" from the mouths of two men facing drug charges, saying the dental work qualified as seizable assets. They had them in a vehicle headed to a dental clinic by the time defense lawyers persuaded a judge to halt the procedure.

"I've been doing this for over 30 years, and I have never heard of anything like this," said Richard J. Troberman, a past president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "It sounds like Nazi Germany, when they were removing the gold teeth from the bodies, but at least then they waited until they were dead."

Prosecutors had a warrant to seize the gold dental work, according to documents and lawyers involved in the case. But they eventually abandoned the effort, saying they mistakenly thought the grills were removable.

The customized tooth caps, popularized by rappers such as Nelly, are made of precious metals and jewels and can cost thousands of dollars for a full set. Some can be snapped onto the teeth; others are permanently bonded to the teeth.

Flenard T. Neal Jr. and Donald Jamar Lewis both have permanently bonded grills, their attorneys said.

Neal and Lewis, both charged with several drug and weapons violations, were taken Tuesday from the federal detention center to the U.S. marshal's office, where they were told the government had a warrant to seize the grills. They called their lawyers as they were about to be taken to a dentist, said Miriam Schwartz, Neal's public defender.

A permanent stay of the seizure order was issued that day by U.S. Magistrate J. Kelley Arnold, court documents show.

"Asset forfeiture is a fairly routine procedure, and our attorneys were under the impression that these snapped out like a retainer," said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle.