The case concerns the State's use, in a criminal prosecution, of defendant's answer filed in a parallel civil forfeiture action. As part of its proof that defendant was the occupant of a bedroom in which drugs were seized, the State introduced in evidence the defendant's forfeiture answer, in which he asserted that he owned $2900 in cash seized from the same bedroom. While rejecting defendant's Fifth and Sixth Amendment arguments, the court held that the process by which defendant was induced to file his answer in the civil forfeiture action was fundamentally unfair. Although the State should have been barred from introducing the answer, it was harmless error in light of the other evidence linking defendant to the premises.
The court also provided some procedural guidance for future forfeiture cases, and referred the issue to the Criminal and Civil Practice Committees for their consideration
