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Feds Seek to Seize Gold Caps From Drug Dealers' Teeth

April 7, 2006

By Associated Press



TACOMA - Talk about taking a bite out of crime.

Government lawyers are trying to remove the gold-capped teeth known as
"grills" or "grillz" from the mouths of two men facing drug charges.

"I've been doing this for over 30 years and I have never heard of
anything like this," said Richard J. Troberman, a forfeiture
specialist and 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."

According to documents and lawyers involved in the case in U.S.
District Court, Flenard T. Neal Jr. and Donald Jamar Lewis, charged
with several drug and weapon violations, were taken on 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.

Before being put into a vehicle to be taken to a dentist in Seattle,
they called their lawyers, who were able to halt the seizure, said
Miriam Schwartz, Neal's public defender. A permanent stay of the
seizure order was signed Tuesday by U.S. Magistrate J. Kelley Arnold,
court documents show.

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

Neal and Lewis have permanently bonded grills, their lawyers said,
declining to provide more description.

Government lawyers who asked a federal judge on March 29 to order
confiscation of the grills said they did not know the caps had been
bonded to the drug defendants' teeth.

"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.

Once the government understood that removal of the grills could damage
the defendants' teeth, they abandoned the seizure attempt, she said.

Schwartz and Zenon Peter Olbertz, Lewis' lawyer, criticized what they
said was a clandestine attempt to have the grills removed.

"It's shocking that this kind of action by the federal government
could be sought and accomplished in secret, without anyone being
notified," said Schwartz. "It reminds me of the secret detentions" in
terrorist cases.

Seizure warrants are typically sealed to prevent defendants from
trying to move or hide valuables and evidence, Langlie and court
clerks said. They become public with the filing of a return that shows
what has been seized.