Kansas Statutes 60-4118. Powers of enforcement personnel
Terms Used In Kansas Statutes 60-4118
- Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
- Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Law enforcement officer: means any public servant, whether employed by the state of Kansas or subdivisions thereof or by the United States, vested by law with a duty to maintain public order, to make arrests for offenses, or to enforce the criminal laws, whether that duty extends to all offenses or is limited to a specific class of offenses. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
- Person: includes any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
- Property: means anything of value, and includes any interest in property, including any benefit, privilege, claim or right with respect to anything of value, whether real or personal, tangible or intangible. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights to them and interest in them, equitable as well as legal. See Kansas Statutes 77-201
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- Seizing agency: means any department or agency of this state or its political subdivisions which regularly employs law enforcement officers and which employed the law enforcement officer who seized property for forfeiture, or such other agency as the seizing agency may designate in a particular case. See Kansas Statutes 60-4102
- Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
- Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
(a) A county attorney, district attorney, the attorney general or such attorney’s designee may conduct an investigation of alleged conduct in violation of this act. Such attorney is authorized, before commencement of any civil proceeding or action under this act, to subpoena witnesses, compel such attendance, examine witnesses under oath, and require the production of documentary evidence for inspection, reproducing or copying. Except as otherwise provided by this section, such attorney shall proceed under this subsection with the same powers and limitations, and judicial oversight and enforcement, and in the manner provided by this act and by Kan. Stat. Ann. § 22-3101 et seq., and amendments thereto.
(b) The examination of all witnesses under this section shall be conducted by the attorney or such attorney’s designee before a person authorized to administer oaths. The testimony shall be taken stenographically or by a sound recording device and may be transcribed. The attorney shall exclude from the place where the examination is held all persons except the person being examined, such person’s counsel, if any, the authorized individual or individuals before whom the testimony is to be taken, law enforcement officials and any stenographer taking such testimony. Prior to oral examination, the person shall be advised of such person’s right to refuse to answer any questions on the basis of the privilege against self-incrimination. The examination shall be conducted in a manner consistent with the taking of depositions under the code of civil procedure.
(c) Except as otherwise provided in this act, no documentary material, transcripts, oral testimony or copies of it in the possession of the attorney shall be available, prior to the filing of a civil or criminal proceeding or action relating to it, for examination by any individual other than a law enforcement officer or agent of such officer without the consent of the person who produced the material or transcripts.
(d) No person, with intent to avoid, evade, prevent, or obstruct compliance in whole or in part by any person with any duly served subpoena of the attorney under this section, shall knowingly remove from any place, conceal, withhold, destroy, mutilate any documentary material that is the subject of a subpoena. A violation of this subsection shall be a class B nonperson misdemeanor.
(e) Acts or omissions by the attorneys for the seizing agencies in the course of the attorney’s duties in the enforcement of any of the provisions of this act, including provision of any legal services prior to charging, complaint or seizure, are prosecutorial and shall not subject the attorneys or the attorney’s principals to civil liability.
(f) During the investigation of real property and upon probable cause to believe the real property is in violation of this act, but before any liens or other proceedings are initiated under this act, a seizing agency may place a notice of potential claim with the register of deeds in the county in which such real property is located as notification that a forfeiture investigation is in progress and that a forfeiture proceeding against such real property may be initiated by the seizing agency. Such notice shall automatically expire 180 days after filing, unless renewed, and shall contain such real property’s legal description, the date the investigation began, and the name, position, agency, business address, and business telephone number of the person filing such notice of potential claim. The notice shall be sworn to and verified in the manner provided for in the filing of lis pendens. The agency shall not be charged a filing or release fee.