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Missouri Court of Appeals Western District rules felon can't get

Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press, May 7, 2008 by Aaron Bailey

He ought to have gotten a storage unit.

A man's quest to be compensated for two motorcycles seized in a police raid ended Tuesday. Larry M. Waller left the bikes with a friend while serving a prison sentence. Unfortunately, the friend had legal trouble of his own.

The Missouri Court of Appeals Western District shot down Waller's challenge to a summary judgment in favor of the Bates County prosecutor, who filed a forfeiture petition for Waller's two Harley Davidson motorcycles. The court decided the appeal did not comply with Missouri Supreme Court rules.

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The bikes were being stored on land in Bates County owned by Henry Oberholtz. In 1999, police raided the land and found a meth lab, stolen vehicles and Waller's motorcycles. The Bates County prosecutor filed a petition for forfeiture under Missouri's Criminal Activities Act and took possession of Waller's motorcycles.

Waller argued he was never served with the petition. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in 1998 for drug charges and serving his time at the penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan.

Waller sued the prosecutor in 2005, and the case was eventually moved to Henry County. A circuit judge then granted a summary judgment in favor of the prosecutor.

In a short opinion handed down Tuesday, Chief Judge Vic Howard dismissed Waller's challenge to the summary judgment. With Judges Hal Lowenstein and Thomas Newton agreeing, the case was dismissed for failure to apply legal reasoning in the trial court's error, or standard of review, and an inadequate jurisdictional statement.

"While we dismiss the appeal," Howard wrote, "our examination of the record reveals no glaring errors."

Waller was represented in the appeal by Sedalia attorney Robert A. Farkas.

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District rules felon can't get

Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press, May 7, 2008 by Aaron Bailey

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