Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convicting them of crimes

Seward County routinely seizes money from motorists on Interstate 80, keeps the cash – and never convicts the drivers of a crime.

The county's sheriff's department and county attorney use this practice, known as civil asset forfeiture, so often that a third of all cases of this kind in Nebraska state courts come from Seward County, population 17,962, a Flatwater Free Press analysis of court records shows.

The county has hauled in $7.5 million in forfeited cash in the past five years, some of it from civil forfeitures that state lawmakers thought they banned in 2016.

In Seward County, nearly al...