Power of Seizure
Only biological, theft, and destructive crimes are seizable. No
person can be seized unless there is probable cause to believe he has
committed a seizable crime, and no thing can be seized unless there is
probable cause to believe it is an instrument or product of the
commission of a seizable crime. The provisions of this section must
not be construed to impair further restrictions on seizure elsewhere
in this document.
A court has no power in criminal law over a person or thing,
particularly no power to order a seizure thereof, unless it is a
criminal court that has received a criminal indictment of that person
for a seizable crime, or received a criminal indictment of that thing
identifying it as an instrument or product of the commission of a
seizable crime. In any case, if the seizable crime is not described
by the laws enforced by that court, the indictment is defective and
creates no authority.
A criminal indictment must be filed directly with a specific criminal
court, and that court's geographic correlate must contain the location
where the indicted party or thing is believed to be located. An
indictment filed after a seizure must be filed with the most local
possible criminal court. If an indictment is filed by an agent of an
investigative branch, the geographic correlate of that investigative
branch must contain the location where the indicted party or thing is
believed to be located.
A justice of a criminal court can order a seizure of a person into the
custody of an officer of his court only if the person is a fugitive,
or the person has been accused of a seizable crime in a formal filing
with the justice's court of a specific and signed criminal indictment
by an agent of the investigative branch or by a party that has already
performed a lawful seizure. A criminal indictment must specifically
identify the crimes committed, the time and place of commitment to
extent known, the identity and description of the victims to extent
known, and the identity or description of the persons or things to be
seized with maximum possible specificity, and necessarily with
sufficient detail to make error unlikely. An officer of a court can
act in his official capacity outside the confines of state facilities
only pursuant to the seizure order of a justice of that court.
An officer of a court can seize a person or thing only pursuant to a
specific seizure order of a justice of that court, which must identify
or describe the persons or things to be seized with maximum possible
specificity and necessarily with sufficient detail to make error
unlikely, and must specify a facility (a jail, a courthouse, a storage
facility, etc.) to which they are to be delivered without unnecessary
delay, which facility must be controlled by that court. Transfer of
the persons or things to the custody of a trial court is subsequent,
and upon the request of the trial court, must be arranged and
performed without unnecessary delay.
A private law enforcement officer, on the private property he is
contracted to guard, can seize a person (and any things that accompany
him) whom he knows to be a fugitive or to have committed a seizable
crime for which he has been indicted, but not yet seized pursuant
thereto, by an agent of the investigative branch of a unit of state
whose geographic correlate contains the location of the person, in a
court of a unit of state whose geographic correlate contains the
location of the person.
A bail bondsman can seize a fugitive individual pursuant to a contract
entered previously by that individual, regardless of location.
Any citizen can seize a person whom he has stopped or caught in the
act of committing a seizable crime, in any location where the act is a
seizable crime.
No person or thing can otherwise be seized.
Any seizure by someone who is not an officer of a criminal court must
be followed by transfer of the seized persons or things to the custody
of an officer of a criminal court, without unnecessary delay. Until
this transfer, any seized person must remain under the direct
supervision of the seizing party. Upon an initial seizure by a
private LEO, bail bondsman, or citizen, without unnecessary delay he
must obtain access to an apparatus capable of constructing and
transmitting a signed message to the most local criminal court or to a
court of preexisting indictment, construct a message identifying the
seizing party, supplying a proper signed criminal indictment if one
has not already been filed, explaining the time and location of the
seizure, and transmit the resulting message to the court of
preexisting indictment, or if none exists, to the most local criminal
court. In acknowledging the message, the court must specify a
facility where the persons or things seized will be accepted for
delivery, which must not be unnecessarily distant. The party that
performed the initial seizure can, at his discretion, transport and
deliver the persons or things seized to this facility, without
unnecessary delay. Absent such a delivery in progress, if no officer
of the court takes custody of the seized persons or things within
eight hours of the delivery of the message of initial seizure, any
persons seized must be released, and the owner of any things seized
must be notified that he can take custody of the things, which at his
request must be released into his custody or into the custody of any
person who presents an authorization to take custody signed by the
owner.
The enforcement branch is exclusively responsible for training and
licensing anyone who is a bail bondsman or private law enforcement
officer.
previous section "Classifications of and Penalties for Crimes"
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