TROY – Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove’s office has gained a reputation for not being timely in some court cases, which has raised questions about the filing of a rare civil forfeiture lawsuit against an opioid-addicted prison inmate and his wife for cash seized by police three years ago.

Troy and Rensselaer detectives took $12,386 in cash along with heroin, MMDA and marijuana when they arrested Alexander Luciano at his Rensselaer home in April 2015.

Last month, Abelove sued to obtain a court ruling to award his office the money as a result of Luciano’s 2016 drug conviction in Rensselaer County Court. This is the first time that Abelove, who took office on Jan. 1, 2015, has filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit.

Luciano, 36, is serving an eight-year prison sentence in Coxsackie Correctional Facility. The suit, filed by Assistant District Attorney Jacob B. Sher, maintains Luciano obtained the money and equipment and used it "as part of an ongoing drug distribution enterprise."

His wife, Queyanna N. Luciano, "knew or should have known" the $12,386 was obtained through the commission of a crime, according to the lawsuit.

It's rare for a drug case to go to trial. Attorneys and court officials recall fewer than a dozen drug trials during Abelove's time in office. Most drug cases are resolved with plea deals. Usually, the district attorney's office gets any money a defendant charged with drug dealing or possession has at the time of arrest as part of the plea agreement.

An attorney, who is not involved in Luciano case and asked not to be identified, said many drug cases only involve a few hundred dollars in forfeitures because arrests are made on street buys. He said the $12,386 in this case would be considered a large amount. Troy police have held on to the cash since Luciano was arrested.

The way to get the money after a conviction by a jury is to sue the defendant in a civil forfeiture case. In this instance, Abelove name Luciano's wife - who is a veteran and nurse and lives in Rensselaer with the couple’s three children - as a “non-criminal” defendant.

Luciano was indicted in October 2015, convicted of felony drug possession June 2016 after turning down three plea deals and sentenced on July 18, 2016 by County Court Judge Debra Young. During the trial, Luciano testified on his own behalf. According to documents filed in the case, Luciano became addicted to opioids after he was shot twice in the face in 2006 and turned to buying heroin to alleviate the pain,

At the sentencing Assistant District Attorney Carl Rosenkranz said a civil forfeiture lawsuit would be filed regarding "$12,000 and change" was seized from Luciano, which the prosecution said was from his criminal sale of narcotics and marijuana.

Kindlon appealed Luciao’s conviction. The state Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, upheld Luciano’s felony conviction last summer and the Court of Appeals refused to hear the case in November.

"I don't know why it came this late other than it's the Rensselaer County District Attorney's Office," said Terence L. Kindlon, the defense attorney who handled Luciano's case and appeal after his previous attorney, Gaspar M. Castillo Jr., was suspended for professional misconduct.

"The best practice would be to introduce the civil forfeiture parallel with the grand jury presentation," Kindlon said this week. "It's bad lawyering."

Abelove declined to address Kindlon's characterization of his office's legal work.

A spokesman for Abelove said the lawsuit was filed because the defendant didn't sign over the seized funds, and the district attorney waited to file the lawsuit until after the appeals were exhausted.

“We’re well within the statute of limitations," said the spokesman, Jonathan Desso. "We have until five years after the arrest.”

The case is the latest legal twist for the first-term DA.

Abelove pleaded not guilty on Dec. 1 to a felony count of first-degree perjury and two counts of official misconduct for his handling of the fatal shooting of Watervliet resident Edson Thevenin by Troy police in April 2016. The charges were handed down by a grand jury convened by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office.

Abelove's office has run into difficulties for not taking action in criminal cases within the statute of limitations for presentation to a grand jury or court action. In instances where the clock expired, felony cases have been dismissed. Abelove has said that he has introduced computerized tacking of cases to prevent this form occurring.

Kindlon said he heard about the lawsuit Wednesday, but had not yet obtained the court papers. His defense of Luciano was his last case in private practice before joining the Albany County Public Defender's Office.He said the case will be handed off to another lawyer.

"There certainly will be opposition to it," he said.