Disgraced former Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano is angry about stuff he used to do to other people that then happened to him.

Disgraced former Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano is angry about stuff he used to do to other people that then happened to him.

The city’s DWI forfeiture law allows police to confiscate vehicles driven by DWI suspects if they have a prior DWI conviction, even if the offender doesn’t own the vehicle. An “innocent owner” provision allows owners to retrieve their vehicle after they swear in writing that they didn’t know the person they allowed to drive the car had a history of DWI.

The former Santa Fe County sheriff was arrested on Wednesday and charged with 251 counts of embezzlement and one count of fraud for an alleged eBay scheme where he sold the department's bullet-proof vests, investigators said. Ex-sheriff Greg Solano sold off hundreds of county items worth more than $60,000, according to his arrest warrant.

Former Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano, who has admitted that he stole items from the sheriff’s office and sold them on eBay, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to five counts of felony fraud. As part of a plea deal that he reached with a special prosecutor, Solano faces a sentencing range from probation up to eight years in prison. Also to be determined will be how much money Solano will be required to pay back to the county, an issue that Solano and the prosecutor disagree on to the tune of more than $100,000.

Solano declined a request for an interview, but said in the email that the law he worked to enact in the county did not allow the taking of a vehicle until a third DWI conviction. “I also thought that our hearing process was much more fair,” he said. “However, once I personally went through a hearing I saw that the hearing process is a just a formality and the car being taken is a given. The process is very unfair to those going through it. The whole program has turned into a profit center for the cities and counties involved and innocent families and people are being hurt.”

Santa Fe, New Mexico has civil forfeiture laws. All of the states and cities in the U.S. have civil forfeiture laws. But Santa Fe also has a neat civil forfeiture law where the police get to take your car if it's been used in a DWI arrest. It's that "innocent owner" provision that is bumming former sheriff Greg Solano. See, his 21-year-old daughter may or may not have a drinking problem. She may, or may not, have taken Mr. Solano's "fun vehicle"—a 2003 white BMW convertible—without his knowledge. She definitely crashed the car into a brick wall on someone's lawn because she was under the influence of alcohol. This was exactly her second arrest for DWI. Santa Fe County impounded the car and began the process of getting ready to sell it. A pretty standard, albeit corrupt, procedure of every law enforcement agency in the country. The difference here is that the victim was former disgraced sheriff Greg Solano. It was his BMW. I wonder how he got stuff like an extra sports car for "tooling around" in? Cut to 2011:Solano had been selling department equipment and supplies for years. The $60,000 number is what they were able to nail down in a charge. If convicted he was facing up to 250 years for those charges! He served about six weeks. He has paid back $4,000 of only $23,643.33 that was agreed to in the final plea deal. When he was the acting Sheriff in Santa Fe County, and when he wasn't online committing federal fraud, Sheriff Solano was pushing for laws to deter people from drunk driving and things like that—civil forfeiture laws that make police departments money—possibly covering some of the money he was stealing from his police department. Now, having experienced how civil forfeiture works, Greg Solano thinks not being on the police side of things is a super bummer—it's unfair, guys.Solano is getting his car back. The prosecutor has made a deal because if you are able and willing to take these police departments to court for trying to steal your stuff it gets really hard for prosecutors to win. It's hard to win because the cases are insane. This case is not different. Greg Solano should never have had his car confiscated in the first place.

I don't know Mr. Solano. It seems like he has a lot of really tough things to deal with in his life. He may be truly contrite for his previous fraud. Having a young daughter with two DWIs must be a terrible thing to face. However, just to put it in perspective, most of the people being ripped off by civil forfeiture laws also have their own personal issues to deal with and do not have the luxury of owning an extra luxury vehicle. They also don't have any say in promoting the law in the first place.