On Dec. 2, two South Dakota residents cruised through Parker after making a wrong turn during a Colorado vacation.

A Parker police officer pulled over 33-year-old Margaret McKinney because the temporary tag on her car was in the wrong place. The officer smelled marijuana and asked to search the car, McKinney said.

“I thought, ‘For what?’ ” McKinney said. “I had no reason for not allowing the search. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

By the time the traffic stop ended, McKinney and her boyfriend, Dion “Tony” Anderson, 46, were out more than $25,000 after spending two hours being detained on the roadside by Parker police and a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

The couple said they were never charged with a crime and were allowed to keep marijuana and a pipe. But the money was seized after officers found it stuffed in socks in a suitcase.

“I saw her pipe on the hood of her car, and she got to keep it while my money went in the other direction,” Anderson said. “That burned my tail feathers.”

Now, Anderson, who said he received the money through a lawsuit settlement, must prove he obtained the money through legal means to get it back from the government.

Parker police and the DEA declined to speak about the case, but legal experts said it seems Anderson’s money was taken through a controversial government program that was ended last month by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

“It literally sounds like highway robbery,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU-Colorado.

Renewed spotlight on law Laws that allow police to seize a person’s cash or car or other assets have been in the spotlight in recent months.

In Colorado, where laws regarding asset forfeiture already are tight, a bill has been filed with the intent of making it even more difficult. Police and prosecutors are negotiating with the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Laura Woods, R-Arvada. The bill is supported by defense attorneys.

Critics of asset forfeiture have argued that police abuse the procedure to fatten their budgets.

Between Oct. 1, 2013, and Sept. 30, 2014, federal agents in Colorado seized $13.5 million, according to statistics from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado. About $2.8 million of that filtered down to local law enforcement agencies.

Law enforcement agencies say asset forfeiture is a crucial weapon in their battle against drug cartels and human traffickers as they try to destroy their operations by drying up finances.

In October 2013, for example, federal agents pulled over Denver attorney David Furtado and seized $450,000 from the trunk of his car while investigating ties between the medical marijuana industry and Colombian drug cartels. That case is pending in federal courts.

In response to criticism about government seizing assets, Holder issued a Jan. 16 memo that bars federal agencies from administratively adopting local asset forfeiture cases. The policy, developed in the early days of the 1980s drug war, was criticized often.

Under the old policy, if a local police officer got permission to search a car during a traffic stop and found a large amount of cash, he could call a federal agent — often the DEA — for assistance. The federal agent could adopt the case through administrative action.

Then, the person who had the money would have to challenge the seizure and prove that the money was obtained through legal means — rather than forcing the government to prove it was obtained illegally.

Defense attorneys, the ACLU and others argue that the policy’s concept was directly opposite of the innocent-until-proven-guilty principle of the American criminal justice system.

All of this was the focus of a Washington Post series last fall.

Focus on bigger casesIf the feds now want to take over a local case, they would have to appear before a judge and ask for a warrant, said Jeffrey Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver.

Filing legal papers for warrants and appearing before a judge take time and effort. As a result, legal experts said it is likely federal agents would go after only the largest cases to make the effort worthwhile.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office will focus on the bigger cases that we care the most about,” Dorschner said.

Federal agents still can seize cash and other assets when a case originates with their agency or when working on a joint investigation with state or local police.

In Colorado, that’s how most asset forfeitures happen, Dorschner said.

Multi-jurisdictional police task forces are widespread in the Denver area, including in Parker, where McKinney and Anderson were stopped.

In Parker, two officers are assigned to a DEA task force, said police Capt. Jim Tsurapas, who oversees investigations and specialized units.

Tsurapas said he could not talk about the Dec. 2 traffic stop involving Anderson and McKinney.

But it’s not unusual for the department’s patrol and traffic officers to call the DEA task force members if they suspect drug crimes have been committed, he said. Under those circumstances, any property seizures would be passed to the DEA.

Since the traffic stop in Parker, Anderson said he has struggled.

He admits making poor decisions in the past. Anderson and McKinney have minor criminal records in South Dakota, including each being charged in November with marijuana possession.

But no criminal charges have been filed against them in the November traffic stop in Parker.

Anderson described himself as “sub-literate” and said he has never held a bank account.

Anderson’s lawyer in the personal injury case, Andy Damgaard of the Janklow Law Firm in Sioux Falls, S.D., confirmed that Anderson had received an amount in excess of $28,000 in a settlement.

Damgaard also recalled writing a letter on Anderson’s behalf so a bank would cash his settlement check.

“To each his own,” Damgaard said.

Anderson told The Denver Post that he had carried the cash on vacation because he was worried about it getting stolen while he was away from home.

“I figured the place could get burned down or burglarized ,” Anderson said. “I felt safer with it on my person.”

Without the money, he hasn’t been able to make his car payment. And he lost his apartment because he couldn’t pay the rent.

All of it has led to depression.

“I really don’t know what to say,” he said while crying. “It really has affected my psyche.

“I don’t have the ability to provide for myself right now with the kind of work I do.”

Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips

Asset Forfeiture and Distribution in Colorado

The amount collected each fiscal year:

2010 — $4,349,601.59

2011 — $4,665,068.44

2012 — $6,584,111.65

2013 — $2,887,472.93

2014 — $13,534,730.32

The amount distributed each fiscal year to law enforcement agencies:

2010 — $2,983,528.87

2011 — $ 204,235.21

2012 — $2,859,505.93

2013 — $1,336,976.18

2014 — $2,816,068.43

Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Colorado