Returns homeThey get it back – two Keizer homes, three cars and about $10,000.
The Keizer couple caught up in a marijuana growing operation got these assets recently while ending a legal fight with the city of Keizer.
That came as city officials decided to halt costly legal action to keep the assets.
City Manager Adam Brown said, however, the city didn’t do anything wrong in the original action and was “absolutely” not admitting any error. He said the city closed the case to stop the ongoing drain from a legal case that had no end in sight. By October, those legal costs came to $184,427.
Brown said the city was making no changes to its procedures to seize property police believe was used in criminal conduct.
The attorney representing the Keizer couple took the settlement as a win.
“We’re thankful that cooler heads prevailed and the city agreed to dismiss the case and return all of the property. We are all safer when the police do not seek to profit from their investigations,” said Zack Stern.
He represented Shilu Su and his wife, Xiyan Xie. They were convicted in 2023 for growing marijuana at two Keizer homes. Su served a state prison sentence.
They were arrested by Keizer police in 2022. The city seized $9,135 in cash, a Honda CR-V and a Toyota Tundra. The city also moved to forfeit their home on North River Road and a second home on Northeast Northshire Court.
In subsequent litigation, the couple contested the seizures. Stern fought the city’s effort to take title to those assets. He advanced an argument that such seizures amounted to punishing defendants twice for criminal conduct.
The Oregon Supreme Court last year ruled against such an argument in a case in Yamhill County where Stern represented the claimant.
Stern confirmed on Friday, Nov. 14, that the city had delivered the vehicles, released liens on the two homes and paid back the cash.
The city earlier returned $70,000 seized from a third Keizer home where police originally seized $194,878. The money was returned to a resident of the home who was not charged in the case.
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Old Keizer marijuana case lives on in court battles
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