Mo. School Board Sues To Claim Drug Money

By Julie Blair

Kansas City, Mo., school board members have accused the state's law-enforcement agencies of squirreling away millions of dollars of seized drug money that they say rightfully belongs to public schools.

The board filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all Missouri districts last month, charging that over the past 13 years, the law-enforcement agencies have circumvented state forfeiture laws that require all seized drug funds be turned over to schools. The districts contend the agencies kept most of the money themselves, said Mike Matteuzzi, a member of the team of lawyers handling the case.

"We think there is 30 to 40 million dollars that should have gone to schools that instead has bought urban assault weapons and whatever toys the boys [in the law- enforcement agencies] want," Lance Loewenstein, a Kansas City school board member,...