Parents lose cars because of son’s driving with drugs

Parents need to be careful about handing the car keys over to their children after a state court decision this week.

Thomas Erwin Roos, then 24, was caught four times over four months in 2005 with large amounts of drugs — including prescription pills, marijuana and cocaine — and cash in his Bothell parents’ two cars. Snohomish County authorities seized the 2004 Nissan Sentra and a classic 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle.

A three-judge panel of Court of Appeals said it is OK for the county to sell the family’s cars at auction.

“This is a bad precedent, this decision,” said Pete ­Mazzone, the lawyer for the Bothell couple.

The decision implies that parents should always be suspicious of their children, or they may have their property confiscated, Mazzone said.

“Do we really want to have parents having that kind of relationship with their children?” he said. “This is not a slippery slope. This case is an avalanche, meaning that parents can no longer be comfortable, or should be comfortable, letting their children drive their cars.”

Mazzone misses the point, said Mara Rozzano, a Snohomish County deputy prosecutor who advises the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force.

This is a case where the parents didn’t take reasonable steps to prevent their property from being used in the drug trade, Roz­zano said.

“This is very clearly not the average parent unaware that their kids are doing drugs or whatever,” Rozzano said. The idea is to get children help for drug problems and not let them drive family cars unsupervised, she added.

The case stems from the drug activity of Roos, now 26, who was arrested four times in as many months with drugs and cash in the vehicles he had been driving. In three cases, he was parked and passed out when contacted by police.

Arrests were made in June, July, August and September 2005, and Roos later pleaded guilty to multiple drug possession charges and was convicted; his sentence has already been served.

On three of those arrest occasions, Roos had been in the Nissan and the Chevrolet. At the time of the fourth arrest, he had been in a friend’s car. Authorities also confiscated the friend’s car, Roz­zano said.

The task force moved to have the Nissan and Chevrolet forfeited under state law that allows authorities to seize property used for drug dealing. A county hearing officer and a Snohomish County Superior Court judge ruled that the parents — Alan and Stephne Roos — either knew or should have known the cars were being used in the drug trade, and refused to return the vehicles.

Mazzone appealed, leading to the ruling Monday.

Thomas Roos had been leading a “secret life,” sometimes going to his parents’ home and deleting voice mails and taking letters informing his parents about the drug dealing, according to testimony. He has drug convictions date back to the late 1990s.

Richard Tromberman, a Seattle attorney who has battled for reform of government confiscation laws for years, said he doesn’t want to comment extensively on the decision because the facts of this case are egregious.

“I’m saying that bad facts make bad laws and this case is based on bad facts,” said Tromberman, who represents people whose property has been seized by government. “I can’t be more specific. I don’t want to undercut the lawyers representing the family.”

However, Tromberman added that this is not a sweeping decision that will create a significant shift in the law.

Rozzano argued that Thomas Roos’ parents had known about two of the arrests at least in July of 2005, yet their son was driving the Chevrolet and Nissan when he was arrested in August and September.

“You can’t simply turn a blind eye and expect to be forgiven,” Rozzano said.

Mazzone says that the state forfeiture laws were intended to prevent profiteering from the drug trade, not to penalize the parents of someone caught with drugs.

The two vehicles, valued at a total of about $18,000, will be auctioned, and the proceeds will go into drug enforcement, Rozzano said.

The task force’s commander, Pat Slack, said Thomas Roos had been driving while high on drugs and therefore was a danger to the community. “My heart goes out to the mom and dad, but we have a bigger responsibility to the citizens of Snohomish County,” Slack said. “Mom and Dad were not protecting the public.”

Mazzone said his clients have already spent $34,000 in legal fees trying to get their cars back. He said he may appeal to the state Supreme Court, even if the Rooses can’t afford to pay him.

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or jhaley@heraldnet.com.