Following the arrest of Annie Edwards’s grandson on drug charges, the State seized $20,620 from a footlocker in Edwards’s home. The State filed a complaint for forfeiture of the funds, and Edwards responded with an answer asserting a claim to the cash and contending that the money was not associated with illegal drug activity. After the State filed a motion to dismiss Edwards’s answer, the court granted the motion, finding that the answer failed to satisfy the requirements of OCGA § 16-13-49 o. Edwards appeals from the dismissal. Finding no error, we affirm. The record shows the following undisputed facts. On January 20, 2006, officers with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Vidalia Police Department executed an arrest warrant for Eric Rhymes at the Vidalia residence owned by Edwards, Rhymes’s grandmother. At the time the officers placed Rhymes under arrest, Rhymes had $1,469 in his pocket. The officers searched the home’s common areas and Rhymes’s bedroom pursuant to the conditions of Rhymes’s probation. The officers did not find any contraband or other evidence in Rhymes’s bedroom, but they found a scale, razorblade, small plastic bags, and suspected cocaine residue in the dining room. The officers then obtained Edwards’s permission to search the rest of the residence. In a drawer in Edwards’s bedroom, the officers found approximately six grams of crack cocaine and a large ziploc bag of marijuana. In the same room, the officers found some clothing, shoes, and other items belonging to Rhymes. Edwards told the officers that Rhymes sometimes changed his clothes in her bedroom and used her bathroom to take baths. In addition to these items, the officers found $20,620 in cash in a locked footlocker belonging to Edwards.1 The cash was divided into four bank envelopes. The officers found no drugs or other contraband inside the footlocker. The Vidalia Police Department deposited the $22,089 in cash recovered from Rhymes’s pocket and Edwards’s footlocker into a bank account.
The State filed a complaint for forfeiture of the $22,089 in cash, a 1997 Mercury Grand Marquis, and the scale.2 Annie Edwards filed an answer and two amended answers in response to the complaint. In addition to contending that the currency is not subject to forfeiture under OCGA § 16-13-49 e3, Edwards’s answer also included the following paragraph: Annie Edwards has lived at 500 Epstein Street, Vidalia, Georgia for 26 years. On or about 1988 Ms. Edwards who is 83 years old started receiving Social Security. She receives approximately $312.00 per month. Living in her home with her is her son Leon Edwards who is mentally disabled.4 Leon has been receiving a Social Security check since 1985 in the amount of approximately $712.00 per month. Ms. Edwards owns her home and pays no rent. She buys approximately $350.00 to $400.00 worth of groceries each month. Her power bill each month is approximately $60.00. Her gas bill is approximately $140.00 per month and she spends approximately $50.00 per month for a phone bill. Living in her home as well is Betty Jean Edwards Bell, her daughter, who pays $100.00 per month to Ms. Annie Edwards for rent. Ms. Edwards has been saving $150.00 to $200.00 per month from her money and Leon’s money since the early 90′s. She saved this money for anticipated healthcare costs for her and Leon, as well as, so that she could be properly buried upon her death. She saved this money over a long period of time and placed it in bank envelopes. She kept the money that she was holding for herself separate from the money she was holding in trust for Leon. She placed Leon’s name on the envelopes that contained his money. Ms. Edwards has a fourth grade education and barely reads and can not count numbers in excess of hundreds. The State filed a motion to dismiss Edwards’s answer on the basis that it was legally insufficient under the drug forfeiture statute, OCGA § 16-13-49, and, therefore, Edwards lacked standing to contest the forfeiture. Following a hearing, the court found that Edwards’s answer did not meet the requirements of OCGA § 16-13-49 o 3 D, which states that the claimant’s answer must set forth the “date, identity of transferor, and circumstances of the claimant’s acquisition of the interest in the property.” Specifically, the court ruled that Edwards’s “assertions of how she saved the money in question are vague and impossible to substantiate as required by statute.” Consequently, the court granted the State’s motion to dismiss Edwards’s answer, and it also granted the State’s complaint for forfeiture.
