Kenyan Payne v. United States

MEMORANDUM

Federal prisoner Kenyan Payne appeals pro se from the district court’s order denying his motion seeking return of three vehicles seized and administratively forfeited by the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review de novo. United States v. Marshall, 338 F.3d 990, 993 (9th Cir.2003). We affirm.

The district court properly denied Payne’s motion because Payne did not show that the DEA failed to take reasonable steps to provide him with notice of the forfeiture proceedings. See 18 U.S.C. § 983 (e)(1) (to set aside a declaration of forfeiture under a civil forfeiture statute, the movant must show that the government failed to take reasonable steps to provide the movant with notice of the proposed forfeiture and that the movant did not know of or have reason to know of it); Dusenbery v. United States, 534 U.S. 161, 170 , 122 S.Ct. 694 , 151 L.Ed.2d 597 (2002) (“[T]he Due Process Clause does not require ... heroic efforts by the Government; it requires only that the Government’s effort be ‘reasonably calculated’ to apprise a party of the pendency of the action[.]”).

The district court did not abuse its discretion by…