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In civil forfeiture cases, a person’s property is considered as being connected to a crime. And once someone’s property is taken, they have to prove innocence instead of a prosecutor proving guilt.
Many of the single-family homes in the Piedmont Park neighborhood of Apopka, Florida, used to be owned by families—the Vargases and the Townes, the Pierces and the Riddles. Now, they’re owned by Blackstone, American Homes 4 Rent and Colony Starwood Homes, companies associated with big real estate investment firms.
