Carmen Ortiz, Bostonian of the Year. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/11/04/mass-motel-owner-fights-move-seize-property/q4XIbqGpqzKZoV2UIZDD

Carmen Ortiz, Bostonian of the Year. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/11/04/mass-motel-owner-fights-move-seize-property/q4XIbqGpqzKZoV2UIZDDaN/story.html http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/11/04/ma... Russ Caswell is not charged with any crime, but next week he'll be in a federal courtroom fighting to keep a motel his father built almost six decades ago. ... "They are holding me responsible for the actions of a few people who I don’t know and I've never met before, people who rent a room,’’ Caswell said. "Out of thousands of people who stay here, a handful do something wrong and they’re trying to blame me for it." ... "The government believed that this was an important case ... because of the important deterrent message it sends to others who may turn a blind eye to crime occurring at their place of business," said Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz. Under a provision of the forfeiture law known as "equitable sharing," if the government wins, the Tewksbury police department could receive up to 80 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the motel, which is assessed at about $1.3 million, Caswell said. Criminal forfeiture laws require a person to be convicted of a crime before property can be taken, but civil forfeiture allows prosecutors to take properties without convicting anyone.