Judge orders Georgia to return $330,000 seized during raid on assisted suicide network

Ga. to return $330,000 to assisted suicide group

ATLANTA — A judge has ordered Georgia to return $330,000 seized from an assisted suicide group in February.

Forsyth County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey S. Bagley wrote in an order filed Oct. 7 that the money should be returned because the state hadn’t filed the necessary complaint in seven months.

Authorities seized the money after four people affiliated with the Final Exit Network, including the group’s president and its medical director, were arrested. They were charged with assisted suicide in the June 2008 death of 58-year-old John Celmer, who had suffered from cancer.

Attorneys for the state had argued investigators were delayed because they had so much evidence to sift through. Lawyers for Final Exit said the group’s First Amendment rights were being violated.