Note: These entries are solely to point out items of interest specifically related to property room operation.  They are comprised of actual news article quotes.  Parts of the article deemed insignificant by this editor have been omitted.  Where names have been omitted,  ***** has been substituted for the names.
 

GAINESVILLE SUN, By Doug Martin, June 20,1997
Sheriff's evidence custodian arrested for theft

The ***** County Sheriff s Office arrested and fired its evidence custodian Thursday for stealing money from a safe - the agency's third arrest of an employee this year.  Despite the spate of employee arrests, Sheriff ***** said his agency's internal controls are sound.  Sheriff's Sgt. ***** said ***** reported that $16,460 in cash was missing from several evidence lockers.  An internal investigation into the missing money found that ***** personally inventoried 15 items of cash in a safe, totaling $1,350, that later turned up missing.
 

WASHINGTON POST, By Michael Powell & Bill Miller, Jan. 6,1994 D.C.
Crime Evidence in Doubt

A D.C. Superior Court judge warned from the bench yesterday that the reported mishandling of evidence at the police department's unguarded evidence warehouse and drug lab threatens to undermine numerous criminal prosecutions.  "It's such an invitation to disaster," Judge Ellen S. Huvelle said.  "It's going to affect every drug case in town."  *****, which prepared the confidential reports for the D.C. Financial Control Board, disclosed terrible conditions, including boxes of drugs stored on computers in the drug lab and unsecured guns and drugs in the warehouse.  Police stored DNA evidence in rape cases in 110-degree heat, destroying their evidentiary value," according to the consulting firm.  The U.S. Attorney's office acknowledged that sloppy storage and, in some cases, loss and destruction of evidence by ***** police has hindered cases.  The office said the loss of DNA evidence in rape cases was particularly damaging.
 

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, By Rich Henson, November 2, 1997
***** court inventory shows gun is missing

 ***** County detectives are searching for yet another weapon missing from the courthouse, this time a small-caliber semiautomatic handgun that was seized as evidence from a criminal defendant in 1986.  District Attorney ***** said yesterday that a recently completed inventory of thousands of items held as evidence by the county revealed that the handgun was gone.  "The county detectives are presently still searching for the gun."  ***** said the inventory was undertaken after he learned in August 1996 that another weapon, a vintage Thompson submachine gun that was being kept in the detective bureau, could not be located.  A state police investigation completed two weeks ago determined that the submachine gun was stolen by a former security guard who worked the night shift at the courthouse in 1986 and 1987.  The former guard was arrested and convicted in 1987 of stealing [other things] from the detective bureau.  However, the man was never charged with stealing the Thompson submachine gun because officials did not realize until earlier this year that it was gone.
 

KALAMAZOO GAZETTE, By Mike Tyree, October 7, 1997
U.S. Attorney's Office to probe evidence room thefts

Federal authorities on Monday said they'll take a crack at solving the ***** police evidence room drug thefts that other agencies had left for dead more than two years ago.  "There are serious allegations of corruption," [the attorney general] said, adding that the new investigation is expected to take six to nine months to complete.  They would not discuss details of the case or comment on retired public safety Captain *****, a suspect in a state grand jury investigation into the drug thefts. ***** was never charged and retired from the department last year.  The investigation died in the fall of 1994, and state and local officials never told the public or City Commission about the scandal.
 

JACKSON CITIZEN PATRIOT, By Scott Davis, October 4, 1997
With evidence missing robbery suspect wants case dropped

It was the hottest video Friday in ***** County Circuit Court, and it was nowhere to be found. *****, charged with attempted robbery, says he hoped the security video would show he was inside the Target Store at Jackson Crossing when a woman was robbed in the parking lot January 10th.  But ***** city police say they no longer have the video because an officer failed to log it in as evidence, resulting in someone apparently stealing it from the officer's personal car.  It was an unusual development that led Walker's family to accuse the police of conspiracy to conceal evidence and ask a judge to dismiss the case.
 

ASSOCIATED PRESS, San Francisco
Evidence lost against famed murder suspect

***** police inadvertently destroyed crucial evidence-including bullets and blood samples in the case of a mass murder suspect who is also facing charges in Orange County, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.  Police records show that the evidence was destroyed in September 1994 because police logs mistakenly listed the case as closed.  "From what I understand, the bullets were a crucial part of the San Francisco case, and the disposal of the evidence was a matter of pure negligence," San Francisco Public Defender ***** said.  He said the destruction of the evidence may also hamper prosecutors who are to try the 36 year old Ng on 12 other counts of murder next year in Orange County.  Prosecutors in Orange County wanted to use the San Francisco case to help persuade jurors to give Ng the death penalty if he's convicted.
 

DAILY NEWS, By John Lyons, Scripps-McClatchy Western Service, November 28,1997
State sees 58 % hike in pot plant seizures

Narcotics agents have seized nearly 58 percent more marijuana plants in California this year than they did all last year, notching their biggest annual take this decade, according to the newest figures released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.  In the first year after California voters essentially legalized marijuana for some medical uses, law enforcement officials say the state's growers sowed more plants than at any other time in recent memory, leaving huge groves of the bright green plant more visible to drug fighters.  Drug agents have confiscated more than 553,000 plants in the state so far this year.  The number reflects an annual rise of marijuana plant seizures throughout the decade, from about 204,000 plants in 1990 to more than 300,000 in recent years.
 

DAILY BULLETIN, By Ann Griffith
Theft of expensive cigars lands officers in trouble

Three employees in the Police Department are under fire for reportedly stealing cigars that were evidence in a case that has been closed.  The expensive stogies were no longer being used as evidence, said ***** Police Sgt. *****, but state law requires that evidence is disposed of in a specific manner.  It cannot be taken for personal use by employees in the department.  Department officials would not confirm the three officers involved are a lieutenant and two detectives.
 

TULSA WORLD, By Michael Smith, January 11, 1997
Hers or His, the Money's Still Gone

***** County sheriff s investigators are continuing an internal probe to discover what happened to a former inmate's $1,855 that was missing from the jail's property room when he was released Tuesday.  But another investigation has begun, and police are trying to determine whether the missing money belonged to the 60-year-old man or to a woman from whom her family members say the man stole thousands of dollars.
 

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, By Anne C. Mulkern, June 16,1997
Woman bludgeoned in '87 keeps digging for answers

***** has filed a claim for damages against the ***** Police Department over the handling of her case.  Police confirm that they destroyed the evidence.  Detectives say they know who tried to kill her but lack evidence to prosecute.

Police defend their conclusions in the case.  But they also have changed at least one procedure as a result of her inquiries.  "Were there errors?  Yeah, possibly on our part," said ***** police Lt. *****, who looked into (the) complaints.  Three years ago, detectives destroyed all the evidence in the ***** case.  The case remained open until last year.  Her hope that a new DNA technology might bring her solace ended when she learned all evidence from her case had been destroyed in 1994.  Police now will keep evidence indefinitely in violent crimes with an open investigation.  "With changing and emerging technology, we can't afford to destroy evidence," Lt. ***** said.