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.
 

The State 1/9/98
***** police melt key pistol in killings
 by Michelle R. Davis, Staff Writer

The ***** Police Department has melted the key piece of evidence in two high-profile murder cases involving the 1996 slayings of two men at Kelly's Barber Shop, and of a taxi driver.  The .3 8 caliber handgun linking Felix Cheeseboro to the March 14, 1996, killings of barber Frank Kelly and his customer Leon Poole and the Feb. 19, 1996, slaying of Gamecock Cab Co. driver Elvis McDonald was accidentally destroyed, said Police Chief *****.

The department routinely destroys confiscated guns that are no longer needed by melting them down.  The gun was stored in the department's evidence room.  "As I understand it, it did inadvertently wind up in a pile of weapons that were slated to be destroyed," he said.  "It was a matter of human error."

On Thursday, officials from the 5th Circuit Solicitor's office and from the Police Department told family members of the victims about the mistake.  "These people are supposed to be professionals," said Kristine McDonald, the widow of Elvis McDonald.  "You would think they would be a little bit more careful than this." County Chief Public Defender *****, who is representing Cheeseboro, said Thursday he never had a chance to do his own testing or even see the gun.  The missing evidence was the prosecution's key link to his client, Bloom said.  "You're trying to put someone on death row and the murder weapon's been destroyed?" ***** said.  "That concerns me greatly."
 

The Miami Herald 12/31/1996
Deputy accused of faking property receipt
by Nancy Klingener, Staff Writer

A ***** County sheriff's deputy who was arrested and fired is accused of falsifying a property receipt. *****, 39, was arrested Friday on a charge of official misconduct, a third degree felony.  The charge stems from a May 31 arrest when ***** was helping other officers in a drug surveillance, according to the arrest affidavit. ***** said he had conducted a narcotic patch test on the defendant, according to the affidavit.  The officer swabs the area to be tested, then wipes the swab across the test patch.  "*****'s testimony states that this narcotic patch test and paperwork were completed and placed into evidence on 5/3 1 96, ***** wrote in the affidavit "Missing Evidence." ... But the evidence never was turned in to the property office.

Investigators searched the property division and found no test kit.  They traced the numbers of the receipts written by ***** to a book of receipts issued to him on June 7, according to property division records. *****  created" the receipt and lab request form after the deposition, * * * * * wrote. * * * * * entered the receipts into evidence "as part of a criminal case, knowing these documents were false."
 

The Charlotte Observer 12/11/96
Judge drops 5 charges against ex-chief
by Jeff Diamant, Staff Writer

A judge dismissed five embezzlement and theft charges against a former ***** police chief Tuesday, leaving three remaining charges against him for a jury to consider when it meets today.  Jurors will decide whether *****, 49, is guilty of embezzling a bolt-action rifle and a dark-blue moped that police had stored as evidence for trials.

In closing arguments, the Assistant District Attorney told jurors that *****, who resigned as ***** police chief in 1992 to become a patrol officer in *****, abused his authority as police chief.  She said he sold the moped to a ***** police officer for $50 and that *****'s son pawned the rifle.  Both items were police evidence, she said.

*****, the chief from 1982 to 1992, wasn't investigated until 1994.  New Chief ***** did an inventory of evidence vaults his first month as chief and found two mopeds, two rifles and a pistol missing, prosecutors said.
 

The San Jose Mercury News 10/31/96
Police sergeant investigated over missing evidence in child porn case

A ***** police sergeant is being investigated for allegedly stealing evidence-nude photographs-from a pending child pornography case, sources close to the internal probe told the Mercury News on Wednesday.  The sergeant, a 14-year veteran, was stripped of his badge and gun and put on paid administrative leave after a surveillance camera allegedly caught him taking the photographs from the desk of the detective handling the pornography case.
 

The Charlotte Observer 5/15/96
3rd Autopsy on friend of Lincoln doctor

A team of forensic pathologists in Pennsylvania has performed a third autopsy on the body of a man killed while hunting 20 years ago with a man who is now a doctor in Lincolnton.  But on Tuesday, a member of the team who performed the autopsy at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA, said they've been stymied by missing evidence from the previous autopsy.
 

The Ledger-Enquirer 2/18/96
Police may have lost the evidence in child's murder

Florida may not be able to prosecute a man suspected of murdering 6-year-old Adam Walsh in 1981. The ***** Police Department's best shot at solving the 1981 murder of Adam Walsh may have been lost forever, along with some bloody evidence that might have linked a dim-witted serial killer to the crime.  Ottis Elwood Toole, a convicted killer serving five life sentences in Florida State Prison, remains "an excellent" suspect in the murder.
 

The Miami Herald 2/21/96
Cops probe evidence loss in Walsh case

The hunt for missing evidence in the Adam Walsh murder mystery escalated Tuesday as ***** police opened an investigation to determine whether bloody carpet samples and a 1971 Cadillac slipped from their hands.
 

The Macon Telegraph 1/18/98,
Sheriff quits storing evidence after drugs go missing
by Johnathan Burns

As an FBI investigation into the apparent theft of crack cocaine from the ***** County Courthouse nears completion, County Sheriff ***** said his department will no longer store evidence for the court.  The move comes after a small package of cocaine was discovered missing in November from a walk-in storage vault at the sheriff's offices in the courthouse.  "The (court) had asked us to put it in our vault for some reason," ***** said.  "We don't know for sure that they didn't come down and get it.  It had been there for several months.  We were really storing it as a courtesy.  We've stopped that procedure."

As a result, ***** County Court Reporter ***** said her office will begin storing evidence used in trials in its own storage facility.

The missing cocaine incident is the third time in a little more than a decade that ***** County law and court officials have encountered problems with missing or misplaced evidence.  In the 1980's, cocaine was taken from an evidence locker in the courthouse after an old evidence area was converted into a media room.  In that incident, court officials had failed to removed the drugs from the locker.

In 1996, the execution of Ellis Wayne Felker was postponed after his attorneys discovered previously unknown boxes of evidence from the case in the basement of the courthouse.  The evidence was potentially more damaging to Felker's defense, but the discovery delayed the execution for his attorneys to examine it.