(These entries are summarized from actual news articles. Parts deemed insignificant by this editor have been omitted. "*****" has been substituted for some names.) New Haven Register, Milford Edition
More than $23,000 in cash and savings bonds missing from the police evidence room since June may have fallen into the trash, according to the police chief's preliminary report released this month to the Board of Police Commissioners. The money and bonds were discovered missing by a civilian property clerk. The clerk told internal investigators one bag containing some of the funds, which sources said were seized in a gambling raid, fell off a table onto the floor next to a garbage pail, according to the Chief's report. The clerk retrieved this bag, but speculated that the incident may explain what happened to the missing bag. The trash theory and speculation that the funds were misplaced are the only theories presented in the five-page report. An operational review by an independent accounting firm requested by the Chief recommended that officials conduct an immediate inventory of the evidence room, which they said was disorganized. The Chief's report said that the evidence room appears to be in disarray and trying to find a misplaced item could prove difficult. Safeguards which will be implemented to improve the handling of property and evidence include:
A former police officer is under investigation for allegedly stealing hundreds of pounds of marijuana from the US DEA and then selling it. The officer, sources said, was part of a group of city cops working
with DEA on a drug task force. As part of his duties, the sources said,
the officer was assigned to transport the confiscated marijuana to an incinerator
for destruction. Instead, the sources added, the officer and one or more
accomplices are suspected of diverting the marijuana for resale on the
streets.
The Miami Herald
A ***** Police Department property clerk, entrusted with depositing cash into city accounts, was arrested Saturday for depositing more than $20,000 of city money into her personal bank account. *****,47, was charged with grand theft after a city audit uncovered "monies in excess of $20,000 were missing or unaccounted for" from the police department's property room, according to the arrest report. Police say the audit was prompted by a civilian employee who was going
to take charge of the property room and demanded an accounting before he
did.
Los Angeles Times
A former ***** police employee has pleaded no contest to misdemeanor grand theft and has been sentenced to two years probation and 200 hours of community service with a Caltrans work crew. *****, 19, also must repay $1,065, an amount he stole from a bag of money that Good Samaritans had found in the street and had turned in to the Police Department. Authorities alleged that ***** stole the money from a bag of cash receipts from a restaurant that was turned in to him at the police station's front desk. He came under suspicion after the restaurant owner complained to police that the bag of money returned to him was short, according to the statements of the Good Samaritans regarding the amount they turned in. After ***** was charged in May, he was fired. Los Angeles Times
Sitting before a courtroom sprinkled with those he has swindled and duped, Frank Boyd Cockrell III was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution. Over a ten year period, Cockrell bilked seven people and two insurance companies out of more than $1.4 million, which he then used to support his lavish life-sty Ie-complete with a Rolls-Royce, million-dollar mansion and driver. When Ventura County Grand Jury indicted him on fraud charges, prosecutors say he plotted to blow up the courthouse. Cockrell, 50, was convicted last month of 13 criminal counts, including grand theft, money laundering and tax evasion. He could be out of prison in five years. The wannabe screenwriter now faces separate charges of attempted murder in Los Angeles county for allegedly plotting to blow up the Ventura county courthouse to destroy evidence in his fraud case. The bombing trial was put on hold until the conclusion of the Ventura County case. During the trial, an undercover agent of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
testified that Cockrell was so angry about the fraud case that he tried
to hire the agent to blow up the courthouse. The agent testified that Cockrell
wanted to "kill as many D.A.'s, judges and investigators" as possible,
then knock down two freeway overpasses with a rocket launcher. Cockrell
is in protective custody in the Ventura County Jail, having been attacked
twice while in custody. Copyright © 1998 International Association for Property and Evidence, Inc. Reprinted from the Evidence Log, Volume 1998, Number 4, Page 2 |
