HEADLINE: Embattled mayor pushes for inquiry

BYLINE: Tim O'Neil ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

DATELINE: MOLINE ACRES 

SECTION: METRO; Pg. B8

Mayor Fred J. Hodges Jr., who faces a call for his ouster by some city aldermen, said Monday that he is pressing for an investigation that evidence may have disappeared from the police station. 

Meanwhile, an alderman who opposes the mayor dropped by City Hall to make sure reporters knew about the mayor's possible impeachment.

The Board of Aldermen voted 3-0, with one abstention, on Feb. 12 to "start the impeachment process" against Hodges, who was elected mayor last April. The board is expected to meet at 7 p.m. today to consider the matter further.

Hodges has faced impeachment before. In 2002, fellow aldermen removed him as an alderman, accusing him of misusing a city credit card.

On Monday afternoon, Hodges held a news conference and told reporters he asked St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch to investigate the possibility that some drugs and guns seized by police never made it to the evidence locker. Hodges said he first talked with county investigators last fall and said his announcement Monday was an effort to bring the issue to a resolution.

"When I campaigned, I promised the residents we would have the best police protection possible," said Hodges, who didn't mention the effort to have him impeached.

After the mayor's session ended, Alderman Shonte Harmon-Young asked reporters if Hodges had mentioned the possibility. "People are selective about what they tell you," she said of the mayor.

Before Hodges drove away, he said of the impeachment vote: "I need to find out more about that myself."

Hodges said he suspects that evidence disappeared during the tenure of former police chief G. Thomas Walker, who has his own complaints about the mayor. Hodges fired Walker in June, but the aldermen reinstated him. In September, Hodges broke an aldermanic tie on a second vote to remove Walker for good.

Then, Walker called Hodges' vote "retaliation" because Walker had investigated the allegations in 2002 that led to Hodges' removal from the Board of Aldermen.

Present with Hodges Monday was the new police chief, David Dorn, a retired St. Louis police captain who was hired five weeks ago. Dorn said he has instituted new records-keeping for evidence seized by police officers.

An assistant to McCulloch said the prosecutor asked county police to investigate the allegation of missing evidence. Hodges said two county police officers examined the evidence locker last fall. A police spokeswoman could not be reached.

In 2002, Hodges was accused of using a city credit card to pay for satellite television service at his home. This time, said alderman Harmon-Young, "The mayor has directed police to do things that are out of their realms." She declined to be more specific.

HEADLINE: Mamaroneck police announce investigation into theft at police headquarters

MAMARONECK VILLAGE - Six weeks after an undisclosed amount of money was snatched from a police evidence locker inside police headquarters on Mount Pleasant Avenue, the incident was made public at a recent Board of Trustees meeting. 

"They were pursuing a certain avenue of the investigation," village Mayor Kathy Savolt said of the delay in making the incident public. "We thought it would pan out."

She added that she was immediately notified by the police chief. Police announced their investigation at a Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 25.

Police are releasing few details about the incident, which occurred on Jan. 10. Police Chief Edward Flynn said in an e-mail statement that money was taken from a police evidence locker on the second floor and that an "investigation will continue until there is a successful conclusion."

Village Hall, located at 169 Mount Pleasant Ave., is open to the public, and there is no way of tracking who comes in, Savolt said.

"We are taking steps to secure the building," she said, adding that she hopes the building can be equipped with security cameras.

When asked if there should be concern that the theft may have involved police officers or village employees, Savolt said: "I can't speak to that at all."

HEADLINE: Former police official pleads guilty in firearms case

Former Polk County Police Capt. Barry Wallace pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing firearms from the department's evidence room.

Wallace, 40, of Cedartown, could receive up to 40 years in prison and a $1 million fine when he is sentenced May 23, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said. He pleaded guilty to four counts of receiving and possessing stolen firearms.

Nahmias said that as head of the evidence room from April 2003 to April 2007, Wallace took seven guns that he either kept or gave away to others. 

HEADLINE: Deputies carry on after fellow officer's indictment

BYLINE: Staff Writer

NEW LEXINGTON -- Deputies and officials at the Perry County Sheriff's Office may be feeling stunned and disappointed in a fellow deputy being indicted on theft charges last week, but they are determined to carry on.

Sheriff Randy Barker said he was disappointed when he discovered that former Lt. Paul Drake had been indicted in connection with the theft of almost $2,000 from the department. Drake is facing two counts of theft while in office. "It's created some tension at the department," Barker said. "It was an uncomfortable process while the Ohio Bureau of Identification and Investigation conducted an investigation into the case. It brings up a trust issue. "Drake came under scrutiny late last year when money came up missing from the department, Barker said. None of the money was in the evidence room, Barker said. The money was being processed and had not made it to the evidence room.

On Nov. 5, Drake resigned telling Barker that he was resigning "due to the circumstances that you are well aware of. "Barker cannot go into details of the pending case. Drake is scheduled to appear in a Perry County Common Pleas court March 14, and Barker did say the case had hurt his department and he wants the public and his employees to know that the matter was pursued aggressively by his office and BCI.

"We expect Paul to be treated as any other person would be that committed a theft," Barker said. "Just as any victim would expect the courts to handle a suspect, we expect the same thing since we have been a victim in this case. "Barker said he realizes that the public perception of law enforcement officials is that they are "held to a higher standard."

"We're not above the law," Barker said. "You trust someone that works beside you day after day and when something like this happens, it tends to be pretty personal. "Barker said his office took the offense seriously and started meeting with agents with BCI immediately after it came to Barker's attention.

"When I first became aware of the situation, I called everyone in that could have possibly taken the money, including Paul," Barker said. "I looked them all in the eye and asked each and everyone if they knew or had anything to do with it. Everyone denied any knowledge so I took it to the next step."

BCI actually did the investigation at Barker's request.

"I even volunteered to be questioned and polygraphed first," Barker said. "But BCI declined my offer saying they would not polygraph an elected official. They said they had no grounds whatsoever to question me."

BCI was able to identify a suspect and they then took the results to the Perry County Prosecutor who in turn took it to a grand jury last week.

Barker believes that while any law enforcement department may take the strictest measures to ensure employees don't break the law there is always the human element that factors in.

"Has this type of issue happened here before - no," Barker said. "Will it or could it happen again - yes. You always have to remember there is a human element involved and what you do sometimes is not who you really are. What you do is not always a reflection of who you really are."

Drake had been promoted twice in his ten years at the sheriff's office and was leading investigator in numerous high profile cases in the past few years.

In the meantime Barker said his office and employees will go forward and keep serving the residents of Perry County with their best efforts. Barker did say Drake had paid some of the missing money back to the county. If convicted, Drake faces up to 18 months in prison.

HEADLINE: When police destroy evidence

Call it the Tim Masters effect. A man convicted of murder is released from a Colorado prison because of exculpatory DNA evidence. A few weeks later, Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, garners more than 80 co-sponsors in both chambers (out of 100 lawmakers) for a bill that might release a second man convicted of a serious crime.

On some days you can't achieve that kind of legislative consensus for a feel-good resolution, let alone for a bill to grant a convicted rapist - Clarence Moses-EL - a new trial. But it speaks well of lawmakers (up to a point, as we'll see) if they were rattled by Masters' ordeal, with the revelations that police and prosecutors unfairly stacked the deck against him. 

In Moses-EL's case, the thumb on the scale of justice is the fact that Denver police destroyed evidence several years after his conviction - a conviction reached without physical evidence - that a court had ordered held for DNA testing. 

Which brings us to the crux of Gordon's bill: It requires a new trial when evidence "subject to a preservation order or an order for release and testing is lost or destroyed." That certainly sounds reasonable, and Gordon told us the bill will affect only one inmate. Critics, however, including the executive committee of the Colorado District Attorneys Council, are deeply skeptical. 

Mike Goodbee, president of the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance and an assistant Adams County district attorney, and Terri Livermore, the victim group's assistant director, make a strong case that Senate Bill 205 needs major clarification. 

For openers, the bill is needlessly broad. The Moses-EL case it seeks to rectify involves the loss of possible DNA evidence, and the "legislative declaration" in the bill similarly refers again and again to the importance of DNA. But the actual language amending state statute doesn't mention DNA. It refers to all "material evidence," a vastly wider universe of objects potentially scattered in old evidence lockers around the state.

Nor does the bill explicitly rule out new trials for evidence destroyed through no fault of law enforcement. What if an evidence room floods or catches on fire, Livermore asks, and attorneys successfully argue that police should have known the structure was susceptible to such accidents - in other words, that they are as responsible for the loss as if they'd thrown the evidence into the trash? If judges bought such an argument, the shameful result could be that a rapist convicted with DNA evidence is retried without it and acquitted despite the certain knowledge that he is guilty. 

In addition, Goodbee points out, there's no time limit on how long law enforcement has to keep the evidence. What about after prisoners have served their time? Can the evidence be destroyed then? Goodbee's larger point is that once this law is on the books, defense attorneys would be foolish not to request an order for preservation of all evidence in every instance. 

Another bill having to do with the preservation of DNA evidence, House Bill 1351, clearly states how long it must be preserved based on the type of crime and plea. Shouldn't SB 205 shouldn't be similarly restrictive? 

None of this is meant to criticize the intent of SB 205, which is to provide a new trial for a man who many believe may have been unjustly convicted many years ago. But the bill needs fine-tuning before it's ready for the statute books.

HEADLINE: Retired police have it right

No one knows for certain what's going to become of retired York City Police Sgt. Kurt Blemler. Blemler was charged in January with stealing more than $11,000 from the police department's evidence room.

The former city police officer has agreed to pay back the money, police said, but that doesn't negate the fact that Blemler, of Meadowview Road in Franklin Township, has been charged with felony theft for money discovered missing between June 2004 and late 2006.

No matter how one looks at it, this is a slap in the face of not only current York City police officers, but former members of the city police department and police officers everywhere who have been or previously were charged with the responsibility of enforcing the laws of this state.

Most of the time, it does not go down well with the men and women in blue when one of their own is arrested for violating a law they're supposed to be enforcing. It only makes their jobs more difficult, their relationship with citizens more problematic, when one of their own crosses the line.

The city's Fraternal Order of Police (police union) has not commented on Blemler's alleged indiscretions. Nor is it participating in the legal process involving Blemler -- at least at this point.

The same can't be said, however, for the city's retired cops. Retired members of the White Rose Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police said they unanimously voted last week to oppose Blemler's attempt to enter a diversionary ARD program or receive his city pension.

The whole thing just rubs them the wrong way. They know cops are held to a higher standard, and they worked their entire careers trying to live up to that standard. Now they believe Blemler's actions have cast a shadow over the integrity of the whole group. And it ticks them off.

So they don't want Blemler getting any breaks.

And they've written letters to the district attorney, police pension board and the city administration to make their feelings known. Officially. It is a matter of credibility, they believe.

It might not make a difference in the end, but by going public with their feelings, they at least will have shown they don't favor whitewashing the incident to protect one of their own.

I say hooray for them.

Blemler has no intention of taking his lumps in this matter if he can avoid them. He's already filed an application to enter the Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition program, which would allow him to maintain a clean criminal record as long as he makes restitution, pays fines, completes his community service requirement and fulfills his other obligations to the court.

District Attorney Stan Rebert has not approved or rejected Blemler's ARD application. But a decision will have to be made soon.

And the city's retired police officers wanted to weigh in on the subject before a final decision was made.

None of the retired officers want Blemler to be admitted to ARD, and none of
them want him to receive his police pension. It's that simple.

Surely Rebert will take into consideration the unanimous feelings of the retired city police. I suspect they'll carry a lot of weight, in fact. But there are other factors to consider, too.

There seems almost no way to avoid paying Blemler his police pension. The only way he won't get it is if he's convicted of a felony, which can't happen if he's accepted into ARD.

In the end, a former city police officer violated the public trust while he was still a working cop. And he left his peers hanging out to dry in the court of public opinion.

The charges against Blemler are serious.

He shouldn't get a free pass because he was a police officer.

That's all the retired cops are saying -- out loud and for public consumption.

HEADLINE: Sheriff's officer charged with theft;

BYLINE: JOHN PETRICK, Special to the Herald News, North Jersey Media Group

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A01

Allegedly stole heroin, coke from evidence room

A Passaic County sheriff's officer and former Haledon councilman was charged Monday with stealing five kilograms of cocaine and 1.6 kilograms of heroin from an evidence room he supervised. 

Alan Souto, 39, was arraigned before state Superior Court Judge Marilyn Clark in Paterson on charges of official misconduct, theft, tampering with evidence and possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute.

He pleaded not guilty and was remanded to the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, where he was being held in lieu of $300,000 bail. Souto is being kept out of the Passaic County Jail, where he would normally have been held, because of his position with the Sheriff's Department.

Prosecutors declined to discuss details of the alleged theft of the drugs or where they ended up. Souto apparently replaced the missing drugs with sugar, as he thought they were slated to be destroyed during a routine burning of leftover evidence from resolved cases, said Jay McCann, Passaic County chief assistant prosecutor.

That burning never happened, however, according to authorities. McCann said in court there also are smaller amounts of other drugs missing from the evidence room and that the investigation into their whereabouts is ongoing.

Souto, a Haledon resident and Passaic County sheriff's officer for about 20 years, resigned from his Borough Council seat on Feb. 27 citing personal reasons. The next day, a Sheriff's Department spokesman confirmed Souto was the subject of an internal affairs investigation that involved missing evidence.

A detective with the department's crime scene investigation, Souto has been on leave from the department using vacation days since Feb. 25.

McCann said in court it was discovered several weeks ago that Souto had taken a GPS device from the evidence room and that the matter was being handled "administratively."

From there, an inventory was taken that led to Monday's charges, according to McCann.

As for the other drugs as-yet unaccounted for, McCann said they amounted to "10 vials of crack, that sort of thing."

Defense attorney Miles Feinstein said many people had access to the evidence room and questioned why bail had to be set so high.

McCann said a high bail was needed because of signs Souto might flee.
 

Staff Writer Paul Brubaker contributed to this story.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO, Souto
 

HEADLINE: Vian ex-chief faces claims of thievery
 

BYLINE: Julie Bisbee, Staff Writer

DATELINE: VIAN 

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 17A

VIAN - The former chief of police in Vian is now sitting behind bars.

Jeremy Eugene Floyd, 30, was arrested this week in Benton County, Ark. - where he was working as a police officer - on two complaints of embezzlement and one complaint of grand larceny. The complaints stem from incidents in Vian. 

 Floyd, who was the chief of police between April and July,  is accused of stealing money from people who were arrested by Vian police officers and of using city fuel cards improperly. Floyd also is accused of stealing a Cub Cadet 4 from a local hardware store after inquiring about it.

About the accusations

 The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation looked into the allegations after current Chief Danny Hoover noticed money missing from the evidence room, court documents show.

 A woman arrested by Vian police in May 2006 had $595 in her possession, according to an OSBI arrest affidavit.

 Floyd, who was not chief at the time, told officers to put the money in the evidence room, records show.

 About a year later when Hoover inventoried the evidence room, the cash was gone, according to court documents.

 Floyd also is accused of charging $1,353.25 on a fuel card that had been assigned to a vehicle declared as surplus, according to court documents.

 The former Vian police chief also is accused of stealing a four-wheel-drive utility vehicle from an Ace Hardware store.

 Floyd has denied the accusations made against him.

HEADLINE: Retired officer accused of stealing drugs from evidence lockers

DATELINE: PENN HILLS Pa.

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL

A retired police lieutenant has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars worth of drugs from evidence lockers at a suburban Pittsburgh police department. 

Fifty-four-year-old William Markel of Monroeville was arraigned Friday on charges of theft and possession of a controlled substance.

Markel retired in December from the Penn Hills police department.

Penn Hills police Chief Howard Burton says he contacted Allegheny County prosecutors in December after learning more than $2,000 worth of heroin was missing from an evidence locker.

Authorities say an investigation found more heroin and cocaine also were missing.

Markel's attorney James Wymard says his client had an outstanding record as a police officer for nearly 30 years. Wymard says he hopes to resolve the case amicably.

HEADLINE: Retired Penn Hills officer charged in theft of drugs

BYLINE: Bonnie Pfister

A retired Penn Hills police lieutenant was charged Friday with stealing thousands of dollars worth of heroin and cocaine from the department's evidence lockers.  

William S. Markel, 54, of Monroeville was released on his own recognizance after briefly appearing before District Judge Leonard HRomyak. He made no plea and did not comment on the charges.   

James Wymard, Markel's attorney, said Markel is scheduled for formal arraignment at the Allegheny County Courthouse on June 2. He faces three counts of theft and three counts of possession of a controlled substance.  

Wymard said his client hopes to resolve the situation before a possible trial.  

"He's been a fine police officer, 29 years on the job with an outstanding record," Wymard said. "Efforts are under way to resolve this amicably, and I'm hopeful they will be successful." 

Markel is known in law enforcement circles for singing "Danny Boy" and other songs at police graduations, police said. 

Penn Hills police Chief Howard Burton said he contacted the District Attorney's Office on Dec. 12 after learning from a narcotics detective that 110 stamped bags of heroin valued at more than $2,000 were missing from a locked evidence locker. 

An investigation found more than $2,000 worth of crack and powder cocaine was missing, as was heroin valued between $200 and $2,000 from another department evidence locker. 

Burton said he suspended Markel with pay on Dec. 20. The same day, a drug test the lieutenant took a week earlier showed opiates in his system, according to an affidavit filed by county detectives to support their charges. Markel retired the following day.  

"He never had a problem in the past -- an exemplary officer," Burton said. 

According to the affidavit, after previously saying he took the drugs to pay a police informant, Markel on March 18 told county detectives that he used them for his own addiction. He admitted to stealing cocaine and heroin from evidence lockers several times beginning in mid-2007.  

Markel said he has successfully completed intensive in-patient drug rehabilitation and is in daily outpatient therapy, according to the affidavit.