HEADLINE: Evidence security tightened in Penn Hills after thefts

BYLINE: Tony LaRussa

Penn Hills police have installed security cameras and taken other steps to prevent a repeat of an incident late last year in which several thousand dollars worth of heroin and cocaine were stolen from an evidence room by a police officer. 

"We used the same system for over 30 years and never had any problems, but there were obviously some flaws that needed to be addressed," Chief Howard Burton said. 

Changes include the installation of cameras inside and outside a room that will be used to temporarily store confiscated guns, money and drugs destined for the Allegheny County crime lab for testing. The room also is used for items returned from the lab that are awaiting transfer to a permanent evidence room where it stays until it is destroyed. 

Evidence going to and from the lab previously was kept in a locker inside a locked office in the department's narcotics investigation unit. A key to the locker was kept on a rack in that office. 

Three officers, Burton, chief narcotics detective Michael Hudak and Lt. William Markel, had keys to the evidence locker room. 

Now only the new evidence custodian, Officer Duane Yenchik, will have a key to the evidence room. Items confiscated during the overnight shift will be placed in a drop box and retrieved by Yenchik the next morning, Burton said. 

A police officer who needs to go into the evidence room must be accompanied by Yenchik or Lt. John DeBasi, Burton said. 

"We've instituted several fail-safe measures that I believe will prevent this from happening again," Burton said. 

No criminal cases were compromised as a result of the drug thefts, said Mike Manko, a spokesman for the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office. All of the stolen drugs had been tested by the county and returned to Penn Hills, Manko said. 

Markel, 54, of Monroeville, admitted to county detectives that beginning in mid-2007, he stole narcotics to support his drug habit. He has successfully completed a drug treatment program, according to court records. 

Markel, who was in charge of the police department's investigations division, had access to the main evidence room because he served as the evidence custodian. Under the old policy, an officer could enter the room unaccompanied. 

Markel was charged Friday with three counts of theft and three counts of possession of a controlled substance. 

Burton suspended Markel with pay from the department on Dec. 20, after receiving the results of a voluntary drug screening in which the lieutenant tested positive for opiates. Burton and Hudak also agreed to be screened but were found to be drug-free. 

Markel retired from the police force the day after being suspended. He is accused of stealing 110 stamp bags of heroin and 1 gram of crack cocaine valued at more than $2,000. He was released on his own recognizance and is scheduled to be arraigned June 2 at the Allegheny County Courthouse, Downtown. 

According to a police affidavit, Markel also stole about $2,000 worth of drugs from the police department's main evidence room, where drugs are kept before and after trial or when they are scheduled to be incinerated. 

That room will be monitored by security cameras, and access will be strictly limited, Burton said. 

HEADLINE: S.F. officer charged with taking evidence from locker

DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL

A San Francisco police officer involved in a fatal shooting in 2006 is embroiled in controversy again.

Officer Michelle Alvis was in court Tuesday where she pleaded not guilty to charges of grand theft, filing a false police report, doctoring evidence and destroying evidence or records. 

The 30-year-old Alvis was arrested Friday after being indicted for allegedly taking nearly $2,000 that had been seized during an arrest and was supposed to be booked into evidence at a police station in October of 2006.

Her attorney says the money disappeared after Alvis put it into an evidence locker.

Alvis -- who is a six-year veteran of the department -- had been put on desk duty after she was involved in a fatal shooting of an unarmed trespassing suspect at the Villas Parkmerced complex in June of 2006.

Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle

HEADLINE: Ex-prison guard charged in drug possession

SECTION: BRIEFS; Pg. 3, STATE NEWS IN BRIEF - UNION

Authorities say a former Union County prison guard has been arrested after he stole cocaine stored at the jail to train police dogs, then took a syringe and injected himself with the drug.

Police charged 53-year-old Ricky Wayne Haney with possession of cocaine and misconduct in office. He was taken into custody Wednesday.

The State Law Enforcement Division says Haney took the drugs from an evidence locker on April 7.

Calls and e-mails to the Union County Sheriff's Office and jail were not immediately returned Wednesday. A message left at Haney's home in Buffalo also wasn't returned.

HEADLINE: Little town, big problems

BYLINE: The Times-Standard

SECTION: OPINION

Once newcomers get over the slight disappointment in finding there is no lake at Blue Lake, they learn to appreciate this town of slightly more than 1,000 people, where the sun seems to shine even when the coast is shrouded in fog. 

So why is it that Blue Lake is in such a mess?

First it was the stink over the Blue Lake Rancheria -- whose casino has pumped up the economy of the town -- buying a mobile home park and telling the low-income residents to get out. Then the county grand jury called for the removal of its police chief, Dave Gundersen, charging that he falsified a DMV report in 2005 that resulted in the suspension of a Blue Lake man's driver's license.

When a judge dismissed that case as a mere "mistake," the grand jury broadened its investigation of Gundersen to include other complaints against him. Then the bomb dropped: Gundersen was arrested and jailed on charges of spousal rape! Not only that, but enough automatic weapons were found to arm a city the size of Detroit.

All this week, we have been treated to lurid details coming out of his preliminary hearing, where the judge is to decide if Gundersen will stand trial on 19 counts, including raping his wife while she was knocked out with Lunesta, firearms charges, coercing one witness and kidnapping and raping another.

But wait -- there's more. The Eureka Police Department (which has been dealing with its own little dramas) has been accused of ignoring an earlier rape complaint against Gundersen in 1999. Meanwhile, back in Blue Lake, it has no police department because its chief is in jail, his wife (a Blue Lake police sergeant) is on indefinite leave, and there is no supervising officer. So the county sheriff is providing protection till things get sorted out.

Have we forgotten anything? Oh, yes. The remaining two police officers were put on leave because they wrote a letter of "no confidence" to City Manager Wiley Buck, the police evidence locker was burglarized, the council fired the chief as of May 5, 53 citizens submitted a petition calling for Buck to get the heave-ho, too, and Mayor Sherman Schapiro has been delegated to investigate a list of alleged wrongdoings by the city manager.

If this were a TV soap opera script, the writers would be accused of diverging way too much from reality.

But seriously: The good citizens of Blue Lake have to be mortified over the unholy mess their elected officials and government employees have made of their community. We would guess that a tipping point is near, and if the Blue Lake City Council doesn't respond to indignation and exert leadership to make things right, the voters will clean house -- and may not wait until an election to do it.

HEADLINE: 2 South Texas police chiefs indicted in separate cases

DATELINE: McALLEN Texas

An Hidalgo County grand jury has indicted Edcouch Police Chief Eloy Cardenas and former Alton Police Chief Jose Luis Vela in separate cases. 

District Attorney Rene Guerra said Cardenas was indicted on an aggravated assault charge. He was arrested in February for allegedly shooting at his wife's ex-husband in a long-running domestic feud. Cardenas was suspended with pay in March, but a woman who answered the phone at the department Tuesday evening said he was back on duty, but not available.

The original arrest affidavit said that Cardenas, 39, fired three bean-bag blasts from a shotgun at Isidro Rodriguez as he drove by Cardenas' home. Rodriguez was not injured. A message left for Cardenas' attorney Hector Villarreal was not immediately returned.

Guerra also said that Vela was indicted on sexual assault charges involving attacks on two of his male employees who passed out at parties at his Mission home. Vela had also been charged with stealing a pistol from the department's evidence locker. He resigned last year. Vela could not be reached for comment.