HEADLINE:  Former deputy pleads innocent to stealing from sheriff's office

DATELINE:  GREAT FALLS

A former deputy pleaded innocent Thursday to charges of stealing more than $ 15,000 from the evidence room  of the Cascade County sheriff's office. 

Deborah Baumgart, 43, is charged with felony theft and evidence tampering and misdemeanor official misconduct. The woman allegedly used the money to pay gambling debts.  A trial was set for Sept. 5 before District Judge Thomas McKittrick. 

Baumgard was fired in March after 16 years on the job. 

HEADLINE:  Newport men formally charged with stealing guns 

DATELINE:  MONTPELIER, VT 

A convicted burglar has admitted he stole weapons from the Orleans County sheriff's office in September.  Joseph Montagno, 25, plead guilty to possession of stolen firearms in federal court in Burlington Thursday.  He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26.  Montagno and another Newport man, James P. Kelley, stole at least 18 guns from the evidence room  of the sheriff's office in Newport, where Montagno was performing community service to work off his burglary sentence. 

Montagno and Kelley were charged with stealing and possessing the firearms and transporting them over state lines to Massachusetts and Connecticut.  A routine traffic stop in Massachusetts on Sept. 24 led police to a cache of stolen weapons stashed in three states and the arrest of the two suspects. 

Guns were recovered from the car Kelley was driving on Interstate 91 when he was stopped for a noisy muffler. Kelley allegedly confessed during the stop that he was carrying pipe bombs and stolen weapons. The arrest led police to find Montagno and other guns stashed in Connecticut and Vermont. 

The two were in Connecticut when Kelley panicked, abandoned Montagno and headed back to Vermont, police said.  Kelley pleaded innocent in Northampton District Court to three weapons theft counts, carrying a dangerous weapon, firearms and ammunition possession charges, disorderly conduct and motor vehicle violations. 

Judge Robert Kumor ordered Kelley held on $50,000 cash bail. 

Defense lawyer Dorothy Carlo had asked that Kelley, who has no prior criminal record and takes medication for schizophrenia, be released into the custody of his parents. 
 
 

HEADLINE:  Both offices want to know what happened to guns 

The feud between Kanawha County Sheriff Dave Tucker and Prosecutor Bill Forbes is continuing in a new arena, as both sides raise questions about the whereabouts of weapons. 

Tucker says he can't straighten out his evidence room  until he finds out what has become of several guns he says were transferred during the terms of the previous sheriffs to the prosecutor's office for the use of the staff there.  A letter from Tucker to Forbes dated March 29 inquires about the whereabouts of 20 confiscated guns, which were transferred from the sheriff's department evidence room  to the prosecutor's office between 1991 and 1996, when former Sheriff Art Ashley was in office. 
Two weeks prior to Tucker's letter, Forbes sent a request under the Freedom of Information Act requesting an inventory of firearms at the sheriff's department - especially of some machine guns. 

Tucker countered by saying first that the prosecutor's request was too vague and that a complete catalog of firearms was under way already. Tucker then suggested that whatever inventory was done would be incomplete until his deputies knew what became of the guns reportedly given to Forbes during the Ashley administration. 

"It has come to our attention that between 1991 and 1996 you (Forbes) were given 20 confiscated guns from the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department evidence room, " reads the letter Tucker sent Forbes on March 29. 

The inventory has since been completed, and now a total of 19 guns has been counted as being transferred from the sheriff's department to the prosecutor's office between 1988, when Danny Jones was sheriff and Charlie King was prosecutor, to 1995, when Ashley and Forbes were in office. 

The list includes 14 handguns, two rifles and three shotguns transferred over the years. Bailes said the 19-gun total was accurate and previous estimates were wrong. 

Department spokesman, Cpl. Jess Bailes said the years in which the guns were transferred and the number of weapons has become clear as the inventory was completed after Tucker sent his March 29 letter to Forbes. 

Bailes also said the sheriff isn't making any implication of wrongdoing on the part of the prosecutor's office, but just feels like a thorough accounting is in order. 

"These are items that we show as having left the department, and we just feel like it's is everyone's best interest if we make sure that everything is where it's supposed to be," Bailes said. "When you start talking about guns, you start talking about a serious subject." 

Bailes said rumors that the weapons were distributed to the staff at Forbes' office for their personal use had reached the sheriff, but that Tucker has dismissed them. 

"We don't put much stock in courthouse gossip, so we don't put much stock in those allegations," Bailes said. "We feel the prosecutor is above that kind of conduct." 

Forbes' chief assistant, Pete Brown, said that every gun that has been transferred to the prosecutor's office during Forbes' administration can be accounted for, and has been safely maintained and appropriately used since it came to the prosecutor's office. 

Brown points to an Oct. 6, 1995, order signed by King, who is now a Kanawha Circuit judge, that authorized the transfer of six abandoned pistols from the sheriff's evidence room  to the prosecutor's office, largely to use as examples for witnesses trying to describe weapons used during crimes. There were a total of 27 guns listed on an invoice included in an order, but those weapons, aside from the six listed in the body of the order, were to be destroyed, as Brown says they were.  "Those have been the only guns transferred to this office during the present administration," Brown said. 

Brown was able to demonstrate that all six of the guns were safely stored, and that their descriptions and serial numbers matched those offered in King's order.   He said that the guns have been used for some firearms training for the staff at the office, but mainly for witness interviews. 

"When we have someone - a witness - in here who doesn't know about guns, we have to have a way to make them understand the differences between various firearms," Brown said. "We show the subject these guns to help them describe the characteristics of the weapon used in the crime." 

The other 13 guns that came into the office before Forbes became prosecutor are all accounted for, Brown said today. Those guns are stored in a "secure location" elsewhere. Brown said he is in the process of having the remaining 13 brought back to the office from their present location so they can be reinspected to make sure they match the list from the sheriff's department. 

As far as the possibility of any machine guns being missing at the department, Bailes dismissed such a possibility as "ludicrous." 

"For anyone to say that a law enforcement agency would have lost automatic weapons and not notified the public, the (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) and otherwise make a full disclosure is absurd," Bailes said. "That would be the most irresponsible kind of behavior." 

Bailes reported that the department does have a limited number of automatic weapons, all reserved for the use of the department's Special Response Team. 

All the weapons are accounted for, Bailes said, and can be accessed only under specific circumstances and with the proper authorization. 

This most recent chapter in the battle between Tucker and Forbes comes in the wake of the decision by Forbes' office last month to drop an arson case against Robert Criner for a lack of evidence. Forbes blamed shoddy evidence handling and storage at the sheriff's department for problems with the case. 

Tucker countered by saying the Criner investigation and evidence were handled appropriately, and that Forbes chose to overlook important evidence and dropped the case because of a "bias" against Tucker's department. 
 
 

HEADLINE:  Medford chief charged over missing handgun

DATELINE:  MEDFORD, OK

An embezzlement charge has been filed against Medford's police  chief.

Roger Christman, Medford's police  chief the past five years, is accused of taking a handgun from the police  department's evidence locker  and trading it for another weapon for his personal use, District Attorney Mark Gibson said Tuesday.  Christman is charged with one count of embezzlement by a public  official, Gibson said.

Christman remains on duty in the Grant County community, Mayor  Don Bowman said. Gibson, district attorney for Kay and Noble counties, was  appointed by the state attorney general's office to look into the  matter.

The assistant district attorney for Grant County, Paul Hesse,  removed himself from the case because he has worked with Christman  on criminal matters. It is typical for district attorneys to remove themselves when allegations are made against police  officers in their jurisdiction.Gibson asked the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to look into the complaint against Christman, Kym Koch, agency spokeswoman, said. 
 

HEADLINE:  Drugs, cash still missing Fresno police  chief says he will request an outside investigation to track down cocaine and $ 172,807. 

DATELINE:  Fresno, CA 

Five kilograms of cocaine and $172,000 in cash still are missing from Fresno Police  Department property rooms despite frantic efforts to find the evidence, Chief Ed Winchester acknowledged Tuesday.

Winchester said he plans to ask an outside law enforcement agency -- probably the state Department of Justice -- to conduct criminal investigations into the missing drugs and money.

"We know our records are very poor. We know it's a problem," Winchester said. "The money we can't account for. The five kilos of cocaine. That's not the extent of it. There will be more." 

Winchester said he found out about the missing cocaine  less than two weeks ago. He said some personnel knew about it last year and may have violated department policy by not reporting it.

The statements Tuesday come three months after he admitted the department could not account for $ 200,000 in cash evidence. After a lengthy and exhaustive internal audit, Winchester said $ 172,807 is still missing.

"We've been looking at that situation every way possible and we've been unable to come to any conclusion," Winchester said.

The missing drugs and money are part of a broader problem with recordkeeping and inventory in the property rooms. Winchester said that for at least a year, his department has beefed up personnel in an effort to clean up and clear out boxes and boxes of old evidence.

Mayor Jim Patterson said the recordkeeping is a "serious problem" but continues to support Winchester.

"He's doing everything that's appropriate to find out the problems, fix them and hold anyone accountable that either broke policy or broke the law," Patterson said.

The missing cocaine  -- about 5 kilograms or 11 pounds -- was seized during a 1989 case. Details about the case were not available Tuesday, but Winchester said it has been resolved through the court system.

At some point, the cocaine was approved to be destroyed, he said. Authorities do not believe the drugs had any street value because they had degraded over the years.

The cocaine was used in September 1998 during what police  call a "reverse sting." It was checked out of the property room for an undercover investigation in which it would be used to trade for money or for other drugs.

"A narcotics officer is the last one who had the stuff," Winchester said. "His statement is that he put it in a property locker with another detective.... We tend to believe him."

That same officer recently tried to check out the drugs again for another investigation, prompting the search. Winchester said he and other top administrators were notified about the missing cocaine  March 29.

A drug-sniffing dog checked two off-site department storage facilities Friday. Authorities also checked property facilities maintained by Fresno County Superior Court and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

"We were searching frantically all of our property facilities to locate this," Winchester said.

Assistant Chief Jerry Dyer said: "We think we have checked the facilities as thoroughly as we possibly can without actually opening every box."

At one of the facilities, row after row of evidence boxes are stacked as high as 15 feet. Some of the property dates back more than a decade.

Police  also researched records from three drug burns since September 1998 when the cocaine may have been destroyed but not logged. Those burns would have destroyed property from hundreds of cases, Dyer said.

"I can't tell you one way or another [where it is]," Winchester said. "It's conceivable it's destroyed. It's conceivable it's lost in a mountain of evidence. It is possible it's stolen."

Winchester said he has launched an internal investigation that will focus on two areas: the circumstances surrounding the missing drugs and why the disappearance was not reported beyond the sergeant level nearly a year ago.

He also will ask for an external, criminal investigation.

"I think we'd be remiss if we don't look at every aspect of it," Winchester said.

Because more than $ 172,000 also cannot be located, Winchester said he will ask for a separate criminal investigation on that matter. That investigation likely will include interviewing current and past employees as well as comparing information about the cases to determine whether there are any common elements. The missing money encompasses about 361 cases, Dyer said. So far, no cases have been jeopardized by improper evidence booking or "chain-of-custody" issues. District Attorney Ed Hunt could not be reached to comment Tuesday.

In a memo dated Monday, Winchester outlined the problems to City Manager Jeff Reid, Patterson and the City Council. Reid said the City Council received the memo Tuesday afternoon.

In that memo, Winchester expressed "extreme concern." He also detailed nearly two pages of steps the department has taken to address the shoddy inventory system.

Among those changes:

Three new property technicians and a lieutenant as well as temporary personnel to help purge old evidence. Changed policies and an updated procedures manual.

Tighter security around the vault.

A new records-management system and a new bar-code system.

Reid and Patterson praised Winchester for being forthcoming about the departmental problems and for outlining a plan to fix them. "We know about the problem and we are working on it," Reid said. "Nothing's going to be swept under the rug."

Dyer acknowledged he knows the lost money and drugs -- as well as future items they expect to report missing -- may damage the department's credibility.But he said the property-room problems have been piling up for many years. At one point, 56 pieces of evidence were being booked into the department for every one that was being checked out or destroyed. Fixing the problem is likely to take several more months.

"We're not trying to spin anything," Dyer said. "We are trying to restore some confidence. We're trying to do everything we can to fix that problem and restore that credibility. ... We don't want our community to think that they can't trust the Police  Department." 
 
 

HEADLINE:  FOURTH PERSON ARRESTED IN PROBE; GREENSBORO POLICE RELEASE FEW DETAILS ABOUT THE INTERNAL INVESTIGATION INTO; EVIDENCE ROOM CRIMES. 

DATELINE:  GREENSBORO, NC 

The internal investigation into problems with the Greensboro Police Department's evidence room has led to a fourth arrest. 

Catherine Lynn Caplanides, 29, of 1110 Blain St., High Point, was arrested Tuesday on a felony charge of altering, stealing or destroying criminal evidence on May 6. 

The warrant said she destroyed cocaine relevant to a criminal case but gave no details about the specific case or the amount of the drug involved. 

Capt. Bill Stafford, who leads the Greensboro Police Department's special investigation division, said Caplanides' case was tied in with cases surrounding former evidence room technician Leigh Ann McPeak and others. But he declined to release further information. 

''We're at a point right now where I don't want to go into any details,'' Stafford said Wednesday. ''We're not finished. The investigation continues.'' 

Caplanides, who could not be located for comment, was released from the Guilford County jail on a written promise to return to court. 

Police described her as an acquaintance of McPeak. 

McPeak, who worked at the police department for 16 years, recently was sentenced to 35 months in prison for stealing crack cocaine from the evidence room to feed her drug addiction. 

Her crimes placed hundreds of pending drug cases on hold for weeks last summer while authorities tried to determine how widespread her drug thefts  had been. 

McPeak pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges, including seven charges of trafficking cocaine by possession. 

In addition, James Fear, her supervisor, was charged last month with embezzling $ 1,000 from the evidence room. Fear, a longtime department employee, retired last summer. And McPeak's brother, Michael McPeak, who has worked for the city's water department, is facing a tampering with or destroying evidence charge. 
 
 

HEADLINE:  Former police lieutenant faces felony charges 

DATELINE:  DENVER, CO 

A former Alamosa police lieutenant will face felony charges for allegedly using counterfeit money from a police evidence room  to try to hire a prostitute. 

The prostitute turned out to be an undercover Denver policewoman, and Lawrence Andrew Lopez was arrested. He allegedly was in an unmarked Alamosa police cruiser when he approached the undercover officer April 4. He resigned from the police force after his arrest. 

Lopez faces charges of embezzlement of public property, tampering with evidence and possession of a forged instrument. The charges carry up to 12 years imprisonment. 

Lopez also could lose his law enforcement certification, though he may still qualify for a pension. His next court appearance is May 16. 

Lopez was an 18-year police veteran, and was in charge of the Alamosa Police Department's evidence locker. 

Police did not realize the counterfeit money, seized in January, was missing until "after we received word from the Denver County Jail requesting a verification of Lt. Lopez's employment with the Alamosa Police Department," said Alamosa Police Chief Ronald Lindsey. 

Lindsay said his department conducts an annual audit of the property room, but this year's audit was delayed by an administrative reorganization. 

Investigators determined Lopez was carrying counterfeit money when he was arrested in a Denver hotel room with the undercover officer, said Alamosa County District Attorney Patrick Hayes. 

Lindsay said he hoped citizens would be pleased by the department's swift action on the case. 

"When something like this happens, there's a question of trust in the community," he said. "But I think the Alamosa Police Department was real prompt in addressing the situation, and it doesn't appear to go any farther than Mr. Lopez. Business should be as usual down here." 

Since Lopez is charged with low-level felonies, he will not be arrested before his trial, Hayes said. 

Lopez is staying with his mother in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 
 

HEADLINE:  POLICE OFFICES BURGLARIZED; THIEVES HIT OUTPOSTS IN BOTH N.C., VA. 

DATELINE:  FRANKLIN, VA 

The recent burglary of a Virginia State Police outpost in Franklin may be the latest work of some audacious thieves who have been raiding rural state police offices on both sides of the Virginia-North Carolina line to steal confiscated drugs and guns. 

The theft at the State Police Area 34 headquarters in Franklin on the night of March 29-30 was the first such crime this year. But authorities in Virginia and North Carolina said it fit the pattern of six break-ins last spring and summer at state police satellite offices in Emporia and South Hill and in North Carolina. 

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Tammy Van Dame would not disclose details of the burglary at the Franklin office, nor say what was taken. But she said the thief or thieves got into the office's evidence locker,  where confiscated drugs and guns are routinely kept. 

The theft was similar to a series of burglaries last year beginning on May 13, 1999, when seven guns and some drugs were stolen from locked cabinets at the North Carolina State Patrol's office in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., about 20 miles south of Emporia off Interstate 95. 

Five weeks later, thieves took 17 guns and some drugs from the state patrol's office in Rocky Mount, N.C, about 35 miles south of Roanoke Rapids, said Sgt. Jeff Winstead, a state patrol spokesman in Raleigh. 

Eleven days after that, six guns and some drugs were stolen from the patrol's office in Ahoskie, N.C., about 30 miles south of Franklin. 

On July 9, the Virginia State Police's office in Emporia was burglarized and the evidence locker  "compromised," Van Dame said. On July 31, the same thing happened at the office in South Hill, about 13 miles north of the state line. 

On Aug. 14, thieves broke into the state patrol's office in Henderson, N.C. - 30 miles southwest of South Hill - but came away empty-handed because of new security measures at the office, Winstead said. 

The break-ins ceased for the year at that point, and no arrests were made in either state. The recent Franklin burglary has gotten the attention of investigators in both states. Winstead said he was not able to determine yesterday whether any of the stolen guns had been recovered. 

All seven of the rural police offices are small buildings designed as convenient way stations for officers to write reports, check computer records, make phone calls or eat meals. The offices typically are staffed during the day but not at night, although officers come and go at all hours. 

Corinne Geller, a spokeswoman for the state police in the Richmond area, said troopers rarely keep valuable evidence in the rural offices for long before transferring it to more secure lockers in district offices. 

"If [the thieves] are lucky, they might find a couple nickel bags of pot in an area office," she said. 

Because so many offices have been burglarized, she said, police don't think the thieves have been trying to steal specific evidence to disrupt criminal cases. She said some troopers believe the burglars simply are trying to show their daring. 
 
 

HEADLINE:  Stolen evidence latest indignity for insolvent city 

DATELINE:  WESTMINSTER, TX

WESTMINSTER - No matter that it's springtime, the days just keep getting darker for this problem-ridden Collin County city.

 Atop court judgments, seized property and an empty city wallet, thieves broke into City Hall recently and stripped the former police evidence room  of drugs, knives and all the records pertaining to the evidence, officials said.

 According to the Collin County Sheriff's Department, the break-in occurred between April 10 and Saturday. 

 "Saturday morning about 10, I dropped in to pick up some files, and it caught my eye that there was too much light coming from the back of the room," volunteer City Secretary Dee Warden said. The crooks apparently pried open the back door and moved a file cabinet that had been pushed in front of the door, she said, then went straight for the evidence room. 

 "They knew exactly what they were looking for and exactly where it was," said Pete Collumb, city administrator.The Sheriff's Department report says 27 pounds of marijuana and other assorted drugs were taken.

 Mr. Collumb said the thieves also took knives, machetes, a spear-fishing gun and all records related to the seized materials, which came from several cases.  "But they didn't find the guns," he said.

 Mr. Collumb said two city-owned shotguns and about a half-dozen other seized weapons were hidden in another part of the building. The administrator said he has asked the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to destroy the weapons and also informed the FBI of the situation.It is curious, he said, that no other equipment - not computers or other office supplies - was taken.

 "They came straight to the evidence room  and went straight out," he said.
The future of prosecutions depending on the stolen evidence is uncertain, Mr. Collumb said.

 And as to why the evidence was there at all since Westminster folded its Police Department in January in the face of staggering debt, Mr. Collumb said he wasn't sure. "I guess it was a lack of direction," he said. "We had been talking to the sheriff's office. We never could figure out what to do with it."

 Lt. John Norton, a Sheriff's Department spokesman, said the evidence was Westminster's responsibility. "We had no right to just arbitrarily get it from them," he said. The break-in is the latest tale in a saga of despair for the century-old community.

Faced with debts of about $ 360,000 and revenue of only $ 40,000 a year, the town has struggled with solvency, political bickering and lawsuits.

 Mr. Collumb serves for $ 1 per year. The IRS has frozen bank accounts, and last month a Dallas County judge ordered property seized to pay off a judgment to a law firm that sued the city for being more than $ 16,000 in arrears. The last major asset is City Hall, which Mr. Collumb said has been secured since the theft.  "That building," he said, "is part of what we are selling."

HEADLINE:  Police keep employee on paid leave for months; $13,448 missing from evidence room,  record

DATELINE:  Knox County, TN

For nine months, a Knoxville Police Department evidence technician has been drawing a paycheck without working to earn it. 

Instead, David J. Burns has been under investigation in connection with the theft of   $ 13,448 in seized money from the agency's property unit.  The investigation has been under way for 17 months, and, authorities suspect, the money has been missing for two years. 

Yet the case remains unsolved, and a resolution isn't on the horizon. "There's nothing new, and I don't expect anything in the immediate future," said John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols. 

Although property unit supervisor Capt. Charles Coleman acknowledged some employees have complained that Burns has essentially received a lengthy paid vacation, Police Chief Phil Keith said the length of an employee's paid administrative leave varies with the circumstances. 

"There is no typical time concerning a case," Keith said. "Administrative leave is to safeguard the integrity of the organization and a safeguard we take for the employee to maintain employment rights."  Officials remain tightlipped about the probe and what, if any, evidence has been learned.  Keith deferred to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which initiated a probe into the theft at Keith's request, saying, "It would be inappropriate for me to comment on specifics concerning their investigation." 

TBI spokesman Bob Denney said only that his agency's probe, which began in late 1998, "is still open and active." Burns could not be reached for comment.  Authorities also have declined to discuss why Burns was labeled a suspect in the theft and what the future might hold.  "The resolution to this case and issues will only be determined after a full investigation and every detail has been thoroughly examined on a factual basis," Keith said. 

The $ 13,448 at issue was seized as possible gambling proceeds in September 1997. However, no charges were filed in the case. At the time, the agency was renovating its property unit, and the money, along with other valuables, was stored in a vault in the hallway of Keith's office. 

In April 1998, the contents of the vault were transferred to the agency's new property room. But no one conducted an inventory of the vault before making the transfer. At some point, officers reached an agreement to return $ 4,000 of the seized money to the man from whom it was taken. 

When he showed up at police headquarters in August 1998 to collect his cash, authorities discovered the entire amount was gone. Computer entries recording the seizure of the money had been deleted, and a document logging the seizure was also missing from the property unit. 
It is not clear when Burns became the focus of suspicions. When, in mid-July of last year, he was suspended with pay, KPD spokesman Foster Arnett Jr. refused to say whether Burns was a suspect.  "That's all I can say," Arnett said at the time. "He's on leave pending the outcome of an investigation." 

When asked earlier this week whether Burns remained a suspect in the theft case, Keith responded, "It would appear most apparent Mr. Burns is a suspect; otherwise he would not be on leave." 

SECTION:  LOCAL NEWS; Pg. B1 

HEADLINE:  Talk of missing items private Fresno council won't raise issue in this week's session. 

DATELINE:  Fresno, CA 

Fresno Police Chief Ed Winchester will not appear before the City Council Tuesday to address concerns about reports of missing drugs and money from department property rooms, but instead will meet privately with city leaders.

Council members said two weeks ago they wanted the chief to explain the missing items at a council meeting.

City Council Member Garry Bredefeld said he is organizing the private meeting as a first step toward finding some answers. He expects Winchester, City Manager Jeff Reid, and Council President Tom Boyajian and Council Member Henry Perea to attend. 

During the past few months, Winchester has acknowledged poor record keeping in the property room. Despite a lengthy audit and internal investigation, more than $ 172,000 remains missing, Winchester said.

In addition to the cash, he recently learned that 11 pounds of cocaine were gone.

"We will be talking about exactly what is known about the property and evidence rooms,  what the problems are, how long it has been going on and what solutions are being looked at to fix the problem," Bredefeld said.

The cocaine was seized during a 1989 drug case and has been used several times during undercover stings.

It was reported missing when a narcotics officer tried to check out the drugs in March. The money is from more than 300 criminal cases.

Winchester, who was in a meeting Friday afternoon and could not be reached to comment, has requested criminal investigation into both matters.

"I think we'd be remiss if we don't look at every aspect of it," Winchester said in a previous interview. Although the matter is not on Tuesday's agenda, council members said they aren't backing off the issue.

"It's a very big issue, but I think it needs to be handled in this manner first," Bredefeld said. "If there isn't a successful resolution, or if we don't feel it's moving in the right direction, I'm sure it will be brought before the council." 

HEADLINE:  Judge sets hearing for Kiefer officers 

DATELINE:  KIEFER, OK 

A May 23 preliminary hearing was set Tuesday for the police chief and his former assistant, both accused of taking drugs from the police evidence room. 

An attorney for former Assistant Chief David Palmerchuk objected during a court appearance to a prosecution motion to try the two men together. Police Chief David Little has admitted in an affidavit that he embezzled and consumed drugs held for evidence,  but Palmerchuk has denied the charges. 

Little, 30, told investigators earlier this month that he had  twice stolen methamphetamines from the evidence room,  according to  court affidavits.

Palmerchuk's attorney, Warren Gotcher of McAlester, said separate trials are necessary because his client has denied the  charges. District Judge Russell Miller did not rule on the motion.Little also is charged with taking drugs for his personal use 
from the neighboring Mounds Police Department where he worked before becoming Kiefer's chief in December.

Palmerchuk said Tuesday he hopes the criminal charges against  him are dropped, and said he may file a lawsuit "to clear my name." He said his career could be ruined because of accusations made in the affidavit by volunteer Kiefer police dispatcher Gary King, who is on probation for a 1998 drug conviction.

"They should have looked more carefully at this before they filed a charge against me based on a statement by a known drug felon," he said.

King was convicted in Sapulpa of possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance. King left as dispatcher at Kiefer and was employed by the Glenpool Police Department in March until the investigation became known by officials there.  In the affidavit, King said he had been invited by Palmerchuk to 
consume drugs at the Kiefer police station, an allegation 
Palmerchuk denied.

Palmerchuk said he and two reserve officers from Kiefer first told town board members that they suspected the chief of using drugs. He shared his suspicions in March with Kiefer Assistant Mayor Eddie Shoopman, he said. Shoopman and Mayor Donnie Ashford also were present March 24  when he confronted Little at the Kiefer Police Department, he said.

Little is free on $ 10,000 bail for the Kiefer charge and $ 5,000 for the Mounds charge. Palmerchuk is free on $ 5,000 bail. If convicted, both officers face a maximum of two years in prison and $ 1,000 fines. Little and Palmerchuk were the only full-time paid officers at Kiefer. 
 
 

HEADLINE:  Santa Fe police investigating missing evidence 

DATELINE:  SANTA FE, NM 

The Santa Fe Police Department will bring in an independent auditor to determine how more than 1,300 pieces of evidence that date back to 1995 disappeared from the department's evidence room. 

According to an internal department audit, hundreds of pieces of evidence are missing and hundreds more have been improperly documented. Investigators haven't determined what the missing items are or how many cases they are related to. 

Police Chief John Denko said the independent auditor would conduct an itemized inventory of the department evidence room.  The department also is conducting an internal affairs investigation into evidence room  operations. 

"Then we will find out if we have a problem or just a sloppy housekeeping," he said Tuesday. "Right now my gut instincts are this is probably messy housekeeping." 

Veronica Larranaga, the custodian for the evidence room,  resigned Monday. The chief promised to clean up the evidence room  and put in place what he called a "model system" for collecting, cataloging and tracking evidence. 

The department recently concluded two internal audits of the evidence room  and narcotics unit that began in May 1999. The narcotics audit found no items missing or mishandled.  The audits were conducted by recently retired Capt. David Segura, who completed the audit before he left. Denko said he ordered the audits after noticing the evidence locker  was in disarray when he took office in April 1998. 

According to Segura's audit, at least 1,336 items recorded on police reports compiled after officers collect evidence "have not been located within the evidence room. " 

Evidence tags on those items, which are prepared by officers and which would provide answers to the whereabouts of the missing evidence, also cannot be located, the audit said. 

The audit also said 540 items of evidence found in the evidence room  and 117 firearms were not documented on the police report. 

Denko said he believes a vast majority of missing evidence involves minor cases that may have already been disposed of. But he acknowledged that only an independent audit could determine that. 

Deputy Chief Beverly Lennen said the department already has employed a new and advanced computer system to better catalog and track items of evidence. 

"Any time items are questioned, we take it very seriously," Lennen said. "We will root this thing one way or another." 
 

HEADLINE:  COPS KEEP UP SEARCH FOR MISSING CASH CRIMINAL INQUIRY MAY BE LAUNCHED IF MONEY ISN'T FOUND, CHIEF SAYS 

DATELINE:  DENVER, CO 

Denver police  continue to pore over paper and computer records in their search for roughly $ 30,000 missing from the department's property bureau.  Interim Police  Chief Gerry Whitman said Tuesday that the process could go on for an additional week.  "We're trying to track the trail of the money in and out of the property bureau," he said.   The cash, evidence in two criminal cases, could not be found in March when detectives wanted it for court proceedings.  No decision on launching a criminal investigation will be made until the audit is completed. 

The search has been on since late March, and Whitman promised an aggressive criminal investigation if it was stolen. A broadcast report Tuesday saying that the department had launched a criminal investigation is not accurate, Whitman said. Such an investigation would have a narrow focus. The department severely limits the number of people who have access to the bureau, where more than 1 million items are stored. 

In addition to the missing money,  the audit is designed to evaluate the system of keeping track of money and other items in the bureau, located in a secured area in the basement of the downtown headquarters.  Property ends up in the department's custody in several ways: 

 * Officers confiscate cash, drugs, weapons or other items in criminal investigations. Often, the department ends up obtaining a court order to keep or destroy the evidence. 

 * Officers log in property that's taken from people they've arrested. In many cases, however, the owners never reclaim it, and it ends up taking up space in the bureau. 

 * Property found on the street or turned in to police  also ends up in the bureau, where it may languish.

 Whitman would like to see improvements to the bureau's aging computer system that would make it easy to track a particular item or run an inventory.
 
 

HEADLINE:  Former detective pleads no contest to drug charges

DATELINE:  ROSWELL, N.M. 

A former Roswell police detective has pleaded no contest to two counts of drug possession.  Michael Cooper entered the pleas Monday in state district court.  A no contest plea means that Cooper has chosen not to challenge either of the two counts. 

He is scheduled to be sentenced May 15. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.  Last November, police found cocaine in Cooper's desk at work. The packaging of the drugs suggested they may have come from the police evidence room.  A subsequent search of his home revealed more evidence of cocaine, as well as methamphetamine use.  Police Chief Richard Campbell said Cooper's crimes merit tough punishment. 

"The sentence should be sever to set an example for the law-enforcement community that this will not be tolerated," Campbell said. "We work very hard to get the citizens we serve to trust us, and this flies in the face of that. It's tough on the department." 
 

HEADLINE: Total rises in amount of cash missing from Fresno police

DATELINE:  Fresno, CA 

Fresno police auditors have added $67,000 to the amount of cash listed as missing from the department's evidence room. Department spokesman Lt. John Fries said Friday the additional money brings the total amount of cash now missing from the evidence room to more than $240,000. "We want to make it clear that it is not a new incident," Fries said Friday. "It's a continuation of the examination of the records to make sure that we can account for every dollar that has been entrusted to the property room." 

Two weeks ago, the Fresno City Council was publicly critical of the department's accounting of its evidence room after it came to light that 11 pounds of cocaine plus more than $175,000 in cash were missing. The increase in missing cash was one more revelation calling attention to gaps in Fresno Police Department security in its procedures for keeping seized evidence and protecting its own property.

Late last year, Police Chief Ed Winchester admitted that an AR-15 assault rifle was missing from the department's weapons arsenal. A week before that, an investigation into the theft of explosives from a police bomb-squad bunker in the Fresno County foothills showed inadequate record-keeping there.

After a meeting Thursday with Winchester and other Police Department officials, Fresno City Council Member Henry Perea said he urged Winchester to hire an outside agency to perform a more extensive operational audit of the evidence room than the current scrutiny being conducted by the department. Perea said the council would provide the money to hire that agency.

Fries said the audit that found the additional missing evidence money is an internal investigation. He said the department also has asked the state Attorney General's Office to conduct its own criminal investigation into the missing evidence room cocaine and cash. That investigation is beginning now, Fries said. 

HEADLINE: "Shopping sprees" for guns *** Police evidence room was a Source for weapons 

DATELINE: Baton Rouge, LA

Judges, assistant district attorneys and police went on "gun hunts" and "shopping sprees" in the city police evidence room, police records say. The former supervisor of the evidence room and one of his underlings have been arrested for allegedly distributing guns they had recorded as destroyed. One gun turned up in California when police there made an arrest. An assistant district attorney and his family had dozens more, police learned after he died. 

A 1995 audit paints a picture of an evidence room out of control.  Police Chief Greg Phares says the evidence room has been cleaned up, but investigators are still trying to sort out where guns and other evidence might have gone. He said he was not aware of the gun hunts or shopping sprees at the time they happened, but learned about them during the investigation that led to the recent arrests. 

It was a 1995 federal probe of evidence room supervisor Sgt. Robert McGehee that sparked the investigation that continues today. Shortly after the federal investigation began, Phares removed McGehee from his position and asked the city-parish Auditing Division to examine evidence room practices. The audit found serious problems. Among them: Blank, signed court orders for the release of evidence. The judge whose name was on the orders said he did not sign them. 7.7 kilograms of cocaine in the evidence room that had been recorded as destroyed. 80 gun release documents that were either improperly approved or not signed by the recipients. 
Phares said he took steps to correct the problems the audit uncovered.  "I think there were some real and substantive problems at that time," he said. "One thing that the audit proved to us is that we needed outside controls. It showed us the essential weakness of a closed system."McGehee had computerized evidence room functions, setting up a PC-based system for barcoding and  tracking evidence. All the information remained in the one computer in the evidence room.  The department made McGehee Officer of the Year in 1994 for that work, but Phares now acknowledges that setting up a system that no one else could monitor made it easier for someone to commit the crimes - including felony theft and malfeasance in office - of which McGehee is now accused.  The computerized files have now been moved to the city's mainframe computer system, Phares said. That means they can be monitored from outside the Police Department. 

The new system updates file information rather than overwriting it, leaving an auditable trail of who did what with each item, Phares said.  Lt. Barbara Rushing, who took over the evidence room when McGehee left, said she hasn't been able to implement all the audit's recommendations.  For example, the audit recommended that hands-on evidence work and record-keeping work be handled by different people. Rushing does both because she has a small staff and doesn't see a way around it. 
The chief said he thinks "the combination of a better system and honest administrators" have dramatically improved the way the department handles its evidence.  Rushing said that, to ensure that evidence isn't wandering away, she conducts a hands-on inventory every year. "We go to the shelf, touch the item and make sure it's there," she said. 

Last year's inventory was done early after police discovered that a Glock handgun had been stolen from the evidence room.  A student worker was arrested in the theft. She was allegedly bribed by the drug dealer who owned the gun. He later became a police informant and told them what had happened. Phares said he believes the current system is much better, but certainly not impenetrable. "There was obviously a glitch with the Glock," he said. 

Rushing said the inventory that followed her discovery of the missing gun turned out nearly perfect. After checking for 19,000 pieces of evidence, Rushing found only one was missing. A vial of alcohol could not be found. But investigators still haven't gotten to the bottom of what happened before Rushing took over. 

The audit found problems with 80 gun release documents from a single year. 
Three dozen of those didn't have a judge's signature, as is required.  Only 29 of the 80 forms bore the signature of the person who got the gun. 

Despite continuing suspicions about illegal activity in the evidence room, the investigation essentially lay dormant until this past summerDana Ashford was an assistant district attorney in the narcotics section. He died of cancer shortly after being diagnosed in 1997. 

Police spokesman Cpl. Don Kelly said that this past summer, someone from the District Attorney's office made police aware of 60 guns that Ashford had at the time of his death. Of those, 35 were documented as destroyed by the Police Department's evidence room, Kelly said. 
The evidence room investigation heated up again.  Just a few days before Morrison and McGehee were arrested in March, police in California found another "destroyed" gun when they made an arrest.  Investigation into the case is ongoing and other charges are possible, the chief has said.  City police spokesman Cpl. Don Kelly said the paperwork that might identify the public employees and elected officials believed to have come to the evidence room to select guns is evidence in the cases against McGehee and Morrison and is not publicly available right now. 

None of those judges in office in 1995 who were contacted by The Advocate for this story said they had gotten any guns from the Police Department's evidence room. Several questioned how common a practice the shopping sprees or gun hunts could have been, given that many of the judges had never heard of them. "I've never even been to the evidence room," State District Judge Bonnie Jackson said.  Jackson said she'd never heard of the practice.  State District Judge Mike McDonald agreed. "I never heard of anybody going down there," he said. "I'm not saying it didn't happen."McDonald said most guns seized in criminal cases are "junk" that no one would want, but he said that decades ago, he was aware that police officers and others were sometimes given good-quality guns when the courts didn't need them anymore. 
State District Judge Mike Erwin said he doesn't own any guns and has always made it his practice to have guns destroyed.  City Court Judge Byron Stringer said he has "five or six guns that I've taken to use for my personal security while I'm in office."Stringer said the guns came from cases in his court and none came from the Police Department's evidence room. He also said he will return the guns when he retires.  Fran White, wife of former City Court Judge Darrell White, refused to give a reporter's message to her husband. She said she didn't think he would want to answer those kinds of questions. 

District Attorney Doug Moreau said he's not aware of anyone on his staff going on gun hunts or shopping sprees. He called the statement about such practices in the search warrant "kind of a conclusory statement that is not supported by the facts."Anyone who got guns under those circumstances would have been violating his office policy, Moreau said. 

Both police and sheriff's officials said Ashford checked out guns as evidence in several cases and simply never returned them. Moreau said he doesn't believe Ashford was dropping charges in cases in which he wanted to keep certain guns. He said he believes Ashford was a good prosecutor. If he'd wanted to keep guns, it would have been easier to convict the owner and then get the gun, Moreau said. Phares said he ordered any officers who got guns or anything else from McGehee or Morrison to go to Internal Affairs investigators and report it immediately. 

He said at least one officer has come forward. He went to Internal Affairs before the order was issued, Phares said. He said he has suspended the policy that allows officers to sometimes be given guns that they find that are not evidence in cases and cannot be returned to their owners. He said he may reinstate the policy in the future, but wants to wait until the past problems have been thoroughly investigated. 
The chief said he hopes members of the public who may have gotten guns or other evidence from these men will contact police. He asked that they call Lt. Cathy Doughty in the Special Investigations Division at 389-8725.