HEADLINE: CORRUPT OR NOT, DENVER POLICE'S CULTURE NEEDS SERIOUS OVERHAUL

It's too easy to jab at any police department, particularly one that simply will not get out of its own way. And in this town, the men and women behind the badges aren't making it sport anymore. 

What it is, is sickening - frightening, for darn sure. Does or could anyone in Denver these days have full faith, trust and confidence in the police department? Only a blind fool could.

This isn't some smart guy exercise in smug finger-wagging. No, the alarm bells that went off long ago now are deafening in our ears. Yet this is what we get: 

"I'm aware of all the internal complaints you know about, plus the ones I know about, and I don't see a corrupt police department," new Police Chief Gerry Whitman said last week.

OK, what else was he going to say? It just seems an odd and frightening, see-no-evil statement for a man who got his current job because officers in his shop killed an innocent man because another officer swore lies to a judge - and he couldn't even get the address straight.

The officer, Joseph Bini, now faces trial on perjury charges. Months later, two other officers were charged with destroying evidence in more than 80 drug cases. And we're still not done.

At an RTD bus terminal in Boulder, police there found a backpack stuffed with crystal methamphetamine they say is linked to a Denver police officer, who suddenly resigned Tuesday.

And there still is no official explanation for what happened to drugs and nearly $100,000 discovered missing earlier this year from the Denver police property bureau.

Perhaps this is not corruption. Which, no question, is a very terrible word. By whatever name it is called, it should scare the bejeezus from each one of us.

We have a right to expect any person who can separate us from our liberty - solely on the basis of his or her word - to be as clean as hospital sheets. This is not a stretch.

It is a concept clearly lost on the department's brass, who history shows will minimize the crisis at their peril. 

There is a reason innocent men are killed, that cops lie, destroy evidence, steal drugs and money from evidence lockers. There must be a culture in which they work that tells them this is okay. 

In what universe is it OK for a man like Ellis "Max" Johnson II to actually make it into the Denver police academy, graduate and for four months work the streets? A man with an admitted history of extensive drug use, domestic violence and employer theft?

A man let in only because the city's top law enforcement official pulled strings to get him in?

Johnson, as it happened, also resigned Tuesday.

To not recognize the problem, to not fully examine the culture of cutting corners and merely giving it all the sly wink when it's exposed, is borderline criminal. We all should expect and demand more.

Ari Zavaras, who assumed the manager of safety chair only a day ago, does provide some hope. 

"Some issues you see are isolated," he said the other day, "like the Boulder situation with the drugs and the backpack. But other times, you have to look at the command structure, because they seem to be re-occurring." 

That is good, Mr. Zavaras. The culture in any organization begins its flow right at the top. But what are you going to do to actually change it? 

A city is waiting. 

HEADLINE: Mayor fights for cop jobs Patterson seeks to hire 3 more 
for police evidence room despite council's rebuff.

Playing tough with his administration's final budget, Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson has resumed taunting the City Council, asking -- again -- that it fund three new jobs in the Police Department's troubled evidence and property room.

The council told the mayor "no'' on July 25. With a 4-3 vote, a majority decided the department could find the money inside a budget now surpassing $80 million. 

But Patterson is pulling out the stops over the three jobs and a police problem that's generated negative headlines all year.

"This is really simple stuff. We need in the Police Department people necessary to fix the problem," he said.

Last month, the Fresno County grand jury weighed in after a Police Department audit showed that more than $200,000, an assault rifle and 11 pounds of cocaine could not be found. The department's credibility also suffered just before New Year's Eve when police discovered missing explosives at its remote storage site.

Patterson cited the grand jury criticism in asking $219,300 for new positions.

Now he's also asking "friends of Fresno" to change the council's mind.

"I believe these council members are open to a reconsideration, if they could hear from people such as yourselves before they take their August 15th vote," the mayor wrote in a letter released Monday.

It was the second time in one week that Patterson has nitpicked the council over a $560 million city spending plan that went into effect July 1. Last Tuesday, the mayor vetoed the council's 5-2 vote to raise its salaries from $33,120 to $44,510. He also vetoed a 6-1 vote that gives council members $140,000 each to spend in their districts any way they choose.

Members of those majorities predicted their votes will hold next Tuesday, handing the mayor three new defeats before he leaves office in January.

"We're going to override the vetoes he sent to us," said Council Member Henry Perea, who played a leading role in the council budget making.

Added another pivotal player, Council Member Garry Bredefeld: "It's nothing more than the mayor trying to create a political firestorm and make the council look bad and make himself look good, which is typical of his divisive style of leadership."

Both belong to a voting majority saying the Police Department can fund the new positions by slightly rearranging its priorities. That majority includes Council Member Dan Ronquillo and Council President Tom Boyajian.

Council Members Sal Quintero, Ken Steitz and Chris Mathys sided with the mayor's request for three new positions.

Steitz said Monday he hopes at least one council member will change his mind "based on a grand jury report stating that there is a need for resources." He called it "bordering on irresponsibility" for the council to rebuff a grand jury and simply repeat its earlier vote. 

SECTION: State and Regional 

LENGTH: 326 words 

HEADLINE: Russellville police investigating missing money 

DATELINE: RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. 

Russellville police say $785 is missing from their evidence room and officers are trying to determine if anything else has disappeared. 

Police Chief Jim Wade said an internal audit would probably last the rest of the month. Once the audit is complete, Wade will decide whether Arkansas State Police are needed to help with the investigation. 

The missing money was part of $6,000 stolen from C&M Vending in Russellville last year. Chance W. Byers, 26, of Russellville later pleaded guilty to taking the money. Police said he used most of the money to buy Christmas gifts for family members. 

At the time of Byers' arrest, $785 in cash was recovered, along with the gifts Byers had purchased. 

The money turned up missing when Billy Yarbrough of C&M Vending received a court order for the money and sent an employee to retrieve the cash from the police department's evidence room. On Aug. 5, Yarbrough wrote Mayor Raye Turner and asked for an investigation into the disappearance of the money. 

On Tuesday, City Council members agreed to discuss the possibility of reimbursing Yarbrough's $785 with public funds during a meeting next week. 

"If the city lost the man's money, then the city should pay for it," Alderman Ronnie Tripp said. "If our officials believe we lost the money, then that's the right thing to do." 

The internal audit will begin with an inventory of the evidence room to determine if other evidence is missing. If the security of the evidence room was compromised, other evidence in the room could be tainted. 

The money and Byers' gifts were moved from the old police building into the new building in April. Jail trustees participated in the move and Street Department employees had access to the room during the transition, authorities said. 

Prosecutor David Gibbons of Clarksville said Wade contacted him about the investigation. Gibbons said he would not comment until the audit is complete.

HEADLINE: DETECTIVES PERPLEXED BY MISSING $47,000 

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee confirmed this week that a yearlong investigation into $47,000 that disappeared from the department's property section has led investigators to a dead end.

The Sheriff's Office recently fired Peter Lima Sr., the technician who oversaw the section, but Lee said he didn't fire Lima because of the missing money. In fact, months after discovering the problem in a 1999 audit, no one has been arrested and deputies aren't sure exactly when the money vanished. 

Speaking publicly for the first time about the missing cash, Lee said department investigators questioned Lima and other property section employees who had access to the money. He said the Sheriff's Office asked them to take polygraph tests about the missing cash and each of them passed. But Lee said Lima, who has a history of heart problems, never took a lie detector test.
"Was he a suspect? He was a suspect just like anybody else who had access to the stuff was a suspect," Lee said. "If he did it -- if he stole the money -- we would have charged him. But we didn't have enough to charge him."

Speaking from his Metairie home, Lima denied any knowledge of the missing money. Lima said he asked for years to improve security in the property division, but the Sheriff's Office didn't make significant improvements until about three years ago.

"I fought them for years," Lima said. "They kept the money in an old cell for years and I kept telling them to put it in the bank. I fought them till I was blue in the face and I finally won."

Lima also lashed out at the Sheriff's Office for pushing him out of the job he held for more than 12 years. When he found out about the missing money last year, Lima said the news shocked him. Today, he said, he still can't figure out how the $47,000 disappeared.

Neither can the Sheriff's Office.

"We ran out of leads," Lee said. "There's nothing else to investigate."

Law enforcement agencies seize everything from electric guitars to used cars in drug busts and other arrests. But drugs, guns, and cash are the staples of evidence rooms. When Lima, 69, started working in the Sheriff's Office property section in 1988, he said deputies would take the cash they seized, log it, and then bring it to the Jefferson Parish clerk's office for storage.

But soon after he arrived, Lima said the Sheriff's Office assumed that job and started storing the money in boxes in the old Third District building near the Huey P. Long bridge.

"It was an old, beat-up building that the wind could have blown down," Lima said.

Some time later, Lima said the deputies in the property section moved the seized money into a locked cell in the same building, but the security didn't improve much. Lima said they kept a key to the cell hanging on the wall and almost anyone could go in there for any reason.

Neither Lima nor Lee can remember when it happened, but sometime in the last couple of years the Sheriff's Office moved the to-be-seized cash into a safety deposit box at a bank. Lt. Marlon Defillo, a New Orleans Police Department spokesman, said NOPD uses a similar system.

"We have a very strict chain of evidence policy with respect not just to the cash or narcotics, but to all evidence," Defillo said. "Particularly with narcotics, cash, and firearms, they are secured in a vault with very limited access."

At the JPSO, Lima said the new system required two people.

"I had it set up where two people had to withdraw money out and two people had to deposit it. So if anything was missing, two people had to have been involved," Lima said. "That's what I told them."

Lima said he was fired in June for bringing a tape recorder to a meeting with a commanding officer. Lima said he didn't record anything, but he said the problems had started last year, after he reported his superior officers for attempting to sell an automatic weapon at a Sheriff's Office auction, a violation of federal regulations. Upon returning from sick leave this year, Lima said he got "the silent treatment."

He doesn't think it had anything to do with the missing cash.

"For four months, I sat at a desk with nothing to do and nobody would talk to me. The secretary told me nobody was supposed to talk to me," Lima said. "They boycotted me completely."
Lee declined to discuss Lima's firing. He also refused to go into details about property section protocol followed these days or in the past. But Lee did say the Sheriff's Office has changed some things and tightened some controls to make it more difficult for anyone to walk off with cash.

He said they'd like to think these new measures make the system foolproof, but he said only time will tell.

"We've toughened some controls up," Lee said. "In any business something's going to happen. People steal money from banks. When that happens, people change methods to make sure that doesn't happen again." 

HEADLINE: Probe into 1997 evidence theft continuing 

DATELINE: KAIUA-KONA, Hawaii 

Federal authorities are continuing to investigate the theft of evidence from a Hawaii County Police Department evidence room. 

The theft of the $50,000 is being conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Internal Revenue Service, Police Chief Wayne Carvalho told the Hawaii County Police Commission on Friday. 

A gag order prevented the chief from making further comment on the probe, he said. 
The chief told the commission he hopes the investigation will be completed before fall 2001, when the statute of limitations would preclude prosecution of any crime in connection with the missing money. 

The investigation began in February 1997, when police said they were looking into possible violations in procedures surrounding the handling of evidence. Since then police haven't disclosed any details about the case. 

HEADLINE: COPS ADMIT 'POOR DECISION' PROBATION IN DRUG DISPOSAL 

Two decorated Denver police officers on Friday admitted to poor judgment in destroying evidence from more than 80 drug cases. Kurt Gary Peterson, 37, and Danny Lee Alverson, 49 a four-year partners in the gang unit - pleaded guilty to abuse of a public records and second-degree official misconduct.  Their lawyer, David Bruno, told county court Judge Kathleen Bowers his clients thought destroying the evidence was the best way to serve the public. 

They could spend more time patrolling the streets rather than running back to headquarters to book evidence that likely would never be used in court, Bruno said.  But Bowers said the situation 'confirms people's worst fears of the police,' that they always assume a suspect is guilty and that evidence is of secondary importance.  She sentenced Peterson and Alverson to one year of unsupervised probation and 80 hours of public service. They could have received a maximum sentence of two years in jail and a $ 5,500 fine. 

Bowers told the officers she wants them to address high school students about the Constitution, the concepts of burden of proof, witness credibility and 'how you keep the government from getting out of control.' 

Bruno said the gang officers often encountered four or five people daily with drug paraphernalia or small amounts of marijuana. 

The officers would write tickets ordering the suspects into court, then destroy the marijuana or paraphernalia. They didn't want to take the 45 to 60 minutes necessary to drive to headquarters and book any evidence into the evidence room, Bruno said. 

'They have admitted their faults and wrongdoings,' Bruno said. 'They made a poor decision. They came to that decision on the basis of the fact that in their years of experience they have never seen one of these cases go to trial. 

'In the vast, vast majority of these cases, the defendant pleads guilty to the offense and is fined and these officers are never taken off the street' to testify. 

'If they followed the procedure - which they should have done- of driving downtown every day, it would have taken them out of service for approximately five of their eight hours every day, Bruno said. 

Prosecutor Diane Balkin argued for the light sentences.  'To their credit, they both came forward and were very forthright about what they had done,' Balkin said. 

The public records charge is a misdemeanor and the official misconduct charge a petty offense. 
The officers remain on duty but have been transferred from the gang unit. Internal administrative proceedings are pending.  Bruno said Alverson, a 28-year police veteran, has received the department's Distinguished Service Cross, three merit awards and multiple community service awards.  He said Peterson, an officer for 13 years, received the department's Medal of Valor, Distinguished Service Award and merit awards.  Bruno said the two officers compared their situation to police who find people drinking in a park, write a ticket and then empty the liquor bottle.  Balkin said the officers never converted the drugs for 'their own use or any other use.' 

'They clearly destroyed it, threw it down the drain,' Balkin said. 

The problem was discovered after city prosecutors learned no evidence existed to support charges in some drug cases. Five drug prosecutions had to be dismissed. 

HEADLINE: Two trusty MDOC trusties arrested for stealing evidence 

DATELINE: GULFPORT, Miss. 

Two members of the Mississippi Department of Corrections trusty program have been arrested and accused of stealing guns and drugs from an evidence locker at the Long Beach Police Department. 

Trusties Wallace Shane Rogers, 20, and Rodney Wayne Smith, 24, were inmates housed at the MDOC satellite facility in Gulfport when they were assigned to help construction workers repair the police station's roof. 

Twenty-seven guns, 11 ounces of marijuana and $300 were stolen through a hole in the roof above the evidence locker at the same time Rogers and Smith worked on the roof. The theft was discovered June 29. 

It is the second unlawful incident in a week involving a trusty. On Monday, a trusty from the same satellite facility escaped from the Pass Christian public works barn. Dominic Nash's absence went unnoticed for as long as two hours, when a supervisor reported him missing from the work detail. The 23-year-old man was still missing Friday. 

MDOC spokesman Ken Jones said that, even though "bad apples" sometimes cause problems, one or two instances should not detract from the program's previous success. 

"I can certainly say that I'm disappointed it happened," Jones said. "But it's a good program, and it's done a lot of good through the years." 

Gulfport's trusty program is one of 17 based at MDOC minimum-security satellite facilities. These satellites each house about 75 nonviolent offenders and provide a combined total of around $750,000 a year in free, minimum-wage public service across the state, he said. 

Inmates become trusties based on good behavior in prison, demonstrated respect for authority and the types of crimes they have committed, Jones said. They also have to prove that they would be suited to live in a more relaxed environment. 

The inmates generally are treated like civilian employees when they work as trusties, usually performing some kind of maintenance duty for city or county entities, Jones said. 

After work, trusties sleep in dormitory bays, can have small amounts of cash on hand, and are allowed TV and leisure time and weekend family visits. If they are married, inmates may even have conjugal visits, Jones said. 

"They earn what they get," he said. "It's just the privileges you have while you're serving time." 
Since the break-in at the Long Beach Police Department, Chief Tom Bishop said, he has changed the way he feels about trusties. 

"I'll always be skeptical of any inmate from this point on," Bishop said. "Treat them with dignity but don't trust them." 

HEADLINE: Arm police officers, auditor tells school system 

DATELINE: PITTSBURGH 

The Pittsburgh public school system should arm its police officers and pay more attention to the evidence they gather, an auditor said.  The report also found that police should not act as chauffeurs for board members or other staff members or make deliveries in their cruisers. 

School Superintendent John W. Thompson on Tuesday presented a five-page summary of the report to the Pittsburgh school board. Board member Darlene Harris faulted it for being vague. "We've been given report after report after audit after investigation and nothing comes out public," she said. "I'd like to see this go to the attorney general or the FBI, and let's get this off the table." 

The report by safety consultant A. Dale Wunderlich and Associates Inc. found that evidence was taken from the school evidence room and recommended high-security locks there. Pat Crawford, a school spokeswoman, would not say what the evidence was. 

The report on the school system's 122-person security staff was sent to Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala for review. No decision has been made on whether to file charges, said Mike Manko, a spokesman for Zappala.  The auditor recommended arming school police with high-tech guns that can only be used by one person. One possibility is guns that recognize fingerprints, Crawford said. 

"That way, if there is a scuffle and the officer were to lose control of his gun, there would not be a tragedy if someone else were to pick it up," Crawford said. 

HEADLINE: Officer suspended over missing cash returns to work; TBI investigation runs into dead end

A Knoxville Police Department employee who was suspended with pay for 13 months while under investigation in connection with the theft of $ 13,448 from an evidence room returned to work Wednesday. 

And the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's probe into the missing cash has stalled without enough proof to charge anyone. 

"I was told I would be off until it was resolved and I'm back to work, so it must be resolved," said David Burns, a KPD evidence technician who was the focus of the criminal probe.   Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith and Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols, however, don't perceive the investigation as resolved. 

"This is not a mark against the department but a mark against someone without integrity," Keith said. "But I can't prove it. We've asked the district attorney to continue to pursue it."  Nichols said Wednesday he informed Keith last week the TBI probe was at a dead end. He said there is a five-year statute of limitations on prosecution. 

"It's over for the time being," Nichols said. "We just can't nab enough evidence to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."  The TBI investigation included reviewing employees' bank records, questioning bank tellers and polygraph examinations. 

Part of the problem in building a criminal case, Nichols said, was the poor record-keeping at the KPD's property room. Audits of the property room conducted by KPD's Internal Affairs Unit and the state Comptroller of the Treasury found state laws and police policies were ignored. Records of the missing cash were destroyed, and computer entries had been obliterated. 
"When you don't know when it's missing, that makes it difficult to prove who took it," Nichols said. 

Keith said the revelation of the stolen money and subsequent findings of poor management in the property room taught the department "that we have to be intensely accountable." 
Audits also revealed another $ 2,000 in cash might have been stolen from the property room. Keith said records were so poor authorities were unable to determine whether the money was stolen or deposited in a bank. 

Since the audits, Keith has placed a police captain over the property unit, installed cameras and hidden microphones in the area, instituted a two-person, key entry system and is bar-coding all property. The computer system has been altered so a person with access to property can't delete computer records. 

The $ 13,448 was seized Sept. 11, 1997, from a Kenro Drive residence. Police called to the house on a burglary investigation suspected the money was connected to gambling. When police agreed in August 1998 to return $ 4,000 to a man who claimed the money, the entire sum was missing. 

At the request of Keith and Nichols, the TBI began a probe of the matter in September 1998. Burns was suspended July 15, 1999, by Keith but continued to draw his annual salary of
$ 27,778.40. 

Because he was subject to being recalled to work on short notice, the 52-year-old Burns said he couldn't try to find another job. During his time off with pay, Burns said he did "a lot of things around the house." 

While Burns returns to KPD as an evidence technician, Keith said Burns will not be in the Property Unit. Burns, who was hired in 1994, has been assigned to a new position created to oversee vehicles seized from unlicensed drivers.