Ouotes from an article at: Drug-Rehabs.org

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"...In Plaquemine, Louisiana, the former commander of a drug task force is going to prison for 35 years for orchestrating a scheme to rip off an evidence room and then burn it to the ground, the Associated Press reported. Twenty-year Iberville Parish Sheriff's Deputy Gerald Jenkins and his cousin, John Jenkins, stole pot worth $130,000, Cocaine worth $600,000, $150,000 in cash, 18 guns, and more than 700 case files. Cousin John pleaded guilty to possessing more than 400 grams of Cocaine in March and got 13 years. Gerald Jenkins pled guilty to the possession charge and an arson charge. He won't be eligible for parole for 15 years..."

"...In Greenwood, Mississippi, 90 pounds of pot has gone missing from the Greenwood Police Department, the Associated Press reported April 6. The chief is investigating, the mayor told the AP, and the Mississippi Narcotic Bureau and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation have been brought in as well. Keeping control of the goodies seems to be a perennial problem at the department. In January, "an undisclosed number" of guns went missing. They have yet to turn up..."

HEADLINE: Evidence in double jeopardy at warehouse

BYLINE: TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News

Police officials fear both fire and rain; facility won't be replaced soon

The aging brick warehouse where Dallas police store evidence is in such poor shape that staffers fear it could burn down, destroying evidence and threatening the outcome of thousands of cases.
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Rebecca Lopez reports

With every downpour, rain streams through a leaky roof onto drugs, guns and other evidence. An "unsound electrical infrastructure" plagues the building, wreaking havoc and frying computers, according to a document presented to the City Council.

The problems bedeviling the 50-year-old building have already destroyed or damaged some evidence, including two vials of frozen blood from a rape victim that thawed after a power outage two years ago. The DNA evidence was ruined, but investigators were lucky: The rape case wasn't affected.

The incident portends disaster.

"We would lose everything we have accumulated over the years that could be useful in criminal investigations," said Assistant Chief Ron Waldrop, who heads the criminal investigations bureau. "It would have a major impact on our ability to do things with criminal cases."

The overcrowded building – used as the property room since the early 1980s – won't be replaced anytime soon.

Police say repairing all of the building's deficiencies would cost more than the Fair Park-area facility is worth. It is appraised at about $1 million.

A $32 million proposal to build a combined police property room and quartermaster facility didn't make the final cut for a bond package headed to voters in November.

Guns - JIM MAHONEY / DMN

Some of the 60,000 guns in the evidence warehouse sit under ceiling tiles that show water damage.

The city already has spent about $300,000 to replace the heating, ventilation and cooling system. And officials are moving forward with efforts to spend about $473,000 on a new roof. That project, which includes asbestos abatement, is expected to start this week and should be completed in February.

"They need a new roof right now," City Manager Mary Suhm said. "That's the immediate need. Maybe, over time, we do need a new building. The Police Department has lots of needs, and we're trying to address them."

When Dallas police seize evidence, it winds up at the 53,689-square-foot facility. It's a 24-hour operation that employs 40 people.

Walk into the air-conditioned front room, and you're assaulted by the nausea-inducing odor of boxes of marijuana stored in a cage. Water-stained ceiling tiles are reminders of previous leaks. Blue tarps protect evidence in the drug vault from leaks.

In the cavernous, airless warehouse beyond the front room, about 1 million items are stored. It smells like death.

Boxes fill row after row of seemingly endless metal racks. Stacks of boxes of seized ammunition crowd one corner. Chemicals fill fire-safe cabinets.

Boxes stamped "biohazard" – and there are thousands of them – contain DNA evidence that could one day prove useful.

"We have stuff in here that we have to keep for 30 and 40 years," said Sgt. Judy Katz, a property room supervisor.

It is here that minor investigative documents connected to the Kennedy assassination remain.

Property Room - JIM MAHONEY / DMN

Tarps are used to protect evidence in the drug vault from leaks. While most of North Texas prays for rain, employees of the property unit fear it. "We have stuff in here that we have to keep for 30 and 40 years," said Sgt. Judy Katz, the property room supervisor.

In boxes on just one shelf: Hair, fingernail clippings and clothing from a June slaying. Clothing connected to another June slaying. A ball cap and cartridges from an August 2005 killing.

"If something sparks in here, we have such a wide variety of stuff, it'll all go up," said Cindy Schoelen, a civilian supervisor.

Go through a trap-door and up the stairs to the building's roof, and you quickly get a bird's-eye view of the biggest problem: Cracks snake across the dry, tarred surface. Patches dot the expanse, evidence of previous leaks.

Puddles are everywhere. Tread carefully over the mushy spots; they could send a person crashing below.

Worried Dallas Fire-Rescue marshals keep close tabs on the facility. They briefly put the facility on "fire watch" in October 2005 – meaning that a fire official had to be on site while an immediate danger was addressed.

Fire officials ordered an overhaul of the sprinkler system.

This month, they threatened to put the building on a fire watch again because of problems with the burglar and fire alarm system.

The Police Department's own alarm enforcement unit has threatened to cite property room officials because the burglar alarm has sounded repeatedly when there was no emergency.

Lt. Roseanna Renaud, the property unit's commander, said her employees also fear rain while the rest of North Texas prays for it.

Consider what's happened in the last 10 months:

On Nov. 1, building services officials told the property unit that its roof ranked 12th on their list for priority replacement.

About a month later, trouble hit.

"Water poured through the roof area and into the drug vault where drug evidence is stored," Deputy Chief Zackary Belton wrote to the city's building services officials. "This necessitated placing tarps over drug evidence and mobilization of the entire property unit for a substantial cleanup effort."

"It is critical that we protect our employees and preserve drug, gun and monetary evidence," he wrote.

Then, on March 31, the air conditioning in the entry area broke and was out for days. The electricity went out the next day.

Two days later, another power outage permanently wiped out about 10 years of the property unit's computer files.

Officials were relieved that the surge didn't destroy the facility's computerized inventory management system – called PRIMS – which tracks the building's roughly 800,000 pieces of evidence. "That would have been a nightmare," Lt. Renaud said.

In late June, a storm-induced power surge knocked out the electricity, the telephones and the drug vault's air conditioning. Wet tiles fell down from the ceiling, narrowly missing an employee.

Despite frantic requests, a city electrician didn't arrive until two days later.

"Employees smelled something burning" in the drug vault, Lt. Renaud wrote in an e-mail to Jack Ireland, head of building services, in which she begged his employees to respond in a more timely manner. "As you know, temperature must be maintained in the drug vault to maintain the integrity of the evidence."

Mr. Ireland wrote back, promising his employees would do better. "I know that the circumstances at your facility are problematic," he wrote.

On Tuesday, the air-conditioning was out again.

E-mail teiserer@dallasnews.com

TROUBLE BUILDING

Other problems at the Dallas Police Department's property room:

• Air-quality studies have recommended that drugs be stored in a self-contained, controlled-air environment. But because drugs fill the property room's vault to the brim, employees have had to store marijuana and other drugs in two open-air cages, where anyone who walks into the room could get a contact high.

• Security doesn't meet industry standards. The building lacks the armored glass, armored doors and other security features of a modern property room. Surveillance cameras frequently don't work.

• The gun vault isn't large enough for the roughly 60,000 guns on hand.

• The property room also houses hazardous and explosive materials because the department doesn't have an outside storage facility.

• Air circulation problems in the drug vault recently resulted in four employees being overcome by fumes from spilled GHB, the drug closely connected to many date rape cases. One employee required medical attention.

HEADLINE: Castagna expects his job back

BYLINE: SCOTT FROST -  Staff Writer

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Fired Bordentown City Police Chief Philip J. Castagna expects to get his job back due to an appeals court reversal of his conviction on a harassment charge.

His lawyer, Robin Lord, yesterday said the reversal means Castagna should get back his job and back pay that could total $500,000.

In 2003, city leaders removed Castagna from the police force after he was charged with trying to hire a hitman to kill his wife, Joyce Leopold. Those charges are still pending.

The opinion handed down the harassment charge filed in 2004 said Castagna, prior to the pending allegations, was worried that a restraining order from his wife would lead to his firing and a loss in his $71,060 salary and pension.

On July 2, 2003, Castagna talked with Sam Celia, Leopold’s uncle and his friend, and allegedly told him "if she keeps (messing) around with my pension you will see me on the front page of The Trentonian."

"He told his wife, who told my mother-in-law, who told my wife and said it was a violation of my restraining order and with that (the courts) said I couldn’t hold public office," Castagna, 43, said yesterday.

As the opinion states, "The evidence is not adequate to permit a finding that (Castagna) had a purpose of harassing his wife by causing her uncle to communicate an alarming message. 

"The absence of evidence essential to support the convictions gives us that sense of ‘wrongness’ that requires correction," the opinion states.

The state, the opinion reads, was required to establish Castagna spoke to his wife "with purpose to harass" and with the purpose to "cause" Celia "to make a communication in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm to his wife."

"The problem is that the evidence in this case does not support the essential findings," Family Judge Jane Grall wrote. "Celia was the only witness to the conversation upon which defendant’s liability is based."

With the opinion reversing the harassment conviction, defense attorney Lord will seek to have Castagna reinstated as the Bordentown City police chief as he awaits trial in January on conspiracy to commit murder allegations.

In an October 2004 indictment separate from the harassment claims, Castagna was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated arson, and two counts of contempt in connection to a fire at his ex-wife’s former Bordentown City home the previous summer.

Saying she learned about the appeals court decision yesterday through the media, Lord said the reversed conviction means "the forfeiture of his job was reversed, so his police officer position is no longer forfeited." 

"So now he’s eligible for back pay and to get his job back," Lord said, even though the more serious charges against the ex-chief still loom. 

Next week, Lord said, she plans to file a motion with the trial judge in the pending case, Thomas S. Smith Jr., to have that indictment tossed out.

Lord said she’ll cry "prosecutorial misconduct" occured during the grand jury process -- arguing a witness protection file turned over to the defense "contains mindboggling" information that was held from the defense and the grand jury.

Castagna said yesterday the county prosecutor’s office paid a criminal informant, Gary Hall, 42, in August 2004 "to lie and try to entrap (him) to bring (him) up on these charges."

According to The Trentonian’s reports of the case, Hall told investigators he had evidence against Castagna through taped conversations in which the chief allegedly made threats against his ex-wife, court officials said.

"The prosecutor’s office worked with Hall and recorded more conversations between Hall and the chief that allegedly implicated Castagna in a murder for hire plot," Assistant Prosecutor Michael Lusciano said in March.

He said the information was related to the grand jury through a detective’s testimony.

Lord asked Smith to throw out the case, but was unsuccessful.

Yesterday Bordentown City attorney Rick Hunt said he can’t understand why Castagana thinks he should get his job back with the pending murder-for-hire case pending.

He wouldn’t comment on the judge’s opinion, or the reversal, because its publishing date isn’t until Monday. The city attorney said he’ll comment on the issue then.

"We were confident that this was going to occur," Lord said. 

"Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the personal vendetta that people have had against Philip and that he can get his life back." 

HEADLINE: Ex-intern admits stealing evidence: 

BYLINE: Andale Gross, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Worker for prosecutor pleads guilty in theft of money from vault

Aug. 26--A former Summit County Prosecutor's Office intern pleaded guilty Friday to grand theft for stealing thousands from a law enforcement evidence vault.

Leon Harris III, 26, of Akron, admitted to the fourth-degree felony charge before Common Pleas Judge Jane Bond. He could receive probation or up to 18 months in prison when sentenced Sept. 25. "I give him credit for stepping up and admitting his conduct," Special Prosecutor Frank Forchione said. 

"Obviously, it's a severe breach of public trust. I thought the detectives in this case did a great job of assisting me and accumulating (Harris') bank records and purchases in a manner in which we were able to establish the crime." A charge of tampering with evidence was dismissed in exchange for Harris' pleading to grand theft.

Harris, who was to go on trial Sept. 26, was accused in March of stealing $34,000 from the Akron police evidence vault. "We used this case as a learning experience and a tool to better our operation," said Akron police Capt. Paul Calvaruso, one of the investigators in the case.

Harris, a University of Akron student, stole the money last summer while working as a college intern for Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh.

Authorities said Harris bought a 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and other personal items with the money.

"I believe he has genuine remorse for what has happened," said Harris' lawyer, Timothy Ivey. "He expects to make full restitution. He wants to accept whatever the court's judgment is on this and move on with his life."

In the wake of Harris' arrest in March, two full-time evidence room employees of the Prosecutor's Office resigned, and an audit of the Prosecutor's Office vault was launched.More thefts were uncovered. About $2,500 and an ounce of cocaine were taken from the county courthouse vault, and about $7,000 was taken from the prosecutor's vault.No arrests have been made in those thefts, which occurred last fall and winter. Harris had already ended his summer internship and left the Prosecutor's Office when those thefts occurred.

Andale Gross can be reached at 330-996-3743 or agross@thebeaconjournal.com

HEADLINE: JUDGE RAPS POLICE FOR MISHANDLING BAG;

San Bernardino: It Sat Unreported In An Evidence Room For 10 Months.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA 

A judge said Wednesday that she was "flabbergasted" at San Bernardino police for mishandling a duffle bag that may have contained the guns used in the November killing of an 11-year-old-girl. Superior Court Judge Shahla Sabet criticized the department for an unreported bag that sat in a police evidence room for 10 months without the knowledge of seven prosecuting and defense attorneys.

Sabet banned admission of scientific testing on the bag, citing a break in the chain of custody. She allowed the bag to remain as evidence of connections among the six men charged in the Nov. 13 killing of Mynesha Crenshaw of San Bernardino."

I'm sure the defense attorneys will have a field day with this piece of evidence," Sabet said.

Prosecutor Ron Webster told defense attorneys that the bag had tested positive for gunshot residue.

Court records show that two San Bernardino police detectives, Marco Granado and Bill Flesher, had testified about the bag earlier this week. They could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Defense attorneys said they are unsure how the duffle bag affects their clients or if it were an important piece of evidence.

They also declined to comment about the bag's impact on the trial had it been unearthed after opening statements, expected later this month.

Defense attorney Mark Drew said he learned of the duffle bag last week while reviewing a transcript of a police interview with a confidential witness. Drew said that interview briefly mentioned an unrecorded second interview, which mentioned the bag's connection to his client Sidikiba Greenwood.

"I said, `What's up with this?'" Drew said. "It was new to the prosecutor."

The guns were never found, said Drew, reflecting pretrial testimony from earlier in the week. But the bag - containing only an empty shotgun shell and a box of ammunition - was later recovered, he said.