Link to Article

...In West Des Moines, Iowa, the Dallas County Sheriff's Office is the subject of an investigation by state authorities into what has happened to nearly $2 million in cash seized by the department in the last five years, the Des Moines Register reported Monday. The investigation came after a Dallas County deputy charged that part of $800,000 in suspected drug money seized last month never made it to the evidence room. State crime agents searched the home of Sheriff Brian Gilbert March 30, but have not said what, if anything, they found, and no arrests have been made. Ironically, control over the sheriff's department evidence room has temporarily been turned over to the West Des Moines police, whose former evidence room technician, Charles Graham, was sentenced last month to 10 years in prison for stealing drugs and $10,000 in cash from the evidence room...

Link to Article

...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...

Link to Article

...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...

Link to Article
 

Evidence room worker charged with stealing cash

MEMPHIS, Tenn. Police in Memphis have arrested one of their evidence room employees, charging her with stealing more than 13-thousand dollars in cash.
Doris Smith is scheduled for arraignment this morning. She's 31.

Sergeant Vince Higgins says the thefts were discovered by other property room personnel and turned over to internal affairs.  Higgins says Smith's thefts began with one of 700 dollars.  Smith had worked in the property and evidence room for less than a year.  Authorities put internal controls into effect after a scandal in 2003 in which millions of dollars worth of cocaine and marijuana had been stolen by employees over several years.

HEADLINE: Suspended chief wants all charges dropped

BYLINE: MIKE MATHIS, Burlington County Times

MOUNT HOLLY - Suspended Bordentown City Police Chief Philip Castagna is making another attempt to get charges against him dropped. 

Castagna, 44, of Plainsboro is charged with arson, contempt and conspiracy to commit murder in an alleged plot to have his estranged wife killed. He has pleaded innocent. His estranged wife, Joyce Leopold-Castagna, was not hurt.

Robin Lord, Castagna's attorney, said in court papers filed this week those charges should be dropped because an appellate court overturned a domestic-violence conviction against Castagna and because authorities have expressed serious doubts about the credibility of their star witness.

A judge denied a previous request to dismiss the case, which is scheduled to be tried in January. 

Castagna maintains the case is an attempt by the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office and Bordentown City officials to oust him from his job and destroy his reputation. 
"There was a conspiracy to get me," Castagna said yesterday. "If it gets to trial, the jury will see the problems with this case." 

County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi said the domestic-violence and conspiracy cases are independent of each other. He declined to comment on the state's witness or the witness' role in the criminal case.

An appeals court overturned Castagna's domestic-violence conviction last week after determining his statement to Leopold-Castagna's uncle that he hoped to reconcile with her was more compelling than a threat Castagna allegedly made to use a gun to terrorize her.

The conspiracy, contempt and arson charges should be dropped because the information about the domestic-violence allegation was presented to the grand jury that returned the indictment against Castagna in the former case, Lord said in the court papers she filed this week.

"The reversal of the defendant's prior convictions (in the domestic-violence case) has a direct bearing on the present prosecution for conspiracy to commit murder and arson," Lord said in the papers.

The charges also should be dropped because prosecutors failed to tell the grand jury that the state's main witness had mental problems, was a liar, and had advised prosecutors not to rely on him as a credible witness, Lord said. 

That information would have affected the grand jury's decision on whether to indict Castagna, Lord said.

Lord's current and previous court filings identify Gary Hall, 42, of Florence as the informant, but prosecutors have not publicly identified Hall. 

The defense contends the Prosecutor's Office agreed to pay Hall $40,000 and terminate his probation in an unrelated case in exchange for framing Castagna.

"The revelation that the state police, the attorney general and the Burlington County Prosecutor all knew that Hall is mentally unstable and a pathological liar adds further support to defendant's contention that Hall, a state agent, manipulated and entrapped Philip Castagna with a fantasy game about killing Joyce Castagna," Lord said in the papers.

E-mail: MIKE MATHIS

HEADLINE: In trouble again;

Former I.F. prosecutor Kimball Mason faces 13 more charges

The attorney general's office charged him with grand theft and forgery Wednesday.  During their first investigation, state prosecutors offered Mason a straightforward plea deal - fewer charges for the truth about the guns he stole from the Idaho Falls Police Department's evidence room.  They reduced the charges from 19 felonies to three after Mason agreed to come clean. But Mason lied.  On Wednesday, the former Idaho Falls prosecutor, who is already serving six months in a minimum-security prison, was charged with 13 new felonies.  The Idaho attorney general's office filed seven charges of grand theft and six charges of forgery against him. Deputy Attorney General Jay Rosenthal also asked Judge William H. Woodland to send Mason away for a maximum of five years.  No probation; hard time.  In a memo filed with the court, Rosenthal said a lesser sentence would diminish the seriousness of Mason's crimes."  "This defendant's history both in the long and short term indicates that he is a man who will offend again unless incarcerated. His bad character and attitude has been displayed to the community, to counsel and now to this court," he wrote.  An arrest warrant has been issued for Mason on the 13 felonies, with bond set at $500,000. Officials at the North Idaho Correctional Institution at Cottonwood are expected to surrender Mason on the warrant so the 52-year-old can answer the new charges within the next week. If convicted, Mason faces up to 14 years in prison on each of the new counts.  Mason has been serving time at Cottonwood since May 30, when Woodland sentenced him on two counts of grand theft and one count of falsifying a public record.  At the time, Woodland sentenced Mason to one to five years in prison but "retained jurisdiction" and allowed Mason to serve six months at the minimum-security prison. Woodland has the final say in the first case and is expected to decide soon on the state's request. The seven new grand-theft felonies Mason was charged with Wednesday stem from guns that investigators allegedly found during a June 2 raid at his home.  Nine were firearms Mason swore he had destroyed. Three were new guns missing from the evidence room that investigators didn't know about.  In the original case, state investigators listed 51 guns they believe Mason stole from the IFPD evidence room during the past five years. Prosecutors were prepared to charge him with stealing 18 guns because he repeatedly told them he'd destroyed the rest. They reduced the charges in March after entering a plea deal with Mason.  In addition to the guns carted from Mason's house June 2, the FBI has since found two more in Salt Lake City in the possession of a family member of former Idaho Falls police officer Todd Ericsson, who denied having them when interviewed in the first investigation, according to court documents.  Another gun was found in Mason's Island Park cabin.  So far, only Mason has been charged, but Rosenthal said investigators are still looking into possible charges against others who were involved.  Efforts to reach Jim Archibald, who has replaced Fred Hoopes as Mason's attorney, for comment Wednesday, failed. 

Cops and Courts reporter Phil Davidson can be reached at 542-6750. 

Coming Friday State prosecutors have started a third investigation: New evidence suggests Mason stamped judges' signatures on court orders without their knowledge.

HEADLINE: Former Idaho Falls prosecutor faces 13 new felony charges

Former Idaho Falls Prosecutor Kimball Mason, sent to prison earlier this Year for stealing weapons from a police evidence locker and falsifying a judge's signature, faces 13 new felony stolen weapons and forgery charges, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden says.

The charges, filed in 7th District Court, accompany separate documents indicating Mason transferred two stolen weapons to a former Idaho Falls police officer. A state investigator said the former officer, Todd Ericsson, a 22-year police force veteran who quit in June 2003, sent those guns across state lines to Utah with a relative, according to court documents.

Seven of the new charges allege Mason had four guns that investigators Had tried to locate before the first trial but that Mason had said he'd destroyed, as well as three additional guns, all taken from the Idaho Falls Police Department evidence locker.

The other six charges allege Mason used signature stamps of Magistrate Judges Keith Walker and L. Mark Riddoch on phony orders for police evidence custodians to forfeit firearms to the prosecutor.

There's also a separate, ongoing state investigation into allegations that Mason used the signature stamps of other judges in cases he handled as a contract attorney for several eastern Idaho counties.  Wasden wants 7th District Judge William Woodland to force Mason to serve the remainder of his three concurrent one-to-five year sentences, handed down May 30. Wasden's office on Wednesday asked Woodland to revoke a provision of Mason's sentence that could have allowed his release by Dec. 30, provided he cooperated with authorities.

"(Mason's) conduct has made a mockery of the criminal justice system, and, absent incarceration, community confidence in that system will be undermined," wrote Jay Rosenthal, the deputy attorney general handling the case. "His lies continued through his sentencing."  Mason's 13 years as prosecutor ended when he quit in disgrace Jan. 24.

A phone call to R. James Archibald, listed as Mason's attorney in Idaho Falls, wasn't immediately returned. Mason, now in a state prison in Cottonwood in northcentral Idaho, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of grand theft and one count of falsifying court documents to avoid 19 charges the attorney general planned to file.

At the time, he said he didn't know where the rest of the 51 guns were that he'd been accused of taking.  But on June 2, police acted on a tip and found 40 additional stolen guns along with knives, brass knuckles and daggers in a raid of Mason's home.

Subsequent work by state investigators uncovered more weapons as well as the additional alleged forgeries of judges' signatures, made with rubber stamps he'd kept in his private law offices, court documents said.  Attorney general investigators say they recovered a Winchester shotgun and a Springfield Armory .9 mm believed to have been taken by Mason from the evidence locker. Investigators retrieved the guns from the Salt Lake City home of Ericsson's daughter, they said.

According to court documents, Ericsson originally denied having the Weapons during the initial investigation into Mason's conduct, which began in November 2005. After learning of the June 2, 2006, search of Mason's home, however, Ericsson allegedly had his daughter take the guns to her home in West Valley, Utah, the documents said.  Ericsson couldn't be reached for comment in Idaho Falls. His telephone number isn't listed. His daughter, Brittany Ericsson, also has an unlisted telephone number.

"We've not made decisions in regards to filing charges against any other individuals," said Bob Cooper, a spokesman for the Idaho attorney general in Boise.  Still, court documents filed by prosecutors leave the option open.  "The sad reality of (Mason's) conduct is, not only has he compromised himself, but he has seriously compromised the reputation, and potentially the freedom, of family members and individuals he claims as longtime friends," Rosenthal wrote.

HEADLINE: Missing cocaine has sheriff under scrutiny

COTULLA -- La Salle County Sheriff Robbie Thomas walked into his department's evidence room in the cramped fourth floor of the county courthouse last  February to get some cocaine to use in a sting operation with the FBI.   He couldn't find it.   The disappearance of two packages of cocaine exposed the Sheriff's  Department's inadequate procedures for handling narcotics: There were no procedures.

And it placed tremendous pressure on Thomas to prove to county officials and the public that he's in charge of his officers.   The FBI and Texas Rangers are aiding a district attorney's office investigation of the incident, and a La Salle County grand jury is hearing evidence in the case.   "I'm upset that this happened. It's unfortunate that it happened under my watch," Thomas said recently.  Since the investigation's start, the Sheriff's Department has hired an attorney to help write procedures for handling evidence and moved the evidence room from the courthouse to a more secure location.

But the entire department remains under scrutiny, and this ranching community is awash in rumors and theories of what transpired.  As the investigation into the missing drugs picked up steam, five deputies resigned or were fired.   The sheriff denies the personnel matters were linked to the probe.   "There's no connection," Thomas said. "They violated department policies and I had to take action on them."   Then there was a car accident involving Thomas while he was on patrol Aug.13, just days before he was to testify before the grand jury.

According to a Texas Department of Public Safety report, Thomas was engaged in a high-speed chase when the SUV he was driving skidded off the road.   The sheriff wasn't wearing a seat belt and injured his chest, the report states. He was airlifted to University Hospital in San Antonio.   Thomas rejected the thoughts voiced by local skeptics who think the timing of the crash was no accident.   "There is no truth to that," Thomas said, adding that he testified as planned.   District Attorney Rene Peñaof the 81st Judicial Districtcalled the situation "very sensitive" and would not provide details of the case, citing the ongoing investigation.

"I think it's very serious any time there is evidence not accounted for, especially in the Sheriff's Office," Peña said.   "We're several weeks away from knowing what happened," he added.   The fourth floor of the courthouse is a catch-all for files from all departments, with boxes piled in corners. But only sheriff's personnel had keys that could open the white metal evidence cell.

At first, Thomas thought the drugs were misplaced, and he didn't inform county commissioners of the incident until months later, in June. Then the investigation began.  The failure to report the missing cocaine right away caused county officials to question the sheriff's competence.  "It's very important to get to the very bottom of this process and determine who's at fault, or if anyone is at fault, for the missing narcotics," La Salle County Judge Joel Rodriguez said. "Until then, I feel the relationship between the Sheriff's Office and DPS, the Texas Rangers and federal agencies is damaged, hindering the ability of the department to seek outside assistance in solving crimes."  Thomas, 40, has worked in the Sheriff's Department for two decades in a variety of positions. He assumed the top job in 2004, after the previous sheriff resigned. Thomas subsequently was elected to the post.

At a Commissioners Court meeting last week, Thomas let the department's attorney do most of the explaining about the new evidence handling procedures.   As the pressure keeps piling on, the sheriff says he is not jumping to conclusions about whether one of his deputies stole cocaine from the evidence room.   "I'll let the DA and the Rangers and the FBI look at what they've heard," Thomas said.   He's also taking lessons from the fracas.   "I'm more strict now," the sheriff said.

HEADLINE: Former deputy sheriff reaches deal on stolen gun charges

A former deputy sheriff in western Kentucky has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors after being charged with taking a gun from the sheriff's department's evidence room. Ronnie Ashley was charged with receiving stolen property and wanton endangerment in November after a man accidentally shot himself with the gun at a swap meet.  Ashley entered an Alford Plea on Monday. Police said Ashley had taken the 9 mm pistol to the Mayfield-Graves County Fairgrounds with the intention of selling it.

Graves County Commonwealth's Attorney David Hargrove alleged that the gun was taken from evidence at the McCracken County Sheriff's Department. Defense attorneys maintained the gun was checked out and Ashley didn't intend to sell it. Under an Alford plea, a person does not admit guilt but concedes that enough evidence exists for a conviction. Ashley was given a pretrial diversion on the stolen property charge, which will keep him out of jail unless he commits another crime in two years. The wanton endangerment charge was conditionally discharged, his attorney, Fletcher Schrock, said. 

Information from: The Paducah Sun

HEADLINE: Cop's "incomprehensible" conduct in murder mystery comes to light

Unsealing of Snohomish County domestic-violence cases leads to a tale of an unsolved killing and the DNA evidence that ended up in a detective's closet at home.  When the wife of Sgt. John Padilla called the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office on May 17, 2004, she reported a find so mystifying that an Internal Affairs report would later call it "incomprehensible."

She found a sealed package sent from a DNA laboratory in North Carolina to the sheriff's office in Everett.   The package held critical DNA evidence five hairs and a blood sample connected to an unsolved murder that John Padilla had investigated. But his wife didn't find it in some evidence room, where it belonged. The package was at home, in a box, inside the master bedroom's walk-in closet.

And she found it four years after it had been sent to the sheriff's office.  She stumbled upon it while divorcing John, a man she said punched holes in walls and doors and had cheated on her for years, according to court records. He was no longer lived in their Stanwood home, because of a protective order.

After she called, the sheriff's office discovered that Padilla had never booked the package into evidence. Confronted, he said, "I, I, I don't recall getting it," according t a sheriff's report. His bosses called it "deliberate misappropriation" of DNAevidence. They also learned he had checked out other evidence that is missing.

Padilla's actions labeled "incompetent (or worse)" by the sheriff's office may have cost authorities any chance of convicting someone for this murder, and opened the department to "sever criticism, the loss of public trust, and substantial civil liability," a top seriff's official wrote.

The story of John Padilla and the package found insie his closet has not been reported before. The Seattle Times came across it as prt of an ongoing investigation of improperly sealed court files. The newpaper has identified nearly 400 domestic-violence cases that were sealed in their enirety in Snohomish County Superior Court a staggering figure that reflects widespread snubbing of court rules that restrict such wholesale secrecy.

The Tims looked at cases involving people in positions of public trust, and got two fils opened in which Padilla had been accused of domestic violence.  Then it obtained his personnel file, along with other public records.   Those documents weave together these elements: the unsolved murder of Patti Berry, a young mother who worked as a nude dancer; Honey's, a strip club operated by one of Seattle's most infamous families; John Padilla, a former homicide detective described by one lover as a "Jekyll and Hyde" personality; and the curious path of five hairs and a blood sample.

Asked in an interview Tuesday how the DNA evidnce wound up in his home, Padilla said: "I don't remember the package, period." "Stalking the truth."  The last time anyone reported seeing Patrica Sue Berry alive was on July 31, 1995. She was headed north on Highway 99, needing ir for a soft tire.

Berry was 26 and the mother of a 2-year-old. Tall and tan, she danced under the name Bridgett at Honey's, a strip joint between Lynnwood and Everett that is part of a nightclub operation run by Frank Colacurcio Jr., and by his father before him. The father has been convicted of racketeering, the son of evading taxes.  At about 1 a.m. on that July night, Berry left work only to discover a flat on her 10-year-old Honda. A coupleof customers used a canned repair kit to get some air into the tire. She droveoff, alone, looking for a gas station and an air hose.

Two days later, Bery's family found her Honda behind a car wash only blocks from Honey's. Blood stined the bucket seats, the driver's door panel, the brake and clutch pedals. OnAug. 8, a boy found Berry's body in some woods near the Everett Mall. She had bee stabbed in the head and neck.   The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office assigned Detective John Padilla to the case.   In the summer of 1999 four years after Berry's murder the Everett Herald ran a six-part series about the case ad Padilla's efforts to solve it. The series depicted Padilla as a skilled investigator, "stalking the truth," applying hunting skills learned from youh, locking suspects with his "pale blue eyes" to elicit confessions.

The series quoted Padilla at length and took readers along with him as he sorted through suspects: the musician who was at Honey's the night Berry disappeared; a former boyfriend who worked as a high-school teacher; a neighbor of Berry's who admitted rooting through her car; a man who lived near Honey's and had stabbed a dancer two decades before; even a sheriff's deputy who frequented the club and had once appeared at a dancer's door.   The series mentioned how one of the club's owners had bought a yellow Camaro for Berry to drive, then took it away; and how the sheriff's office seized video taken by the club's security cameras, only to discover that the tapes for the night Berry disappeared were blank.

Berry's mother wasn't happy wit Padilla, the Herald reported. She Complained of the investigation's slow pace and of Padila's unwillingness to share what he knew.   Family members declined to be interviewed for this story.  "Incompetent at best"   On Aug. 1, 1999, two weeks after the series ran, Padilla sent five hairs and a blood sample to LabCorp, a private lab in North Carolina that does DNA testing.   The blood was Berry's. But the origin of the hairs, found on Berry's body was unknown. If DNA testing showed the hais weren't Berry's, they could have
come from her killer.

In May 2000, LabCorp mailed the DNA materials back. The package was sent to Padilla's attention, at the sheriff's office in Everett.   When investigating, police must follow certain procedures to preserve the validity and admisibility of evidence. Once collected, detectives should book evidence. They should document every time it is moved or touched, to preserve "chain of custody" and to rebut any claims of tampering. And tey should write reports promptly, so the investigator is recording recent evens, not distant recollections.   In the Berry investigation, Padilla violated all of these basic principles, according to disciplinary records.   He failed to write a crucial report, called a "case narrative," when he left the Major Crimes Unit in lte 1999, records show. A case narrative encapsulates an investigator's work, alerting successors to leads that went nowhere and to ones that hold promise.

Padilla's failure to write critical reports in the Berr case and in a second homicide was discovered in 2002, three years after he should have written them.  By then he was a sergeant, running the Community Transit unit. His bosses ordered him back to the courthouse to write the reports.   After Padilla's wife found the DNA evidence in 2004, the sheriff's office reviewed the entire Berry file. Investigators discovered that Padilla had checked out four crime-scene videotapes in 1998 that were now missing. They also found a different tape surveillance video of Honey's taken on the murder's first anniversary that had never been booked into evidence.

As for where she found the DNA package, Padilla's wife told investigators she had gone through the same box in October or November 2003, and the evidence wasn't there then. This suggest the package was placed there between October 2003 and May 2004.  Snohomish CountySheriff Rick Bart said he was "amazed" when he learned of the DNA evidence's whereabouts from an undersheriff: "You could have heard a pin drop in the sheriff's officewhen he broke the news to me."

Questioned by an Internal Affairs sergeant, Padilla said he didn't remember checking out the videotapes and had no idea where thy were. He also said he had no idea how the DNA evidence wound up in his home. He didn't remember asking for the testing, he told the sergeant. And he didn't remember getting the DNA package back: "I, I, I don't recall getting it. I don't know how I got it, but um, it's clearly sloppiness, to have anything, to have tapes, to have anything still and have it not be booked."   A bureau chief wrote Padilla in July 2004: "I do not find your claims that you do not remembr seemingly significant events, or your attribution of your possession of the DNA evidence to `sloppiness,' to be credible." He added: "Your handling of the videotapes noted above in this murder case is incompetent at best, and your deliberate misappropriation of the DNA evidence is not only incomprehensible but inexcusable.

"Your actions undoubtedly will jeopardize our ability to successfully prosecute this matter in the future." "Jekyll and Hyde"   Padilla began working at the sheriff's office in 1986. In newspaper accounts and performance reviews, he shined. His personnel file includes complimentary letters and a meritorious service award. A newspaper clip in 2001 describes Padilla, on foot, crashing into a wooden fence to take down a fleeing  robbery suspect.

"He was an intense person," Bart said. "Everything John did, he did 100 percent SWAT team, everything else. ... I thought he was a great deputy for a long, long time."   But Internal Affairs records and other documents depict a man filled with rage.   When Padilla's wife found the DNA evidence, she called Sgt. Gregg Rinta in Internal Affairs. Rinta was already investigating Padilla on two other matters so the mishandled evidence became investigation No. 3.   No. 1 stemmed from allegations that Padilla had assaulted his wife.   The couple wed in 1981. In divorce papers, Padilla's wife said he has an "explosive temper," and "has long ranted, raged and threatened." In March 2004, she alleged, he called her a "bitch," smacked her in the back of the head and pulled her hair.

Investigation No. 2 stemmed from allegations that Padilla had assaulted  his girlfriend a woman he admitted having an affair with for at least 10 years.  She told Rinta on May 10, 2004, that Padilla had a "Jekyll and Hyde" personality and was "stalking" her.  Padilla, in a rage, twice broke her car's windshield with his hands, she told Rinta. About a dozen times, he had pulled her hair, she said. He spied on  her at a baseball game, and asked questions afterward Did you take a drink of bottled water from your husband? to test her, to let her know he was watching, she said.

Her husband told police that Padilla would leave voicemail messages the husband was sure to hear, saying: "Hey, sweetie, give me a call, call me as soon as you can, sweetie." Questioned by Rinta, Padilla admitted to inappropriate behavior. But he denied hitting his wife in the head. He denied pulling his girlfriend's hair. And he denied having a problem with anger. His problem, he said, was with stress.  Police investigated the assault allegations for possible criminal charges as well. As a sergeant, Padilla made $92,000 in 2003, records show. He drove a Corvette and had a pickup, a motorcycle, a couple of old boats. He and his wife built a new home in Stanwood. The couple also owned two rental properties.   But in 2004, Padilla's wife and girlfriend obtained protection orders  against him. His wife filed for divorce. (It was granted in 2005.) Prosecutors charged Padilla with two counts of fourth-degree assault one for his wife, one for the girlfriend. And the sheriff's office fired him.

Police must promote a positive image that inspires public faith, the sheriff's office wrote. Sworn to uphold the law, Padilla broke it, the memo says.  Charged with protecting individual liberties and public safety, Padilla proved incompetent or worse.   "Your conduct," the memo says, "exhibits an anti-social component that is not compatible with the basic values of this office."   Based on what Internal Affairs learned, Bart ordered the Cold Case squad to investigate Padilla as a suspect in the Berry case, the sheriff said.  Investigators talked to witnesses and reviewed reports, but haven't interviewed Padilla.  Bart said "there's nothing there, at this point," to indicate Padilla was involved in the slaying.

Law and Justice

In October 2004, prosecutors cut a deal with Padilla. They agreed to defer prosecution and drop the assault charges in two years, provided Padilla obeys the law, stays away from his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend, and gets counseling.  Padilla, at times, "becomes overwhelmed by stress and anger," the sheriff's office wrote.   Nonetheless, Padilla landed a new job that demands composure and produces all kinds of stress.   He now works as a prison guard, overseeing inmates at the Monroe Correctional Complex.   The state Department of Corrections said Padilla passed a criminal-records check and psychological testing, and that his references gave glowing reports.  Mike Kenney, a department administrator, said Padilla disclosed his firing and assault charges. But the state knew only that Padilla had been fired for domestic violence and viewed that as a personal, off-duty issue. The  department never asked Padilla why he was fired, Kenney said. It never contacted Bart or learned of the sheriff's findings of Padilla's incompetence.

Padilla began working in January 2005 at a salary of $29,000. He has received positive write-ups, commending him for steady attendance and prompt cell searches. This year he completed a bachelor's degree that superiors say will enhance his chances for promotion.   His degree is in Law and Justice.  "Like strong perfume"   Padilla, 47, was interviewed Tuesday at a Starbucks in Lynnwood. He talked of robberies and murders he solved, and of how he would do twice the work of other detectives. "It led to professional envy," he said, "but I made things happen."   He shared copies of evaluations from the Sheriff's Office. "Deputy Padilla always puts forth his maximum effort, taking pains to avoid mistakes," says one.  "Detective Padilla is a 110 percenter. He is not content with doing mediocre work," says another.   The Berry case demanded enough work for a task force, Padilla said, but he worked it mostly alone, inspecting motel logs, interviewing witnesses, collecting physical evidence. He asked for help, to no avail.

"I wasn't the golden boy," he said.  The only reason he didn't write some reports when he should have, he  said, was because his bosses didn't give him the time.   When asked if he knew that the sheriff had ordered detectives to investigate him as a suspect, Padilla looked stunned. "No. Never. How wonderful. That's incredible. That is incredible." He started to tear up. "I can't believe that. I can't believe it."

Asked how the DNA evidence wound up in his home, he said: "Apply a little logic here. Do I want to circumvent this [investigation]? That would make me the killer."  Padilla said he put some people off at the sheriff's office, that he probably came across as arrogant.

"I'm like strong perfume," he said. "Very attractive in the beginning, and then very hard to continue to smell after awhile, because it's too overpowering."   He said accounts of his temper are overblown. He punched a hole in a wall only once, when he was 25. "That's how I learned to do drywall work," he said.  He said he did check up on his girlfriend to see if she was telling the truth about promises she made to leave her husband.   "There would be something that I would call a poor choice," he said. "I would have been better off paying somebody else to go do that."

Sheriff's officials declined to discuss details of their investigation, since the case is still open. They would not disclose results of the DNA testing  done on the evidence found in Padilla's closet.  Someday, those hairs might help solve Patti Berry's murder. Maybe they'll match someone entered in a DNA database used by police. But even if that happens, getting the results admitted in court will be a challenge.   "With this batch of evidence, yeah, we're going to have a fight on our hands," Sheriff Bart said.

The sheriff's office could end up with the killer, but no conviction.

HEADLINE: Dupont mayor to examine police department issues

DUPONT   Borough Mayor Daniel Lello has been given a month to examine the policies and procedures at the police department, and see what needs to be changed in order to ensure current problems never reoccur.

As effective head of the department under borough code, Lello is the best person to look into the organizational problems the department has, council agreed, on the recommendation of solicitor Erik Dingle.

Without steps being taken, the borough could be open to charges that it failed to carry out its responsibilities, Dingle said.

Although informed by media reports that state police are investigating lost money, guns and drugs from the police evidence room, Dingle said the borough had not been officially informed of what was going on by the chief or his lawyers.  The department was believed to have protocols handling all eventualities officers might encounter, but Dingle said he had never seen them, and doubted that the part-time majority of the force was aware of them.

He suggested a bullet label system might be necessary, so officers could mark off what steps needed to be taken in any eventuality.

Lello was asked if he could check into what was supposed to be done with all money and drugs taken in arrests. Some council members suggested it was meant to be handed over to the District Attorney's office, while others believed it was  supposed to be sent to state police custody.

Lello was also criticized for allowing police schedules in excess of the budgeted 112 hours per week, but he defended himself on the grounds no one had made him aware of the budget limitation he needed to work under.

Lello is expected to have a report by the October meeting.

HEADLINE: Audit: Police stick to their guns;

IFPD evidence room is praised but must improve gun disposal

An auditor gave a good review even though four times too many firearms are currently in storage.  Nearly 600 guns are stored in the Idaho Falls Police Department's evidence room - four times the number of firearms a law enforcement agency of its size should have at any given time.  This lack of purging is one of the most pressing problems facing the department's property unit, according to a recently conducted performance audit.  The audit also revealed, however, that the department has met most standards in property and evidence operations.  Dan Bullock, a former deputy police chief in San Jose, Calif., conducted the audit over three days in early August.  Chief J. Kent Livsey called for the $6,000 review in response to former City Prosecutor Kimball Mason's convictions for stealing guns from the evidence room.

It's the first time the police department's evidence-handling procedures have been scrutinized, either internally or externally.  Mason, who pleaded guilty to two counts of grand theft for guns he took and faces seven additional charges, did not walk into the property room and lift the guns, per se.  Rather, he presented evidence custodians with court orders - some legitimate, some bogus in the court's eyes - and convinced them to give him the guns.  After reviewing 41 aspects of the department's evidence procedures, Bullock gave the IFPD an overall rating of  "Meets Standard (minus)," which "should not be viewed as 'below average,' " he wrote, "but, instead, should be viewed as a laudable achievement, especially for a property unit that has not been previously audited."  Bullock rated the IFPD on par with the top one-third of law enforcement agencies in California, which is recognized as the leading state in the professionalism of property rooms.  "We're really proud of this," Livsey said.  The strength of the unit, Bullock said, is Property Office Manager Zuella Nelson, who's been running the property room for nearly three years.  But his praise also uncovered some of the department's shortcomings.  "Detective Nelson has done a commendable job in the property room in spite of limited training, inadequate staffing, untrained supervision and inadequate facilities and equipment," he wrote.  Nelson attended a property management training session in Boise a couple of years ago, but she's not certified by the International Association for Property and Evidence, which Bullock recommended.  Livsey said Nelson will attend the training in 2007.  Other problems Bullock noted include an incomplete manual on evidence handling and infrequent internal reviews or audits.  In response, Livsey said, the department will start conducting internal audits every four months.  But the main problem Bullock found was the abundance of guns in the property room, which he said is overcrowded, unsafe and not well-organized.  A department the size of Idaho Falls, which has about 90 sworn officers, should hang on to only 100 to 150 guns at any given time, not the 590 Idaho Falls currently has, Bullock wrote.  This backlog, he wrote, represents years of neglecting to destroy or sell guns and failing to convert them to department use.  Livsey said he's assigned another officer to help Nelson get rid of the excess guns.  The chief also plans to purchase computer software that will categorize evidence in the property room using bar codes.  Bullock recommended the software, which would enable Nelson to track down a gun's chain of command in less than an hour, rather than the days it took to locate the guns Mason took.  The software costs $35,000, however, and its purchase will need City Council approval.