HEADLINE: Audit Finds Problems With LAPD's Recordkeeping In Drug Cases 

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES 

The LAPD's narcotics unit has done a sloppy job of keeping records related to drug seizures -- a problem that could weaken some felony narcotics cases, according to an audit released today.
Controller Rick Tuttle said his findings show there is a need for tighter control of the LAPD's "Secret Service Account," the fund officers tap to make drug buys and pay informants. 

In four of the seven cases examined, Tuttle's audit showed inconsistencies in the weights and descriptions of seized drugs listed on various records generated by investigators.

"We found no evidence that seized narcotics were mishandled or misappropriate," the audit states. "We are concerned, however, that the variances appear to be so common, and in a few instances, so large."

According to the audit, inconsistencies in those written documents may weaken felony drug cases, since all those records -- including property reports, the arrest book and detective case envelopes -- may be reviewed by defense attorneys.

LAPD managers told auditors that most of the variances resulted from transcription, data entry and calculation mistakes.

Tuttle's deputy, Louisa Lund, said similar problems were found by the LAPD's internal investigation of the Rampart scandal, which focused on the now-defunct, anti-gang unit known as CRASH.

The scandal was triggered by former office Rafael Perez, who was caught stealing cocaine from an evidence locker.

While Tuttle's audit turned up no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, it "suggests that those kinds of inconsistencies may be more widespread than the CRASH unit," Lund said. 

HEADLINE: Ex-reserve police officer charged with taking bribes 

DATELINE: OKLAHOMA

A former reserve police officer is facing charges of accepting money from motorists eager to avoid speeding tickets. 

Steven L. Lindell, 37, turned himself in to authorities Wednesday and was released on his own recognizance. He faces two felony counts of accepting a bribe. 

Each count carries up to 10 years in prison and a $ 5,000 fine. 

Lindell admitted to investigators last week that he took money from two motorists in exchange for not writing them traffic tickets, court documents show. 

A Fairview woman called the Garfield County Sheriff's Office after Lindell stopped her for speeding and asked for a $ 100 donation to the town in lieu of a ticket, the affidavit states. 

An Enid man told an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent a couple of weeks earlier that he had given $ 50 to Lindell to avoid a traffic ticket, the affidavit states. 

Evidence reported gone; investigations sought 

POTEAU -- Allegations of missing evidence have prompted both the LeFlore County district attorney and sheriff to request outside investigations. 

District Attorney Rob Wallace said he was asking the state Attorney General's Office to investigate reports that items including drugs, paraphernalia and bloody clothes were hauled from a courthouse basement evidence room and put into a Dumpster about two months ago. 

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation put an agent on the case. 

Sheriff Roy Gentry said he had notified the U.S. Attorney's Office in Muskogee and the FBI after he discovered that some evidence was missing in a federal case. Next Edmond mayor makes election history 

HEADLINE: Former deputy's arrest stems from witness' comments 

DATELINE: MURRAY, Ky. 

The arrest of a former Calloway County deputy sheriff on drug charges stems from comments by a woman who claimed to have received drugs from the man and delivered drugs for him. 

Max Parrish was arraigned Monday before U.S. Magistrate David King in Paducah on charges that he manufactured, distributed and possessed controlled substances, including Oxycontin and methamphetamine. Parrish pleaded innocent and a federal public defender was appointed for him. 

A representative of the federal public defender's office said the staff received Parrish's paperwork Monday and had no other information. 

Parrish, 45, of Murray was arrested Friday at the sheriff's office following a six-week FBI inquiry. Calloway County Sheriff Stan Scott said Parrish was fired the same day. 

"With him being arrested and under investigation, I really had no choice in the matter," Scott said. 

In an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, FBI agent Phillip Lewzader said he was contacted six weeks ago by a lawyer who claimed to have a client acting as a cooperative witness for the Calloway sheriff's office. The witness said she had been a "CW" for the past 18 months and claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Parrish for the past year. She also said Parrish allegedly supplied her with drugs including Tylenol with codeine, Demerol, morphine, Oxycontin, marijuana and methamphetamine. 

On April 11, the witness gave Lewzader 10 pills, which she said Parrish gave to her a few days earlier from the sheriff's evidence room. 

The witness also alleged that she saw Parrish manufacture methamphetamine, steal the components to manufacture it and trade meth for the components to manufacture it. 

She also alleged that she delivered drugs for Parrish, and he provided her with a firearm on the deliveries. 

FBI spokesman David Beyer said Parrish will have a detention hearing on Wednesday. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for May 24 in U.S. District Court in Paducah. 

HEADLINE: $38,000 stolen from court evidence room 

NEW ORLEANS - About $38,000 in cash has been stolen from an evidence storage room at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, including about $20,000 that prosecutors planned to use in a major drug trial. 

An investigation into the theft was launched several weeks ago, Clerk of Court Edwin Lombard said. 

On Tuesday, prosecutors planned to present $19,824 they said was confiscated from a drug dealer. Instead, a deputy clerk had to testify that the money was logged into the evidence room and later disappeared. 

Lombard said about $38,000 is unaccounted for in several pending prosecutions, although the amount could change following an audit. 

"This is a sensitive matter, and it's nothing to sneeze at," Lombard said. "With the sheer volume of cases, it eventually will have an impact. It has to. There's no way around that."Lombard said police began an investigation about a month ago. Because there were no signs of a break-in, detectives suspect an inside theft, he said. 

"It's pointing to someone on the staff," he said. "It's disappointing when you think you have your best people down there. You screen your employees and do background checks, but here something like this still happens."About half-a-dozen employees have been interviewed by police and given polygraph tests, Lombard said. 

Police said the investigation includes a broad overview of security measures used by the clerk's office. The last serious theft from the evidence room was in 1991, when 81 guns were stolen. A deputy clerk was charged with burglary, but acquitted. 

HEADLINE: Turnabout in Dixmoor 

In one of his first acts as Dixmoor police chief, Ronnie C. Burge accused Jack Genius, his predecessor, of stealing and distributing firearms from the evidence room -- a charge with a familiar ring. After retiring as police chief from Harvey, Burge was stopped in 1995 by police and accused of stealing golf clubs from the police evidence vault. The charges were later dropped. Burge said some of the firearms had been recovered, but "it is impossible at this time to determine how many firearms may still be on the streets." Genius called the allegations "an absolute lie. I think he is trying to make up alibis in case he does take anything out of there." 

BYLINE: Capital-Journal

HEADLINE: Former officers to stand trial

Two former Hiawatha police officers will stand trial on charges of official misconduct.

Magistrate Judge Roy Roper ruled Wednesday that there was sufficient evidence for Brian Adcock and Fred Cadue to be bound over for trial in Brown County District Court on the felony charge following a preliminary hearing. Each also is charged with one count of misdemeanor theft. Roper set an arraignment for June 13 before District Judge Jim Patton.  The Kansas attorney general's office charged Adcock and Cadue in March.

Adcock is accused of destroying evidence on Aug. 16, 2000, that was being held in a police department drug case. Cadue is accused of aiding and abetting Adcock.

Senior Special Agent Terry Morgan, with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, testified that the defendants indicated during interviews in October that the drug evidence was taken and burned to get fellow officer Laura Tollefson in trouble. Tollefson serves as the police department's evidence custodian officer.   The evidence, consisting of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, was being held in the case against Rocky Rexwinkle, of Hiawatha. Rexwinkle pleaded guilty in July to a felony drug charge and was sentenced in late August.

HEADLINE: Police captain doesn't want chief's spot Fresno's Patrick Rhames suggests recruiting outside the department, saying it could use a fresh point of view. 

Fresno police Capt. Patrick Rhames, listed as a potential candidate to be Fresno's new police chief, says he doesn't want the job because the city needs an outsider who can bring "fresh eyeballs" to a department confronted in recent years by major problems.

Rhames, 54, said he informed Mayor Alan Autry and City Manager Dan Hobbs on Wednesday via e-mail that he doesn't want to participate in the selection process, as outlined by Autry on Monday. Autry announced that the department's nine most-senior officers would be in a "potential eligible candidate pool" to succeed Chief Ed Winchester, who will retire in September or October.

Rhames, a 35-year Fresno police veteran, told The Bee: "I believe it's in the best interests of the department and the community to appoint the chief from outside the department at this point in time. Anyone who has had their eyes open and read the newspaper for the last couple of years might be inclined to agree." 

Rhames said he was referring to a series of events in the last two years which rocked the police department, including stolen explosives from a police bunker, missing cocaine and cash from police evidence rooms, and an expensive sexual harassment settlement.

Hobbs said early Wednesday afternoon he had not received any communication from Rhames. When told that Rhames thinks the city should look outside the department's ranks for the next chief, Hobbs said: "He doesn't drive the process."

Autry did not return numerous calls from The Bee. Deputy Mayor Roger Montero said he does not think Autry had seen any communication from Rhames as of late Wednesday afternoon. "[Autry] hasn't said a word about it," Montero said.

Rhames said he is not trying to detract from "the good things" accomplished by Winchester or "take anything away" from the other eight in-house candidates for the chief's job. He also said he did not wish to appear to be "grandstanding."

But, Rhames said, "We need to do a better job." Picking a new chief from within the department would keep the department on its current course, he said.

Asked what new direction a new chief might take the department, Rhames said: "I respectfully request not to go into that kind of detail. That would be akin to airing dirty laundry. We need to take those things into account internally."

The mayor has said the other potential candidates for the chief's job are: Assistant Police Chief Jerry Dyer; deputy chiefs Darrell Fifield and Tom Frost; and the six captains: Rhames, Jerry Davis, Roger Enmark, Rene Martin, Robert Nevarez and Marty West. City Hall insiders tabbed Dyer the "heir apparent" when he was named in 1999 to the new position of assistant chief.
Exactly how many of these potential candidates plan to apply for the chief's position remains unclear. Dyer, already described by Autry as on the short list, said Wednesday he is "interested in the position."

Nevarez, commander of the southwest policing district, said he won't apply for the top spot. At age 36, he said, "I've got a little while before I start thinking about that."

Enmark said he has yet to make up his mind. Davis, Martin, West, Frost and Fifield did not return The Bee's calls.

Rhames said police departments traditionally prefer to promote from within: "But my experience is that extremely good things happen when you bring people in from the outside and they look at things with fresh eyeballs."

Rhames pointed to George K. Hansen, who was chief in Lincoln, Neb., when he was chosen in 1978 to lead the Fresno Police Department. Hansen emphasized community-based policing, which divided the city into policing districts and assigned patrol officers and investigators to satellite stations in each district. The intent: get police closer to the public and anticipate crime rather than simply react. Community-based policing continues today, and is a guiding principle for the Fresno Police Department.

Hansen succeeded Harold E. Britton, who was fired in 1977.

Hansen died in office in 1983, and former Mayor Dan Whitehurst said at the time Hansen "turned things around" in a department which had been "virtually in shambles."

Rhames called Hansen's tenure "very beneficial" to Fresno and said "beneficial effects" also occurred when Joseph Samuels served as chief from 1991-93. Samuels worked for the Oakland Police Department before coming to Fresno, and he returned to Oakland to be chief.
Autry said Monday no more than five finalists for the chief's job will be interviewed by two panels. Autry, Winchester, Hobbs and City Council President Henry Perea will serve on the first panel. Three to five community members will fill the second panel.

The city manager will pick the new chief, according to the City Charter, but the mayor hires the city manager, so it's widely assumed the choice will have the mayor's full support.

Every city appears to have its own way of hiring a new police chief, one that generally varies according to the needs of that particular time.

Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto said the city manager appoints the new police chief and can look both within and outside the department. He said Stockton's past four or five chiefs have come from within the department.

Bakersfield City Manager Alan Tandy said a provision in the city charter dating back to 1915 requires that the police chief come up through the ranks. "It's a little bit unusual," Tandy said.
West Covina Assistant City Manager Artie Fields said his Southern California city of 106,000 went outside the department ranks when hiring a new police chief in late 1998. Hobbs was city manager at the time, Fields said.

In Long Beach, population 465,000, the city manager decided four years ago that the police department had worthy in-house candidates for chief and did not conduct a nationwide search, according to Kevin Boylan, manager of personnel operations.

In the late 1980s, however, a nationwide search took place and the new chief was selected from neighboring Los Angeles. That chief did well, Boylan said.

Rhames' comments could bolster the hopes of some community leaders that Hobbs will conduct a nationwide search for the new police chief.

Deputy Mayor Montero said he knows that Rhames' words will carry some clout "in certain parts of the community." However, Montero added, he believes most Fresnans will be reassured once they learn the thoroughness of the selection process implemented by Hobbs.

It is important to remember, Montero said, that Hobbs will look outside the department if no in-house candidate is selected.

"I think [Fresnans] will feel comfortable with what [Hobbs] is doing," Montero said.

Montero said he can "appreciate the captain's comments" but "doesn't know what [Rhames'] motives are."

Winchester, 53, who has been chief since 1994, has endured a rocky end to his 30-year career with the department. Last year, he was forced to deal with:

A pickup truck full of explosives stolen from a police bunker in the foothills, which triggered fears that Fresno's millennium celebration might be disrupted. The incident attracted worldwide media attention before five teen-agers were arrested for the crime. Winchester told the Fresno County Grand Jury after the break-in that he didn't know the bunker existed, an assertion that a minority of grand jurors did not believe.

An assault rifle, 11 pounds of cocaine and more than $200,000 missing from the department's evidence rooms, which triggered an Attorney General's investigation. Mike Van Winkle, a spokesman for the California Department of Justice, said Wednesday, "We are still conducting an investigation. We have no timetable for concluding this investigation."

The city paying $450,000 to ex-Fresno officer Myrna Loran, who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit after she reported a fellow officer for theft and other officers allegedly retaliated against her.

Winchester earns $128,000 a year and commands 702 officers and 365 civilians.

He and Rhames have worked together for most of their careers. Rhames, a graduate of Fresno's San Joaquin Memorial High School, started with the department as an 18-year-old cadet and has served under eight chiefs. Winchester named him to his current job: commander of the northwest policing district.

"I'm very proud of this department," Rhames said, "and I've invested a good deal of life's emotions in it. I don't want to do anything to damage the department, but I also feel impelled to make it the best it can be."

HEADLINE: Deputy admits stealing cocaine from evidence room 

DATELINE: SHREVEPORT, La. 

A former deputy pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing and planning to sell cocaine that had been taken as evidence by the Caddo Parish Sheriff's office. 

Danny Williams, 43, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to a bill of information charging one count of possession with intent to distribute, U.S. Attorney William J. Flanagan said. 

Williams, a 13-year veteran and a K-9 officer on an anti-drug squad, was fired last week after admitting that he had stolen 2.2 pounds of cocaine seized as evidence by the sheriff's office. 

Federal law requires at least 5 years in prison for the crime, and Williams could get up to 40 years and a $2 million fine, according to a news release from Flanagan's office. U.S. District Judge Tom Stagg has not set a sentencing date. 

The investigation started when the FBI learned that a Keithville woman was selling cocaine she had received from a Caddo Parish deputy, FBI Agent Steve Hayes testified Thursday. 

He said the sheriff's office confirmed that a kilogram of cocaine was missing, and a search of 34-year-old Sheila Hardin's home turned up 2 pounds of cocaine. 

Hardin admitted that she had gotten the cocaine from Williams, and had split the money for the part she had sold. Williams was arrested and admitted supplying the cocaine. 

A federal grand jury indicted Hardin on Wednesday with conspiracy and with possessing the drug with intent to distribute it. 

She faces the same sentence as Williams, even though she is charged on two counts and he pleaded guilty to one, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said. 

He said that, as a general rule, if someone is convicted on multiple charges for a single crime or conspiracy, federal sentences run at the same time rather than one after the other. Consecutive sentences are used for "extreme cases," Van Hook said.