HEADLINE: State Puts More Time, Resources Into Probe; Other Cases Said to Be Tied to Missing Property 

Maryland's top independent prosecutor said last week the investigation into the disappearance of up to $ 80,000 worth of property seized by the St. Mary's County sheriff's office from a Lexington Park man is taking more time and resources than he anticipated. 

Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli would not confirm statements that the investigation has expanded to include as many as six other cases of missing property. 

"When we started the investigation, we've gone wherever the investigation leads us. You can interpret that the way you want to," Montanarelli said. 

He added, "The investigation is a lot more work than I thought at first." 

A. Shane Mattingly, an attorney for Wendell I. Ford, the Lexington Park man who says the missing property belongs to him, said he knows of at least six cases of missing property that state investigators are looking into. He declined to discuss the specifics of the cases. 

Montanarelli also said the probe, which has gone on for four months, has been delayed by requests to investigate election violations, including allegations that Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s campaign offered teenagers money to pass out literature at polls and then never paid them. 

"We're concentrating on these election law cases that we think are important to get done," Montanarelli said. 

"It's not suspended at all," he said of the St. Mary's probe. "I just had to use the main investigator for something else." He said investigators should resume interviews on the St. Mary's case next week. 

Mattingly said St. Mary's sheriff's deputies recently stopped Ford's car, illegally searched him and seized $ 5,000 in cash. Mattingly said he has filed a motion in federal court asking that any investigations against Ford be handled by the Maryland State Police, not the sheriff's office. 

Mattingly said he is preparing to file a motion in Maryland District Court seeking the return of the money. 

Officials at the sheriff's office did not return calls for comment on Friday. 

Montanarelli began investigating claims that Ford's property was missing in July after Sheriff Richard J. Voorhaar (R) said an internal investigation was stalled by reluctant deputies. 

The property was seized from Ford in 1999 during an investigation into a series of thefts for which detectives believed Ford was responsible. The property included lumber, construction materials, a refrigerator and a safe, according to court documents. 

The charges against Ford ultimately were dropped because no victims could identify the seized property as their own, said St. Mary's State's Attorney Richard D. Fritz (R). 

Mattingly said Ford tried unsuccessfully for two years to get his property back. In March, District Judge John F. Slade ordered the sheriff's office to return the property to Ford, but Voorhaar said the department could not do that because no one knew where the material was. 

Ford and another man sued the sheriff's office in September, alleging that 10 unnamed deputies violated their constitutional rights by taking the property without due process. 

The probe and lawsuit resulted in the suspension and demotion of Steven M. Doolan from captain and second-in-command to lieutenant. Doolan was put back on light administrative duty in September. No charges have been filed in the probe. 

The lawsuit alleges a sheriff's office commander with access to the department evidence room illegally removed Ford's property with the help of nine other deputies. Gary Dicks, the crime lab technician in charge of the property room, said in an interview that a commander told him to release the property. He would not name the commander. 

HEADLINE: While you were gone  PAIR SENTENCED FOR STEALING GUNS 

HEADLINE: TODAY'S TOPIC: PRESERVING EVIDENCE  DNA tests complicate storage of evidence Authorities hard-pressed to find old files

In an era when DNA testing of old evidence has freed men jailed for years, local court officials now face the need to keep for years the bloody socks, bits of bullets, pieces of hair and other items that played significant roles in trials from years past. The need for more storage space could eventually cost money and even require new buildings to house it all.

Searching out old trial exhibits - as Wilson County had to do in November because of a prison inmate's request for DNA testing in a 20-year-old rape case - may be done more frequently.
But finding such evidence may not be easy, because storage methods didn't anticipate the need for keeping track of old exhibits - both those used in trials and those still awaiting trials - that might now be sought-after because of today's technological advances. 

"I think everyone is realizing now there is a need to keep these items much longer than before,'' said Torry Johnson, district attorney general for Davidson County.

"You kept it through appeals and post-conviction motions, but there wasn't much of a need after that."

In Wilson County, attorneys for Ronnie Johnson, a man dubbed by investigators as the "Southside Rapist'' and convicted of one rape in Lebanon in 1982, requested DNA testing this year on a pair of blood-soaked athletic socks. The socks were used as an exhibit in Johnson's trial after police said the blood on them matched the victim's blood.

However, the socks have not been found, even after Wilson County Criminal Court Judge J.O. Bond called for a "diligent'' search for them more than two weeks ago.

Bond also authorized the court clerk's office to hire four more people to help locate evidence not limited to the socks, though Court Clerk Linda Neal has since decided to use her own in-house staff.

"Any county could be looking at a problem like this because of the advances of DNA testing,'' Neal said.

"I would certainly like to see a better system as far as storing, retrieving and record-keeping. I am going to look at improving the storage method. I definitely see the need for it now."

Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe was the lead investigator in the Johnson case 20 years ago, when he was a police officer in Lebanon.

"I think this raises a red flag, not only in this case, but nationwide,'' the sheriff said.

"You're going to see more and more inmates challenge the system based on DNA. There are going to be appeals, and some evidence needed is not going to be there. We've already flagged a couple of other cases we think this could come up again. Nobody would have dreamed 20 years ago we'd have DNA testing like today."

In May in Memphis, Clark McMillan was cleared through DNA testing after serving 22 years in prison for rape. Prosecutors subsequently wanted to press additional charges against McMillan, but they couldn't because authorities cited a loss of evidence.

"You hear about it enough where you're not surprised when you do hear it,'' said Barbara Short, executive director for the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

"I've heard of stories where county courthouses just toss evidence into a basement. It's frustrating, but at that time you didn't think there would be any reason to need it."

Sgt. Phillip Sage has worked 21 years for the Metro Police Department's Property Section, where evidence not used in trial or still awaiting trial is stored. Sage says this year Metro has adopted a policy to keep all evidence for convicted Class A felons for the life of their sentences. Class A felonies are the most serious crimes.

"Appeals normally run for about three years, and before, we didn't normally keep evidence beyond that,'' Sage said. "Really this year, we've started seeing more people filing for post-conviction relief. Since the O.J. Simpson trial is when DNA testing became known. (Convicts) say, 'Maybe I can try this, maybe I can get off.' What else do they have to do?
"We have a computer tracking system put in, in 1994. But from the 1970s and '80s, some of that evidence we no longer have."

Sage said Metro's 15,000-square-foot storage facility is about 90% full. To retain more evidence, he said, "we'll either have to get a new building or find an additional storing site."
In the search for the sock exhibited in the Johnson case, Ashe said some old evidence not introduced in the original trial was found. But Ashe and Lebanon Safety Commissioner Billy Weeks said the box was wet and possibly contaminated because the basement it was in had flooded.

"You know, 20 years from now there'll be something that will make DNA testing obsolete,'' Weeks said. "We're crammed full now. We'll need stores as big as Kroger to store evidence."
Neal, in her fifth year as Wilson Circuit Court clerk, said physical evidence had not been kept with a lot of uniformity through the years.

"The files were in good order, but exhibits weren't,'' Neal said.

"If an exhibit didn't fit in the file it was put in an oversized manila envelope or cardboard box, and they were just sort of stacked on top of each other, but not really neatly done."

Neal said a more thorough tracking system for evidence had been in place for several years for more recent cases. She said she already had started using acid-free boxes for files and planned to order those for exhibits. Paper products with no acid in them are more expensive than acid-bearing products, but they preserve what is stored in them longer.

Neal also said she had requested that one "good-size room'' with a vault be made available for evidence and exhibits.

"I think we need to look at a uniform policy and procedure of storing evidence that would cover all jurisdictions,'' said Bobby Hibbett, one of the prosecutors in the Johnson case.

"I believe it's important to keep evidence for the life of the sentence. I think we're at the tail end of what other jurisdictions have already seen."

Andy Humbles covers Wilson County for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 726-5939 or ahumbles@tennessean.com.

Missing evidence won't doom cases, prosecutors say

The fact that old evidence can't be found for criminal cases from years ago doesn't mean all those convictions will be overturned, some local prosecutors said.

"I don't think the mere fact that evidence is unable to be located from five, 10, 15 years ago alone isn't going to result in an overturning of a conviction,'' said Torry Johnson, district attorney general for Davidson County. "There's not a real process for that."

Prosecutor Tommy Thompson and Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe say they don't think missing evidence in the case of a man convicted of rape 20 years ago in Lebanon will mean a reversal.

Ronnie Johnson became described by Wilson police as the "Southside Rapist" after investigators suspected him in a series of rapes in Lebanon in the early 1980s. Johnson was convicted of one rape and received a life sentence in 1982.

Attorneys for Johnson recently filed a post-conviction motion asking that blood-soaked socks used as evidence against him be tested for DNA. However, the socks have not been found despite a search of more than two weeks.

The socks were introduced into evidence as the pair Johnson was wearing at the time of the attack, and police said the blood on the socks was a match with the victim's blood.

"Back then it wasn't as accurate as DNA testing, but it was very accurate, and we had a lot of other evidence,'' said Thompson, who is district attorney general for Wilson, Smith, Jackson, Macon and Trousdale counties. "I'm not at this point concerned about a reversal because of the nature of the other evidence."

HEADLINE: Father, son await prison sentences 

The two former police officers have been convicted on drug and theft charges.

Former Police Chief Preston Bowden and his son, David, once were respected law enforcement officers in Marengo County.

Today, Preston Bowden is an admitted thief who sold weapons confiscated during raids by the Linden Police Department he led from 1990 to 1999.  He will be sentenced in a few weeks by U.S. District Judge Charles Butler.

David Bowden, who once served as a police officer in Linden, Demopolis and Pine Hill, will be sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty recently to possessing cocaine with the intent to distribute.

Preston Bowden, 53, who served on the Linden City Council after resigning his position as police chief, could face a 10-year sentence in federal court when he appears before Butler. His son faces a prison term of up to 40 years on the drug charge.

Mobile lawyer Carlos Williams, who works for the Federal Defender's Office, said Preston Bowden has faced "some difficult times" in recent years.

David Bowden's lawyer, Richard Horne, was unavailable for comment Monday. 

HEADLINE: Alamance County's new sheriff says office was vandalized 

DATELINE: BURLINGTON, N.C. 

Evidence rooms were in disarray.  Guns and other evidence lay in plain sight without tags. Bloody clothes from past murder investigations hung with no way of identifying what case they belonged to. 

Elsewhere in the office, weapons were missing, files lost and computers locked-up without a way to access them. 

Johnson, who took office Dec. 2 and hired a new staff, blames the previous administration for the damages and missing equipment. 

Former Sheriff Gary Massey denies that. 

"I don't know anything about it," Massey said. "I don't think any of the officers would have done anything like that." 

Massey said the messy condition of the evidence rooms is typical of law enforcement agencies and that the rooms were like that during previous administrations. 

"If there is any disarray it wasn't purposely done for him," Massey said. 

Johnson said he plans to have the building cleaned and repainted and that he's changing the locks. He said his staff would have to go through each piece of evidence to determine what case it belonged to. 

Some of the property, including a tombstone, would be returned to owners. 

HEADLINE: Evidence scheme involved 600 guns 

Fort Myers police say 350 still missing

A civilian Fort Myers police employee stole 125 guns from the evidence locker he supervised and is responsible for the unknown whereabouts of 350 others, authorities said.

Before he was caught in January, James Woodby, 62, rigged the paperwork on at least 600 guns in an elaborate scheme to sell weapons slated for destruction, according to a multi-agency investigation released Tuesday.

Woodby, who supervised the evidence section since 1997, made it appear the guns had been destroyed. Instead, he had a friend strip the parts and he would destroy the barrels.   "He was pulling a good scam. He was very good," said Fort Myers police chief Hilton Daniels.

Detectives had initially linked Woodby to 11 gun thefts, some of which he sold at gun shows and one he sold to an Explorer Scout with the Fort Myers Police Department.

Woodby has an unpublished telephone number and could not be reached for comment Tuesday. On June 20, Woodby pleaded guilty to dealing stolen property, grand theft of firearms and official misconduct. He was sentenced to two years of house arrest, 10 years probation and ordered to pay $1,304 in restitution and court costs.

Woodby also will have to pay for the nearly year-long audit of the department's evidence vault. At his sentencing, that cost was estimated at about $20,000. The total amount has not been determined. Most of the 600 guns under scrutiny in the audit were part of closed cases that date back to 1990. But four were evidence in active investigations - three seized during arrests for carrying a concealed firearm and a 1990 unsolved homicide.

All the firearms charges have since been dropped. The gun in the homicide case belonged to the victim and was not the murder weapon. When confiscated guns were set to be destroyed, Woodby would take the paperwork to the Lee County Sheriff's Office for documentation. He would then list additional guns on the forms to make it look like the guns he actually stole were destroyed, Daniels said.

Detectives said they found evidence Woodby stole about 125 guns. Fifteen of those firearms have been recovered by police. Although they don't know what happened to about 350 guns, detectives think Woodby stole some and legally destroyed others. Daniels said no further charges will be sought against Woodby, but called the findings of the audit "very disturbing."

"He was a trusted employee," he said. "We did not have any idea he was doing this for so long." 
While the investigation determined no other police employees were involved in the gun thefts, an evidence clerk who reported to Woodby received a written reprimand for taking a pair of shoes and a lawn ornament.

The investigation also has resulted in new security procedures for the evidence vault. By the book.