HEADLINE: GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS ST. LOUIS SHERIFF

GOOD NEWS: $500,000 in cash has been found sitting in the St. Louis Sheriff's Department's basement evidence cage.

Bad news: $500,000 in cash has been found sitting in the St. Louis Sheriff's Department's basement evidence cage. 

Good news: The money was still there, nicely sealed in St. Louis Police Department evidence envelopes and under 24-hour armed guard, when the state auditor's staff asked Sheriff Jim Murphy for permission to open the envelopes. Given the well-documented ineptitude of Mr. Murphy and his deputies, this ranks as a major achievement. We would have thought, for example, that the armed guard would have been a lousy deterrent, considering the sheriff's casual approach to firearms training.

Bad news: The money was still there, not deposited in an interest-bearing account, and not reported to Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce as required by state law. "As a prosecutor," Ms. Joyce told Post-Dispatch reporter Carolyn Tuft, "the first thing I thought was: 'Wow. The deputy in charge of it must be a pretty honest guy.' "

The first thing we thought of was: Wow. How hard could it be to open a bank account?

Good news: The sheriff's deputies are taking good care of the vast array of loot handed over to them by the Police Department: guns, cash, jewelry, televisions, stereos and the like. The sheriff's duties, such as they are, include taking care of prisoners and transporting them to and from jail and court, and taking care of evidence. When trials are over, the department disposes of the evidence.

Bad news: When the cases end without trial -- guilty pleas, or no suspect is charged or identified -- the evidence just sits there. Apparently some of it has been sitting there for eight years. During all that time, Mr. Murphy didn't notify the prosecutor that it was there, and neither Ms. Joyce nor her predecessor, Dee Joyce-Hayes, ever asked about it.

Good news: The auditors found it.

Bad news: The auditors, called in by Gov. Bob Holden last summer after a series of articles in the Post-Dispatch detailed numerous problems in the department, have uncovered "significant" other findings, according to a spokesperson for Auditor Claire McCaskill.

Good news: Ms. Joyce wants to turn the cash over to the city to help close its $20 million deficit.
Bad news: The city spends $7.3 million a year operating the Sheriff's Department.

Charter reform can't come soon enough.

HEADLINE: Former head deputy charged with stealing sniper rifle

DATELINE: WARSAW, Mo.

A former head deputy who resigned last month from the Benton County Sheriff's Department without giving a reason has been charged with felony stealing.

Carl E. Ireland, 61, of Warsaw, is accused of stealing a sheriff's department sniper rifle and trading it for another weapon at an Ozarks gun shop. 

The sheriff's department served Ireland with an arrest warrant Monday, and he was released on a promise to appear in court on April 14, according to court records.

The rifle had been assigned to Ireland for official use, Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. H.A. Fowler said in an affidavit. Ireland is charged with taking the rifle from the department's evidence room and trading it for a Universal M-1 .30-caliber carbine.

The charges follow a highway patrol investigation into the Oct. 1, 2001, incident.

The sale of the firearm was done without authorization of Benton County Sheriff Gary Friar, court documents show.

Ireland had worked for Friar since 2000. He also had worked in the Warsaw Police Department when Friar was police chief there.

HEADLINE: Police: Station missing evidence Hillsborough probe finds guns, drugs, and $5K taken

HILLSBOROUGH - Although a final tally may not come for months, the Hillsborough Police Department has determined that 18 guns, at least 1,400 grams of cocaine and $ 5,000 in cash is missing from the Churton Street police station.

And that's not all. The department is also missing various pieces of police equipment, and employees at the department have reported personal items missing.

The department charged one of its officers, Timothy Mark Brewer, in February with three counts of larceny of a firearm, two counts of breaking and entering, felony larceny, misdemeanor larceny and trafficking by possession of 400 or more grams of cocaine. 

Brewer is being held under a $ 150,000 bond in Central Prison while he awaits trial.

Investigators are still trying to determine the total value of all the missing property. Some of it has been recovered, but investigators believe Brewer sold many items and used or sold the cocaine.
The cocaine, mostly in powdered form, had been seized during drug investigations. "Some of it we had just gotten, and the case hadn't even been to court yet," Capt. Ross Frederick said of the cocaine. "Some of it had been here longer."

Of course, the cocaine had no cash value to the police department, but if it was sold on the street - and depending on how it was sold - it could have fetched between $ 28,000 and $ 98,000.

Some $ 4,500 of the missing cash had been seized from a person suspected of a crime and was being held until a judge could rule on the money's fate, Frederick said. The rest was the personal funds of department personnel, he said.

Hillsborough Police Chief Nathaniel Eubanks said officers had been keeping evidence and confiscated goods in their personal lockers, and in the department evidence room.

"There were some items that were stored in some of the officers' lockers, but basically it was stuff on a small scale," Eubanks said. "It's not one of our practices that we keep stuff in personal lockers."

Instead of logging the evidence into the evidence room, the officers might store it in their lockers, before sending it off to the State Bureau of Investigation for analysis. Once the SBI returned it, they'd store it again in their lockers, Eubanks said.

"Sometimes it was turned into the evidence room at that time, and sometimes the officers kept some of the stuff in his or her locker," the chief said.

Investigators believe that Brewer picked the locks of the officers' lockers and stole items from inside. They also think he broke into the evidence room and stole things that had been stored there, Eubanks said.

In early January, Frederick, who is in charge of the evidence room, started noticing things were missing, Eubanks said. Then an officer told Frederick that a weapon was missing, Eubanks said.

The department began investigating the thefts and was trying to determine who might have stolen the items when it received a call from the Alamance Sheriff's Department, where Brewer was a suspect in a laboratory break-in.

When they searched his home, they found items that had been taken from the Hillsborough Police Department.

Once it became apparent that one of their own was suspected of stealing from the department, the other officers felt betrayed and angry, Town Manager Eric Peterson said.

"They had a big departmental meeting, and they brought in a counselor," he said.

The department already participated in a quarterly drug-testing program that randomly tests 12.5 percent of the town employees who work in safety-sensitive positions, Peterson said.

During the meeting, however, some of the officers said they wanted the department to participate in a stricter drug-testing program, he said. They wanted to be sure another officer who was abusing drugs wouldn't compromise their safety.

"You have to count on the person next to you," Peterson said.

Peterson is preparing next year's budget. In it, he will ask for several thousand dollars to expand the drug testing program, so that police officers and other employees who work with heavy equipment or have a commercial driver's license are tested more often.

Once the expansion is in place, 25 percent of that group of employees will be selected randomly for testing each quarter, he said.

"On the average, every person should be drug-tested every year," Peterson said.

Also, since Brewer was charged, the department is changing the way it deals with evidence and seized items.

It's outfitted a property room with a locked wire cage and a locked mailbox, where officers will leave the items they collect during the night. The next morning, Frederick will retrieve the items from the cage and move them to the evidence room.

The evidence room is being outfitted with stronger locks, an alarm system and heavy wire screens to prevent someone from entering through the ceiling, Eubanks said.

The new system will help stop something similar from happening again, said Eubanks, who added that he's not sure anything except an alarm system could have stopped Brewer.

"I don't care what kind of security that you put in place, if you have someone who can pick locks, they can still get into things," he said.

Eubanks says he now can see where mistakes were made. "I look back into the situation now, and I think Ross has done a good job with what he had to work with," he said. "When I look back, I see some things we could have done differently."

Although some people claim that the chief should have realized that Brewer had become addicted to crack cocaine, Peterson said he wouldn't expect a chief to be personally checking to see if his officers had a drug problem.

"As far as one person doing what Brewer did, I don't put any fault on anybody in the department whatsoever," he said. "I don't believe in this situation that there was negligence on anybody's part."

It didn't occur to anyone that an officer would be able to break into locked areas of the police station. "You don't expect to have professional lock-picking equipment in your department," Peterson said.

HEADLINE: Former head deputy charged with stealing sniper rifle

DATELINE: WARSAW, Mo.

A former head deputy who resigned last month from the Benton County Sheriff's Department without giving a reason has been charged with felony stealing.

Carl E. Ireland, 61, of Warsaw, is accused of stealing a sheriff's department sniper rifle and trading it for another weapon at an Ozarks gun shop. 

The sheriff's department served Ireland with an arrest warrant Monday, and he was released on a promise to appear in court on April 14, according to court records.

The rifle had been assigned to Ireland for official use, Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. H.A. Fowler said in an affidavit. Ireland is charged with taking the rifle from the department's evidence room and trading it for a Universal M-1 .30-caliber carbine.

The charges follow a highway patrol investigation into the Oct. 1, 2001, incident.

The sale of the firearm was done without authorization of Benton County Sheriff Gary Friar, court documents show.

Ireland had worked for Friar since 2000. He also had worked in the Warsaw Police Department when Friar was police chief there.

HEADLINE: PLEA OK'D IN CUSTOMS THEFT CASE

A former U.S. Customs Service supervisor who stole $95,290 from a government evidence locker could be sentenced to up to 18 months in prison under a plea deal reached Tuesday in federal court.

Robert E. DelVicario Jr., 43, who formerly headed the agency's criminal investigations in Western New York, took the cash because he was suffering from anxiety and job-related stress and depression, his attorney said.

Under the plea arrangement, federal prosecutors will drop 15 of the 16 criminal charges they filed against DelVicario last year, permitting him to plead guilty to a single felony count of making a false statement. 

"He made a very bad decision," said the defense attorney, Mark J. Mahoney. "There were some problems relating to his relationship with the agency. Eventually, it affected the clarity of his thinking."

"You mean, because of his relationship with the agency . . . he stole $95,000?" asked a puzzled U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.

"Judge, it's a little more complicated than that," Mahoney said.

The cash was recovered by investigators from the U.S. Customs inspector general's office, who became suspicious of DelVicario after learning that he had made an unauthorized entry into a secured evidence locker on a Sunday evening in early May 2002. Authorities said DelVicario hid the money in the attic of his Williamsville home.

Prosecutor Gregory L. Brown said the government considers the 12- to 18-month sentence for DelVicario to be sufficient punishment.

"He's thrown away his career, and he and his family have suffered tremendous public humiliation," Brown said. "He's been punished."

A 20-year Customs employee, DelVicario resigned after his arrest last May by internal investigators for the agency.

Before the arrest, he was the assistant special agent in charge of Customs' criminal unit in Western New York. Cases involving smuggling and homeland security were among his responsibilities.

He admitted to Arcara that he used a confidential government access code to enter the evidence locker in Amherst and remove the $95,290, which had been seized in a criminal case at the Peace Bridge.

"Without breaking any confidences you had with your lawyer, why did you do this?" Arcara asked DelVicario.

"I wasn't thinking right, Judge," the former agent responded. He later told Arcara that he has been meeting regularly with a psychologist and a psychiatrist since the arrest.

Critics of DelVicario within the Customs Service noted that he was involved in a January 2002 on-duty incident that resulted in another agent being charged with assaulting DelVicario.  DelVicario and the other agent each accused the other of being the aggressor.

While supporters called DelVicario a hard-working agent, detractors said he raised eyebrows by wearing an expensive Rolex watch and driving a Mercedes-Benz.

HEADLINE: Official says radio not evidence, Device that held bomb was near evidence room

WINFIELD - Putnam County officials no longer believe an explosion that injured a Putnam County mechanic was caused by an item from the sheriff's department's evidence room.

Chief Deputy John Dailey said the old radio, which was rigged to explode when plugged in, was lying in a trash can near the evidence room. As deputies cleaned out the evidence room, they also threw out the radio. Investigators initially thought the radio was an old piece of evidence. 

"It's not what we thought it was," Dailey said.

Mechanic Roy Hill removed the radio on Monday from the trash bin near the Putnam County garage. When he plugged it in, the pipe bomb inside the radio exploded. Hill was taken to Charleston Area Medical Center's General Hospital, where he received three stitches in his leg and was released, Dailey said.

Dailey said the radio might have been down in the basement of the sheriff's headquarters for years. Several older deputies recall seeing the radio before, Dailey said. He said investigators are contacting retired deputies to determine how the radio got into headquarters.

"Somebody meant to hurt someone with that somewhere down the line," he said.

Two other radios found in the trash were destroyed by the state fire marshal's bomb squad as a precaution. Neither radio contained a bomb.

After the bomb exploded, Dailey said he reclaimed several televisions and VCRs from the evidence room that he donated to Goodwill. He said unclaimed electronics from the evidence room would no longer be donated to Goodwill. Clothes and hand tools would still be donated but not anything that could hide a bomb.

"Anything that could have a bomb in it, we can no longer give it away," Dailey said.

He also is changing the way deputies dispose of evidence. He said evidence would no longer be thrown in the trash. It also wouldn't be smashed, burned or buried in case another bomb was hidden in the device, Dailey said. He didn't have a specific plan for how to destroy old evidence.
"I don't know what we are going to do," Dailey said. "But I also never thought this could happen."

Writer Mike Connolly can be reached at 348-4806 or by e-mail at mikeconnolly@dailymail.com.

HEADLINE: Police Dept. Safe Opened From Back

Stone Cutter Ends 3-Month Lockout

On Monday, the Bernalillo Police Department's evidence and property safe was broken into.
Luckily, it was police who did the breaking in.

Since the department moved about six years ago into its current home an old bank building one of two tumbler lock combinations on their giant walk-in safe has been unknown, and a strip of tape had covered the dial so no one would spin it and lock police out, Sgt. Mark Aragon said Thursday.

In January, someone with access to the police station stripped off the protective tape, spun the tumbler, and did lock everyone out for the past three months, outgoing Town Manager Ron Abousleman said Thursday. 

"I don't know if an officer did it on purpose or not," Abousleman said, "but you've got to wonder. It could have been an accident, but I can't say one way or the other."

Aragon said officers, emergency medical services personnel and town officials all have access to the station, and to the nonoperational tumbler lock that was taped over and is easily reachable from the station's main room.

'Just a pain'

"It did not cause us any setback in terms of money or anything else," Aragon said. "It was just a pain in the butt. We could never prove it as a criminal act it was just more of a juvenile thing to do."

Due to logistics and expenses, only on Monday did a stone cutter forge a hole in the back of the concrete safe so a locksmith could get inside and unlock it from within.

On Thursday afternoon, the same locksmith who spent a week in the 1970s installing the tumblers in the then bank safe crawled into the safe and cracked it, once again making it operational and openable by the front door, said Aragon, who has been acting chief since former Chief William Relyea was not rehired in January.

Aragon said the safe would have been fixed earlier had evidence inside the vault been needed for a trial, but that was not the case.

Opening the safe "was not a priority because there were no cases pending in court," he said. "There are still no cases pending, but it's better to open it up sooner rather than later."

The safe contains evidence and property taken over the years, Aragon said. Since January, new evidence has been kept in storage lockers, he said.

Abousleman said when it first became apparent someone had locked police out of the safe, initial estimates to crack the thick, heavy door were between $3,000 and $6,000. He said that was too expensive for the town, so he looked into other options.

One of those was to drill a hole through a wall of the concrete safe and open the lock from within. He said the drilling, rebuilding and locksmith will run about $600.

The process "was a comedy of errors," Abousleman said. "I contacted the (stone cutting) company, but initially they were busy. Then, when they did show up, (Aragon) did not think going through the wall was the thing to do. When we got them back, their drill broke, and then this week they came back in and made about an 18-inch(-wide) hole."

The stone cutter carved about a 10 1/2-inch thick circle through the safe's rear wall, which is protected by a locked storage room at the front of the police station. The circle weighed more than 200 pounds, and rebar could be seen both in the cutout and in the safe's wall.

Abousleman said the wall will be rebuilt with reinforcing steel rebar.

Aragon said the top tumbler lock will be permanently disabled so "this doesn't happen again, and we'll change the combination on the lower lock to make sure it's secure."

Left wanting

While Aragon said not being able to enter the safe for more than three months was simply a pain, Mario Hernandez disagrees.

Hernandez, who said he contracts with Sandoval County to do drug and gang counseling, has been trying to get his wife's jewelry out of the safe since mid-February.

He said the jewelry was placed in the safe as evidence in a 2001 burglary case. But he said that, as part of his plea agreement in District Court, the items were to be returned to him.

Hernandez was sentenced to 364 days of probation for receiving stolen property. He said his wife bought a jewelry box at a yard sale and it was subsequently reported as stolen. He said some of his wife's jewelry that he had pawned was taken into custody on suspicion that it might have been stolen. He said the jewelry was not stolen, and although it could not be proved that it was stolen, he could not produce receipts, so he pleaded to a lesser offense to make the case go away.

"I've been angered by the fact that part of the plea deal was that I get my stuff back and I do 364 days of probation," he said. "It's not malice, but I'm doing my end, and they should keep their end up that's my frustration. I'm frustrated that the town didn't put up the $5,000 to fix it right away."

In response, Abousleman said, "I wish we could just throw away $5,000, but we can't.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but people can come in any time now" to retrieve their property.

HEADLINE: A cop's second chance; shooting accident now behind him

David Richard knew police work would be dangerous.

On the streets, bad guys will do anything, even fire guns at police officers to avoid arrest.

But Richard never thought his career would be threatened while he was sitting in Gwinnett County police headquarters doing paperwork as a police cadet.

The unthinkable did happen in June 2000. Richard's left hand and right arm were all but destroyed when a supervisor accidentally fired a hunting rifle confiscated from a suspect. 

After 11 surgeries, including a bone transplant, and 197 physical therapy visits, Richard once again is patrolling the streets as a Gwinnett County police officer.

The struggle Richard and the Police Department endured to heal would make Hollywood script writers jealous.

"There were days that I stayed in my house and cried and rocked with the pain all day," said Richard. "Back then, I thought there was no way I would ever become a police officer."

Richard was one week away from finishing police training June 17, 2000. He was riding with his supervisor, Michael Wells, when they were called to a domestic dispute at a Duluth-area home.

A drunken man was threatening his wife with a high-powered rifle. The man had placed the barrel of the weapon to his wife's temple in attempt to keep her in the home, the radio dispatcher told the officers.

They found the man outside the home, crying. The .30-06 Remington rifle was in the house under the bed, the man told them. The rifle was not loaded, the man said. The officers confiscated the weapon and returned to Gwinnett police headquarters to place the rifle in an evidence locker.

Richard began his paperwork, and Wells began checking the serial number of the rifle. The men were about 2 feet apart.

The gun was aimed at Richard when the weapon went off.

The blast was deafening, and Richard wondered if a bomb had blown through the police evidence room.

And then he saw what was left of his hand.

It was as if his whole body was on fire, and Richard staggered about the jail cell-sized room trying to find an exit from the pain.

The bullet had blown through his right hand, his left arm and hit the wall of the evidence room.
Richard found himself sinking --- sliding to the ground --- screaming he would die.

Wells rushed to the fallen officer, grabbing Richard firmly by the biceps. The two were face to face, Wells gripping the rookie officer's arms to cut the flow of blood.

Wells mouthed the words, "You are not going to die," before Richard lost consciousness.
Richard saw fear in his supervisor's blue eyes.

Richard's room at Gwinnett Medical Center was a sea of blue when he woke up after the incident. All 17 officers in Richard's training class were there in full uniform.

There were also senior officers Richard did not know.

More comforting was the sight of the 31-year-old officer's bandaged left hand peeking out of the hospital blanket.

As Richard started the slow, arduous healing process, he thought of maybe becoming a schoolteacher or going to law school.

Richard was not the only one thinking of a new career. Wells was overcome with guilt. Gwinnett County was in jeopardy of losing two officers.

"I was tempted to turn in my badge many times," said Wells, 36, who now is a Gwinnett police detective. "But I knew that would not help David or me. I regret that it happened. And the hardest part is that I have 12 years' Marine experience. I know all about weapon safety, and I failed to make the weapon safe."

After the rifle blast, Wells was sent home on paid administrative leave. But he could not sleep. He drove to Gwinnett Medical Center while Richard was still in surgery.

Wells was greeted by a mass of police officers and Richard's parents, who made the trip from Florida.

The officer emotionally struggled to tell the couple what had happened. He offered his sympathy. He wondered what he could do.

"Richard's father took me outside the hospital to talk," said Wells. "He said, 'Mike, it was an accident.' That was the thing I needed to hear the most."

A team of doctors used titanium rods and tissue from other parts of Richard's body to fix his injuries. After the surgeries, Richard used an assortment of 25 robotic braces to gain strength in his restructured limbs.

He worked a police desk job for a while and completed the 4-month police officer training. He even scored higher on one shooting test than he had before the injury.

And on Aug. 16 last year, he was back in a patrol car.

"I can't say enough about his will to keep on," said Col. Charles Walters, commander of all uniform police officers.

"The incident affected us deeply. There was just as much concern for Mike as there was for David. I'm glad they both pulled through that."

Richard laughs now at comparisons to him and to the movie character "Robocop."

He has nothing but compliments for the Police Department that spent close to seven figures to put him back together.

"I am the million-dollar man now," Richard joked.

"I can't say enough about how Gwinnett County police supported me. They supported my parents, my wife, and they had officers at my house 24/7 while I was recuperating. They were behind me 100 percent."

And nobody may have been happier than Wells to see Richard back in uniform.
"I was overjoyed," said Wells. "He is one hell of a guy."

HEADLINE: EVIDENCE FROM DRUG BUST MISSING; CASH, JEWELRY GONE AFTER BEING SEIZED

Hartford police are investigating the disappearance of thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry from a safe seized after a drug bust in which a suspect was shot by an undercover narcotics detective last month, police officials said.

Chief Bruce P. Marquis said Monday that an internal affairs investigation was underway to determine who took the valuables from the safe, which was seized from the suspect's home after the controversial shooting and placed as evidence in the department's property room. 

Marquis said it was unclear when the valuables were taken but he acknowledged that the investigation was focusing on police officers and other employees. He said the apparent theft "disgusted" him.

"I'm gravely disappointed over this alleged act of theft," Marquis said. "It comes at a time when the department is doing a great job of dealing with crime in the city and the community should have their full faith in us as a professional organization. Yet a member or members of our department have apparently committed a selfish and criminal act."

The chief said he notified Hartford state's attorney James Thomas about the investigation and that he asked the state police for help with the Hartford investigation.

The property room has been marred by scandal in recent years, but the internal investigation is not focusing solely on the property room, police sources said. Internal affairs investigators have questioned property-room employees but also expect to interview officers in the vice and narcotics division and the evidentiary services division, sources said.

The safe was seized March 20 after the shooting of Ignacio Vilchel, a 34-year-old city man who was running from detectives taking part in an undercover drug investigation, police said.

Det. Ramon Baez shot Vilchel in the stomach after he and other detectives ordered Vilchel to stop as he ran into his apartment house on South Whitney Street, police said. Vilchel retrieved a gun in the house and pointed it at Baez, who fired at Vilchel, police said.

Police reports indicate that Baez and other detectives showed their badges and repeatedly announced that they were police officers. But Vilchel's family members, who were in the apartment, disputed the police version, saying detectives did not identify themselves as police when they entered the apartment, prompting Vilchel to point his gun in self-defense.

Vilchel was taken to the hospital, where he recovered from the gunshot wounds and a broken arm he received while being taken into custody. He has been charged with attempted assault on a police officer, conspiracy to sell narcotics, conspiracy to possess narcotics, interfering with police, first-degree reckless endangerment and criminal use of a firearm. A separate police investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

After the shooting, detectives searched the apartment, believing that Vilchel had just purchased drugs in a transaction they witnessed in an undercover surveillance operation several blocks away, police said. No drugs were found, although police seized a small quantity of white powder for analysis.

Detectives found a free-standing safe in the apartment and opened it in their search for drugs, police said. Instead of drugs, the detectives found more than $4,000 and some jewelry, police said.

Closing the safe, detectives in the vice and narcotics division decided to seek a search warrant to inspect the safe more carefully. The safe was then placed in the hands of officers in evidentiary services, who transferred it to the department's property room at police headquarters, where all evidence is logged and held.

Once the detectives obtained the search warrant several days later, they went to the property room to open the safe, but found that all the cash and jewelry were missing, sources said.

Over the last two years, Marquis and other top police officials have made a high priority of improving efficiency and accountability in the property room, which had been mired in scandals relating to missing cash and other evidence.

Department officials have computerized property-room records to make sure that all evidence is properly logged and accounted for, and security cameras were installed to discourage theft.

Gerald Klein, a Hartford attorney representing Vilchel in his criminal case, said he expected the department to be able to return the valuables if the charges against his client do not lead to a conviction.

Klein said the cash belongs to Vilchel's wife, Elizabeth Casado, who showed him federal tax records indicating she received the money as a tax refund.

"It's very disappointing to know the money has disappeared, especially because we are confident we will be entitled to get it back," he said.

HEADLINE: Trooper accused of attempted murder indicted for stealing seized drugs

A state trooper was indicted Tuesday on charges he stole about 13 kilos of cocaine destined for the incinerator and tried to sell it through a friend, Attorney General Thomas Reilly said Tuesday.

Sgt. Timothy White, 40, of Stoughton and his friend, Robert Crisafulli, 47, of Boston were indicted by a Norfolk County grand jury on charges including trafficking in over 200 grams of cocaine.

White, a 16-year veteran who had worked with the state police Narcotics Inspection Unit, had been accused of attempted murder after sticking a gun in his wife's mouth on Jan. 27. 

He was indicted again Tuesday for that, as well as two other incidents and charged with armed assault with intent to murder and two counts of domestic assault and battery. He has been suspended without pay.

Authorities said the investigation into White's drug theft began after investigators found evidence that White and his wife used cocaine around the time of the alleged assault.

White is being held without bail and will be arraigned Friday in Norfolk Superior Court, Reilly said.

Crisafulli, an alarm installer, was released on $25,000 bail and is also scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.

Reilly said White "betrayed the public's trust. His criminal actions undermined the work of his colleagues who put themselves in harm's way to rid streets and neighborhoods of these dangerous drugs."

White allegedly stole cocaine on eight separate occasions while transporting the drugs from a state police bunker to a private facility where drugs are supposed to be destroyed. While en route, he replaced the drugs with other substances, such as corn starch, Reilly said.

"That is where we believe the mischief, in this case, occurred," he said.

Reilly said the thefts, with an estimated value of $390,000, didn't affect any ongoing cases, although the destruction of the drugs had only been ordered in five of the eight cases.

Small amounts of marijuana and the drug Ecstasy were also stolen.

Police said investigators recovered about a kilogram of cocaine in a search of White's home and storage unit. Investigators also said Crisafulli flushed 8 to 10 kilograms of cocaine down the toilet after White was arrested following the Jan. 27 domestic dispute.

Crisafulli and White allegedly sold between one and two kilograms.

Police also found some drugs allegedly stolen from the state police bunker, a state police evidence bag and about $8,000 in a search of White's home.

State Police Col. Thomas Foley said nothing in White's behavior indicated any potential problems.

White had been in the narcotics unit for about 13 months before his suspension. He also served as a state police spokesman for four years.

"It was a surprise to us as it was, I think, to many of you," Foley told reporters at a press conference Tuesday announcing the indictments. Foley could not comment on whether White had ever been subjected to the department's policy of random testing, but said that he had never been found in violation.

However, the case had prompted some changes in the way drugs were disposed, with at least two troopers required to follow any narcotics through their destruction, Foley said.

HEADLINE: Man accused of breaking in to police station

DATELINE: HARPERS FERRY, W.Va.

A man accused of trying to break in to a police station has been indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury. 

John Kruse, 22, was charged Tuesday with breaking and entering, carrying a concealed deadly weapon and three counts of destruction of property.

Kruse was carrying a large steak knife when he allegedly smashed the front door of the Harpers Ferry's Police Department and ransacked an evidence room last August, Police Chief Donald Buracker said.

The break-in was foiled by two unlikely heroes: a newspaper carrier for The Journal in Martinsburg, who reported the crime, and a police department maintenance worker, who detained Kruse until uniformed officers arrived.

HEADLINE: Trooper charged with theft of drugs from evidence vault

Suspended state trooper Timothy White was arraigned in Norfolk Superior Court yesterday on charges he stole 13 kilos of cocaine from an evidence vault in Framingham and then tried to sell the drugs through a friend.

Sgt. White, who worked for the state narcotics unit and already was being held on charges he assaulted his wife in January, was ordered to remain in custody. 

White, 39, allegedly gave some of the drugs to Robert Crisafulli, 47, of Hyde Park, who sold the drugs on the street, and the two men split the profits, according to authorities.

"It's a sad day for law enforcement," Assistant Attorney General William Bloomer said. "Mr. White violated the oath that he took on becoming a police officer. He violated the trust that the public bestowed upon him."

White's defense attorney, Thomas Drechsler, countered by saying, "My client was not associated with anyone involved in drugs, and he was not involved in any theft of any drugs from any facility anywhere." Crisafulli's defense lawyer also said his client was not guilty of the crimes.

Crisafulli, who posted $ 25,000 cash bail after an earlier West Roxbury District Court arraignment, also was arraigned in Norfolk Superior Court yesterday on cocaine and marijuana trafficking charges.

A former press spokesman for the state police, White was arrested at his Stoughton home after a drug-induced meltdown in which he allegedly beat and threatened his wife with his service revolver, then stuck the gun in his own mouth and threatened to kill himself.

HEADLINE: News in brief from western Pennsylvania

DATELINE: SOMERSET, Pa.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - The trial of a former police chief accused of stealing money seized as evidence in drug cases has been delayed.

Allegheny County Judge Raymond Novak on Monday pushed back former Wilkinsburg police Chief Gerald Brewer's trial until June 10.

Brewer, 49, who now lives in Jupiter, Fla., is charged with stealing more than $20,000 from an evidence safe in the suburban Pittsburgh police department from 1999 until his resignation in December 2000.

The district attorney's office began investigating Brewer after two Wilkinsburg police officers discovered money seized as drug evidence missing from the safe in Brewer's office in May 2000.

According to an indictment, Brewer often played video poker and went to a West Virginia racetrack twice a month. Financial records showed he had "a mountain of debt," authorities have said.

Brewer's lawyer has maintained the former chief's innocence, saying the missing cash is the result of poor bookkeeping.

HEADLINE: NEW ENGLAND IN BRIEF / DRACUT; DRUGS MISSING FROM POLICE LOCKER

Drugs seized by the Dracut Police Department are missing from an evidence locker at the station, officials said yesterday. Seth Horwitz, spokesman for the Middlesex district attorney's office, would not comment on the amount or type of drugs missing. Police alerted the district attorney's office early last week that the drugs were gone, Horwitz said. State Police detectives assigned to the office are investigating.

HEADLINE: Evidence missing from Colonie police station; Colonie Internal audit finds drugs, money and guns from cases dating back four years are gone

Drugs, money and guns are missing from the Colonie Police Department evidence room on cases dating to 1989, according to internal audits conducted over the past three years.

Drugs seized in 25 cases and cash in 11 cases are unaccounted for, and at least five guns are gone, including four shotguns locked up in December 1995, the audits show.

The list of lost items stretches over four single-spaced pages. It includes: a single bullet from 1999, a machete and a car confiscated in 1998, a lawn mower logged in 1995, two bubble-gum machines taken in 1992, and a rape kit from 1992, which contains medical evidence obtained from a rape victim. 

Police Chief John Grebert attributed the problem to missing records. In 1999, the department destroyed numerous items because the evidence room had hit capacity, he said. The disposal log for that "purge" has since disappeared.

"We acknowledge that the paperwork is missing. It shouldn't be, but it is," the chief said. "We've looked high and low."

"There's no pattern, really," Grebert said, citing items on the audits that have little value outside of the courtroom like photographs and negatives. He said about $500 was missing.

"There's no evidence of any misconduct," he said. "We've never had a court case where the case has been thrown out because of evidence."

The audits came to light after officers reporting to work on the morning of Dec. 16, 2002, found in an office next to the evidence room a hole in the ceiling and assorted tools that were not there the day before. Grebert said an internal investigation of the incident found no wrongdoing, and the matter was dropped. He did, however, order another audit of the drugs and money in the evidence room. Nothing additional was missing.” We’ve done so many audits I'm losing track of them," Grebert said.

The audits, which the Times Union obtained through the state Freedom of Information Law, does not specify the type or amount of the drugs and cash. Town Attorney Arnis Zilgme withheld the names of the officers who conducted the audits, as well as those who completed the purges, for fear that those officers would find phone calls with questions about the audits "uncomfortable."

Meanwhile, those unidentified audit team members lauded the department's record keeping in the report.

"It appears that (name withheld) has done an excellent job in the way in which the Property Room is kept and operated," the report states, despite noting that destroyed evidence was improperly marked in the files.

"Another problem is that there are some divisions that are not doing any type of report on the evidence brought in," the report continues. "The team also noticed that there are a lot of reports that in the past were not signed by a supervisor."

The audit team reported nothing missing for the year 2001.

Several defense attorneys found the audit results disturbing.

"In my experience, money does not evaporate. Drugs do not evaporate. The only conclusion that's reasonable to reach is that somebody stole them," said Terry Kindlon, a criminal defense lawyer for more than 30 years who handles cases in Colonie.

The audits have prompted some action in the department.

Until three or four months ago, a simple key unlocked the room and a few safes provided the only security inside. Now, an electric key with a sensor, similar to those that unlock high-end cars, opens the door. The department has purchased additional safes for drugs and money.

A full-time civilian employee recently took over record-keeping for the evidence room. A lieutenant and sergeant on the internal affairs team will oversee all future audits, Grebert said. In the past, the job has fallen to patrol officers.

At least one town employee from outside the Police Department must witness any future disposal of evidence, Grebert said.

He added that the department expects a windfall in drug-seizure money in the next six months that will pay for a $20,000 surveillance system in the department. Currently, Colonie police do not have any video cameras monitoring the building. 

FACTS: MISSING ITEMS 

This is a sample of the items missing from the Colonie Police Department evidence room, and the years in which the items were confiscated. 

• 2000  Drugs; bullet ; strongbox 
• 1999  Bullet; drugs; photographs 
• 1998  Drugs; money; car; machete 
• 1997  Money; drugs; stun gun; hammer; toy gun; jewelry 
• 1996  Bolt cutters; two safes 
• 1995  Lawn mower; money; four shotguns; crack pipes 
• 1994  Crowbar; CD player; 12-foot ladder; camcorder; money 
• 1993  Luger long-range rifle; drugs; money; drill and saw; Nintendo 
• 1992  Computer and keyboard; two bubblegum machines; nitrous oxide; two scooters; drugs; rape kit 
• 1991  Gun; money; drugs; pipe bomb; radar detector 
• 1989 and earlier  Drugs; money; knife; checks 

HEADLINE: Ex-deputy charged with two felonies

A Bossier sheriff's narcotics agent who resigned after drugs and drug paraphernalia were allegedly found in a car he wrecked in October has been formally charged with two felonies.

Based on its review of the case, the Bossier-Webster district attorney's office has charged Michael Brian Keith, 31, with possession of cocaine and malfeasance in office through tampering with evidence, court records show. 

Keith, who served seven years with the sheriff's office, is scheduled for arraignment June 2, the district attorney's office said Monday.

Keith was headed south on Airline Drive near East Texas Street about 10:45 p.m. Oct. 15 when he ran off the road in his unmarked sheriff's car.

He is accused of possessing cocaine at the time of the one-car accident and with not timely submitting drug and drug paraphernalia evidence allegedly discovered in the wrecked car to the sheriff's evidence room.

"We have strict rules that such evidence must be turned in at the end of your shift each day" unless a supervisor has valid reasons for extending that time requirement, sheriff's spokesman Ed Baswell said.

It is unclear how the charges against Keith will affect any drug cases in which he might be a prosecution witness. "I imagine any such cases will have to be looked at by the DA's office," Baswell said.

District Attorney Schuyler Marvin could not be reached for comment Monday.

Keith was arrested by the Bossier sheriff's office. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted of the cocaine-possession charge. A conviction for malfeasance carries up to a three-year sentence and $10,000 fine.