HEADLINE: Detroit Police evidence room in disarray no more

Cops say guns, drugs, money locked, tracked

Once a bastion of disorganization, the Detroit police evidence room has been transformed from a joke to a secure storage outfit that executives are starting to boast about.

The evidence room on the first floor of Detroit Police Headquarters became the focus of attention last year when nine people -- including a civilian employee -- were indicted on charges of stealing 223 pounds of cocaine from inside. The department had also announced that as much as $5 million in cash was improperly inventoried and could be missing. 

The cases are still pending

The evidence room had guns stacked on top of guns, falling from the shelves, all being housed as evidence.

"If you've ever gone into the property room, it's an enormous sight to take in," Assistant Police Chief Ella Bully Cummings told the Free Press at a recent editorial board meeting.

Now, all of the money appears to have been accounted for and deposited into bank accounts; the department has negotiated with State Police to burn unneeded guns at least twice a month, and drug and vault access has been limited to a small number of trusted police supervisors with access-key cards, according to Deputy Chief Brenda Goss Andrews. Some shelves are actually empty.

The department has scheduled six gun burns this month and has burned about 25,000 guns since January. On March 27, the department destroyed 5,037 guns, some dating back to the 1970s, in the largest gun burn in department history at the Rouge Steel plant in Dearborn.

"If you remember the barrels of guns crowding aisles, you'll actually see some aisles that are clear," Andrews said Tuesday. "There is a significant difference. Certainly, I was overwhelmed when I visited the room a year ago."

The department is also negotiating with a private firm to move the evidence room into a new, 100,000-square-foot warehouse at an undisclosed location. The evidence room currently has 45,000 square feet of space.

"We would like to have moved yesterday," said Lt. Stephen Carlin. Andrews said she hopes to move the evidence room within a year.

Other changes include:

• A plan to dispose of property more than 6 years old.
• Increased training for property room employees.
• New computers with bar code scanning to keep evidence computerized and update records faster.
• A computerized currency counter to help identify counterfeit money.

HEADLINE: 17 Detroit cops face charges; Feds allege illegal searches, stealing money, drugs

DETROIT -- At least 17 Detroit police officers are expected to be charged today by the federal government with extortion and robbery, the outcome of a widespread investigation into police corruption, officials familiar with the case told The Detroit News.

Most are police officers assigned to the 4th (Fort) Precinct on the city's southwest side.

The officers are accused of stealing money and drugs from drug dealers and prostitutes, searching houses without warrants and reselling drugs. The charges stem from a yearlong joint investigation by the Detroit office of the FBI and the Police Department's internal controls unit. Police Chief Jerry A. Oliver Sr. has made rooting out corruption a top priority since he took office in January 2002. 

The indictment to be unsealed today is the latest in a string of Detroit police corruption cases and comes a week after the department agreed to make sweeping reforms in order to settle a civil rights complaint by the federal government. On June 12, the city signed two consent decrees that call for oversight by an independent monitor and a federal judge until 2008.

The indictment, which would charge one of the largest groups of officers in the department's history, won't be the last one to come out of the joint FBI-Detroit police probe, officials said. The task force is conducting at least three other investigations into allegations of police misconduct, they said.

Paula Wendell, then acting chief of the Detroit FBI, said in October that there were "a number of ongoing criminal investigations into the Detroit Police Department."

In May 2002, four months after he took office, Chief Oliver told The News: "I'm going to tell you right now we are going to run off a lot of people, because we've got some criminals that work for us here."

Two months later, the FBI and Detroit police created the task force to jointly investigate allegations of public corruption by the Detroit Police Department. About eight Detroit officers are assigned to the task force.

Former Deputy Chief Gary Brown, who headed the department's internal affairs unit until he was fired May 9 by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, said he helped oversee the investigation that is expected to produce today's indictments.

"I'm happy for the men and women in the corruption unit because this is a feather in their cap. Those officers did a lot of leg work," said Brown, who believes the indictments were delayed because of the controversy over his firing.

A separate team of state investigators led by Thomas Furtaw, head of the criminal division of the state Attorney General's Office, is investigating Brown's firing and allegations of wrongdoing by members of Kilpatrick's security detail. Brown has filed suit against the city claiming he was wrongly fired.

Cmdr. Donald Parshall, in charge of the internal controls division, and Deputy Chief Harold Cureton, director of the professional accountability bureau, declined to comment Wednesday about the indictments.

FBI commonly at 4th

Fourth Precinct Cmdr. Charles Barbieri said none of his supervisors told him that several of his officers were to be indicted.

"There may be substance to these allegations," Barbieri said. "The sad part is these investigations take too damn long. I won't sleep too well thinking about it tonight."

Alfred Gomez-Mesquita, who headed the 4th precinct until July 2002, said FBI investigations at the precinct weren't uncommon.

"The FBI would be in almost monthly," said Gomez-Mesquita, who now heads the 12th (Palmer Park) Precinct. "We had all sorts of investigations in my 81/2 years there, but nothing significant ever came from them."

U.S. Attorney Jeffrey G. Collins was expected to make an announcement today, along with the government's lead prosecutor, R. Michael Bullotta. Bullotta declined comment Wednesday, as did an aide to Collins.

The investigation began about a year ago when a former prostitute complained that Detroit police officers had stolen money from her, officials close to the case said. Others made similar complaints against the same officers.

Other police accusations

In the past decade, Detroit police officers have repeatedly been accused of stealing money from drug dealers and others.

The cases include:

• In October, nine people were named in a 17-count indictment, including a civilian employee, John Cole Sr., who was accused of stealing 222 pounds of cocaine from the police department's evidence room and replacing it with flour. Also indicted was a Michigan State Police lieutenant and a Detroit police officer. The case is awaiting trial.
• The indictment came 18 months after the FBI learned of the missing cocaine and five years after the police department received anonymous tips that Cole was selling drugs.
• In 2000, two 8th (Grand River) Precinct officers were convicted of drug charges. The pair approached another officer and told him they had stolen 2.2 pounds of cocaine while on duty and sold it to a drug dealer.
• In July 1999, two officers assigned to the department's narcotics section were caught by FBI cameras stealing cash from a drug raid in an FBI sting.
• In 1998, seven officers who worked at the 6th (Plymouth) Precinct were found guilty of corruption. The government said they kept money, guns and drugs seized from crack houses, planted phony evidence and falsified police reports between April 1995 through March 1997.
• In 1998, three 5th (Jefferson) Precinct officers were convicted of charges that they plotted to rob a bookie in Southfield. They planned to simulate a police raid, the government said. All three were sentenced to at least five years in prison.
• Perhaps no Detroit police corruption case is more infamous than the conviction of former Police Chief Wiiliam Hart. In 1992, Hart was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $2.3 million for looting the police secret service fund, designed to pay informants and make drug buys.

The Detroit Police Department has been under scrutiny from several fronts:

• The department agreed last week to a sweeping overhaul that includes an independent monitor and federal court oversight for the next five years. The department will make major revisions to its policies on the use of force, arrest and detention of witnesses, training and officer discipline.

• One current and one former member of the Detroit Police Department have sued the city under the Whistleblower Protection Act. Former Deputy Chief Gary Brown and Officer Harold Nelthrope claim they were targeted by the Kilpatrick administration after they raised allegations of impropriety by city officials.

• The state Attorney General and Michigan State Police are investigating Brown's firing by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

HEADLINE: Tulia one of several Texas drug task force scandals

DATELINE: TULIA, Texas

Tulia is one of 15 scandals in the past five years to plague Texas regional narcotics task forces.
Last year, an officer with a task force based in Floresville, near San Antonio, was charged with witness tampering, fabricating evidence and abuse of authority; the director of the Alamo Area Task Force was indicted for stealing more than a pound of cocaine from an evidence locker, and the head of the Ellis County task force committed suicide one day before an audit revealed thousands of dollars were missing.

"Texas has a major problem governing these shadowy entities which operate with little accountability," concluded the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas in a lengthy report published in December. "They have evolved into bloated, ever-expanding bureaucracies, now with more than 700 officers, that have not diminished drug use at all." 

There are 45 regional task forces in Texas, funded by federal grants and local funds, and operating as multi-jurisdictional agencies staffed by law enforcement officers from adjoining areas.

The ACLU report estimated that $100 million in jail costs could be saved each year by eliminating Texas task forces. Attempts to do that failed last month in the Texas Legislature, though Gov. Rick Perry announced funding would be briefly withheld while the state re-evaluated task force spending.

Billions in federal funding have been available since 1988, when then-President Ronald Reagan declared war on drugs. Established to honor a fallen New York City police officer, the Edward Byrne Memorial Fund has distributed about $2.5 billion to an estimated 1,000 task forces nationwide - with about $30 million annually going to Texas - to battle low-level drug users.

In 1994, there was an unsuccessful push at the federal level to end regional funding because of inefficiency and redundancy. Outcries from enraged rural lawmakers and law enforcement agencies have kept the money coming to small towns and counties.

It is only with outside help, local officials say, that any kind of wide-ranging narcotics investigations can be done.

Amarillo Police Lt. Michael Amos, who hired Coleman and heads the Panhandle Narcotics Trafficking Task Force, earlier this year requested more than $700,000 in local funds to match state and federal grants, and said that despite controversy, his agency was doing good work.
"We need the money to continue to operate," Amos said.

Texas has more than its share of drug task force problems, civil rights groups say, for reasons including the pro-prosecution disposition of its court system and the near-autonomy with which the task forces operate.

The Texas ACLU said the Byrne funding would be more effective put to other uses - combating terrorism, for example. Regional narcotics task forces, the ACLU report said, "have filled Texas prisons with nonviolent offenders ... tainted Texas law enforcement and generally outlived their usefulness."

HEADLINE: EX-WILKINSBURG CHIEF DIDN'T RETALIATE, HIS SUCCESSOR SAYS

Ousted Wilkinsburg Police Chief Gerald Brewer played no part in the reassignment of two officers who had triggered a criminal investigation of him, Brewer's successor testified yesterday.

Harvey Adams Jr., named as interim chief after Brewer resigned under pressure in December 2000, said he hardly knew Brewer and made his own decision to reassign then-Lt. Thomas Kocon and Sgt. Robert Tuite. 

"I made blanket transfers," Adams testified under questioning by Brewer, who is acting as his own defense attorney in a trial that continues today in Common Pleas Court.

Brewer, 50, is charged with stealing more than $20,000 in cash from an evidence safe in the chief's office. He also is accused of witness intimidation in engineering the reassignments of Kocon and Tuite to lesser roles after he resigned.

Adams said that he based the moves on reports by another ranking officer who said that Tuite, Kocon and other officers in their division resisted requests to turn over evidence, including cash.

"It was carte blanche, more so, on my part to find people who were competent and able to do that job," Adams said of the reassignments. "I was concerned about how they handled evidence."

Also yesterday, Brewer's former boss, Mayor Wilbert Young, read a letter he had written praising Brewer for leading the department through difficult times. Young cited awards he and Brewer received for their handling of two crises -- a racially motivated shooting rampage March 1, 2000, by Ronald Taylor that left three dead and two wounded, and the shooting of a suspect by a borough police officer during a traffic stop.

Young testified that Kocon first tipped investigators to possible missing money only after Brewer had ordered him to account for other evidence matters.

The mayor also testified that he witnessed Brewer counting about $10,000 that he and Brewer said was seized during a drug bust but never entered as evidence by Kocon and Tuite, who had been in charge of preserving it. The cash had been found in an evidence locker in the intelligence division of the department.

Young and Adams were Brewer's first witnesses in the case. Brewer himself is expected to take the stand.

Before they testified, the prosecution wrapped up its case and rested.

Detective Fran Laquatra, lead investigator on the case for the Allegheny County district attorney's office, spent the morning yesterday detailing all of the cash seizures by Wilkinsburg police from September 1996 to November 2000. Brewer became chief in June 1997.

Over that time, the borough's police logs showed that $20,527 kept in the chief's safe was missing. The money had not been recorded as returned to suspects or forfeited to the district attorney's office.

After Assistant District Attorney Thomas Merrick rested, Senior Common Pleas Judge Raymond A. Novak denied Brewer's motion for acquittal and ordered the case to proceed.

HEADLINE: FORMER CHIEF DENIES STEALING MONEY FROM SAFE, RETALIATING AGAINST OFFICERS

Testifying in his own defense, former Wilkinsburg Police Chief Gerald Brewer yesterday denied having any role in reassigning two officers who had triggered a criminal investigation against him.

During a full day of testimony and cross examination, Brewer also said he believed that he had been able to account for all money held in an evidence safe in his office despite claims by investigators for the district attorney that he had stolen cash from it.

"I certainly believed I gave them everything they needed. I did not believe anything was missing from the safe," Brewer testified during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Thomas Merrick. 

Brewer, 50, is charged with stealing more than $5,000 in cash from an evidence safe in the chief's office. He also is accused of witness intimidation in engineering the reassignments of then Lt. Thomas Kocon and Sgt. Robert Tuite, who tipped off the district attorney's office to the alleged improprieties.

The ex-chief has repeatedly denied stealing any money and did so again yesterday while talking to reporters during a break in his testimony.

"I obviously didn't take a penny," he said.

Brewer, who resigned as police chief in December 2000, has been serving as his own attorney during the jury trial before Common Pleas Senior Judge Raymond Novak.

Yesterday, he took the stand and, speaking directly to the jury throughout, launched into a lengthy narrative describing his version of events within the department during his tenure, which started in June 1997. He did not face questioning until Merrick got his chance to cross-examine him.

Kocon and Tuite were reassigned by Harvey Adams Jr. after he was named interim chief after Brewer resigned.

Adams had testified earlier during the trial that he hardly knew Brewer and had made his own decision to reassign the officers.

Brewer denied playing any part in the reassignments, though he acknowledged that he was aware that the two had triggered the investigation against him.

"I never suggested any suspensions, terminations or adverse actions," Brewer said.

"In fact, I had nothing to do with any reassignments, transfers."

During questioning, Brewer acknowledged that he had talked to Mayor Wilbert Young about removing people from the criminal investigation division before he resigned. But he insisted that was to be temporary while an audit was done to account for all money being kept in the evidence room.

Brewer said he wanted the accounting done after he was unable to find in his safe $10,000 that was confiscated from a suspect. The money, he said, eventually was found, but he added it should have been in his safe.

Subsequently, additional money turned up in the evidence room, Brewer said, prompting him to seek an audit.

Under questioning from Merrick, Brewer said he had rung up $20,000 in credit card debt while he was police chief and that he had been denied credit for a jewelry purchase. But he added he had "no difficulty with money."

"I paid my bills," he said.

HEADLINE: JURY FINDS FORMER CHIEF GUILTY OF THEFT

A jury last night found former Wilkinsburg police Chief Gerald Brewer guilty of stealing more than $5,000 in cash from an evidence safe in the chief's office.

Brewer, 50, was also convicted of witness intimidation for engineering the reassignment of two officers who had triggered the criminal investigation against him. 

Brewer faces a maximum seven years in prison on the theft by deception count and a possible two additional years for retaliation against a witness. Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 25.

The jury began deliberating at 10:30 a.m. and reached its verdict at 9:15 p.m.

Brewer said he would appeal.

"I'm certain that we'll put out all the facts out there and am confident that we'll overturn it," he said.

The ex-chief has repeatedly denied stealing any money and having any role in reassigning then-Lt. Thomas Kocon and Sgt. Robert Tuite, who both tipped off the district attorney's office to the improprieties.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Merrick said last night that Kocon and Tuite "embodied the finest tradition of law enforcement" by coming forward.

Brewer, who resigned as police chief in December 2000, served as his own attorney during the trial before Common Pleas Senior Judge Raymond Novak.

Novak scheduled a hearing for Monday to determine whether Brewer should remain free on bond. Prosecutors fear he could be a flight risk.