HEADLINE: Evidence purge likely to haunt NOPD; Report suggests fallout will last for years

Alcee Brown faced the possibility of life in prison when he arrived in court last week on an aggravated rape charge. When he got there, though, he learned that the New Orleans Police Department had inadvertently helped his case by destroying critical pieces of evidence.

As a result, prosecutors Tuesday offered Brown the opportunity to plead guilty to a lesser charge of forcible rape and to serve 30 years in jail. Brown, 36, promptly accepted.

There is no way to determine how many future cases may be compromised by the Police Department's improper destruction of evidence, but an NOPD internal report this week suggests that problems are likely to crop up for years. And, the report says, missing evidence, like that in the Brown case, probably will go unnoticed until prosecutors try to retrieve the items for trial. 
The voluminous report, as thick as several telephone books, lists 55 open murder cases that have been rendered virtually unsolvable because all evidence was mistakenly destroyed.

In the past year, cold-case detectives had zeroed in on suspects in two of those killings, but the disposal of key evidence left the detectives empty-handed and their cases all but scrapped, the report says.

In addition, some or all evidence was improperly destroyed in 2,500 rape cases, but poor record-keeping has made it impossible to determine how many were still prosecutable.

Compass weighs in

The scope of the problem was acknowledged earlier this month by Police Superintendent Eddie Compass in a Dec. 3 disciplinary letter to Capt. Michael Sauter, former commander of the Central Evidence & Property Division.

An evidence room purge, which took place from 1999 until 2002, led to the "unauthorized and illegal destruction of an unknown amount of items including but not limited to narcotics, rape kits, DNA evidence and weapons submitted by investigating officers as evidence in criminal cases," Compass wrote.

"The exact amount and type of evidence cannot be determined because you failed to enter all evidence into a computer database," Compass continued.

Sauter was suspended for 105 days, and Capt. Michael Pfeiffer, the unit's former assistant commander, was suspended for 80 days. The officers are scheduled to begin their suspensions Monday, police spokesman Capt. Marlon Defillo said.

The investigative report, obtained by The Times-Picayune through a public records request, by Maj. Raymond Burkart also recommended disciplinary action against a third officer, Maj. James Treadaway, but Compass overruled Burkart and exonerated Treadaway.

Compass determined that Treadaway, inspections commander during much of the evidence room sweep, didn't participate in the disposal and was not in the unit's chain of command.
For more than month last year, a state grand jury reviewed the case for possible criminal charges, but the panel took no action.

Cause for concern

At the time of the massive cleanup, Sauter, Pfeiffer and the 30 police employees under their command were applauded for clearing out overstuffed vaults crammed with dusty evidence from cases that had long passed the statutes of limitations. Antiquated, hand-kept records were supposedly being computerized. Old rules and regulations were slated to be updated with new ones.

The achievements were considered substantial enough that in 2001 the entire evidence room staff was awarded a departmental commendation for a job well done. The unit was nominated for a similar award in 2002.

But in mid-2002, according to Burkart's report, problems began to surface. First, marijuana seized as evidence in a juvenile court drug case turned up missing. Pfeiffer made a court appearance to explain why the marijuana was missing, but no alarms were sounded.
Later, when a bicycle turned up missing in another juvenile court case, there were whispers of concern in the district attorney's office.

But it was on Aug. 22, 2002, that the extent of evidence mishandling became evident. That was the day Sgt. Brian Monteverde of the evidence room told his boss, Capt. Rose Duryea, "We have a big problem, Captain." By the time Duryea assessed the situation, she informed Treadaway that the amount of missing evidence was potentially "catastrophic," according to the report.

Inquiry launched

The district attorney's office had contacted Monteverde to retrieve evidence in a case that was about to go to trial. In the case, 44-year-old Kenneth Stroughter was accused of rape, attempted murder and aggravated arson for attacking and stabbing his girlfriend and lighting their house on fire. When police arrived, Stroughter squirted lighter fluid on the officers. He was shot twice by then-Lt. Jeff Winn.

It was a closely followed case both inside and outside the police department. When Monteverde went searching for the evidence, including the rape kit and Winn's gun, he found that nearly everything had been destroyed.

Duryea took her concerns to Pfeiffer and Treadaway. According to a statement by Duryea in the report, "the major (Treadaway) suggested we have the district attorney's office plea bargain the case in order not to lose the thing entirely."

That's what happened. Facing the possibility of life for the rape and stabbing, Stroughter pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and aggravated arson and agreed to a sentence of seven years and six months in prison.

After the Stroughter case unraveled, the evidence room cleanup was put on hold, and Burkart was assigned to get to the bottom of what happened to the evidence. When he began poking around, Burkart found the evidence room in disarray. Massive amounts of much-needed warehouse space had been cleared, but nobody seemed certain what items had been destroyed and which were possibly needed in open cases.

A full-blown investigation was ordered.

Case after case

For the most part, the extent of the damage from the overzealous house-cleaning remains unclear, but problems have arisen recently in a few murder cases when detectives told victims' families that promising leads had to be discarded because of missing evidence.

In one of them, the department's cold-case squad in early 2003 identified a suspect in the killing of Vanessa Bodden. In 1989, Bodden was kidnapped, taken to an abandoned church, raped and murdered. A caretaker found her with her throat slashed and her face burned beyond recognition. Detectives, encouraged after receiving fresh information, were set back to square one when they found that critical evidence -- the murder weapon and Bodden's burned clothing -- had been inadvertently destroyed.

Another high-profile case involving destroyed evidence was the 1984 rape and killing of Karen Weaver. A suspect was identified last year, but the lack of evidence was a major, if not fatal, blow to detectives.

Both of those cases were highlighted by the media, but a handful of smaller cases have been quietly dropped because of missing evidence. Those include three marijuana cases and a forgery case in which a handwriting sample was destroyed, according to the report.

Because of the potential disruption to other cases, Burkart in his report recommended a complete audit of the evidence room. Compass has determined that such an undertaking is not feasible.

"You have to understand that more than 75,000 pieces of evidence are placed into the evidence room each year," Defillo said. "To go back and do an audit going back to day one would be difficult, if not impossible. Basically, there's no way to know what's going to be needed until it comes up at trial."

New system in place

To prevent future problems, Defillo said a system of checks and balances has been put in place. "There is now a very strong level of accountability," he said.

A system of safeguards was supposed to have been adopted when Sauter commanded the division. But, according to Burkart's report, the measures were never implemented.

"In short, the system of checks and balances put in place for the CE&P Division before the department was accredited existed only on paper," Burkart wrote in his report.

The accountability problem is compounded by the fact that the department attested that such a system was in place when it applied for national accreditation from the Virginia-based Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.

"Presenting the documents to accreditation examiners was blatant fraud," Burkart wrote.
Defillo said the matter will be brought up with CALEA in the coming weeks to determine the status of the department's hard-won stamp of approval from that agency.

"We're constantly working with CALEA reps to ensure that we're in compliance, and this will certainly be a part of that process," Defillo said.

Even before the disciplinary hearings for Pfeiffer and Sauter, Compass rescinded the evidence division's 2001 award and scuttled the 2002 nomination. But in determining the penalties for the two officers, Compass set off a fierce internal debate within the department. Some officers felt the punishment was too light; others felt it was too harsh.

Violations trimmed

What is not subject to debate is the fact that Compass did not agree with all of Burkart's findings on which rules and regulations were violated. Overall, Compass dismissed six of eight violations recommended against Sauter, one of four violations recommended against Pfeiffer and both violations recommended against Treadaway.

As for the violations upheld by Compass, Sauter and Pfeiffer have each filed civil service appeals to reduce or reverse their suspensions. Sauter's suspension is for neglect of duty and negligent supervision. Pfeiffer's is for neglect of duty and failure to follow instructions from a supervisor.
Pfeiffer's attorney could not be reached for comment. Sauter's attorney, Eric Hessler, said he expects his client to be cleared.

"I believe civil service will come to the same conclusion as the grand jury did in considering criminal charges: that he didn't do anything wrong," Hessler said. "He acted within the guidelines of the department and within state law. The department was heaping accolades on the restructuring of that department until they launched the investigation."

Despite the lengthy suspensions, the officers are slated to return to their current posts. Sauter, a 20-year veteran, is an assistant commander in the Policy and Planning division. Pfeiffer, a 22-year veteran, is second-in-command of the Operations Bureau.

HEADLINE: Hollister police chief quits over theft

Hollister's chief of police has resigned after being accused of stealing money from his own department.

Chief George Stevens submitted his resignation Friday, the day after he was charged and arrested on two counts of felony stealing. He posted $20,000 bail and was released from the Taney County Jail the evening of his arrest. 

Stevens had requested an independent investigation for the disappearance of $4,300 in cash bond money, taken from Hollister's jail last summer.

During the investigation conducted by the Missouri Highway Patrol, an additional $2,600 was found to be missing from the Police Department's evidence room.

A probable-cause statement filed by Highway Patrol Sgt. Miles Parks indicates Stevens admitted he had taken both the bond money and the evidence money, a total of $6,900. Stevens also admitted spending some of the evidence money within a week after it was seized in May 2002.

Stevens had been suspended from his job the day before his resignation. Hollister city officials said he would be paid through his last day on the job, plus any unused vacation time he had accrued.

The Hollister Police Department is now under the direction of senior staff member Capt. Ed Ripley, supervised by Mayor David Tate and City Administrator Rick Ziegenfuss.

Ripley said the 15-member department is used to getting by short-handed. "We just got back to a full staff, when one of our officers got back from Iraq," said Ripley. "Everybody's doing a little extra."

Stevens' resignation affected morale at the police station only briefly, Ripley said.

"Life goes on -- you've still got to step up and do your job," said Ripley. "There was a letdown for a day or two, but we've got some good officers. I think we'll be all right."

Officials at City Hall are also adjusting to the news. Vonnie Fuqua-Mathiesen, assistant city administrator for Hollister, said it was hard for her to believe the charges.

"We cared about George," said Fuqua-Mathiesen. "He's been with us a long time. We were very disappointed, almost to the point of disbelief."

Fuqua-Mathiesen said a complete review of the Police Department is in the works. Changes had already been made in the way bond money and evidence are handled.

Stevens, who could not be reached for comment, is scheduled to appear before a Taney County Judge on Jan. 26.

Contact reporter Jenny Fillmer at jfillmer@News-Leader.com

HEADLINE: A never-ending mistake

Just how disastrous was the New Orleans Police Department's indiscriminate purge of its central evidence room? There are an estimated 55 open murder cases and 2,500 open rape cases that can't be prosecuted because of the purge.

The Police Department may also have gotten itself in trouble with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, the Virginia-based commission that approved the department's evidence room procedures. It appears now that police officials -- who went through a three-year application process beginning in August 1998 -- lied to the accrediting agency by pretending to use procedures they were not using. The police official who conducted the Police Department's internal investigation characterized the deception as "blatant fraud." 

And so it is that we learn that a scandal that was already noteworthy for its jaw-dropping levels of ineptitude may have attached to it the kind of dishonesty that plagued the department in years past. Neither the ineptitude nor the dishonesty can be tolerated. Residents of New Orleans expect a police force that's both competent and honest, and Superintendent Eddie Compass needs to grab hold of the reins and steer the department back in that direction.

To his credit, Superintendent Compass suspended the two officers he judged to be most responsible for the evidence room debacle. Capt. Michael Sauter, the former commander of the Central Evidence & Property Division, and Capt. Michael Pfeiffer, the former assistant commander, are currently serving suspensions of 105 and 80 days respectively.

A third officer was recommended for suspension, but the superintendent determined that he was not in the unit's chain of command and should not be punished for the mishaps.

One of the more distressing aspects of the evidence room purge is that it's a mistake that could keep revealing itself for years to come, as detectives go to the room to find evidence related to their cases only to walk out empty-handed.

In fact, that's how police officials came to realize in mid-2002 that the clean-up of the evidence room was not an accomplishment, but a disaster: Prosecutors requested the evidence they needed to bring to trial a man accused of rape, attempted murder and aggravated arson, and police officials had to tell them that the evidence wasn't there.

Last year, detectives assigned to the cold-case division were certain they had identified the suspect who killed Vanessa Bodden in 1989, but when they went to the evidence room, they discovered that the murder weapon and the clothes the victim was wearing when she was murdered had been destroyed.

And just this month, the man who raped a woman inside a Lakeview church in 2002 was given a 30-year sentence when he entered a guilty plea. But he might have gotten a life sentence had most of the evidence linking him to the crime not been destroyed during the evidence room clean-up.

Capt. Marlon Defillo, a spokesman for the Police Department, says that "there is now a very strong level of accountability" as it relates to the custody of evidence. Let's hope that is the case because, according to Maj. Raymond Burkart, who compiled the department's internal report and recommended the suspensions, department officials lied to the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies in order to win its accreditation. The organization accredited the department in November 2001, but it's unclear now what the group will do with the news that the Police Department's application included falsehoods.

Superintendent Compass has already punished the officers he thinks are responsible, but it's clear that there need to be systemic changes within the Central Evidence & Property Division. Anything short of that does a disservice to those who have already been made victims of crime.

HEADLINE: Ex-police employee guilty - stole drugs and cash from evidence room

When Kenneth W. Dansberry was running the Memphis police evidence room - and using his position to loot it of drugs and money - he grew so swamped with cash that stacks of it grew mold.

Dansberry, 41, a former Police Department civilian employee, pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to a wide array of drug conspiracy and money laundering charges.

U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald, who received his guilty plea, called the magnitude of Dansberry's crimes "daunting." 

Fifteen alleged co-conspirators and two other property room employees charged in a separate indictment await trial.

Dansberry was the day-to-day supervisor of the property and evidence room from 2000 to last September, when he was charged.

He told investigators he stole cocaine, marijuana and money "so many times (that) I don't remember."

But Dansberry did remember his first deal, describing for investigators how he and another civilian employee peddled a 10-pound box of cocaine to an accused drug dealer off the loading dock under the Shelby County Jail.

He also told police that he wheeled 200 pounds of marijuana out of an evidence room and sold it at the police impound lot near the old International Harvester site.

The drugs were slated to be destroyed, but Dansberry sold them instead.

Flush with cash, Dansberry threw money around.

He allegedly gave two fellow employees $100,000 in hush money. The women have been charged and are awaiting trial.

Dansberry rubbed elbows with the high rollers at the Mike Tyson fight and NBA all-star games. He treated female employees to extravagant shopping sprees at Memphis malls.

Federal and Memphis police vice/narcotics officers interviewed him Sept. 24, 2003. Early the next morning, they searched his car and hiding places in his Cordova home. They found at least $1 million.

"A substantial part of this cash appeared to be encrusted in mold, indicating it had been hidden for a substantial period of time," according to a court document.

Dansberry told police that it all started when he was contacted by a former evidence room employee and friend, Patrick Maxwell, and asked to steal drugs. According to court documents, Maxwell sold the drugs to an alleged drug dealer in Atlanta, identified by authorities as Eric Brown.

Dansberry told police he was aided in his thefts by Carl Johnson, another employee charged in the case.

The thefts continued from sometime in 2000 until Dansberry's arrest, according to the court documents.

Federal agents and Memphis police, alerted to the thefts, last year made surreptitious entries into the Harvester facility at night to document the disappearance of money and drugs.

They found used wrappings for drugs that were supposed to have been burned. They found stashes of drugs. They found records destroyed and computer files deleted. They found empty money wrappers.

Memphis Police Director James Bolden was out of town Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

FBI spokesman George Bolds would say only that the investigation continues and further indictments are possible.

Problems at the property and evidence room were documented by state auditors as early as 1999. At that time, police officials promised to reform the way evidence was kept and safeguarded.

Attempts to reach state auditors Tuesday were unsuccessful.

When Dansberry is sentenced July 23, he faces a hefty prison sentence.

He also has agreed to give up luxury cars he bought with drug money and his Cordova home, for which he laid out a down payment of $50,000 in drug money.

In addition to the Cordova home, federal authorities are seizing properties in Olive Branch and Atlanta. Together, the property is worth about $1.75 million.

Dansberry's prison exposure, however, may be tempered by his pledge to cooperate fully in the prosecution of the others - many of them property room employees and ex-employees - charged in related indictments.

LIVING HIGH

Kenneth W. Dansberry pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to looting the Memphis Police Department property room of cocaine, marijuana and money while working as a civilian supervisor. Here's how Dansberry said the scheme played out:
Sometime in 2000, former property room employee Patrick Maxwell recruited Dansberry to supply cheap cocaine.

Dansberry, working with fellow property room employee Carl Johnson, began diverting cocaine that was scheduled to be burned. They sold the cocaine to Maxwell for $10,000 a kilogram, splitting the proceeds.

The transactions took place under the eyes of the police - at the loading dock of the Shelby County Jail downtown and in a police vehicle.

Dansberry said he and Johnson delivered cocaine to Maxwell every four to six weeks - until a dispute over payments slowed the pace of transactions.

In addition to cocaine and cash, Dansberry stole 200 pounds of marijuana seized from FedEx shipments outside Memphis and stored in the property room.

Dansberry was taking in so much cash he didn't know what to do with it. When officers executed a search warrant on his home and car on Sept. 25, they found at least $1 million in cash. The total did not include cash so encrusted with mold that it could not easily be counted.
In 2002, Dansberry, who was making about $33,000 a year, bought a $230,000 Cordova home. He paid $50,000 down and used drug money to buy furniture. He also bought a 2001 Toyota 4Runner, 2002 Chevrolet pickup, 2002 Volvo S80, 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe, 2003 Toyota RAV4 and 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse.

Two supervisors in the property room, Jacqueline Layrock and Alnita Campbell, were charged in a separate indictment with taking $100,000 from Dansberry, allegedly drug proceeds, to keep silent about the thefts. Allegedly, last March, the two women stole and split $30,000 stolen from the facility. Later, they are accused of taking another $18,000 and splitting it. Some of the money was used to pay car notes and other bills, the indictment alleges.

HEADLINE: Property room theft easily turned routine

He was wearing a baseball cap, leaning against his green pickup truck in the driveway in front of his house, on a street where all of the houses look the same.

It was Friday afternoon on Cordova Club Drive in a neighborhood of quarter-million dollar homes, varying slightly in shades of brick veneer and shutters, neatly wrapped around a golf course.

A woman was walking her two Shih Tzus on the sidewalk. Another woman was power walking with a cell phone pressed to her ear.

He saw a car pull in front of his house, a pink brick two-story with black shutters. He went inside. A reporter got out of the car, walked up to the front door and knocked. He peeked through a window. "Are you Kenneth Dansberry?" the reporter asked. "Why?" he responded.  "Are you?" the reporter said. "You've got to talk to my lawyer," he said, his tone firm, but polite.
Dansberry, by all accounts, is a nice guy. An extrovert. Super friendly. Married with children. The kind of guy who, when you're sick, offers to mow your yard.

The kind of guy you would never suspect of stealing money, cocaine and marijuana from police custody "so many (times) I don't remember." Dansberry, 41, a former Memphis Police Department civilian employee, pleaded guilty in federal court last week to drug conspiracy and money laundering charges.

Fifteen alleged co-conspirators and two other property room employees were charged in a separate indictment and await trial. Dansberry had more than $1 million in his possession when police searched his home and car last year. He had so much cash that stacks of it grew mold.
His friends, neighbors and coworkers are still in shock. "He was a normal person," said Norman Longmire, who lives next door to Dansberry's Hanna Drive home. "I never suspected he had lots of money."

Dansberry had been working as a civilian in the Police Department's property and evidence room since Jan. 15, 1982. He started as a clerk, making $591 a month. In 1991, he was promoted to shift supervisor. After more than two decades, he was making about $33,395 a year.

He had no criminal record. He appeared to be a model employee. He never scored below a satisfactory in his annual reviews, and he scored above average in judgment skills used when supervisors were absent.

Was it money trouble that made Dansberry give in to temptation? He filed for bankruptcy in 1992, but it was dismissed in 1996. Or was he just sick and tired of working every day and still struggling to pay his bills? He has been married for 20 years. Neighbors say the Dansberrys have two daughters. Dansberry won't talk. His lawyer won't let him. "All is not over," said Mike Stengel, who is representing Dansberry. "I really can't say anything more."

--

Who knows how much money and drugs and weapons are - or were - in the property and evidence room? The police aren't answering any questions because the federal government has taken over the room.

"Think of anything you've ever seen in your life and it will be in a property room," said Joe Latta of Burbank, Calif., a 31-year police veteran and director of a company that trains law enforcement agencies on how to maintain property and evidence rooms.

"One percent of all evidence ever ends up in a courtroom, and 99 percent of it stays in the property room." Stacks of money. Drugs. Jewelry. Body parts. Televisions. VCRs. Lamps. Guns. Golf clubs. False teeth.

The drugs are supposed to be burned once they're not needed in court anymore. The problem comes when no one is checking whether the drugs were destroyed. "If you know no one is looking over your shoulder, it's a lot easier. Who is ever going to miss it?" said Latta, who has interviewed several property room thieves. He said property room stealing is very common across the country. "If you're making $30,000 a year and there's $2 million in the vault, it's a hard temptation," he said.

In 1999, Memphis police officials knew their property and evidence room needed cleaning up. A state audit said the recording of confiscated cash was inadequate. An in-house audit said the room was overcrowded and had storage problems.

A new manager, Jay Liner, claimed to have cleaned up the place. His bosses applauded him.

"Things have improved 500 percent since Jay Liner took over as manager," Inspector J.D. King told The Commercial Appeal in January 2002. Dansberry was quoted in the same article.

"Anything that is not attached - like a building - we get it here," he said.

By then, Dansberry already was stealing just about anything that wasn't attached, according to court documents filed in federal court last week.

Sometime in 2000, former property room employee Patrick Maxwell recruited Dansberry to supply cheap cocaine, according to written statements Dansberry made to police.

Dansberry, working with fellow property room employee Carl Johnson, began diverting cocaine that was scheduled to be burned. They sold the cocaine to Maxwell for $10,000 a kilogram, splitting the proceeds.

The first time went smoothly. Dansberry took a box of about 10 kilos of cocaine and gave it to Johnson. Johnson carried it out of the property room, which is in the basement of the Criminal Justice Center.

He walked down a dingy hallway - right below the Shelby County Jail, with the possibility of officers and city employees to stop him at any point - and outside the doors to the loading dock. Maxwell was there to take it.

Easy. So easy it became routine. Stealing cocaine and delivering it to Maxwell every four to six weeks. Court documents show that Maxwell sold the drugs to Eric Brown, who had residences in Atlanta and Olive Branch.

Johnson used a police car to make some deliveries. One time, Dansberry stole 200 pounds of marijuana and sold it to an associate of Maxwell's outside the police impound lot.

After Dansberry was arrested, authorities asked him how many times he stole cocaine from the property room. "I have done so many I don't remember," he said.

Dansberry's picture in the 1979 yearbook of Booker T. Washington High School is on page 32, beside the crease. He was handsome. His hair was big. His head was cocked slightly to the left. He had half a smile.

That year's theme was "This is Your Life." The message to students read: "This is your life, so challenge your obstacles and achieve your dreams. Only you are ultimately responsible for what your life becomes, so take charge. Remember, it's the only chance you have."

Fred Horton, the school's basketball coach and history teacher since 1974, tapped his finger on Dansberry's picture. "I know that face," he said. "An extrovert. The friendly type. He wasn't in trouble here - but, then, when they get out, you never know."

Dansberry was born in Memphis on the Fourth of July in 1962. He has at least four sisters and four brothers. His mother and a brother passed away a few years ago.

On his job application in 1982, he gave his father's name, but didn't know his address. He has his stepfather's last name.

"He was a good boy," David Dansberry, his stepfather, said on the phone. "That's all I can say."
Dansberry and his family lived in a small, brick home on Hanna Drive from 1991 to 2002. Last week, some neighbors said they didn't know the family well, but Longmire had good things to say.

"He was a good guy," said Longmire, who has had two heart surgeries and can't do heavy work. Dansberry offered to mow his lawn for him.

In 2002, Dansberry contacted Steven Ford, a real estate agent with The Carter Group in Germantown. He and his wife wanted to look at a house on Cordova Club Drive.

The house has 3,384 square feet. Nine rooms. Four bedrooms. Three-and-a-half baths. Two-car garage.

Ford said Dansberry and his wife didn't drive fancy cars or wear fancy clothes. Dansberry told Ford that he had a landscaping business that was doing really well and that's why they were moving.

Dansberry negotiated the price down to $230,000.

"He didn't act like he had a lot of money," Ford said. "I'm still floored by this. I can't believe it."
Dansberry made a $50,000 down payment on the house, according to court documents.
Dansberry was buying more than a big house.

He said he used drug money to furnish the Cordova home.

He bought five cars - a 2001 Toyota 4Runner, a 2002 Chevrolet double-extended pickup, a 2002 Volvo S80, a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe and a 2003 Toyota RAV4.

He gave $100,000 in hush money to two civilian employees of the property room, Jacqueline Layrock and Alnita Campbell. In separate indictments last week, the two women were accused of stealing about $48,000 from the property room.

Dansberry took the women on a $2,500 shopping spree. He took their husbands to the NBA All-Star game in Atlanta last February and gave them each $6,000, according to court documents.

But the money he spent was minuscule compared to what he had.

When police searched Dansberry's car and home on Sept. 25, they found $1 million in cash. Some stacks were coated with mold, making them difficult to count.

Dansberry is out of jail on bond. Court documents show he has agreed to forfeit the cash found on Sept. 25, plus his homes and vehicles.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 23.

Friday afternoon, Longmire stood on his driveway and looked at Dansberry's home on Hanna Drive. He scratched his goatee and shook his head.

"I still can't believe it," Longmire said. "If you could just meet and talk to this guy, you wouldn't believe it either."

HEADLINE: $500,000 Worth Of Drugs Missing From Evidence Room

The Volusia County Sheriff's Office has launched an investigation after discovering about $500,000 worth of cocaine and marijuana missing from the agency's evidence compound, according to Local 6 News.

Officials said Monday that the investigation into the missing drugs began two weeks ago and has now expanded into a federal criminal probe conducted by the U.S. Attorney?s Office. 

Volusia Sheriff Ben Johnson has ordered a complete audit of every piece of evidence in the department's inventory, according to a release. 

"I'm deeply troubled to think that one of our employees may have abused his position by lying and stealing and jeopardizing other criminal prosecutions in the process," said Sheriff Johnson. "This is an extremely serious matter, and we will leave no stone unturned in this investigation." 

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the state Attorney's Office also are investigating, and officials say an arrest in the case is imminent. 

The Sheriff's Office's evidence section is operated in accordance with national performance standards established by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, according to the report. 

The department has been nationally accredited since 1991. 

Last year, Johnson ordered a review of the evidence section because of some lapses that had been identified internally regarding the way departmental polices were being carried out by the department's evidence section. 

In October, the Sheriff's Office's head of Professional Standards was temporarily transferred to the evidence section to correct any problems in the way the section was being run. That internal review hadn't uncovered any criminal activity, but had yielded some recommendations for tightening policies and procedures. 

However, a separate probe turned criminal after nearly 600 grams of cocaine turned up missing from the evidence compound in DeLand. The discovery was made on Jan. 12. 

The next day, the Sheriff's Office put six evidence workers on notice that an internal investigation was under way. FDLE was brought into the investigation on Jan. 15, and federal investigators joined the probe last week. 

While the audit is not complete, approximately 300 more grams of cocaine and several hundred pounds of marijuana have also turned up missing, police said. 

"I'm extremely angry and personally distressed about these events," said Johnson. "The person or persons responsible for these actions has violated the community’s trust, and that is not something I take lightly." 

HEADLINE: POLICE PROPERTY RULES REMAIN UNCLEAR

MEMPHIS POLICE may have labored for three years under the false belief that a cancer in the department's property and evidence room had been conquered. Even today the prognosis is not clear.

Officials of the department are reluctant to discuss the details of any changes that have been made since federal indictments were returned against five former or then-current civilian employees accused of stealing drugs and money late last year.

Memphians would like to believe that the property room isn't being used as a major recycling bin for confiscated drugs and other property seized by the police, but new doubt has been cast on that prospect. 

According to Dennis Dycus, director of the municipal audit division in the state comptroller's office, a 1999 audit amounted to a scathing indictment of property room procedures.

Responding to a similar investigation of the police department's Organized Crime Unit, auditors reported a litany of problems in the property room, including the lack of tags on evidence, open evidence packages and poor record keeping. They made specific recommendations about how to correct the problems.

As evidence emerges in the case of former property room employee Kenneth Dansberry, however, it is clear that huge amounts of property were stolen from the room for more than three years after the critical report. The audit, it appears, was not treated with the sense of urgency that it deserved.

A 12-page account of Dansberry's thefts of drugs and money, revealed in federal court, portrayed a distressing lack of institutional control after 1999 that allowed the $33,000-a-year civilian police department employee to live comfortably in a well-to-do Cordova neighborhood with a substantial collection of nice cars.

Dansberry, who has not yet been sentenced, was indicted last fall following his arrest with more than $1 million in his possession. One of 16 people charged in the theft and distribution scheme, Dansberry pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy, money laundering and other financial crimes last week.

His story is a familiar one to experts on the vulnerability of property rooms and the extraordinary steps that have to be taken to keep them secure.

A longtime clerk who eventually rose to the position of shift supervisor, Dansberry had a family, a clean record and a winning personality. In 2000, a former employee of the property room allegedly recruited him to steal drugs, and before long he was handing off shipments of cocaine to collaborators from a loading dock.

He allegedly gave $100,000 in payoff money to two property room employees, took the women on a $2,500 shopping spree and gave their husbands cash and tickets to an NBA all-star game.
When he was finally caught, he told his story to investigators but couldn't remember how many times he had betrayed the trust that he had earned over two decades of service. The acts had become easy and routine. At one point he wheeled 200 pounds of marijuana out of an evidence room and sold it at the police impound lot.

Perhaps no one should be surprised that some people placed in charge of vast amounts of drugs and other easily marketable property would be unable to resist temptation from time to time.

But the scope of the Memphis Police Department case is stunning. And citizens are left to hope that more frequent audits, regular polygraph tests or other measures have been instituted to reinforce property room security.

More information may be forthcoming when the results of a second audit conducted by Dycus's office in December are released.

Police should be commended for bringing federal authorities into the investigation when it became clear that the property and evidence room had leaks.

Confidence in the police department would get another boost if it could be reported that the room will never again become a major distribution center for confiscated drugs and other goods. 

HEADLINE: Deputy arrested on drug charges

LEBANON - A suspended Warren County sheriff's deputy is accused of cooking methamphetamine in a garage, tampering with sheriff's records and stealing marijuana from the sheriff's evidence room, Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel said.

Michael Moore, 33, of Deerfield Township, surrendered Tuesday evening at sheriff's headquarters after a seven-count indictment against him was made public. 

"We are going to aggressively go after drug dealers and drug users, no matter who they are - even if they are law enforcement officers," Hutzel said.

Moore is scheduled to appear in court today on the charges. His attorney, Bill Fowler, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

Moore faces four felonies: tampering with evidence, theft of drugs, aggravated possession of drugs (methamphetamine) and illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs.

He also faces misdemeanor charges alleging he possessed marijuana, drug paraphernalia and unspecified "dangerous drugs," according to the indictment.

If convicted, Moore could be sentenced to more than a decade in prison.

Although Moore was on unpaid leave since August after testing positive for marijuana use, a Dec. 31 incident prompted police to search his home for drugs Jan. 8, court records show.

On New Year's Eve, Blue Ash police shut down Interstate 71 for hours after finding an alleged methamphetamine lab in a car's trunk during a traffic stop.

The car's driver later told police he had just delivered 4 grams of meth, a powerful stimulant, to Moore in exchange for $30.

Investigators who searched Moore's home found "marijuana and other evidence which appeared to have been removed from the evidence room at the Warren County Sheriff's Office," Hutzel said. She said the items included "evidence envelopes and evidence reports" relating to drug cases.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com