HEADLINE: Officer charged in $2.9M drug bust

Cocaine, hash discovered in car Audit under way of evidence room

A Peel Region police officer one month from retirement faces criminal charges after millions of dollars worth of drugs disappeared from a police property room.

The 29-year veteran's car was surrounded by armed officers Monday afternoon, moments after he finished his shift in the drug property room at Peel police headquarters on Derry Rd. in Brampton.

Police say they found 6 kilos of cocaine, worth an estimated $2.5 million, in the trunk of a Cadillac. 

Hashish worth about $400,000 was later found at another location.

Investigators allege drugs that had been seized by Peel police were stolen from the property room and offered for sale.

An internal audit of the drug property room is under way, with a further 15 kilos of hashish apparently missing, police sources said, calling the case an embarrassment to the force.
Police are also reviewing how seized drugs are stored.

Peel Sergeant Todd Moore said the arrest does not jeopardize any drug trials, and no other police are involved.

"We're alleging (the accused) basically acted as a one-man show," Moore said.

Police sources said the accused officer had been under surveillance for several months, but would not reveal what led to the investigation.

Constable Martin Goold, 59, of Mississauga has been charged with theft and fraud over $5,000, possession of stolen property, breach of trust and possession of cocaine and hashish for the purpose of trafficking.

He appeared briefly in court yesterday and is due back in a Brampton courtroom today.

He is expected to remain in custody until at least his bail hearing, scheduled for April 15.

Goold, who is married with a family, has been working as one of several property co-ordinators in Peel's morality and drug property room since about 1998. He had previously been a uniformed officer but not an investigator, and he never worked with the drug unit.

HEADLINE: TWO PLEAD GUILTY IN EVIDENCE-ROOM THEFTS

Two defendants in a drugs and money-laundering case involving the Memphis Police Department's property room pleaded guilty in agreements with the federal government this week.
Sixteen people - including three former civilian property-room workers - were indicted last September in a case that linked evidence-room thefts to a cocaine ring.

Two veteran property-room supervisors also were indicted last December for taking $148,000 in "hush money" to look the other way. 

Five people have pleaded guilty, though charges remain against most of the key defendants.
Kenneth Dansberry, a former shift supervisor, pleaded guilty and admitted he'd stolen drugs and money so often from police custody "that I can't remember." He is cooperating with investigators.

More than $1 million in cash - some that had started to mold - was taken from Dansberry's Cordova home and car last fall.

Nightclub dancer Crystal Greer, 24, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of money laundering. She will be sentenced July 2.

Julius Jamar Winder, 33, pleaded guilty Monday to a cocaine possession charge. Sentencing is June 29.

Asst. U.S. Atty. Tom Colthurst read the charges at each hearing. He told U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald what the government's proof would have been if the cases had gone to trial.

At Tuesday's hearing, Greer stood before Donald with her head bowed, weeping. Greer was accused of accepting gifts and $19,049 from defendant Carl Johnson to buy a new car. Johnson was a senior inventory-control clerk in the property room at the time.

Colthurst said the government would have shown Greer knew Johnson kept much cash in his attic, and that Johnson was involved in "some kind of unlawful activity." He said Greer knew or had reason to believe Johnson didn't earn that kind of money working for the city.

When asked why she was pleading guilty, Greer told Donald: "Because I don't want to go to trial."

HEADLINE: Ex-marshal goes to prison

Crime: Eric Smith is sentenced to 9 months after pleading guilty in case involving marijuana
Former Fountain City Marshal Eric Smith has been sentenced to nine months in prison after admitting his guilt in a drug case.

He pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana, theft and obstruction of justice, all Class D felonies. 

Members of the Wayne County Drug Task Force arrested Smith after an exchange of marijuana in Richmond's Glen Miller Park.

Smith, 27, was then the Fountain City marshal. Drug task force members were following a tip from an informant.

After his arrest, Smith was first suspended as marshal, and then fired, by the Fountain City Town Council.

Part of the marijuana in the case is alleged to have come from the evidence locker at the Fountain City marshal's office.

Smith had faced additional charges of maintaining a common nuisance, dealing in marijuana and conspiracy to deal marijuana. Those charges were dropped in exchange for the plea agreement.
The obstruction of justice charges were filed as a separate case.

A Class D felony can carry a sentence of six months to three years. The presumptive sentence for a Class D felony is 18 months.

Wayne Circuit Court Judge Douglas Van Middlesworth said Smith's attorney, Sarah Nagy of Indianapolis, made a statement in his behalf at Thursday's sentencing, saying he had been cooperative with investigators, and issued an apology to the community of Fountain City.

HEADLINE: Missing antique gun found at ex-cop's home

The Canton Police Department, already under scrutiny by state auditors for missing evidence, had also lost track of an antique police weapon that has since turned up at the home of a former officer.

The absence of the vintage World War II machine gun, which was owned by the Police Department, came to light as part of the state auditor's investigation into allegations of missing guns, drugs and money from the department's evidence room. Auditors earlier found a car seized in a drug raid, valued at about $1,000, that had been sold to another former officer for $40. 

Assistant Madison County District Attorney Scott Rogellio identified the officer who had the gun as Johnny Burse, 45. Burse could not be reached for comment.

While Rogellio said it didn't appear Burse intended to keep the weapon, he also did not return it "until the audit department got involved and all weapons and inventory was being secured."

Deputy State Auditor Jesse Bingham said the investigation is ongoing and he would not comment about possible charges.

The state auditor's office donated a computer for maintaining evidence to the Canton department Wednesday, programmed with the state's Seized Property Information Management System. Canton is the first city in the state to have the program, designed last year by the auditor's office, said Mick Bullock, spokesman for the auditor's office.

"Basically, it's to prevent any other problems in the future, to help the department and the new chief, Robert Winn, with organization of the evidence vault," Bullock said. The program is available free to any law enforcement agency, Bullock said.

Canton Assistant Police Chief Vicki McNeill had reported two machine guns missing when she asked auditors to investigate in February. One of the weapons was later found in the evidence room.

Bingham said the guns were not evidence but apparently issued to the department years ago.
"They appear to be World War II-era machine guns issued mainly to the Marine Corps ... they were not suitable for combat and not utilized," he said.

In an unrelated matter, Burse was indicted last June along with two other officers in what authorities said was an extortion scheme to erase a car theft charge for $6,000. He has pleaded innocent and is expected to go to trial this summer. Burse resigned in March but had been on unpaid leave since shortly after the indictment.

Bingham said Burse was asked by investigators to turn the gun in to the district attorney's office after the investigation started, adding, "We knew who had it."

McNeill said normal procedure is for officers to turn in all their city-issued weapons when they are placed on unpaid leave.

Mayor Fred Esco said he would have no comment until he was briefed by auditors.

"This is the first time I've heard about this," he said.

The machine guns are in the possession of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau, which is trying to track the history of both machine guns and determine how they were acquired by the department.

The investigation is winding down, but Bingham said he did not know when the final report would be available.

HEADLINE: Pahokee police try to rebuild credibility

PAHOKEE -- Four years ago, the body of a city police officer's stepson was found at a Pahokee tree farm.

The murder of 22-year-old Jeffrey Rewis, battered before a bullet pierced his temple, remains unsolved. Still, the investigation took a bizarre twist, imploding the Pahokee Police Department and prompting the sheriff to take over the city force until the chaos could be sorted out.

Investigators, after searching the stepfather's house for weapons, later were drawn to Pahokee police headquarters itself. Sheriff's detectives soon discovered that weapons, and an undetermined amount of drugs, were missing from the evidence room.

Finger-pointing and back stabbing ensued while detectives dug in. What they had stumbled upon was a department in turmoil -- and considerable disarray.

"It was like the television show CSI meets Seinfeld, where Cosmo Kramer and George Costanza ran the evidence room and Jerry and Elaine did the investigation," said Mark Murnan, a private investigator who visited Pahokee's evidence room last summer while working on a case.

After investigating for the better part of a year, sheriff's detectives concluded they had evidence that confiscated guns had been stolen and sold, among other crimes.

But the state attorney's office took a look at the mess and decided not to prosecute. It was left to the city manager to clean house. She fired a captain, the head of internal affairs and another officer. The police chief already had resigned. 

"I don't like terminating employees," City Manager Lillie Latimore said. "I like correction. But that situation was so entangled. I want them to be able to move on and for the department to move on."

The 15-officer Pahokee force is the troubled town's first line of defense. Last week, the threats of rival gangs put schools in lockdown. On weekends, it's common to have mob street scenes, with drug dealers cruising in from the coast to sell their wares. It's a place where crap games are second only to high school football as sport.

The new police chief, Rafael Duran Jr., has a videotape of what he describes as a "worse-than-Mardi-Gras" crowd that gathered after a weekend football game last fall. At one point, a young man taunts the officer shooting the video. "I'm wired," he shouts. "I'm wired!"

Before Jeffrey Rewis' slaying in December 1999, he worked as a foreman at Oasis Tree Farms. On the side, he fed tips to the sheriff's office about drug dealing. His contact, deputy Rick Hornsby, said he doesn't believe the killing had anything to do with drugs.

"He wasn't acting so much as a confidential informant, but as a concerned citizen," Hornsby said.

Rewis' family thinks otherwise. They contend his cover was blown when Hornsby showed up one day at Oasis. After that, they said, co-workers called him a snitch.

Rewis wasn't just shot and left for dead outside his place of work. The autopsy report noted that both his eyes were swollen and his groin was bruised. Homicide investigator Sgt. William Springer says he now believes the slaying was motivated by robbery and not drugs. Rewis' family notes, though, that he still had his jewelry on when his body was found.

It now is believed that Rewis was shot with his own gun, a.22-caliber pistol he had strapped to his ankle. The gun never was recovered.

Homicide detectives had been looking for the murder weapon from the start. Twenty-eight months after the slaying, on April 11, 2002, detectives talked to Rewis' mother. She was the estranged wife of a 17-year veteran of the Pahokee department, Sgt. Dennis Hodges, and told investigators she felt Hodges had something to do with her son's killing.

Hodges was not charged or even listed as a suspect in the case. Nonetheless, investigators obtained a search warrant for his house as part of the Rewis murder investigation. His wife had told them Hodges had a cache of stolen weapons there. She also told them that Hodges had sold four other weapons to one of his wife's relatives in Tombs County, Ga. 

A week later, investigators executed the warrant at Hodges' house in Okeechobee County. No guns were found, but it triggered alarms at the Pahokee department.

"It certainly got the snowball rolling," said Marsha Woods, Rewis' mother and now Hodges' ex-wife. 

From Hodges' house, investigators including Pahokee Capt. Timothy Kenney went to the residence of Hodges' uncle, where they found 16 firearms. Later they determined that seven had been taken from Pahokee's evidence room.

Hodges had been the evidence room's custodian. He now contends Kenney set him up. Kenney wouldn't talk about it.

"I had department guns, but everyone did," Hodges said. "Kenney put on the street that the FBI was looking for me for murder."

Six days after Hodges' house was searched, he turned in his badge to then-Chief Gary Frechette. His resignation letter said he was leaving for family reasons. The following month, Frechette signed a separation statement sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement saying no misconduct was involved.

Hodges turned in a Star 9mm handgun when he quit. It had been reported stolen to the Belle Glade Police Department, according to a sheriff's report. 

Kenney and officer Derrick Hewitt were dispatched to Georgia to retrieve four other weapons from the relative: two military rifles and two shotguns, including one confiscated in a case Kenney had handled.

Chief Frechette had brought in Tony Mead, a former city officer, to inventory and clean up the evidence room. It was such a mess that Mead recommended the blanket destruction order of unaccounted items. 

Mead found firearms on the floor with no tags indicating which cases they were from. Worse, he was unable to locate all the narcotics that were supposed to be in evidence. 

Some of the evidence bags were sealed but empty, while others had rodent bite marks. He said he didn't know whether the drugs had inadvertently been left out of the bags or had disintegrated. Perhaps, he speculated, rats had eaten them.

Murnan, a private investigator for murder defendant Earnest "Burn Burn" Johnson, said that when he examined the victim's shorts, cocaine fell out of a pocket. Apparently, he said, Pahokee homicide investigators had missed it.

He said he found other evidence of sloppy police work. Crime scene photographs in another case were labeled "Dead guy in blue jersey," nothing more.

Nellie King, Johnson's attorney, said defense lawyers could use the tainted evidence room to have criminal cases tossed out. 

"You can't trust the evidence, you can't trust the officer, you can't trust the report," she said.

The problems might have ended with Hodges. But in January 2003, a new allegation surfaced that Kenney had sold a Smith & Wesson.357 Magnum and a.30-caliber gun for $600 to another city officer. 

Sgt. Paul West, head of the department's internal affairs unit, discovered that Kenney had confiscated the Magnum during a 1999 arrest. Frechette contacted State Attorney Barry Krischer's office.

Kenney was placed on leave on Jan. 24, 2003. He wasted little time in making a half-dozen allegations. Among them, he alleged that Frechette had covered up the Hodges affair.

Three days later after Kenney went on leave, officer Hewitt, who had accompanied Kenney to Georgia, accused West of intimidating and unfairly targeting officers with internal affairs investigations.

Frechette, Hewitt and West were placed on leave by the city manager while the sheriff launched an internal investigation of the Pahokee department. Frechette resigned on Feb. 1, 2003. A sheriff's office captain was brought in temporarily to oversee Pahokee police.

By October, sheriff's investigators concluded not only that guns had been stolen from the department but also that there had been attempts to cover up the thefts. Among their allegations:
 

• Both Kenney and Hodges had stolen guns out of police evidence and sold them. Kenney additionally was accused of taking $418 from a police auxiliary fund.

• Frechette tried to cover up Hodges' criminal activity by accepting his resignation without ordering an internal investigation. Hewitt, meanwhile, had deleted about 700 files from his police department computer on the day Kenney was placed on leave. 

• West, while running internal affairs, collected name tags of fired officers as trophies. He also had taken $118 from a police fund, giving the money to Kenney to pay for tires on Kenney's trailer.

Hewitt's attorney, Gary Lippman, said his client thought he was preserving the computer files, not erasing them. West says he was told it was fine to loan money to other officers from the auxiliary fund.

Both Hewitt and West say they were collateral damage in a battle between Kenney and Frechette, who at one time were close friends.

Frechette is adamant that there was no attempted cover-up. He is threatening a whistle-blower lawsuit, noting that he alerted the state attorney about Kenney's selling guns.

"I didn't bring any of this on. It was Kenney. He took down me, he took down Hewitt, then he took down West," Frechette said. "I want to believe in my heart this was not about money. They just saw an opportunity."

Kenney told The Post he was afraid any explanation he offered would affect his own lawsuit.

No longer in police work, Kenney works at an auto body shop in West Palm Beach. Frechette and West work security details at Mizner Park in Boca Raton.

In Pahokee, the new police chief is trying to rebuild the department. Hired last summer, Rafael Duran grew up in Pahokee. He says he wants to help bring it back to the days when it represented the best of small-town America.

"You know that movie, American Graffiti?" he says. "That's what Pahokee was like."

HEADLINE: CHIEF TELLING WITNESSES TO LIE, PROSECUTORS SAY

Already charged with theft and obstructing justice, former Rankin police chief Darryll L. Briston could be jailed pending trial and face more charges if he continues to pressure witnesses to lie, federal prosecutors said yesterday.

"I'm putting him on notice right now that if we hear about any more of that, we will be back here to seek revocation of his bond," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cessar said during Briston's arraignment in federal court.

Cessar said Briston, 40, has contacted witnesses and told them to lie to federal agents or invoke their Fifth Amendment rights protecting them from self-incrimination. 

He warned that if Briston continues on that path, prosecutors will charge him again with offenses carrying penalties that will be consecutive, not concurrent, with whatever he might receive in his current case.

U.S. Magistrate Francis Caiazza allowed Briston to remain free on bond, but he ordered him to have no further contact with "officers of the Rankin Police Department or elected officials of Rankin Borough." He also told him he can't possess any weapons.

Briston had no comment after the hearing. His new lawyer, Caroline Roberto, also refused comment, saying she wasn't aware Briston had contacted witnesses until Cessar brought it up.

Briston initially was charged with theft and deprivation of civil rights under color of law, then charged again in an indictment with two counts of obstruction of justice.

The original counts stem from the seizure of $5,855 in cash by Rankin police during the arrest of drug dealer Richard Powell at the home of Tamera Brice on April 15, 2002, by borough officers and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Powell, Brice's ex-boyfriend, is serving 97 months in federal prison on drug and gun charges.

But Brice was never charged with a crime.

The grand jury said Briston stole her money during a search of the house after the arrest and then refused to give it back.

She said she consented to the search only because Rankin police told her if they had to get a search warrant, the house would be torn apart. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives apparently were not involved in the search.

Brice said police took the money from her safe but didn't give her a receipt for it. She went to court to get the money returned, but a county judge said she was only entitled to $97 because the rest had been used to pay for repairs to her Chevrolet Blazer after it was hit by a bus.

William Weiler Sr., Briston's lawyer in a civil case he has brought against the borough, said he had receipts that included one indicating that $5,787.32 went to pay for fixing the Blazer. A receipt for the release of the money from the Rankin Police Department for the work was also purportedly signed by Brice and Briston.

"She authorized the work," Weiler said last week.

But federal prosecutors said the documents are fake.

U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said Briston submitted false evidence release forms with forged signatures that showed the disposition of the money, a false estimate for vehicle repairs to Brice's truck, and a false bill for completion of the repairs.

Briston also is accused of planting an envelope containing $97.69 in the Rankin Police Department evidence locker prior to a federal search. That money was supposed to represent the cash left over from the original $5,855 after the vehicle repairs, prosecutors said.

HEADLINE: Molestation case could be tossed out, just like the evidence

BY LINE: KRISTEN ZAMBO, klzambo@naplesnews.com

The case against an accused child molester could be thrown out of court this week because evidence was destroyed prematurely by the Lee County Sheriff's Office. 

Wade Hampton Bigelow, 53, formerly of Bonita Springs, is charged with one count of lewd sexual battery and two counts of committing a lewd act on a girl younger than 16. A then-14-year-old girl reported that Bigelow molested her Aug. 14, 1991, while she was sleeping over at his Bonita Springs home with Bigelow's then-teenage daughter. 

Sheriff's evidence room staff destroyed four bags containing the accuser's clothing from that day, Bigelow's attorney, Steven Wetter, said Monday during a hearing. A rape kit and swabbings for DNA evidence taken from the accuser might have been destroyed, too, Wetter said in asking for the case to be tossed out. 

"It was destroyed intentionally by the Lee County Sheriff's Office and (done) in bad faith," Wetter said. "The evidence that was collected is expected to play a significant role in (Bigelow's) defense. The loss of it has a tremendous effect." 

Circuit Judge Thomas Reese did not rule Monday on whether to dismiss the case. He could make his decision this week. 

Wetter asked Reese in December 2003 to throw out the case because the evidence was destroyed. Reese granted more time for attorneys to determine who destroyed the bags of clothing and who authorized the destruction, refusing to dismiss the charges. However, Reese said at the time that if Bigelow's due-process rights were denied because of the destruction, he may have to dismiss the case. 

Then-Lt. Vincent Zarifian was in charge of the sheriff's evidence room when he told then-evidence custodian Brandy Cartaino to sift through the cases and throw out evidence no longer needed, Wetter said. 

Protocol at the Sheriff's Office called for staff to check each case with the Lee County Circuit Clerk's office to determine if a case still was open, Wetter said. If not, letters were to be sent to the arresting officer stating that the officer had a certain number of days to respond, Wetter said. If the officer didn't, a letter was sent to the officer's boss about the intended destruction of that evidence. 

Only then was Cartaino's boss supposed to allow the evidence to be destroyed, Wetter said. 

"They didn't follow their own standard operating procedure," he said. "I gleaned from her deposition that she felt evidence was being destroyed to be flippantly. It's fair to say the clerk's computer was not checked." 

The evidence was destroyed in 1997. Bigelow still was on the run, and the 1991 case remained open. After the girl reported what occurred, Bigelow left a fake suicide note in his van and fled, disappearing until he was found in Texas and extradited last April, authorities said. 

Bigelow is accused of fondling the girl and making her fondle him in front of another girl while they were at his home. The girls left the house and ran home crying. 

Now adults, they have agreed to testify. 

Assistant State Attorney Stephen Schwarz theorized in December that staff may have destroyed the evidence because they thought Bigelow was dead or because they were cleaning out the older files. On Monday, he said a mistake was made, and sheriff's staff didn't follow their procedures. But, he added, that's no reason for the case to be dismissed. 

The clothing wasn't destroyed because it would have exonerated Bigelow, Schwarz said. If DNA tests had been conducted, the results would not have proved Bigelow's innocence, he said. 

The clothing wasn't destroyed because of any dark motive, he said. 

"There are no DNA samples and there was no rape kit in this case," Schwarz said. "This evidence (the clothing) was never examined. It sat in that evidence locker for six years before it was destroyed by Brandy Cartaino." 

Bigelow's attorneys could have requested it be tested during those six years while Bigelow was missing, Schwarz said. 

"Dismissal is the most severe sanction," he told Reese. 

Wetter tried to show there is no evidence linking Bigelow to the crime, and that DNA evidence could have shown that Bigelow did not molest the girl. Without test results and evidence, there is no way to counter the accuser's account of that, Wetter said. 

Hospital and police reports and comments from the accuser conflict as to whether any DNA evidence was collected in the case. Wetter called a forensic biologist with National Medical Services, Arthur Young, to testify Monday about whether it sounded like a rape kit was completed on the girl to collect evidence. Young does not work with the Sheriff's Office and is a paid consultant. 

"That document clearly says a rape kit was not used," Schwarz said of one report. 

Besides the accuser's testimony implicating Bigelow, there were multiple witnesses, Schwarz said. Plus, Bigelow faking his death and fleeing will also be used at trial. 

"It's all 'if,'" Schwarz said. "I don't think Mr. Bigelow's due process rights have been violated at all." 

The case tentatively is scheduled for trial in May. Bigelow is being held in the Lee County Jail without bond.

HEADLINE: Hearing set for lawmen

Lincoln County Sheriff Dale McNelly and former Undersheriff Ed Williamson are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on embezzlement charges Monday in Lincoln County District Court.
The two men are accused of using county inmates to repair personal vehicles and work on private property. 

Four felony embezzlement counts were filed Dec. 30 against Williamson. McNelly faces two counts of embezzlement.

The charges are the result of an inquiry by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation that began in May, when state agents got a tip that Williamson was using inmate labor at his home in Payne County.

A fifth felony charge was filed against Williamson in February for allegedly taking a gun used by a suicide victim out of the sheriff's department evidence locker for personal use.

McNelly and Williamson have denied the accusations.

Payne County District Attorney Rob Hudson said the preliminary hearing for both men is to start at 9 a.m. and is not likely to last more than one day.

Hudson said former county jail inmates and OSBI agent Bob Harshaw, who investigated the case, will testify at the hearing.

Miles Zimmerman, McNelly's attorney, has issued court orders for about 20 witnesses to appear at Monday's hearing.

Zimmerman said Tuesday that McNelly intends to run for sheriff again and wants the case resolved before beginning his campaign in June.

HEADLINE: Police taking inventory of evidence at facility

The Guam Police Department is taking inventory of 30 years worth of evidence to determine whether any of the items were tampered with at it's property section in Tiyan.

"We believe that narcotics evidence were tampered with. And we won't know for sure until we finish the inventory," Acting Police Chief Frank Ishizaki said during a news conference on the department's Evidential Property Facilities in Tiyan. 

Police officials said yesterday the investigation is connected to the arrest and sentencing of former GPD evidence technician Harvey Candaso last year. Candaso was subpoenaed to bring a set amount of crystal methamphetamine, or ice, before a grand jury but federal agents learned that there was a change of weight in the evidence, said Capt. Paul Suba.

Ishizaki said part of their investigation is to determine whether any cases were affected by the loss in evidence and whether any other evidence in the property section was tampered with.

"Upon completion of our inventory we will have a good idea of what cases have been affected," Ishizaki said. "At this point, we don't know what's impacted."

The acting chief also said that numerous felony and misdemeanor case property items were exposed to extreme environmental conditions because of damage after Typhoon Chata'an and Super typhoon Pongsona in 2002.

"Our facilities are not the best, so we are working with the airport authority to get a new property section established as soon as possible," Ishizaki said.

It was during the course of the inventories and locating to alternate facilities, that property section personnel discovered several evidentiary items may have been tampered with and proper local and federal authorities were notified.

"There are serious problems in our evidence room. We have general orders on how to operate, and we have not followed the rules of how we need to operate. We've been lax in inventory. We've been lax in proper disposal of evidence. We have not done our annual inventories," Ishizaki said.

"We just have to get back on track and we will."

The Guam Police Department is investigating whether any evidence was tampered with at its Evidential Property Facilities, or property section, in Tiyan.

The following are the proposed actions the police department plans to take or has already taken:
Identify at what stage the investigation stood, both federally and locally;

Segregate and ensure the security and integrity of all evidence;

Assign additional personnel to assist in the ongoing inventory of evidentiary items;

Create a task force to conduct an investigation into any improprieties at the Evidential Control Section or Property Section;

Identify an alternate evidence storage facility; and

Update and implement policies and procedures to prevent future improprieties in the confiscation, processing and storage of evidence.

Masako Watanabe/Pacific Daily News/mwatanabe@guampdn.com

HEADLINE: District attorney, clerk plead for money; Budget panel gives them no more cash

As has happened many times before, the New Orleans City Council's Budget Committee was told Thursday that the district attorney's office and the clerk's office at Criminal District Court need significant increases in their budgets.

And, as has also happened many times before, council members expressed sympathy and said they understand how important the offices are to keeping the city safe.

And, as has happened many times before to others who have headed the two offices, District Attorney Eddie Jordan and Clerk Kimberly Williamson Butler left empty-handed except for statements that maybe something can be worked out by the time the committee holds its May meeting.

Jordan has been looking since late 2003 for an extra $360,000 for his program to protect crime witnesses and victims. He said the program is needed to persuade witnesses to step forward with evidence vital to prosecutions.

Jordan said he also needs money to increase the pay of assistant district attorneys, who make such low salaries that Jordan recently agreed to let them handle civil cases on the side, in hopes of keeping experienced prosecutors longer.

Young lawyers typically cut their teeth as prosecutors for a couple of years before leaving for higher-paying jobs. Orleans Parish assistant district attorneys earn an average of $38,500 a year, with $30,000 as base salary.

Jordan told the committee he understands that the city "does not have the resources at this time to provide us with significant additional funds."

But committee Chairman Marlin Gusman said, "We need to make sure you have the resources to get the job done," and Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt said she doesn't like the idea of prosecutors having jobs on the side.

Gusman told Jordan he hopes to have better news for him by the committee's May meeting.

That was essentially the same message the committee had for Butler, who has been trying since she took office in December to get the city's 2004 contribution to her office restored to the level of previous years.

The city cut its contribution by 5 percent from the 2003 authorized level, which Butler said amounted to a 15 percent cut from the city's actual contribution, forcing her to lay off 13 of the office's 97 employees.

The city supplies about 90 percent of the office's total budget of about $2.9 million, she said.
The Budget Committee on Thursday received the results of an "economy and efficiency audit" that the city commissioned to see whether the clerk's office is operating properly and whether savings are possible.

The audit, done by the local accounting firm of Ericksen, Krentel & LaPorte just after Butler took office, found a host of problems in the way the office was being run under her predecessor. Problems included failure to follow proper financial procedures, a lack of computerization, a file storage system that "has become a safety hazard" and spending public money for employee parties and for other illegal uses.

Butler said she has addressed some of the issues raised in the audit since she took over the office but that correcting most of the problems will require more money and more staff. She put the cost of bringing the office up to date at $2.9 million, most of it for one-time expenses, and said she needs an annual budget of $3.5 million.

Butler said she was able to replace the office's 25-year-old furniture with a gift of used furniture from the McGlinchey, Stafford law firm.

But she said the office's property and evidence room is in such disarray that the evidence needed for one recent trial, including a gun and videotaped testimony, could not be found, forcing prosecutors to plea bargain the case and accept a much shorter sentence than could have been obtained with a guilty verdict.

As with Jordan, the committee offered Butler little more than expressions of good wishes, although Gusman announced that the administration has agreed to drop an ordinance that would have transferred $50,000 from Butler's budget to the Department of Parks and Parkways.

The administration said the $50,000 was included in the clerk's budget by mistake. The copiers it was supposed to pay for are being provided by the Office of Technology, so even if the money stays in her budget, Butler can't spend it, making the administration's decision to drop the ordinance nothing more than a goodwill gesture.

HEADLINE: Lost evidence taints case, attorneys argue

The loss of key evidence by Harvey police makes it impossible to determine whether Donald Calloway shot his ex-wife execution-style 25 years ago, defense attorneys said Thursday.

Calloway, 67, is on trial in Markham for the murder of 48-year-old Margie Murray, who was shot in her van after she and Calloway left a South Side bar the evening of March 20, 1979.

Defense attorneys, as well as a videotaped statement from Calloway that was played for jurors, contend he accidentally shot Murray in the temple while defending himself when she brandished a .32-caliber pistol following a heated argument. 

Closing arguments and jury deliberations are scheduled to take place Friday.

In December 2001, Harvey police arrested Calloway, who was living under the assumed name Robert Ducks, one of several aliases he had used to elude authorities for years. He was arrested at a real-estate office where he worked on Chicago's West Side.

Prosecutors said Calloway remained undercover for years because he killed Murray execution-style, stashed the gun in a cabinet of her home and dumped her body behind an abandoned house in Harvey. Defense attorneys say Calloway fled and took on new identities because he was afraid of being wrongfully convicted of murder.

Key evidence--such as the alleged murder weapon and the wig Murray wore the night she was shot--was lost by Harvey police as the case grew colder over the years.

The missing evidence, defense attorneys said, tainted the prosecution's case because it could not be properly examined to determine whether the shooting was intentional or accidental. The wig, for instance, could have borne clues about the position of the gun when Murray was shot, they said.

Defense attorneys contend police never investigated the possibility the shooting was an accident.
Former Harvey police officer Joe Thomas, who was put on the case after Calloway was apprehended in 2001, conceded it was hard to retrace the events of that night. "Since it was such an old case, it was hard to track down people because they had moved," Thomas said.

HEADLINE: Court Vacates Conviction In Evidence Case

An appellate court vacated the sentence of a former Winnfield police officer convicted of taking drugs from an evidence locker.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the conviction, and Manuel Lee Espejel was released from prison last month. 

Espejel was convicted of malfeasance in office and sentenced to five years in prison. He was accused of taking marijuana from the evidence room following a drug arrest in 2002.

According to court records, Espejel admitted that he gave a key to the evidence room to another officer and received $500.

Attorneys for Espejel argued that the state failed to present evidence to support the conviction. In addition, there was "no specific duty imposed by law" to return evidence to the locker within a specific amount of time, records state.

The appellate court ruled that there was not enough evidence to support the conviction.

HEADLINE: Ex-policeman says he plans to appeal firing;

Fourteen-year veteran defends himself amid "breach of duty" findings by Lancaster City Council, which terminated him Tuesday night.

One day after being kicked off the Lancaster City police force, Timothy F. Goodson said he'll appeal to the county courts to get his job back.

He can't explain why his colleagues found a bag of marijuana in his locker and other evidence that he failed to turn in, he said this morning.

He said he's sorry he didn't follow up prosecutions, or a stalking complaint that he was assigned to handle, he said.

Goodson said he is the victim of a racially motivated "head hunting campaign out to get him," ordered and organized by his superior officers. 

"I was here for the community of Lancaster. This is going to cause the city more money in legal fees just for going through this because people didn't do their jobs," said Goodson of his superiors.

But Lancaster City Council ruled Tuesday that it was Goodson who didn't do his job, voting 5-2 to fire the 14-year veteran.

Police Chief William Heim said this morning Goodson was fired because he didn't do his job, not because he is African-American.

According to City Council findings released Tuesday, Goodson "failed to do his job for an extended period of time."

The findings outline the city's case and were the basis of the decision, explained Council President Dr. Stephen G. Diamantoni.

Among the "breaches of duty" were failures to file 35 reports for minor criminal offenses and 28 for accidents; failure to follow up on a stalking complaint; failure to file citations related to an automobile accident and other non-traffic citations; and failure to account for four license plates.

Goodson missed district justice hearings on numerous occasions, according to the findings, and did not file 13 pending prosecutions with local district justices.

After Goodson went on sick leave in November 2002, police began an internal investigation after receiving several complaints from citizens regarding cases Goodson was handling.

During a Dec. 14, 2002, search, police found several items that should have been taken to the evidence room in Goodson's locker and gym bag, including license plates and a bag of marijuana.

On April 1, 2003, the city suspended Goodson without pay.

Heim said this morning that he can't talk about the firing or the charges against Goodson because of the potential for continuing litigation.

But Heim did deny that race was a factor: "There is such a number of different problems in his performance. It is not a singular incident or failure that resulted in action, but a sum total of poor performance issues that were not resolved by the officer."

Goodson blamed a bout of depression for his failure to file the records and alleged that he is not the only officer guilty of that.

Councilman Nelson Polite, who cast one of the two votes against the termination, said at Tuesday's meeting that he wondered if more couldn't have been done to address Goodson's behavior, which Polite called "a cry for emotional help."

Councilman Luis Mendoza, who cast the other vote, agreed.

Goodson said he had good reasons for why he didn't appear in court when he was supposed to, but he admitted he can't explain them all.

As for the marijuana found in his locker, Goodson gave two answers during an interview this morning.

He said he didn't know how it got there and said it was possible it was planted to incriminate him.

"It could have been put there,'' he said.

When asked again later, Goodson said he was supposed to turn in the evidence, but "didn't get it there."

"It was in transition" between the incident and the evidence room, Goodson said.

He said that what he did wasn't so bad, that he was depressed and simply "going through the motions," but he added that he is a good cop compared to what fellow officers have done and continue to do.

"I never beat a citizen. Nothing that even led to something criminal,'' Goodson said.

Goodson said he became the victim of racism after he filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1999 after he failed an examination to become a detective.

The EEOC determined that Goodson was discriminated against by not being promoted, and was retaliated against for complaining about racial harassment.

But the city disagreed. In March 2002, the U.S. Department of Justice offered a compromise in which the city would offer Goodson a career mentor in the bureau as well as time-management and writing classes.

Goodson said he took the time-management class, but the rest of the agreement was never fulfilled. He said the chief and his superiors were out to get him after that.

He said the search of his locker, when he was on sick leave, was an example.

"They investigated me like a criminal. No one ever came to me and asked me what was wrong," he said.

After his suspension, City Council held a hearing in July 2003 to consider Goodson's termination. Goodson and his defense attorney chose not to offer a defense at the hearing.

City Assistant Solicitor Neil Albert told the council Tuesday that he called Goodson's attorney "at least 12 times" but got no response. The hearing was permanently closed Dec. 1.

Goodson said he was shocked when he heard his lawyer had not responded, because he wanted to defend himself.

HEADLINE: MAN GUILTY IN THEFTS FROM PROPERTY ROOM

Another defendant in the scandal involving thefts of drugs and money from the Memphis Police Department's property room pleaded guilty in an agreement with the federal government Tuesday.

Sixteen people - including three former civilian property-room workers - were indicted last September in a case that linked evidence-room thefts to a cocaine ring.

Carl Edward Johnson, who was a senior inventory-control clerk in the property room, pleaded guilty before U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald to conspiracy to steal drugs and money-laundering, and agreed to forfeit a house and two cars.

Johnson admitted helping property room shift supervisor Kenneth Dansberry steal drugs from the property room. Johnson then made multiple cash deposits of less than $10,000 each into bank accounts to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements.

Dansberry pleaded guilty earlier and also is cooperating with investigators.

Johnson told investigators he helped Danberry steal about 220 pounds of cocaine and was paid about $150,000 to $200,000 in cash.

HEADLINE: Fairfax Police Employees Charged With Thefts

Two civilian employees of the Fairfax County Police Department have been charged with stealing from the police property room, with one employee accused of taking more than $12,000 cash, police said yesterday.

An investigation into missing cash began in October, police said, after money that was to be returned to a crime victim could not be found. Police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings said detectives launched an audit of the cash being held in the police property section, stored in a vault in a building behind police headquarters in Fairfax City.

The investigators concluded that Kionna Garrett, 22, of the 3200 block of Napper Road in the Hybla Valley area, was responsible for the cash theft, Jennings said. Detectives interviewed Garrett late last week, she said, and Garrett then resigned from the department. She had worked for Fairfax police for three years, and police do not know how long the thefts had been occurring.

Police obtained three felony charges of embezzlement against Garrett on Tuesday. Garrett surrendered to police later that day, Jennings said, and was released on a personal recognizance bond.

While investigating the theft, detectives learned that various property also was missing from the cluttered storage facility, which contains about 44,000 confiscated and found items. Jennings said the stolen items were tools, including a power-washer, and clothes. She said none of the missing property was to be used as evidence; it had been found by citizens or by officers during an investigation in which the owner could not be determined. All of the items were designated for destruction, because items such as clothes cannot be auctioned, Jennings said.

Investigators identified Donald Popkins, 48, of the 1200 block of Sterling Road in Herndon, as the suspect. He resigned, after 16 years with the department, and was charged Tuesday with one count of embezzlement. He was released on a personal recognizance bond. Police do not think his theft was related to Garrett's.

Four years ago, Daniel B. Garrett III, a retired officer who had worked in the police drug unit, admitted he stole at least $330,000 in seized cash over six years. Garrett, who is not related to Kionna Garrett, was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

Jennings said Daniel Garrett's thefts occurred in the vice and narcotics unit, in a building separate from the police property unit. She said the property unit is audited every two years by the countyand internal audits are conducted twice a year to maintain accreditation. 

HEADLINE: Jax Detective Continues Fight To Keep Badge

BY LINE: News4Jax

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Though Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford said he should be kicked off the force, one homicide detective is taking the fight for his badge to the city's Civil Service Board. 

Investigators said veteran officer Robert Nelson (pictured, left) took guns out of the evidence room and could not explain what he did with them. According to Rutherford, he lied about it when questioned by officials from Internal Affairs. 

IA officials recommended Nelson be fired for mishandling evidence. 

Nelson was part of joint law enforcement task force that confiscated three guns and ammunition from drug dealers in 1999. The weapons were being stored at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office property room. 

According to a report, Nelson took the firearms out of the property room on three occasions, and then kept them for three months. In one instance, the report says he didn't return the guns for three-and-a-half years. 

Rutherford said he's disappointed with the officer's behavior and his dishonesty. 

Nelson has received public praise in the past for several cases, including the speedy arrest of three suspects in a 2002 triple murder in northwest Jacksonville.