HEADLINE:  Former Hollister police chief sentenced for theft

FORSYTH, Mo. - A former southwest Missouri police chief was sentenced Thursday to five years probation plus community service for stealing almost $7,000 from his department.

George Stevens resigned as chief of the Hollister Police Department in January, shortly after he was charged with two counts of felony stealing. He pleaded guilty to both counts in June.

Taney County Circuit Judge James Eiffert gave Stevens a suspended three-year sentence on each count, meaning he could go to prison if he violates the terms of probation. Stevens must also complete 200 hours of community service, obtain regular employment and complete a course in financial management.

Stevens spent 10 years with the Hollister Police Department and was named chief in 1996.

The Missouri Highway Patrol, at the request of city officials, opened an investigation in January that showed $4,300 in cash bond payments missing from the city jail and $2,600 missing from the police department's evidence room.

HEADLINE: LAPD Narcotics Analyst Erred
Botched evidence raises questions on credibility. Public defender's office demands an accounting

LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT CHEMISTS MISTAKES EVIDENCE

A Los Angeles police chemist botched evidence in 47 narcotics cases, leading to a review of all 972 drug cases he handled, The Times has learned.

The errors have prompted inquires by both the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and raised questions about the credibility of Jeff Lowe, who has analyzed drugs for the LAPD since May 2003. 

The Los Angeles County public defender's office has demanded from prosecutors a complete list of cases in which Lowe analyzed evidence. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, whose office learned of the problem in March, has yet to decide whether to comply. 

The problems at the LAPD crime lab follow by a decade the O.J. Simpson murder case, when the lab was harshly criticized for how it collected and stored evidence. The revelations also come at a particularly inopportune time for law enforcement officials across Los Angeles County, who are trying to persuade voters to approve a tax increase to support local police

Crime lab supervisors believe the discrepancies were inadvertent and may have been caused by Lowe's failure to weigh the drugs separately from the containers in which they were seized. Nevertheless, the district attorney's office has urged its prosecutors not to rely on Lowe's calculations.

Lowe, 33, was removed from casework, retrained and tested for competency, but is now back on the job as one of 10 criminalists in the narcotics analysis unit. Lowe started at the crime lab in 2000 and analyzed blood and urine evidence before moving to narcotics. Reached at the lab Wednesday, Lowe declined to comment.

Prosecutors do not believe any criminal cases have been compromised as a result of Lowe's errors. But defense attorneys disagree. And LAPD officials said other criminalists have reviewed evidence and testified in at least three cases. 

One defense attorney, David Kaloyanides, said he will probably file a motion for new trial based on Lowe's errors. Lowe testified as an expert witness last year against Phillip Rawl, leading to a conviction on one count of gross vehicular manslaughter and two counts of drunk driving. Rawl faces a possible sentence of 14 years on those charges. Juries also twice deadlocked on a charge of vehicular murder; prosecutors are set to retry Rawl on that count.

Kaloyanides learned of Lowe's errors last week and notified Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephen Marcus, who ordered prosecutors to turn over information about cases handled by Lowe. Marcus has scheduled a hearing for next week on the issues surrounding Lowe.

"Any time you have law enforcement not doing their job accurately, it undermines the potential legitimacy of the evidence they want to present," Kaloyanides said.

The district attorney's office has scheduled a meeting for today to discuss the issues involving Lowe.

Prosecutors are required to give the defense information in their possession that could be used to impeach a government witness, such as a police officer or coroner.

Some prosecutors believe the errors undermine Lowe's expertise and therefore should be disclosed to the defense. "An argument could be made that this evidence indicates that chemist Lowe is a 'careless' and/or 'incompetent' scientist," Jacquelyn Lacey, director of central operations for the district attorney's office, wrote in an internal memo in June.

But others in the office argue against disclosure because Lowe's errors dealt with the weight rather than the identity of the drugs. They describe the errors as neither intentional nor malicious. 

Defense attorney Gigi Gordon, who represents defendants allegedly victimized by police corruption, said prosecutors are obligated to turn over the information if they know Lowe made even one mistake. "The courts have told them again and again that, if there is any question in their minds, they should turn it over," she said. "It's shocking to me that there would even be a discussion about it."

The problems with Lowe came to his supervisors' attention after a judge ordered drug evidence in one case to be re-weighed. The district attorney's office declined to file charges in that case, based on insufficiency of the evidence.

Two other criminalists at the lab then reviewed a sample of 10 of Lowe's cases. After discovering another miscalculation, they expanded the review to every piece of evidence analyzed by Lowe from May 2003 to January 2004. Altogether, the criminalists re-weighed 1,438 pieces of evidence.

"During this review, it was discovered that the court-ordered re-weighing was not an isolated incident," Commanding Officer Steven B. Johnson, who heads the crime lab, wrote in a letter to the district attorney's office.

The LAPD found more weight discrepancies and sent 27 corrections to prosecutors. But according to the internal district attorney's office memo, prosecutors believe there were an additional 20 suspect cases. Most of the cases did not involve large-scale drug trafficking, but rather street-level arrests for possession, possession for sale or sale of narcotics, Johnson said.
Laura Green, a division chief at the Los Angeles County public defender's office, said the miscalculations not only could have affected what charges were filed, but also what sentences defendants received. Green said she had "severe questions" about Lowe's credibility during his entire time at the crime lab.

"This is a very serious situation because of the impact it could have on our clients," Green said. "It's somewhat bewildering to me that the D.A. can have this material and not turn it over."
Johnson said he could not recall the crime lab ever making errors in the weighing of narcotics. In some of Lowe's cases, he said the weight changes might have been due to the drugs drying out in storage. 

"We jealously guard our reputation and make every effort to get things right," he said. "It's something we would have preferred not to happen. It happened, and we responded to it appropriately."

Ralph Keaton, executive director of the board that accredits labs throughout the nation, said the LAPD crime lab was inspected during a visit in December 2003 and that the laboratory has informed the board about the problems with Lowe. Keaton said the board is continuing its inspection of LAPD's lab "related to their renewal of accreditation."

HEADLINE: Rape suspect freed pending appeal on DNA evidence

A convicted sex offender accused of raping a woman in 1996 was released from jail Monday while he waits for prosecutors to appeal a DuPage County judge's decision to bar admission of DNA from the man's trial.

Kurt J. Serzen, 46, of Hanover Park has been in jail since September 2003, when he was arrested and charged with allegedly raping a 23-year-old Bensenville woman based on DNA evidence that was said to be a match. 

DuPage County Judge Perry Thompson, however, ruled in July that prosecutors cannot use the DNA evidence because other pieces of evidence, including the woman's clothing, were destroyed by the Bensenville Police Department in 2001 when the department cleaned its evidence room. A detective with the department has testified that the remaining DNA evidence was the only physical link between Serzen and the crime.

Prosecutors are appealing the judge's decision, a process that could take months. Meanwhile, Serzen, who had a previous conviction for misdemeanor sexual abuse and who was being held in lieu of $250,000 bail, has been released on his own recognizance.

He is required to meet weekly with probation officers and must submit to random alcohol and drug testing.

HEADLINE: Evidence room employee admits stealing cocaine
                     Staffer says he took $1M of drug from Detroit Police Dept.

DETROIT - A former evidence room employee for the Detroit Police Department confessed this week to stealing 100 kilograms of cocaine, selling it and using the proceeds to buy several properties in Detroit.

John Earl Cole Sr. pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and money laundering.

Under a plea agreement, he faces up to 30 years in prison and must repay $1.3 million - the amount he received for the drugs.

Cole, 52, said he took at least 220 pounds of cocaine between 1994 and 2000 - using a duffel bag. He said he kept the cocaine, with a street value of more than $2 million, in his locker.

He then replaced some of the stolen cocaine with flour.

Cole said he sold the cocaine on the streets of Metro Detroit and used the proceeds to buy at least 17 Detroit properties, including a barbershop and apartment buildings.

Working with a Detroit police officer, Donald Hynes, Cole alleged, he would steal cocaine three or four times a year.

Hynes, who is under indictment awaiting trial, helped him "because he had the key to the evidence room and it would look suspicious if I went in alone," Cole told the court.

The precise amount stolen will never be known because of poor record-keeping by Detroit Police.

The last theft occurred in 2000, when Cole removed 55 pounds of cocaine.

If the government believes Cole has provided substantial assistance, they will recommend a sentence of 15 years. Cole has already served nearly two years in custody awaiting trial.

The FBI began looking into Cole in March 2001, when Detroit police discovered that a sealed package of Gold Medal flour was in a box that had contained the drug.

To date, six others have pleaded guilty during the investigation.

Contact David Shepardson of the Detroit News at (313) 222-2028
or dshepardson@detnews.com.

HEADLINE: REPLACE HONOR SYSTEM IN DNA LABS

This is the last of three editorials on the reliability of DNA results from the state's forensics lab.

Today, the nation's DNA crime labs police themselves largely through an honor system. Robert Shaler, director of forensic biology in the New York City medical examiner's office, describes how that works in the best of circumstances.

If significant questions arise about a test result in his lab, Shaler said, he turns the case over to a quality assurance manager, who reviews it. 

If the manager agrees that the questions have merit, the lab retests any remaining sample and then writes an amended report that is sent to both the prosecution and the defense.
Next, the lab's procedures are reviewed and corrected. And, finally, all other cases handled by the analyst who conducted the faulty test are reviewed for similar problems.

At the lab's next audit, the auditor is shown the case so that the corrective action can be reviewed. Later, that audit report goes to the FBI lab, where another set of eyes assesses the performance.

The shortcoming with this system is that it is self-starting.

If a lab concludes at the beginning that it did nothing wrong, the matter ends there. That's what the Virginia Division of Forensic Science did recently when its results in a high-profile murder case were criticized by three DNA experts, including Shaler.

Unless a higher authority, such as a governor, orders an independent audit, the lab's word stands. So far, Gov. Mark Warner has refused to intervene in the rape-murder case of Culpeper housewife Rebecca Williams.

On paper, there is an elaborate system of audits for labs that participate in the FBI's DNA data bank or for those that seek industry accreditation. But those reviews also depend to a substantial degree on the lab's willingness to point out its own errors.

That's not good enough in an era when the criminal justice system invests enormous faith in DNA testing as a forensic tool. Growing awareness of the potential for human error in interpreting DNA results demands a better system, both in Virginia and nationally.
 

Here are five ways to make the oversight of forensics labs more reliable:

• An independent entity needs to be created with the authority to address serious disputes involving the handling and analysis of biological material. Suggestions range from creation of a "science court" to a scientific inspector general. Short of that, greater independence needs to be injected into the auditing process. Today, it is too easy for a mistake to be overlooked.

• Forensic scientists need to analyze DNA test results independently of a prosecutor's theory of the crime. In some cases where mistakes have been made, scientists appeared to tailor their interpretations to favor the prosecution. Particularly when mixtures of DNA are tested, as often occurs in sex crimes, there is more leeway in analyzing DNA results than lawyers and judges realize.

• Lawyers and judges need more training in the ins and outs of DNA testing. They need to be less accepting and more skeptical of analyses coming from state labs.

• Judges should approve the hiring of expert defense witnesses to scrutinize DNA test results. The case of Karl Michael Roush, who was wrongly arrested in the 1996 murder of Spotsylvania teenager Sofia Silva, highlights the need. A complicated DNA test was part of the evidence against him. The test said he could not be ruled out if there was more than one murderer.


But Roush was shown to be innocent when the FBI determined that the same person who killed Silva killed sisters Kristin and Kati Lisk, also of Spotsylvania County. Roush could not have murdered the Lisk sisters because he was in jail on the Silva murder charges when the sisters were killed. A South Carolina man was later identified as the killer of all three girls.

While he was under arrest for the Silva murder, Roush asked a circuit court judge for a DNA expert to clarify the results and to independently test the material. Chillingly, the judge said no. Had the sisters never been killed, an innocent man would have gone to trial with a DNA test pointing to him as a possible murderer and without a DNA expert to testify on his behalf.

• Obvious as it may seem, forensic analysts need to explain their DNA findings in layman's language. Too many reports are decipherable only by a fellow scientist.

All of this points to the need for a more transparent oversight system. In that spirit, the Virginia Division of Forensic Science and the governor's office should reconsider their apparent decision not to undertake an independent audit of test results in the Williams case.

The Virginia lab has enjoyed a strong national reputation. The best way to protect that standing is to welcome outside scrutiny, proving that the lab has nothing to hide.

All three parts of this series can be found online 
(http://www.hamptonroads.com/pilotonline/opinion). 
The site also contains our previous editorials on DNA testing in the state lab.

HEADLINE: Tidwell weapons sought;

APPEAL: People who received guns from the ex-sheriff are offered a
                no-questions-asked deal.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod has a request of anybody who ever got a weapon from former Sheriff Floyd Tidwell: Tell the sheriff's department about the gun. You might even get to keep it.

Tidwell pleaded guilty in May to four felony charges of possessing stolen property. Prosecutors believe he took 523 department weapons while sheriff from 1983 to 1991. 

Tidwell's defense attorney David Call made a different offer Monday: Give him your Tidwell-issued weapons, and he will transfer them to the sheriff's department while keeping your name secret." I've had people call me up and say, 'I've got a Tidwell gun,'"and want to turn it in, but they don't want to be identified or involved in a criminal case, Call said. 

"People said, 'I don't want to be drug (sic) through a knothole,'" 

Call said. "If you believe you got a gun through the Tidwell administration, I won't turn in your name."

In a letter to be sent today to a few thousand current and former sheriff's personnel, reservists, volunteers and county residents, Penrod said Tidwell broke state and departmental rules when he gave out the weapons and Penrod appealed for their return. The missing weapons will be declared stolen 60 days from today, and anybody caught possessing them could face criminal charges, the letter says.

However, anybody notifying the department by mid-October that they have weapons from Tidwell can explain how and when they got them, and why they kept them, thereby avoiding prosecution, the letter said."For some individuals this will require surrender of the weapon to the sheriff's department and for others an update of our records will be sufficient," Penrod's letter said. 

In some instances, the current possessor of the gun will be able to keep it, the letter said. 

Tidwell is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 4 on the felony charges. However, in a plea deal with prosecutors, he agreed to help locate the weapons and submit to interviews in exchange for reducing the charges to misdemeanors with no jail time and a $10,000 fine. The plea deal also gave immunity to anybody who cooperated with the guns inquiry. 

District Attorney Michael Ramos and Penrod now disagree over whether Tidwell is cooperating enough to get his charges reduced. The district attorney's office sent Tidwell a letter last month requiring him to cooperate in the recovery of the guns as well as an investigation into his two sons' bail bond business in order to receive consideration for the reduced sentence. 

Penrod has said that Tidwell's return of guns signifies cooperation. Tidwell has turned in some guns through Call, but he has not submitted to an interview with prosecutors. "I'm disappointed in that," Call said, referring to Ramos' position."I don't feel like I've been non-cooperating."

Tidwell should not have to be interviewed about the criminal case involving two of his sons, Call said. 

Sons Steven and Daniel Tidwell are accused of paying jail inmates to solicit bail bond business from other inmates. Steven Tidwell pleaded guilty. Danial Tidwell pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial."I don't need to be involved in that case," Call said. 

"I've turned over firearms and I'll continue to turn over firearms."Call said.  All the guns Tidwell took were slated for destruction, and none were taken from the department's evidence locker. 

HEADLINE:  AFTER 18 YEARS, RELEASED BUT STILL NOT FREE

Michael McAlister walked out of a Virginia prison Thursday, but he is not a free man.

The grievance he carries from his years behind bars weighs too heavily for him to be really free. After serving 18 years for a crime it now appears he did not commit, his name has not been cleared. And he is filled with hate.

Gov. Mark Warner might have lightened the burden had he granted McAlister's clemency petition last year, but - to his shame - the governor did not.

McAlister likely was wrongly convicted of a 1986 abduction and attempted rape. Warner did not have to take his protests of innocence as evidence. He could have taken the word of the former Richmond police detective who arrested McAlister and the former prosecutor who won his conviction.

The detective now thinks a serial rapist who is serving a life sentence, and bears a strong resemblance to McAlister, probably committed the crime. No DNA evidence exists; the case rested on the victim's identification of McAlister in a photo lineup and in court.

The former commonwealth's attorney also has strong doubts about the conviction, and both men supported McAlister's petition for clemency. Yet Warner denied it. And McAlister is physically free after serving 18 years of a 35-year sentence only because the crime occurred before Virginia abolished parole.

He served until his mandatory parole date.

Now he speaks with the bitterness that an innocent man would feel who has been through his ordeal. "I've been filled with hatred. . . . It's the last thing you think about before you go to bed and the first thing you think of in the morning as soon as your eyes pop open: 'This is real and I did not do it and they know I did not do it, and here I am.' "

Every human endeavor, including the pursuit of justice, is open to error. But, especially in the pursuit of justice, errors made evident must be made right. Virginia cannot return 18 years of a man's life, but it should at least restore to McAlister his good name.

HEADLINE: Criticism leads to officer's suspension;

Attorney: Detective told to air report concerns at meeting. An Aberdeen police officer has been suspended with pay for comments he made at a public meeting during which a report critiquing the police department was discussed.Detective Sgt. Steve Pionk was placed on administrative leave Monday for his criticism of the report.Harvey Oliver, an Aberdeen attorney who represents the police union, said Pionk was suspended pending the results of an investigation by the police department into what he said and how he acted at the Aug. 17 meeting.

Oliver said he finds it odd that there needs to be an investigation into what was said and what happened at a meeting to which the public was invited. City and police department officials were also on hand for the meeting and witnessed Pionk's actions. "As far as I know, the directive (about Pionk's suspension) came from the new chief of police," Oliver said.

Don Lanpher Jr. was hired as chief of police in June and started in July. He said he couldn't comment on the suspension because it's a personnel matter.

Lanpher was at the public meeting during which the report was discussed. Aberdeen Mayor Mike Levsen also declined to comment, referring questions to Mark Anderson, the city attorney.
Anderson was out of town Wednesday and couldn't be reached.

Because of the suspension, Pionk was not at work Wednesday and was also unavailable for comment.

The report was ordered after Chief Ken Schwab was fired by city commissioners Jan. 21. City officials said they fired Schwab for "philosophical differences." The report's intent was to evaluate the department's strengths and weaknesses.

Doug Lake, a retired agent for the state Division of Criminal Investigation, was hired as a consultant to author the report. He was paid $25,000 by the city for his work.

During the Aug. 17 public meeting to discuss the report's findings, Pionk called the report a "waste of taxpayers' money." He then left the meeting.

At the meeting, Pionk said that he did not tell Lake that blood evidence is dried on the floor of the department's evidence room as the report indicates. Pionk also took issue with other aspects of the report including what it said about evidence room procedures, detective pay issues and what Lake saw as a lack of written evidence room policy. Pionk said the report contained inaccuracies and misleading comments.

The American News article published Aug. 18 said the discussion "got heated" when Pionk was talking at the meeting. It also said Pionk "stormed out of the meeting." Oliver said Pionk didn't raise his voice or yell during the meeting and didn't make a scene when he left. Officers got to see a copy of the report before the meeting. Oliver said that Pionk approached Lanpher with concerns about the report. Lanpher told Pionk to raise his concerns at the meeting, according to Oliver. That's what Pionk did, so Oliver doesn't understand the reason for the suspension.

The comments Pionk made were in defense of the police department, Oliver said. He said Pionk was trying to let the public know the department and its employees are competent.

Even if Pionk was being critical of the department, Oliver said, he should have a right to point out shortcomings.

Oliver said officers never got a chance to debate the report while it was being written or before the public meeting. If they can't raise concerns about it now, there will never be a time to talk about those issues, Oliver said. "And a debate is supposed to be the foundation of a democracy," he added.

It's true, Oliver said, that the investigation may conclude that Pionk did nothing wrong and he may be reinstated at full pay and without a blemish on his personnel record. But even if that happens, the threat of an investigation can be intimidating, Oliver said.

Such happenings tend to stifle the ability public employees have to speak out, Oliver said.
Oliver said the police union is contemplating Pionk's legal options, but no decisions have been made.

HEADLINE: Judge dismisses fired BR police officer's lawsuit 

A former Baton Rouge police officer fired for selling guns from the evidence room has failed to prove he was wronged, a federal judge has decided. In a ruling made public Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Brady dismissed Tommy Morrison's 2-year-old lawsuit against the city, Police Chief Pat Englade, former Chief Greg Phares and former Special Investigations Division Lt. Cathy Doughty. 

Morrison and former supervisor Robert McGehee were fired in 2000 for allegedly stealing guns from the Police Department's evidence room after the weapons were listed as "destroyed" in police records.

The firings resulted from an investigation following the 1997 death of Assistant District Attorney Dana Ashford, who had a large collection of guns from the evidence room thought to have been destroyed.

Morrison and McGehee were arrested but charges against them were dropped in 2001 after the Louisiana Attorney General's Office determined the time limit for prosecution had passed.
In his lawsuit, Morrison claimed he was wrongfully fired and arrested, slandered and subjected to illegal search and malicious prosecution. Brady dismissed the lawsuit because Morrison waited more than a year from the day the charges were dismissed to file it. The criminal case was dismissed Jan. 18, 2001; Morrison sued on Dec. 13, 2002.

The judge also threw out Morrison's claim that he was the victim of gender discrimination because a female co-worker, Stacy LeBlanc, also was under investigation but not charged or fired.

In his ruling, Brady wrote that Morrison failed to prove that LeBlanc was "similarly situated" and "more favorably treated," which is the legal standard for establishing sex discrimination.

"Plaintiff fails to identify evidence or facts suggesting Ms. LeBlanc had possession of or sold firearms that were ordered to be destroyed," 

Brady wrote. "Plaintiff has admitted he was in possession of firearms that a court ordered destroyed and sold said firearms. Thus, plaintiff has presented no evidence that he and Ms. LeBlanc were similarly situated."

DATELINE: DENVER

Three police detectives were taken to Denver Health Medical Center after they were overcome by fumes from apparently moldy marijuana in the police evidence room. 

The officers were planning to remove and destroy the pot following the conclusion of a criminal case.

HEADLINE: Police Evidence Was Improperly Stored

Evidence from 8,000 criminal cases has been mislabeled and improperly stored in the Houston Police Department's property room, police said.

The evidence, much of it from murder investigations, is in 280 boxes and dates from 1979 to 1991, police said. An evidence box should contain material from only one case, according to department rules. Police Chief Harold Hurtt said it would take about a year for the department to finish going over the evidence. He blamed the situation on "poor work habits" and "sloppy efforts" by crime lab personnel. 

HEADLINE: STATE CANNOT IGNORE 3 WRONG CONVICTIONS

Marvin Lamont Anderson came first. Just 18 when a young Hanover County woman picked him out of a photo lineup as the man who raped and sodomized her, Anderson spent 15 years in prison. Then in 2001, DNA pinpointed the true culprit, another man.

Julius Earl Ruffin took center stage next. He spent 21 years behind bars for a Norfolk rape before DNA testing determined in 2003 that someone else did the crime.

This week, Arthur Lee Whitfield emerged as the third member of this star-crossed brotherhood. DNA testing absolved Whitfield of two 1981 rapes for which he had spent nearly 22 years in prison.

The common thread in these human horror tales - beyond the black skin of all three of the wrongfully accused - is their saving grace: a deceased state serologist named Mary Jane Burton.
Had Burton not defied usual policy at the Virginia Division of Forensic Science during the 1970s and '80s by methodically attaching samples of biological evidence to her files, Anderson, Ruffin and Whitfield would have gone to their graves tarred as rapists. Whitfield would still owe the state 41 more years, Ruffin five life terms.

The chilling awareness of how narrowly these men escaped an undeserved hell should impel lawyers, judges and politicians - many of whom have long boasted that Virginia has the best criminal justice system in the nation - to demand a complete accounting.

Over the past three years, the General Assembly has changed Virginia's toughest-in-the-nation rules on post-conviction review of innocence claims. Without those changes, Anderson, Ruffin and Whitfield would never have been cleared.

But the custodians of Virginia's criminal justice system need to do more than pat themselves on the back. They need to methodically review all the files in which Burton or any of her colleagues saved biological evidence during the era that preceded widespread DNA testing.

And wherever they can, they need to retest that evidence using up-to-date DNA identification techniques.

These questions deserve answers: 

How many other innocent men are wasting away in prison while the evidence that could exonerate them molds in Burton's files? How many died in prison or served their time and went home, branded for life?

Failure to answer those questions, when the state can, is criminal in itself. Waiting for the condemned men to file their own petitions doesn't suffice.

The flip side of pegging the wrong person as a rapist or murderer is that the real criminal goes free. Many times, a DNA test not only clears the innocent; it targets the guilty.

Gov. Mark Warner, Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, the State Crime Commission, members of the public safety committees in the General Assembly, the Virginia Supreme Court, the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia Bar Association all share a responsibility to safeguard the integrity of Virginia's criminal justice system.

As governor, Warner is best positioned to order an immediate review of the files of Mary Jane Burton and her colleagues. But if he fails to act, that does not absolve others in the above list from raising voices of protest.

One life demolished by a wrongful conviction can be an aberration.

Two might be a coincidence.

But three is a trend.

Truth is on file at the Virginia Division of Forensic Science. Conscience demands that someone open the drawers.

HEADLINE: No contest, says officer charged with drug theft

A former Monticello police officer charged with stealing crack cocaine from a neighboring police department pleaded no contest this week.

Larry Bates Jr., 35, of Monticello offered his plea to charges of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and grand theft.

Bates, formerly the Monticello Police Department's chief investigator, resigned in January when asked to take a drug test, records show.

His sentencing is set for Sept. 13 before Circuit Judge L. Ralph Smith. Under state guidelines, Bates could be ordered to serve probation, house arrest, drug treatment or as long as 11 months, 29 days in jail.

He offered a "straight-up" plea, essentially throwing himself on the mercy of the court and not negotiating with prosecutors. A no-contest plea means Bates does not admit guilt or innocence but chooses not to defend himself at trial.

"He felt it was in his best interests to put this behind him and not go through the stress of a jury trial," said Sean Desmond, his attorney.

"He's been very candid that he needed help and has been going to (Alcoholics Anonymous) meetings and seeking drug treatment," Desmond said. "He's past the denial stage. He wants help."

'No winners here'

Bates' former boss, Monticello Police Chief David Frisby, called the arrest "a great human tragedy." Bates had been with the department for 13 years, working as a patrol officer, major-case investigator and training officer.

"Prior to this he was an absolutely trusted employee," Frisby said. "Arresting one of your own officers is like arresting one of your own kids. There's no winners here."

Assistant State Attorney Mike Bauer, who oversees Jefferson County prosecutions, said none of Bates' cases had to be dropped or overturned because of the arrest.

Here's what police say happened:

On Jan. 12, an informant tipped off Deputy Chief Bill Bullock that he had been supplying Bates with crack cocaine. Bullock asked Bates to agree to a urinalysis. Bates declined and quit instead.

Bullock then discovered that Bates had asked the Perry Police Department in December to lend him crack cocaine in its evidence room to use in a Monticello police drug investigation.

The investigation was bogus. Bates "fraudulently used the MPD to get possession of the crack cocaine," according to an internal investigation.

Monticello police also determined that $3,000 and a .25-caliber handgun were missing from the department's evidence room, according to reports. Bates was the evidence room's custodian; empty evidence bags were found in his desk, reports said.

Assistant State Attorney Frank Allman, who prosecuted Bates, said the cocaine, money and handgun have not been recovered.