HEADLINE: GA. DEALER SNARED IN PROPERTY ROOM CASE

A former Memphis police property room boss, who stole so much he lost track, helped investigators catch an Atlanta drug dealer with secretly taped conversations.

On the Sept. 28, 2003, tape, a desperate-for-cash Patrick Maxwell begs Kenneth Dansberry to hook him up with drugs from the property room.  "You ain't been doing nothing . . . I need to get some money man!" he told Dansberry when they met at Home Depot.

Maxwell, a former property room worker, pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing massive amounts of cocaine while he worked there and later buying property room drugs from Dansberry.

Maxwell is the last big player to plead guilty in the property room scandal.  Since last fall, 16 people - including city workers and accused drug dealers have been indicted in connection with the theft of money, drugs and anything else in the property room that wasn't nailed down.

More than $2 million worth of cocaine, 560 pounds of marijuana, 66 guns and a small fortune in cash vanished from the police property and evidence room between 2000 and 2003, a state audit found.

Maxwell, 33, pleaded guilty to swiping drugs while he worked there. After he left, he said he got drugs from Dansberry and Carl E. Johnson, assigned to the MPD supply office.

On the tape, Maxwell tells Dansberry about a Memphis lawyer who helped him hide cocaine money.  "He gone (sic) want a thousand or two. Or whatever for doing it but you know he'll do it," Maxwell told Dansberry. "He'll give you a cashier's check or whoever's name you want it in."

Attorney Scott Crawford - who's sat as a General Sessions Court special judge is charged with laundering property-room drug profits through his law firm.  In another indictment, he's charged with trying to fix several criminal cases for high-ranking gang members.

In 1996 and 1997, Maxwell stole between 200 and 300 kilograms of cocaine. His biggest haul was 30 kilograms.  Maxwell stole cocaine almost every day and altered or destroyed records to cover the thefts.

He mainly stole cocaine because he didn't like marijuana's smell, records said.

Dansberry, who pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy charges in January, sold Maxwell between 200 and 300 kilograms of cocaine. Maxwell paid more than $6 million.  Under his plea deal, Maxwell must turn over property, cars, computers, jewelry and more than $10,000.  Set for sentencing in January, he may get a lesser sentence by aiding the federal government's case.

HEADLINE: Missing Evidence In Johnson City 

Sources tell Action News the investigation focuses on missing drug-related evidence from the Johnson City Police Department evidence room. Sources say the missing evidence was uncovered during a recent audit of the evidence room.

Sources also say the it's the Broome County District Attorney's Office that's investigating.
D.A. Gerald Mollen tells Action News he will neither confirm nor deny that. Village Mayor Harry Lewis says he has no comment at this point.

On Tuesday, Police Chief Stephen Korutz abruptly announced he's resigning after 20 years on the force, the last 5 as Chief. He cited health and personal reasons. His last day will be September 16th.Mayor Lewis says Korutz is now on leave for medical reasons.

He's 45 years old. Action News has learned this investigation into missing evidence could affect a number of on-going cases and investigations in Johnson City.

HEADLINE: NEW EVIDENCE FUROR HITS HPD; Mislabeled boxes may be
                     final straw for full-scale probe

The Houston Police Department has discovered evidence from thousands of cases that was improperly tagged and lost in its property room, Chief Harold Hurtt said Thursday, suggesting that problems with handling evidence may go back 25 years.

The evidence was contained in 280 mislabeled boxes that were found in the department's property room last August. But the boxes sat unopened for a year, even as an ongoing Harris County District Attorney's Office effort to retest DNA from 379 cases stalled because of missing evidence in 20 cases.

Investigators began opening the boxes last week and found an array of evidence that ranged from a fetus and human body parts to clothes and a bag of Cheetos.

The boxes were labeled with the numbers of individual cases. Now, HPD officials said, it appears that evidence from as many as 8,000 cases, from 1979 to 1991, was packed into the 280 cartons.

The discovery, the latest in a long list of problems at HPD's crime lab, may move officials closer to an independent investigation of the entire operation.

For the first time, Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal was among those seeking a full-scale independent investigation of the crime lab. Rosenthal had resisted previous calls for such a probe.

"I am now a firm believer that I was initially wrong and there needs to be an in-depth audit over there by some outside group," Rosenthal said. "I don't think the special master ought to have a blank check, but I want to do whatever it takes to resolve these problems."

Hurtt said he will bring in outside experts to look at the department's procedures. An HPD spokesman said Hurtt wants to have a former prosecutor act as a special master, a format that would give the investigation autonomy.

Lawyer Barry Scheck, who founded the Innocence Project in New York City, and who repeatedly has called for an independent investigation of HPD's crime lab, said the special master "must be able to go where the evidence leads. Nothing short of that will restore public confidence."

The discovery of the forgotten boxes of evidence comes as questions about the analysis in a 1987 rape case have widened doubts about the quality of the crime lab's work.

The lab first came under scrutiny in November 2002, when DNA testing was suspended amid questions about its accuracy. Retesting of evidence from 379 cases was ordered. Since then, concerns have been raised about several other lab divisions, including toxicology and ballistics.

Hurtt said the full implications of the uncovered evidence cache remained unclear Thursday because investigators so far have sifted through only about 5 percent of the boxes' contents. The evidence could affect cases of convicted defendants seeking DNA testing under a state law, as well as unsolved crimes in which evidence has never been exposed to new technologies that could help authorities close the cases.

"It is very significant in the fact that we don't know what we have in those boxes," Hurtt said. "Were they cases that are open? We don't know yet. The bottom line is to ensure that justice is done - whether it is proving people innocent or convicting others."

Hurtt said the boxes were not opened because they appeared to be from closed cases that did not include DNA materials and because investigators were committed to other investigations.

The boxes were opened last week, Hurtt said, as part of an effort to examine department procedures for cataloging evidence.

All of the boxes came to the property room from the HPD crime lab, where analysts and other employees had mislabeled them.

HPD personnel have begun the painstaking effort of unpacking all of the boxes and regrouping the materials, case by case. The 280 boxes, many of them splitting apart, fill a room on HPD's 24th floor.

HPD personnel are working two shifts a day, seven days a week to catalog the evidence, a process officials said could take a year to complete.

As they archive the materials, HPD investigators also will look for evidence from cases in which convicted defendants are requesting DNA testing under a state law that took affect in 2001.

Assistant District Attorney Roe Wilson said 200 to 300 such post-conviction DNA tests have been requested in Harris County. She said she knew of no cases where missing evidence was a problem, but added, "I can't say it won't come up."

Nearly 300 mislabeled boxes of evidence were found in this Houston police property room but sat unopened for almost a year. All of the boxes came to the property room from the HPD crime lab, where analysts and other employees had mislabeled them. 

(p. 6); 2. Steve Campbell: Chronicle

HEADLINE: Officer charged in marijuana theft

MIDDLETOWN - A Middletown police officer was formally charged last week with stealing confiscated marijuana from the police station, the attorney general's office confirmed yesterday.

Michael Braley, 42, has been charged with one felony and two misdemeanors committing a prohibited act by a law enforcement official, larceny under $500,and obstructing a police officer. A third charge, possession of marijuana, was dropped because the four bags of the drug that were taken from an evidence box in the station house were never found, according to Jerry Coyne, deputy attorney general. The bags were believed to be discarded, officials have said.

Citing the police officers' bill of rights, the new Middletown police chief, Anthony Pesare, would not comment on Braley's future with the department, other than to confirm that Braley was still suspended with pay. He added that Middletown was cooperating with the investigation.  "We're going to be working in conjunction with the attorney general's office and the state police in the criminal prosecution," Pesare said.  Braley had served as a Middletown police officer for 11 years when he was arrested on June 11 after a state police investigation into the missing marijuana. Providence Journal records show he graduated from the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy in 1993.  Last week's decision was something of a legal formality, allowing prosecutors to move Braley's case from District Court to Superior Court, where he is expected to be arraigned Sept. 9, Coyne said. The third charge was dropped because the evidence was never found, Coyne said, and a possession charge requires a positive identification of the substance.

"Unless you recover them, you'll never be able to prove what it was," he said. The charges against Braley were the result of a state police investigation into the marijuana, which was discovered missing from locked evidence boxes. The drugs had been confiscated during the May 16 arrest of a Newport man, James A. Aguiar, after a fight on West Main Road. Charges against Aguiar had to be dropped after the evidence was stolen, resulting in the obstruction charge against Braley, Coyne said yesterday.

HEADLINE: WHERE THE NEWSPAPER STANDS

Evolving DNA technology obligates the state to find the truth

Yet another example has come to light of the fallibility of our judicial system and the power of technology to check that the scale of justice is accurately balanced.

Arthur Lee Whitfield was released from prison last week after serving 22 years for crimes he did not commit. He was convicted of raping two women in Norfolk in 1981, but always maintained he was innocent. He has his freedom back, but two decades of his life are gone.

Had DNA technology not been used, he could have stayed in prison for many more years. That he went there at all is dramatic confirmation that error can and does creep into the judicial system. Unless we are vigilant in rooting it out, what confidence can we have in the reliability of justice? 

DNA testing has unearthed a proliferation of cases like this, in which once-convincing indicators of guilt -- in this case the victims' identification of Whitfield as their attacker and his guilty plea in one case -- crumble in the face of the science (and, admittedly, art) of biology. Discoveries that innocent people have been convicted, even sentenced to death, are no longer rare. Last year another Norfolk man, Julius Earl Ruffin, was pardoned after 21 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.

The certainty that there are more such cases waiting to be discovered, more innocent people waiting to be exonerated, raises some critical questions:
 

• What obligation does the state have to employ new technology to evaluate the claims of prisoners who insist they are innocent? Where does the responsibility lie to initiate testing? Should re-testing be done as a matter of course when new methods become available, or only if the convicted person makes a request? The current process requires that a prisoner file a petition addressing technical and legal issues; Whitfield was up to the task, pushing his case until an attorney was appointed for him, but many others might not without an advocate or attorney to assist. Surely the state has some moral obligation to protect those who lack his initiative and perseverance. What is the duty of prosecutors? Will commonwealth's attorneys act as righteously as Norfolk's John R. Doyle III, who pursued Whitfield's and Ruffin's freedom? Or will they look for ways to avoid conclusive answers that might reveal flawed verdicts?

• Does Virginia have in place the policies and procedures to save critical evidence so it will be available when evolving technology is capable of unlocking the truth within it? The preservation of evidence clearing Whitfield and Ruffin was a fluke, a result of one state lab employee who was in the habit of squirreling away samples that would otherwise be destroyed. Had standard procedure been followed, they would still be in prison. Things have improved: Now biological evidence is automatically retained (only until execution) when the death sentence is imposed, but in other cases convicted felons must petition to have evidence preserved. Should they? Or should that be automatic?

• Can the state lab deliver the reliable results justice depends on? Experts have disputed the lab's conclusions in recent cases. If DNA testing is our best route to the truth, it must be scrupulously accurate.

The argument that systematic re-testing in contested cases would be expensive cannot carry any weight in this matter. The integrity of a humane and just society will not stand on a bargain-basement approach to justice. Yes, there is a cost associated with preserving and re-testing evidence. And no, it is never acceptable to let innocents languish in prison because the state is too cheap to invest the money, the time or the commitment to get at the truth.

Which brings us to a related matter that has languished on the state's agenda for far too long: testing of DNA evidence that might determine whether Virginia put to death an innocent man when it executed Roger Keith Coleman. A DNA sample from the victim has been safe in a California lab, in part because its custodian worries that it might not be retained or properly tested in Virginia. 

Questions about Coleman's guilt linger, questions that DNA testing might answer, but only if Gov. Mark Warner orders new tests. Failing to do so would amount to a full-scale retreat from the truth. And when justice abandons that bulwark, what is left?

HEADLINE: Police Make Arrest in 23-Year-Old Rape Case
DNA testing led them to Maryland resident.

BYLINE: David Harrison

On May 2, 1981, around 1 a.m., a 21-year-old woman woke to find an intruder raping her in her bed. The intruder had broken into her home on Evanston Road in Springfield, raped and sodomized the woman, then left after stealing several items from her home. 

The case had Fairfax County Police detectives stumped for over two decades until DNA tests led them to Glenn Mitchell, 57, of Clinton, Md. On Aug. 20, Mitchell was arrested by Prince George's County Police and extradited to Fairfax County, where he is held without bond as he faces charges of rape, forcible sodomy, robbery and burglary in the 23-year-old case. "We collected evidence from the scene in this particular case, and it was placed in our evidence room," said Capt. Mike Spradlin, commander of the major crimes division of the Fairfax County Police Department. "We hold onto everything we have in every case with the hopes of someday solving a case."

Earlier this year, Spradlin said, the police department assigned a detective to look at cold sex cases. The detective found several old cases that could benefit from relatively recent DNA technology. Fairfax police sent the evidence to labs at the Virginia Division of Forensic Science in Richmond and waited for it to be processed.

"The lady in the lab called our detective and said we have a cold hit, and it was a gentleman [Mitchell] who was already in our system who had a prior rape in the county back in the ‘80s," said Spradlin.

The victim still lives in the area and is willing to move on the case, he added. LAST FRIDAY, Mitchell appeared in court wearing a green Fairfax County Jail jumpsuit. His face looked gaunt and drawn as Commonwealth's Attorney Katie Swart and public defender Jeffrey Overand debated when to set the trial date. Overand asked that the trial be set in January to give the defense time to find witnesses who might remember something they saw 23 years ago. Swart urged Circuit Court Judge Michael McWeeny to set the trial in November or December. 
McWeeny set the trial date for Dec. 6, but said he would be willing to reschedule if the defense needs more time to put its case together. "Given the issue you'd think the commonwealth would want us to take every opportunity to interview witnesses and prepare because we assume they're not willing to put the wrong guy in prison," said Whitney Minter, another public defender on the case. "You're always concerned that you're not given time to do everything for your client."

Like many other public defenders in Virginia, Overand and Minter are juggling dozens of other cases while working to defend Mitchell. Minter estimated they had about 100 other open cases, including one 3-day murder trial that is set to go to court in November.

When the  crime occurred, in 1981, DNA testing was still several years away. Although the structure of DNA was first elucidated in 1953, it was not until the mid-1980s that it was used to help solve crimes, said Dr. Paul Ferrara, who runs the lab at the Virginia Division of Forensic Science. DNA is as individual as a fingerprint and can be extracted from body fluids, hair or body tissue. Virginia has been using DNA to help solve crimes since 1989. Since then, Ferrara said, it has made significant advancements, which may help shed light on old cases that had previously remained unsolved.

"In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the technique was not very sensitive," he said. "It would require a bloodstain maybe the size of a half-dollar or maybe a seminal fluid stain the size of a dime. ... Today I can develop that same DNA profile that's unique to an individual and his or her identical twin with a sample as minute as saliva on a cigarette butt or a piece of chewing gum, a speck of blood ... a bite out of a sandwich, the bottleneck of a beer bottle."

The lab keeps a database of about 225,000 DNA samples of convicted felons in Virginia. When local police departments send samples of evidence from cold cases, technicians run the samples through the database and look for a match.

"We have had over 2,000, almost 2,200 hits like this," he said. "Our biggest problem right now is coping with the volume of cases because there's so much evidence now that police can collect. ... I've got over 2,000 waiting for analysis."

To Spradlin, the Fairfax County commander, DNA technology has proved invaluable. When he first joined the police almost 30 years ago, he said, "You relied on good old-fashioned knocking on doors and doing what you considered good police work. We're still doing good police work, this is just another tool."

"It's kind of gratifying to us to know we've closed another cold case," he added. "Who knows 20 years from now what technology will be out there available to us."

HEADLINE: News in brief from western Pennsylvania

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A man was charged with luring officers away from their police station with bogus emergency calls and then breaking into the station and stealing weapons, a police radio and leg shackles.

William Brown, 21, of Jackson Township, was arraigned Thursday on charges of burglary, criminal trespassing, theft and calling in false alarms stemming from the break-in at the East Taylor Township police department on Aug. 16.

Police said they linked Brown to the burglary through his mother's cell phone, which investigators said he used to call authorities to two phony emergencies - a break-in at a restaurant and a car accident.

When firefighters returned to the building they shared with the police department, they noticed that the station's door was open. Police allege that Brown kicked in the door to the evidence room and took the items.

Brown remained in the Cambria County Prison, where he was being held on a probation violation. It was unclear whether he had an attorney.

HEADLINE: Lost Evidence Resurfaces in Shooting Trial

Rockville (AP) - A missing piece of evidence in the trial of a man accused of shooting a police officer has resurfaced. 
Police say a microphone worn by officer Kyle Olinger when he was shot was misplaced in a police evidence room and lost for more than a year before it turned up Wednesday. 

Attorneys for the shooting suspect, 18-year-old Terrence Green, say it's key to their argument that the shooting was an accident, and now it's too late to call experts. A judge denied their request for a mistrial, but limited testimony about the microphone. 

The microphone has a bullet hole, but the defense says a witness used it to notify police immediately after August 1993 shooting in Silver Spring. 

Montgomery County (website - news) police say they'll try to find out why the evidence was misplaced.

HEADLINE: Drug use sends former detective back to jail
                     Drugs continue to ruin former officer's life

Drugs had already wrecked Brian Freeman's career and personal life. Yesterday, they landed the former Stafford County narcotics detective back in jail.

Freeman, 30, was ordered to spend four months in jail after being convicted in Stafford Circuit Court of violating probation.

According to the evidence, Freeman has tested positive for marijuana four times since October.

Judge William H. Ledbetter Jr. said he was "disappointed" that Freeman apparently is still struggling with drugs.

Freeman, who was a Caroline Sheriff's Office deputy before he was hired in Stafford, was convicted in June 2002 of three counts of possession of cocaine and grand larceny. Authorities said that while working for Stafford, Freeman stole cocaine from the evidence room.

Freeman, who had worked for the Stafford Sheriff's Office for three years, was sentenced to a total of four years in prison with all but six months suspended.

He was hauled back into court yesterday primarily because of the failed drug screenings.

Freeman pleaded with Ledbetter not to put him back in jail. He said he was going through some rough times, including divorce proceedings, during the time he was smoking marijuana. But he said he has gotten himself together and has a good job.

"I am not a menace to society nor will I ever be," Freeman said. "Please don't make me start all over again. I don't know if I can do it."

Defense attorney Mark Gardner said that Freeman has made a number of positive strides since coming out of prison.

He said that he's seen many defendants commit far worse violations and never even be called back to court.

"He's not perfect and he has failed," Gardner said. "But let's not let this get overblown into something that it's not."

Special prosecutor Matt Britton argued that Freeman deserves some time behind bars and said that fact he was a police officer should be a factor against him.

"He's continued to do exactly what got him into trouble in the first place--using drugs," Britton said.

HEADLINE: Lawmaker to hold crime lab hearings
Whitmire says HPD, state woes have hurt public confidence in the justice system

BY: ROMA KHANNA and STEVE MCVICKER

Serious problems with crime labs operated by the Houston Police Department and state police have created a crisis of confidence that needs to be addressed in public hearings, state Sen. John Whitmire said Friday. 

"I thought it was a local matter," said the Houston Democrat, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. "I believe it now has become a statewide issue.

"I think we're in a crisis, and (Lt. Gov. David) Dewhurst agreed with me that we have lost, to a large degree, the public's confidence in the criminal justice system."

Whitmire said he will hold hearings this fall to examine whether fundamental changes are needed in the process for creating and operating all crime labs around the state.

They also will ensure that the upcoming independent investigation of HPD's troubles is thorough, he told the Houston Chronicle editorial board.

In addition, he said, the hearings will examine problems that have raised doubts about tests conducted by some state Department of Public Safety crime labs. Among the changes Whitmire said he is considering is requiring the separation of crime labs from local police departments.

'Independent forensics'

"It seems to me like you look at the potential conflicts of interest between scientists and forensic experts that work for the police department," he said. "And I know for a fact that the police departments work hand-in-hand with the (district attorney). You probably need somebody who is not doing the arresting or prosecuting to give independent forensics." 

Whitmire had stayed out of the investigations and debate over HPD's problems until last week's revelation that crime lab analysts had improperly tagged and stored evidence from about 8,000 criminal cases, some as old as 25 years.

"At some point, enough is enough," said Whitmire, who got Dewhurst's backing before calling for the hearings. "I believed the time was right for us to step in."

Also contributing to his decision is the case of George Rodriguez of Houston, who several forensic experts say was sentenced to 60 years in prison on the basis of unsound science.

Although new DNA tests exclude Rodriguez as a contributor to evidence from a 1987 kidnapping and rape, he remains in prison for the crime.

On Friday, after the death of his father, Rodriguez's family issued a plea that he be released in time to attend the funeral.

The HPD lab first came under scrutiny in November 2002, when DNA testing was suspended amid questions about the quality and accuracy of the work. Since then, concerns have been raised about several other lab divisions, including toxicology and ballistics.

Doubts grew after problems were uncovered last year at some DNA labs operated by the Department of Public Safety, which was given responsibility to oversee the accreditation of all forensic labs in Texas in the wake of the Houston scandal.

The mounting problems prompted Whitmire to step in. He plans to assemble a panel of advisers, including district attorneys such as Ronnie Earle of Travis County and Barry Macha of Wichita County, and lawyers with forensics expertise such as Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project.

The Senate committee will explore various models for how best to run a crime lab, Whitmire said, although he already favors severing the Houston crime lab from the Police Department. Whitmire said an independent crime lab could be established in the Texas Medical Center or at a local university, such as Texas Southern.

He added that it is premature to say what legislation might stem from the hearings, but said he is "almost certain" that changes will be made to better regulate crime labs.

"I need to do more research before I can say what direction we will go in," Whitmire said.

Outside investigator likely

Meanwhile, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt is expected to appoint an investigator from outside the department to lead an independent probe. 

Hurtt has yet to name an investigator, but Scheck, who met with Hurtt on Friday, told the Chronicle editorial board that the investigator does not necessarily need a background in forensics.

"He is looking primarily for someone who knows how to organize, and investigate a large organization," Scheck said. "You don't have to be an expert in forensic science. You just have to have the authority to assemble the right staff and go where the evidence leads you."

HEADLINE: Evidence missing in case against Oakdale dentist

OAKDALE - Evidence is missing in the drug case against a local dentist, and a former trusty says he was offered money to take it, police Chief Wilburn Perkins said Friday. 

Two bottles of pills seized from the home and vehicle of Dr. Mike Gordon, 52, of Oakdale cannot be found. Gordon was arrested recently on a drug and weapon charge after a fatal traffic accident at his house. 

Perkins admits that the evidence may be tainted, and this "could change whole aspect of the case." 

The trusty also is suspected of taking evidence from another case. The evidence is marijuana from an old case that was waiting to be destroyed. 

Perkins said it would be up to a grand jury to decide how the theft will impact the Gordon case. "It appears linked to what happened Sept. 2," the chief said. 

That was the day police say Gordon ran over Linda Hoskins of Oakdale with his motor home in front of his Thom Road residence. He has not been charged with Hoskins' death. 

Perkins said steps are being taken to secure the evidence building. The Louisiana State Police is investigating what happened to the evidence. An Allen Parish grand jury could hear the Gordon case as soon as two to three weeks, authorities said. 

The Gordon case is the talk of Oakdale. 

Residents said it is something discussed in living rooms and around dinner tables, but not in public. One woman said she was not surprised to learn that evidence is missing because Gordon is from a prominent Allen Parish family. When asked for her name, she laughed. "I have to live here," she said. 

Perkins said the missing evidence is not a cover-up by his department. "We don't shove things under the rug," he said. 

It was during the fatal accident investigation that 25 unmarked prescription bottles with pills and a pound of marijuana were seized on Gordon's property, Perkins said. Officers also found a gun and more than $13,000 in cash. 

The evidence was placed in the department's evidence building, which is separate from the administrative offices. The evidence was in the front office and not in the back office, which requires going through two metal doors. It was being prepared to go to a crime lab. 

On Wednesday, Perkins said officers discovered two of the pill bottles were missing. Drug tests and polygraphs were issued to all the department's officers who work at the building. 

On Thursday, police responded to a fight at a local motel, where they found empty evidence bags. James Viscardis, 31, of Oakdale was arrested on a charge of theft and simple burglary but not in connection with the missing Gordon evidence. Viscardis had served as a trusty at the Oakdale Police Department until his release this week, Perkins said. 

The chief suspects Viscardis, whose job was to clean the department, put something over the evidence door lock, so he could get in. 

Viscardis told investigators that someone offered him money to take evidence from the Gordon case. He has not identified the caller. He also has not told detectives where the pill bottles could be found. He did say the bottles were intact and had not been touched, Perkins said. 

The chief said this is the first time in his 21 years at the department that something like this has happened. He plans to change the locks and place a dead bolt on each door. Perkins stressed that his officers and employees did their job and know the importance of protecting evidence. 

A Louisiana State Police spokesman in Baton Rouge confirmed Friday that detectives were asked to investigate the situation. The investigation is still in its infancy stage. 

On Friday, no one was at the Oakdale dentist's office. There also was no answer at his residence, but Gordon's motor home was parked in the driveway. 

The only sign of what happened Sept. 2 is the chalk outline of Hoskins' body on the road. 

HEADLINE: Inmate says he was hired to steal evidence

OAKDALE, La. Oakdale Police are investigating why a trusty was paid to steal evidence in an ongoing investigation into a woman's death.

Police Chief Wilburn Perkins says 31-year-old James Viscardis, of Oakdale, told investigators that someone offered him money to take evidence in the case involving Doctor Mike Gordon.

Viscardis is accused of taking two pill bottles from an evidence room and taking marijuana in a separate case. The evidence was discovered missing last Wednesday as investigators were going through it.

Perkins says Louisiana State Police detectives conducted an internal investigation. Employees were given drug and polygraph tests, and the department was searched. The missing marijuana surfaced when police found a discarded evidence bag when called to a disturbance at an area motel. The chief says Viscardis later admitted to taking the evidence.

Viscardis was booked with burglary and theft. Charges of evidence tampering are pending.

Perkins says Viscardis hasn't said who paid him, but says he knows where the evidence is and that it's still intact.

Gordon was arrested after running over and killing 56-year-old Linda Joyce Hoskins, of Oakdale, with a recreational vehicle on September 2nd. Police believe Hoskins ran in front of the vehicle in an attempt to stop Gordon as he was leaving his home.

Hoskins' death remains under investigation. Gordon has not been charged in that case. Bu, he was arrested last week on drug and weapons charges after police found a pound of marijuana, a firearm and nearly 14-thousand dollars in cash in his home. He's currently free on 60-thousand dollars bond.

Allen Parish D-A Doug Hebert says the case will likely be presented to the grand jury in the coming weeks.