HEADLINE: Gun-storage capacity of ESL Police overloaded by confiscated weapons

DATELINE: East St. Louis

Guns confiscated by East St. Louis Police during the past four or five years are overcrowding department storage facility, so the chief is asking the state's permission to melt them down.

East St. Louis Police Chief Ronald Matthews said the overflow of guns in the evidence room is making it hard to find space for the new ones his officers are confiscating.

Matthews and his Assistant Chief Marion Hubbard showed some of the guns Thursday morning at the police station.

There were three plastic containers full of various hand guns, including derringers, .22s, 9 millimeters, .45s, and Tech-9s. The guns had pink, green and yellow handles.

A table just above the baskets was covered with rifles, shotguns and sawed-off guns.

The evidence room held shelves and shelves of guns as well as barrels filled with weapons.

"The weapons were confiscated from domestic disturbances, clubs, taverns and from suspects on the street," Hubbard said.

"This shows the public that our officers are out there doing their jobs. Look at how many weapons we have taken off the streets," Matthews said as he looked around at some of the guns.

Hubbard said he estimated there were 800 to 1,000 guns, but there might be more. The collection grows steadily.

"We have to keep the new ones for a certain amount of years because they are possibly attached to pending cases," Hubbard said.

Matthews said Hubbard would file a petition making the request to destroy the weapons immediately, but the approval could take some time.

HEADLINE: PA Police Chief Arrested on Drug Charges 

DATELINE: HARRISBURG, Pa.

A small-town police chief who prosecutors said repeatedly smoked seized marijuana while on duty was arrested on drug possession and other charges Wednesday.

Police Chief Brian S. Cara, of Weatherly, in northeastern Pennsylvania, was released on personal-recognizance bail after his arraignment on charges of possession of marijuana and paraphernalia, obstruction of justice and attempted obstruction.

The state attorney general's office said a grand jury heard evidence that cocaine and marijuana had disappeared from the Carbon County police department's evidence locker since 2002.

Cara, 38, did not immediately return a phone message left at his home. It was unclear whether he was represented by a lawyer. Cara has been suspended with pay since investigators searched his office in August.

Prosecutors said sealed evidence envelopes containing cocaine were discovered opened and emptied, and that at least twice Cara told other officers that missing drugs may have exploded while inside the evidence locker.

Using a hidden video camera, state drug agents on Aug. 2 allegedly observed Cara smoking pot on duty nine times, then numerous other times over the next two days. Prosecutors said Cara was seen filling a pipe with marijuana and then putting it in his breast pocket before going on patrol.

Police officers also recounted drug cases that were not investigated, evidence containers that had been tampered with, and drugs and paraphernalia that turned up in a desk drawer Cara used, the attorney general's office said.

HEADLINE: PA Police chief took drugs; officer accused of using dope that was
                     evidence.

For months, police officers in Weatherly complained of drugs that had been seized from suspects and then disappeared, of the unmistakable reek of marijuana smoke in the office and of finding pipes and other paraphernalia left in a desk drawer.

The target of their complaints was their boss -- Police Chief Brian Cara. On Wednesday, he was arrested by state authorities and accused of using seized drugs while on duty.

Cara, 38, of West Hazleton, who has been chief in the Carbon County borough of about 2,600 for 10 years, sometimes started smoking marijuana a half-hour after coming to work at 7 a.m., and once took a marijuana-filled pipe with him on patrol, officials said. One time, during a "reverse sting," state agents videotaped him taking eight "hits" off a pipe in his office.

Suspected marijuana and cocaine also disappeared from evidence, preventing officers from filing charges against suspects from whom the drugs were seized, state Attorney General Jerry Pappert said.

Cara was charged after a 13-month investigation by drug agents from Pappert's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation.

Cara faces one count each of obstructing justice, criminal attempt to obstruct justice, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, all misdemeanors.

He was arraigned by District Edward Lewis in Jim Thorpe and released on his own recognizance.

Cara has been suspended with pay since early August when, Pappert said, agents searched his office and seized drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Cara did not return a message left on his home telephone answering machine seeking comment. But, according to court papers, Cara admitted to state drug agents that he had smoked marijuana removed from the department's evidence locker.

Weatherly Mayor Joseph E. D'Andrea said Cara may be placed on unpaid suspension while charges are pending.

"We're not his judge and jury, but we can't continue paying him and filling in for him at his salary," D'Andrea said. "I was really shocked to find out everything he was supposed to have done. If he has had problems and needed help, we could have helped him."

Pappert said the investigation began in September 2003 after officers in Cara's own department complained about drug evidence that was missing or tampered with. Their complaints dated to 2002.

Four officers testified before a state grand jury sitting in Dauphin County about Cara's alleged drug activity in the department, which has three full-time and six part-time officers.

The officers' concerns led agents to place a camera in the Weatherly police station and carry out the reverse sting.

The sting was executed Aug. 2 when a cooperating Weatherly officer placed 2 ounces of marijuana in the office and told Cara about it when Cara arrived for duty at 7 a.m.

According to a grand jury presentment, state drug Agent Janene M. Miller saw Cara smoke some of the sting marijuana that day.

Cara was videotaped smoking marijuana in the office on Aug. 2, 3 and 4, according to the presentment.

Miller told the grand jury she watched Cara smoke marijuana from a pipe eight times on Aug. 3.

Agent Joseph Miller told the grand jury he watched Cara arrive at the police station Aug. 4 and, an hour later, smoke marijuana from a pipe at 8 a.m.

Joseph Miller told the grand jury that Cara took a second puff from the pipe at 8:02 a.m., a third at 9:06 a.m. and two more at 9:09 a.m.

He said Cara later filled a pipe, put it in his breast pocket and went on patrol.

Cara returned to the office at 10:18 a.m. and took marijuana out of the bags that were planted in the office, Miller said.

Agents on Aug. 4 got a sealed search warrant from Carbon County President Judge Richard W. Webb. According to Pappert, police seized drugs and drug paraphernalia from Cara's desk.

Agents took Cara to Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital in Lehighton, where four vials of blood were drawn. Tests showed Cara used marijuana within 48 hours of the blood being drawn, Pappert said.

Pappert said Weatherly officers also testified before the grand jury in September and October 2003 about sealed evidence envelopes containing cocaine that were later discovered open and empty.

Pappert said that at least twice -- in February 2003 and October 2003 -- Cara told officers the missing cocaine must have "exploded" while in the police evidence locker.

On Sept. 8, 2003, part-time Weatherly Patrolman Brian Markovchick testified before a grand jury that he stopped at borough hall to pay a water and sewer bill, then went to the police station.

Markovchick said he banged on the station door because he had forgotten his key, but it took Cara several minutes to open the door from inside the small room.

When Cara did, Markovchick said, he smelled "a very strong odor of burning marijuana."

Markovchick also testified that drug evidence was stored in an unlocked drawer and room and, under Cara's orders, drugs were not sent to a state police crime laboratory for testing.

Officer Gary Veasie told the grand jury he looked through Cara's desk several times and found packages of marijuana that were seized as evidence, a cigarette pack that was emptied and replaced with marijuana, and another pack in which cigarettes were emptied of tobacco and twirled at the end, like a "joint."

He also told the grand jury there were marijuana pipes in the desk.

Veasie also said there was a time when he stopped in Cara's office to pick up his check, and Cara quickly slammed his desk drawer closed and there was a smell of burned marijuana.

In October 2003, Patrolman John Willis told the grand jury he seized cocaine from a car, but Cara decided not to pursue charges. Willis said he went to destroy the cocaine, but found the bag was cut open and the cocaine missing.

He said he told Cara about it, and Cara told him the cocaine exploded. He said he later saw Cara throw away the package.

Willis told the grand jury he suspected Cara of using seized drugs, so he opened Cara's desk and found two packs of cigarettes -- one containing cigarettes and the other a bag of marijuana -- and a glass pipe.

Willis told the grand jury about a time when an egg carton filled with marijuana was discovered in a rented vehicle. He told the jury that Cara became upset because the man who had rented the vehicle was a friend of his. He said no charges were filed in the case.

In a statement, Patrolman Michael Bogart said a bag of cocaine sealed for evidence had been opened and emptied.

Cara is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Nov. 17 before Lewis. The case will be prosecuted in Carbon County by Senior Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Cherba.

Cara was promoted to chief from patrolman in July 1994 after former Chief Richard Koch stepped down to become a patrolman.

Since Cara was suspended Aug. 4, Patrolman Anthony McFadden has run the department.

HEADLINE: Former Officer Faces Drug Charges In Evidence Theft

DATELINE: SANFORD, N.C. 

A former police officer has been arrested on charges that he stole marijuana from the Sanford Police Department’s evidence room.

James Ed Gregory, 37, is charged with felony larceny, possession of marijuana and possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana after Harnett County drug agents discovered that about two pounds of marijuana had been taken from the Sanford police evidence room.

Sanford Police Chief Ronnie Yarborough said the marijuana, which was "no longer evidence in any court case and was waiting to be destroyed," was estimated to be worth about $2,000.

The offense is alleged to have taken place on March 1, when Gregory was assigned to the Sanford-Lee County Drug Unit.

Gregory was hired by the Sanford Police Department in March 1990 as a full-time officer. He left in March 2000 to join the Lee County Probation Department, although he stayed with the Sanford police on reserve status and worked with the city-county drug unit. In August, he returned to full-time status with the department as a uniform patrol officer.

Capt. Kevin Gray, of Sanford's internal affairs division, said Gregory is no longer employed with the city. He wouldn't say when Gregory was released.

HEADLINE: DEA WORKER BUSTED IN OFFICE CASH GRAB

This drug money ripoff didn't involve any street thugs and was uncomfortably close to home, federal authorities charged yesterday.  They announced the arrest of a Drug Enforcement Administration office worker  for allegedly stealing more than $100,000 from an evidence room.

Dina Marie D'Iorio was charged in White Plains Federal Court with stealing the money sometime over the extended Labor Day weekend, between Sept. 2 and 7.  U.S. Attorney David Kelley charged that D'Iorio specifically took about $108,760 from the nondrug evidence room of the Westchester Task Force in the DEA 's county offices on Grand St. in White Plains.

The criminal complaint, which charged her with embezzlement, alleges that after a seizure of money as part of a Westchester task force investigation, the cash was secured and identified with a numbered evidence tag.

The complaint also alleges that within the next few days, the evidence tag was removed and replaced with another one after a portion of the cash was removed from the evidence bag.

A task force agent put the seized money in an evidence bag and placed it in a nonnarcotics evidence room after the Sept. 2 raid. So much cash was seized that a single bag could barely contain it all. A numbered evidence tag was affixed to the bag, and the room was secured with a combination lock and alarm system, according to the complaint filed by Eric Blachman, an investigator with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General.

D'Iorio had sole access to the money for about 30 minutes when the room was left open for a computer worker, according to the complaint.  The next day, a task force agent discovered the bag's evidence tag number had been changed, and money appeared to be missing from inside.

 D'Iorio returned to the DEA's office at 140 Grand St. in White Plains over the Labor Day weekend when she was not assigned to work, according to the complaint. She returned again early Sept. 8, a scheduled day off for her. She left before anyone showed up for work. She used a computerized access card and alarm codes that were assigned to her to gain entry, according to the complaint.

A task force sergeant reported the missing money to his superiors. The Justice Department's Inspector General's Office investigated, along with the DEA's Office of Professional Responsibility and the county police Special Investigations Unit.

When questioned Friday by investigators, D'Iorio at first denied any involvement, then admitted the crime, according to the complaint. She was released yesterday after posting a $20,000 bond. She and her lawyer, Anthony Servino, declined to comment as they left court.

HEADLINE: Police Plan Evidence Room Move Carefully

HEADLINE: ALEXANDRIA, VA.

It's not a long move -- fewer than 100 yards, but it's a crucial one for the Alexandria Police Department.

The department is moving its property room from the first floor of police headquarters to the gym on the second floor because of structural problems in the building. But with 18,000 pieces of evidence, it has to be done with extreme care. If one item is destroyed, it could cost the department a criminal case.

Police officials tell The Washington Post they'll meet with a number of city representatives, including the commonwealth's attorney to determine how to proceed. Only police employees can handle the evidence.

Some items that aren't evidence will have to be destroyed, such as old guns that people turn in. They can't be sold, and regulations make it extremely difficult to give them away. 

HEADLINE: Moving Police Evidence Requires Caution, Special Tactics

DATELINE: Alexandria, VA 

Alexandria police plan to move 18,000 pieces of evidence and other items from their property room. But the move of less than 100 yards - from the headquarters' first floor to the second floor - will take months of careful planning.

"This would probably be like moving a 16-room mansion," said David Miller, supervisor of the property and evidence section. "But if you're moving a household and something breaks or gets lost, you can go after the movers or just chalk it up to moving. We're not afforded the luxury of making a mistake."  That's because evidence contaminated or lost in the process could derail a criminal case.

The facility's property room was to have remained until 2010, when the department will move to its new headquarters, the site of which is undetermined. But the first floor began to settle because of decomposing materials below the slab, and officials decided to move the property room, said Fulmer L. Collins II, who heads the department's facilities and security management division.

The department hopes to begin the move next spring, but the planning has already started, Collins said.  Unlike moving a household, the property room must be accessible at all times.  "With a house, you're not trying to sleep in the bed or cook in the kitchen when you're moving," Collins said. "But you just can't shut down a property unit."

The new property room will be the 3,000-square-foot gymnasium, the largest space in the building that could accommodate everything, Collins said.

The current 2,400-square-foot property room appears to have every item imaginable: guns, drugs, money, DVDs, cell phones, jewelry bicycles, officers' uniforms and equipment and bodily fluids in refrigerators. The room holds not only evidence, but also lost or stolen items that have gone unclaimed.

"It looks half 'Court TV,' half flea market," said Amy Bertsch, a police spokeswoman. "There are murder weapons, and there are lawn ornaments."

Although the room looks like a very large, cluttered attic, employees keep track of every item with painstaking detail. Cabinets contain thousands of forms that list what is in every package, box, sealed envelope and container, Miller said.

In a separate room, evidence from current cases is placed neatly on shelves. Before moving this evidence, police officials will be meeting with a number of city representatives, including the commonwealth's attorney, Miller said.

"We have to get it right," Miller said. "Defense attorneys only need to find one thing that went wrong to say there is reasonable doubt. It doesn't even have to pertain to their case."

Some weapons were not used to commit crimes. Anyone wanting to get rid of an old firearm can turn it in to the police department; it is stored in the property room until it is destroyed. A barrel of rifles, among them what could be rare World War II Japanese rifles known as Arisakas, will probably be destroyed because bureaucratic regulations make it extremely difficult to give certain types of property away. After 60 days, the police department destroys or auctions unclaimed items, Miller said.

One such item that seems to be going nowhere is a ceramic statue of the Virgin Mary. Police cannot sell it at auction because of concerns about the separation of church and state, and they cannot give it away because of painstaking paperwork, Miller said.

"No one wants to destroy it," Miller said, casting a careful glance toward the statue. "Just in case the religion is right, you don't want to take the chance."

HEADLINE: Ex-marshal charged with giving away drug evidence

DATELINE: COLFAX, Indiana

A former town marshal is accused of opening a police evidence locker and inviting a man and woman to help themselves to marijuana.

Keith Smith, 44, faces two misdemeanor counts of dealing marijuana and possession of marijuana and one felony charge of obstruction of justice. Smith recently resigned as marshal of Colfax, a town of about 800 about 20 miles southeast of Lafayette.

Smith was released from Clinton County Jail on $2,000 bond following his arrest Wednesday. A court hearing was scheduled for Tuesday.

Smith allegedly took the man and woman in October 2002 to the Colfax Police Department, where he opened a manila envelope that contained marijuana and "told them to take what they wanted," according to an affidavit filed in Clinton Superior Court by Indiana State Police Detective Tom McKee.

HEADLINE: Cops' mailing of fingerprints a no-no; Practice endangers chain of custody 

Some Philadelphia police officers assigned to lift fingerprints at crime scenes have been using interoffice mail to send those prints to the identification unit, threatening their use as evidence.

Legal experts said the practice jeopardizes the integrity of the prints and compromises the chain of custody that's required for such evidence to be admitted at any trial.

Because of these potential problems, the department issued an order Oct. 8 directing uniformed officers who lift prints to deliver them by hand.

The order also noted that "many" of the mailings were done by uniformed cops.

Last month, uniformed officers were made responsible for processing burglary scenes, including lifting prints, in cases where less than $25,000 was reported stolen. While uniformed cops could recover prints, responsibility for investigating burglaries remained with the Detective Bureau.

"The cops who were trained to lift prints four or five years ago learned how to handle evidence," said a veteran police source. "These guys who have been using the mail service either were never taught or were told by their bosses not to bother going to the Roundhouse, to just mail it in.

"Everybody's heard of 'just mailing it in,' but this is ridiculous."

Tim Woodward, a former first assistant district attorney and deputy detective chief in Montgomery County, said using the mail to process evidence could endanger the successful prosecution of a case.

"Putting latent prints in the interoffice mail could compromise the chain of custody but, more importantly, it could contaminate the evidence," said Woodward, now in private practice. "Does anybody know who picked it up, when it was picked up, when it was delivered, who received it? How do they know it wasn't tampered with?"

To establish a chain of custody under Pennsylvania law, Woodward said, a piece of evidence must always be in the control of an identifiable person. When the evidence is transferred to someone else, that person must be identified by name and the transaction recorded in writing.

"Latent prints are generally lifted from a burglary, which is a first-degree felony," said Woodward. "That's a higher crime classification than most drug offenses. What do they do when they seize drugs and cash? Do you think they're sending cash to the evidence room through interoffice mail?"

Cpl. Jim Pauley, a police spokesman, said he knew of no cases that were adversely affected by the practice.

Mail for the Police Department's interoffice system is deposited in bins located in each unit. The mail then is collected and distributed by civilian mail carriers.

Evidence placed in those bins thus passes into the control of unknown persons, and could be considered "contaminated" and potentially inadmissible in court, Woodward said.

The veteran police source said the situation reflected "a command problem."

"These cops didn't just decide on their own to use the mails," the source said. "Everybody's pressed for time and I can see some sergeant saying, 'Don't go down there, just mail it.' "

To deal with this problem, Detective Inspector David L. Jardine sent to all bureau commanders the memorandum titled, "Submission of Latent Prints."

"As discussed at our recent staff meeting, some latent prints are being mailed to Records & Identification instead of being hand-delivered," the memo stated. "Many of these are being submitted by patrol officers."

The order directs uniformed cops to turn over to the assigned detective any lifted prints, and the detective is responsible for physically delivering the prints to the Identification Unit.

Cathie Abookire, spokeswoman for District Attorney Lynne Abraham, declined to comment on the practice of using interoffice mail to process evidence.

"There is no problem," said police spokesman Pauley. "Some officers did mail latent prints to the latent print section. The issue was addressed, and that's the end of that."

HEADLINE: System lets rogue cop off too easily

Well, let's take a quick look at the crimes committed by former Hillsborough policeman Timothy Mark Brewer: Brewer pleaded guilty to breaking into two Hillsborough businesses, while on duty, and stealing items from inside. He pleaded guilty to stealing three firearms and $4,035 in cash from the police department. That is, he stole guns from other officers and stole money from the department's evidence room. He pleaded guilty to felony possession of cocaine.

He was also originally charged with trafficking cocaine for the 1,400 grams of the drug he stole from the department's evidence room. But Orange-Chatham District Attorney Carl Fox said it would have been difficult to prove that charge because Brewer stole the cocaine in small quantities at a time.

But of course Brewer did much more than commit those specific felonies. He sullied a department's reputation and he put doubts into the minds of the public the police department is charged with protecting. In some ways, these are far worse crimes than the ones with which he was charged.

Without a belief by the public in the integrity and fairness of the law enforcement agencies that protect us, a social contract is broken. If the police don't care, why should we? If the police can't protect us, we'll become vigilantes. If the police can steal, why shouldn't we?

The crimes, then, committed by the former Hillsborough police sergeant were grave indeed. But for committing those crimes, what penalties did Brewer receive?

Superior Court Judge Ronald Stephens this week sentenced Brewer to two consecutive eight-to-10 month prison terms. But since Brewer has spent the last eight months in custody awaiting trial, he will spend just eight-to-10 more months more in prison before he is released. He will then be on probation for at least two more years.

The Hillsborough police chief, for one, thinks that sentence is not enough.Nathaniel Eubanks said that he expected Brewer to get more time and was surprised at how easily his former officer got off. "There was a trust factor there with the public," Eubanks said, "and then to have him walk away this easy, it's just frustrating."

Perhaps the sentence, given the evidence, was just the best that the DA could get. But perhaps this time a plea agreement -- over the cocaine charge -- was not the right way to go. When the public trust is broken, the punishment needs to more clearly reflect the seriousness of the crime.