HEADLINE: Troopers accused of breaching protocol

DATELINE: Richmond, VA

They allegedly showed off bullet-riddled truck in secure evidence lot

Just days after state troopers and a local police officer shot a murder suspect to death in Colonial Heights, some of those same troopers allegedly entered a secure evidence lot to show acquaintances the suspect's bullet-riddled pickup truck.

Col. W. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia State Police, confirmed this week that his agency is investigating the allegation.

Flaherty would not confirm the number of officers, say who was with them, or describe how the incident came to light. "It's a personnel matter and I'm not going to talk about it," he said.

"Any type of allegation of this nature certainly is concerning," Flaherty said. "That's the reason we investigate."

The incident raises further concern about the judgment and training of the officers, five of whom were placed on paid administrative leave - a standard practice - pending the state police investigation of the Oct. 24 shooting of Bruce Thompson.

Residents of the neighborhood where Thompson was killed have already questioned the officers' use of force.

Four state troopers and a Colonial Heights police officer used semi-automatic rifles to kill Thompson as he lurched his truck slowly toward a police barricade. A fifth trooper used a handgun.

Police were acting on information that about 90 minutes earlier, Thompson had killed his parents and grandmother in the Charles Avenue home they all shared in another section of Colonial Heights.

Thompson and his truck were showered with a hail of .223-caliber bullets from the patrol rifles, most of which were the state police's Colt M4 carbines.

A nearby home with three people inside, including an infant, was hit between 20 and 30 times, its owner said. No one in the house was injured.

After the shooting, Thompson's red pickup was taken to an evidence lot at the state police's Division 1 headquarters in Henrico County.

Entry to the locked, fenced-in lot off Brook Road is restricted to seven evidence custodians, said 1st Sgt. Vern Hall Jr.

Police officers and other law enforcement officials are allowed into the lot only with an evidence custodian present, said Hall, the primary custodian.

The lot holds evidence from state police cases throughout Division 1, which includes 21 counties and the cities of Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights. Currently, there are seven vehicles in the lot, including Thompson's truck.

A custodian obtains a key to open a cabinet, which holds a second set of keys to access the evidence lot, Hall said. In other words, two sets of keys are needed to enter the area.

Flaherty said he would not classify the entry as a "break-in."

But he acknowledged he would be concerned if unauthorized officers entered the lot and tampered with evidence.

"We're at the initial stages of this," he said. "We have no idea what the final outcome will be."

Police believe Thompson killed his parents, Glen E. and Ruth K. Thompson, as well as his grandmother, Mollie McClain King, with a rifle in their home.

After the shooting, Thompson fled north to the Conjurer's Neck subdivision before entering into a standoff with police in the tiny cul-de-sac of Lakewater Court, which has one home at the end of the road.

After repeated warnings from police to exit his vehicle, Thompson revved his engine and began slowly rolling forward, at which time police presented him with a barrage of gunfire.

No weapon was found in Thompson's truck after he was killed, but police have said his pickup was considered a weapon.

If state police officers are found to have improperly entered the evidence lot to see that truck, the state police's Flaherty said, "then we'd certainly be disappointed."

However, he said, "Based on what I know about it now, I don't think there's anything sinister in what took place." 

Contact Jeffrey Kelley at (804) 524-9725 or jkelley@timesdispatch.com

HEADLINE: Drug trial starts for ex-officer

DATELINE: CHICAGO, IL.

In opening remarks to a federal jury, both sides agreed on this much: that the Evidence and Recovered Property Section, which held thousands of drug seizures and hundreds of thousands of other pieces of evidence, was disorganized, inadequately staffed and overwhelmed by the volume of material pouring in.  "You are going to be shocked when you hear how horribly ERPS was run," Donna Hickstein-Foley, Smith's lawyer, said of the facility, since moved to another location.  She suggested jurors ultimately won't be able to decide if the missing narcotics were stolen or destroyed by mistake.

In his opening statement, Assistant U.S. Atty. Christopher Niewoehner conceded Smith wasn't caught stealing cocaine from the evidence room.  Instead, a number of relatives and associates of a drug dealer named William "Fats" James are expected to testify that Smith regularly delivered cocaine to James' home between 1995 and 1998, court records show.

Even when his other sources of cocaine dried up, James was able to get drugs from Smith because of the huge supplies in the evidence room, authorities contend.

HEADLINE: Audit cited missing cocaine; Ex-cop reported ill-kept records, evidence disarray

DATELINE: CHICAGO, IL.

"I submitted a report indicating that I believed the front door should be padlocked and a complete accounting of all the evidence in the custody of the Police Department be undertaken, and all future evidence be sent to a different location," Voight said.

The testimony came at the trial of John L. Smith, a former Chicago police officer who worked in the evidence room and is accused of stealing cocaine from the room and selling it to a drug dealer.

Prosecutors contend the chaotic conditions at the Evidence and Recovered Property Section gave Smith ample opportunity to carry out the thefts. But Smith's lawyer told jurors it's impossible to know if missing narcotics were stolen or mistakenly destroyed.

Voight testified that:

Civilian police employees and sworn officers who worked at the section entered and exited without being searched.  The civilian employees weren't supposed to have access to narcotics evidence, but many kept lunches in a refrigerator in one of the main storage rooms.

A mail room for incoming evidence was inundated as hundreds of pieces of evidence came in each day.  Record-keeping was so sloppy that large inventories of cocaine couldn't be found, and narcotics that were to have been destroyed in an incinerator were still on shelves.

Key paperwork was accessible to many employees, compromising the integrity of the record-keeping and enabling thieves to conceal their tracks.  In the weeks it took to inventory newly arrived evidence, boxes stacked on top of one another would break open under the weight, spilling their contents onto shelves or floors.  Rodent infestation was a problem, evidenced by signs of gnawing into substances contained in the boxes of evidence.

On cross-examination by Smith's lawyer, Donna Hickstein-Foley, Voight acknowledged that procedures for verifying whether an incineration had taken place weren't being followed.

If that was the case, Hickstein-Foley asked, "there is really no way for you to determine whether a missing item was burned or whether it was misplaced, correct?  "Personally, yes, correct," Voight replied.

Pamela Brown, a civilian employee in the section, said she had a romantic relationship with Smith for three months in 1999 and testified that Smith bought Dom Perignon champagne by the case, played the $100 slot machines at casinos, took her to the best downtown restaurants and bought her diamond earrings and bracelets.

Smith once produced in his apartment a rock of cocaine bigger than a quarter, Brown said.

HEADLINE: Accused Detective In Court; Evidence Tampering Charged; Colleagues Show Support

DATELINE: Hartford, CT.

The last time more than two-dozen Hartford police officers stood in Superior Court in Hartford to support a fellow officer accused of committing a crime, Robert Murtha was accused of shooting at a suspect.

On Wednesday, Murtha and a throng of other officers dressed mostly in plainclothes stood along the same brick wall, in support of Det. Nathaniel Ortiz who stands accused of tampering with evidence in an undercover drug case.

Through his lawyer Michael Georgetti, Ortiz, 31, of New Britain, stated his innocence. The charge, of tampering with or fabricating evidence, stems from allegations lodged by Hartford Police Department internal affairs investigators that Ortiz and Sgt. Franco Sanzo did not have probable cause when they applied for a search warrant to raid the home of Raynette Woodard on Sept. 2.

Ortiz has been on the police force for nine years and has served in the narcotics division for three years.

The search warrant application and a subsequent prosecutor's report, signed and sworn to by Ortiz, court documents show, contained a series of "untruths" about the necessity for a search of Woodard's home and her arrest on felony gun charges. The court document released Wednesday said Ortiz swore to prosecutors and a Superior Court judge in Hartford that during an undercover operation on Aug. 27, a confidential informant bought crack cocaine and marijuana from Woodard's son, Michael, who was standing outside the family's home at 37 Green St. in Hartford.

But Michael Woodard, 22, was in prison at the time and could not have sold the drugs to the informant, the document said. After the undercover sting, internal affairs investigators found that another detective, William Ward, documented that "the confidential informant only purchased one item, a white rock-like substance, crack cocaine," he initialed the evidence bag as proof.

The police investigators contend that after Ward's evidence was placed in the Hartford Police Department's property room, Ortiz added a "ziplock bag containing a plant-like substance," into the bag containing the crack cocaine, apparently to bolster his case, court records show.

After the house was raided and Raynette Woodard was arrested, Ortiz wrote in a prosecutor's report that Michael Woodard had been misidentified. He said that the confidential informant had purchased the drugs from Antoine Declaybrook, a convicted drug dealer whom Ortiz had arrested three times before, the court record shows.

Also during the raid, Det. Pedro Rivera told investigators, he told Ortiz that he had found a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol in the overhead compartment of a car parked in the garage, court records show. But instead of charging Lloyd McLaughlin, the owner of the vehicle, with possession of an illegal gun, court records show, Ortiz charged Raynette Woodard with criminal possession of the gun -- a charge generally lodged against convicted felons, which she is not.

Charges against Woodard and McLaughlin were dropped within a week of their arrests.

During the hearing Wednesday, Georgetti, Ortiz's lawyer, argued against a request by Hartford State's Attorney James Thomas that the case be transferred to part A, where the most serious criminal cases are prosecuted.

"I don't think this case should be handled differently just because he is a police officer," Georgetti said.

Thomas said, however, that other cases involving Hartford police officers have been handled in Part A, so Ortiz wasn't being treated any differently.

Judge Frank M. D'Addabbo Jr. agreed to transfer the case to Judge Thomas P. Miano, who would decide whether to transfer Ortiz' case and that of Sanzo, who also is charged with tampering with evidence.

Sanzo, who retired just before his arrest, did not appear in court Wednesday but D'Addabbo continued his case along with Ortiz's case to Nov. 17.

D'Addabbo granted Georgetti's motion to order the police department to preserve its radio communications and its recording of all cellphone calls by the officers who participated in the drug raids on Aug. 27 and Sept. 2.

Thomas said after the hearing that his office is reviewing all pending cases in which Ortiz and Sanzo were the arresting officers. "We will look at them on a case-by-case basis," Thomas said, adding that the review could take some time because it could consist of hundreds of pending criminal cases.

Georgetti said the review would not result in any tainted cases. "They will find that the investigations were done in accordance with Hartford Police Department procedures. They were all good arrests."

Georgetti said he hopes to find in discovery that Ortiz is a victim of an internal affairs investigation that was "rushed." He said the investigators "committed a series of errors," and they arrested Ortiz without the necessary probable cause.

HEADLINE: Ex-cop's ritzy car purchase detailed; Drug defendant bought $177,000 auto, court told

DATELINE: CHICAGO, IL

Smith, who finished his 23-year career on the force while working in an evidence-storage facility, is on trial on charges he stole multiple kilograms of seized cocaine and sold it to a friend who was a drug dealer.

Prosecutors Christopher Niewoehner and Carrie Hamilton contend Smith lived far too extravagantly for a Chicago police officer who never made more than $51,000 a year on the job.  But Smith's lawyer, Donna Hickstein-Foley, maintained Smith regularly bragged
about winning big while gambling in Las Vegas and Chicago area riverboats.

However, prosecutors told jurors in opening statements Monday that records from more than 20 casinos show Smith actually lost tens of thousands of dollars.  Wermeyer testified that Smith secured a loan from the Chicago Patrolman's Credit Union to buy the 1998 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur for $177,216.

Smith never took the showroom car for a test-drive, according to Wermeyer, who called the Rolls-Royce "the ultimate luxury car."  Smith considered buying a 1999 Rolls-Royce costing about $220,000, Wermeyer said, but he chose the 1998 model because it was "more important to him to get a good deal."

On Wednesday, prosecutors also wheeled into the courtroom for the second time in the trial six men's and women's fur coats as well as three leather coats seized from Smith's Olympia Fields house when he was arrested in February 2003.  Susan Kluger of Kluger Furs in Flossmoor said Smith and his wife had bought four coats from her, including two displayed in the courtroom.  In addition, employees from two home electronics stores testified that Smith had spent thousands of dollars to buy entertainment centers and related equipment.  He almost always paid in cash, they said.

Jason Rauner, a convicted drug dealer, also testified that in the early- to mid-1990s he regularly bought cocaine from Terry Smith, a nephew of John Smith 's.  Rauner said that in 1994 the younger Smith told him his uncle worked in the police evidence room and was supplying him with cocaine from there.

When the younger Smith was jailed in 1995, John Smith collected about $100,000 in cash from Rauner after the nephew had sold him 5 kilograms of cocaine, Rauner said.  Rauner, serving 9 years in prison for separate narcotics convictions in Minnesota and Chicago, said prosecutors haven't made any promises in return for his testimony but that he hopes his sentence would be reduced. 

HEADLINE: Former Sheriff Claims Risk if He Faces Charges;
San Bernardino County prosecutors say Floyd Tidwell hasn't turned in stolen guns. He says he's kept his promise and faces danger if punished.

DATELINE: SAN BERNARDION, CA

From inside his High Desert ranch home, decorated with steer horns and well-stocked with firearms, former San Bernardino County Sheriff Floyd Tidwell on Wednesday said that his safety may be at risk if prosecutors pursue felony gun charges against him.

If the felonies stick, Tidwell could face jail time and would be stripped of his right to bear arms -- both of which Tidwell says would put him in grave danger.

"I've put a lot of people away," Tidwell, 74, said in a telephone interview.

Tidwell, sheriff from 1983 to 1991, pleaded guilty in May to four felony counts of concealing stolen property for stealing an estimated 523 guns from evidence rooms. He agreed to a $10,000 fine, and prosecutors agreed to reduce the felony charges to misdemeanors if Tidwell cooperated with law enforcement in searching for the missing guns.

San Bernardino County district attorney officials say Tidwell did not keep his end of the bargain. Tidwell insists he did. Today, Superior Court Judge J. Michael Welch is scheduled to decide who's right.

"I'm not guilty of anything, dang it," Tidwell said. "I've turned in every gun I had. The others have either been destroyed or distributed, and I gave a list of those [distributed guns] to the Sheriff's Department, and they said they'd contact those people. What else can I do?"

Prosecutors allege Tidwell stole the guns while he was in office, keeping some to beef up his private collection and handing out others as gifts to friends and volunteer reserve deputies. Tidwell turned over 89 of the missing guns before striking the plea bargain, and he's provided 30 to 40 more since May, prosecutors said.The judge's decision is critical to Tidwell because he wants to remain well-armed, said his attorney, David Call.

"[Tidwell] knows you can't keep firearms if you're convicted of a felony," Call said. "He wants to be able to protect himself and his family. He lives in the middle of nowhere."

With a picturesque view of the snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains from his home, the retired Tidwell said he spends his time caring for his ailing wife, Janet, and that he picked the remote desert location for his home to ensure the couple could spend their final years quietly.

"[Tidwell] has people who hate him," Call said. "There are people out there who would love to kill the ex-sheriff, even if it's a gang member doing it for no other reason than to make his bones .... You don't think there's a family member or a partner in crime to one of those people [he jailed] who wouldn't love to kill the ex-sheriff?"

However, with nearly 400 of the 523 missing guns still unaccounted for, sources in the district attorney's office say Tidwell has not cooperated enough.

Prosecutor Cheryl Kersey is expected to argue that the convictions should remain felonies because the missing weapons remain a threat to public safety.

"Who wants a felony? Not me," Tidwell said. "I've lived here 75 years. I served the county 40 years. I've never been arrested in my life. There's no reason for all this."

Call said Tidwell did not deserve jail time.

"How would you like to be Colonel Sanders and be put in the chicken coop?" Call said. "He doesn't need to be punished any more than he has. His pride is shattered. His wife is terribly ill. And the mistress of his life, the Sheriff's Department, has a black eye because of his actions."

Tidwell's legal trouble began in June 2003, when San Bernardino County sheriff's detectives conducted an investigation into alleged bail solicitation of jail inmates and searched the homes of Tidwell's sons, Danial and Steve. Detectives found 24 guns at the homes, and the Tidwell brothers told detectives their father either gave them the guns or was aware they had stolen some.

Described by his daughter as an avid gun collector, Floyd Tidwell turned in the 89 guns valued at an estimated $25,000, including three illegal weapons, last November.

Tidwell says that even before his sons' homes were searched, he contacted former Sheriff Dick Williams and current Sheriff Gary Penrod to inform them of his possession of the weapons. A spokeswoman for Penrod said Tidwell was told to either arrange for the guns to be picked up or to bring them in personally. Neither happened, the spokeswoman said.

HEADLINE: Former Sheriff Says He'd Face Danger if Jailed; San Bernardino County prosecutors allege Floyd Tidwell hasn't turned in stolen guns. He says he's kept his promise and would be at risk if punished.

DATELINE: SAN BERNARDINO, Ca.

From inside his High Desert ranch home, decorated with steer horns and well-stocked with firearms, former San Bernardino County Sheriff Floyd Tidwell on Wednesday said that his safety may be at risk if prosecutors pursue felony gun charges against him.

If the felonies stick, Tidwell could face jail time and would be stripped of his right to bear arms -- both of which Tidwell says would put him in grave danger.

"I've put a lot of people away," Tidwell, 74, said.

Tidwell, sheriff from 1983 to 1991, pleaded guilty in May to four felony counts of concealing stolen property for stealing an estimated 523 guns from evidence rooms. He agreed to a $10,000 fine, and prosecutors agreed to reduce the felony charges to misdemeanors if Tidwell cooperated with law enforcement in searching for the missing guns.

San Bernardino County district attorney officials say Tidwell did not keep his end of the bargain. Tidwell insists he did. Today, Superior Court Judge J. Michael Welch is scheduled to decide who's right.

"I'm not guilty of anything, dang it," Tidwell said. "I've turned in every gun I had. The others have either been destroyed or distributed, and I gave a list of those [distributed guns] to the Sheriff's Department, and they said they'd contact those people. What else can I do?"

Prosecutors allege Tidwell stole the guns while he was in office, keeping some to beef up his private collection and handing out others as gifts to friends and volunteer reserve deputies.

Tidwell turned over 89 of the missing guns before striking the plea bargain, and he's provided 30 to 40 more since May, prosecutors said. The judge's decision is critical to Tidwell because he wants to remain well-armed, said his attorney, David Call.

"[Tidwell] knows you can't keep firearms if you're convicted of a felony," Call said. "He wants to be able to protect himself and his family. He lives in the middle of nowhere."

With a picturesque view of the snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains from his home, the retired Tidwell said he spends his time caring for his ailing wife, Janet, and that he picked the remote desert location for his home to ensure the couple could spend their final years quietly.

"[Tidwell] has people who hate him," Call said.

"There are people out there who would love to kill the ex-sheriff, even if it's a gang member doing it for no other reason than to make his bones .... You don't think there's a family member or a partner in crime to one of those people [he jailed] who wouldn't love to kill the ex-sheriff?

However, with nearly 400 of the 523 missing guns still unaccounted for, sources in the district attorney's office say Tidwell has not cooperated enough.

Prosecutor Cheryl Kersey is expected to argue that the convictions should remain felonies because the missing weapons remain a threat to public safety.

"Who wants a felony? Not me," Tidwell said. "I served the county 40 years. I've never been arrested in my life. There's no reason for all this."

Call said Tidwell did not deserve jail time.

"How would you like to be Colonel Sanders and be put in the chicken coop?" Call said. "He doesn't need to be punished any more than he has. His pride is shattered. His wife is terribly ill. And the mistress of his life, the Sheriff's Department, has a black eye because of his actions."

Tidwell's legal trouble began in June 2003, when detectives conducted an investigation into alleged bail solicitation of jail inmates and searched the homes of Tidwell's sons, Danial and Steve. Detectives found 24 guns at the homes, and the Tidwell brothers told detectives their father either gave them the guns or was aware they had stolen some.

Described by his daughter as an avid gun collector, Floyd Tidwell turned in the 89 guns valued at an estimated $25,000, including three illegal weapons, last November.

Tidwell says that even before his sons' homes were searched, he contacted former Sheriff Dick Williams and current Sheriff Gary Penrod to inform them of his possession of the weapons.

A spokeswoman for Penrod said Tidwell was told to either arrange for the guns to be picked up or to bring them in personally. Neither happened, the spokeswoman said.

"They've had my phone number and my address for 55 years -- they've known how to get a hold of me," Tidwell said.

HEADLINE: Saving the evidence

DATELINE: INDIAN RIVER COUNTY

There were more drugs in the Indian River County Sheriff's Office parking lot than patrol cars.

But like beachgoers on a sunny Florida day, the narcotics and other evidence were just catching some rays.

"We actually had about 4,000 pieces of evidence drying in the sunlight outside in the parking lot (after Hurricane Frances)," said Sgt. Lew Beckerdite, noting officials from their Fort Pierce regional crime lab suggested ultraviolet rays are the best way to dry out evidence such as narcotics. "Of course, it was under heavy guard."

Damage control

About 3 feet of water filled the northeast corner of the Sheriff's Office evidence room after Frances, saturating an area that mostly held confiscated drug paraphernalia.

But the small amount of evidence that took on water when it started to literally rain inside a portion of the room was salvageable and nothing was destroyed, according to Sheriff's Office Capt. Mike Dean.

"The integrity of the evidence was never compromised," he said, adding none of their cases will be weakened in court nor will any charges be dropped from the damaged evidence.

Deputies quickly banned together during the peak of the hurricane to quickly relocate everything when an air conditioning unit blew off the Sheriff's Office roof.

The almost $1 million price tag that has been placed on the severely battered and damaged Sheriff's Office complex in the 4000 block of 41st Street includes repair work to a 700-square-foot area where detectives used to store some evidence from both past and present cases.

Storing items

All of the packaged guns, drugs, money and other items in the area were relocated to an adjacent 1,000-square-foot expansion area of the evidence room. The newer portion of the evidence room, built in March 2002, did not sustain any interior or exterior damage.

"Very few law-enforcement agencies -- if any -- have seen the type of destruction that we have," said Beckerdite, who oversees the Sheriff's Office crime scene investigation unit. "But to come out of having your evidence room damaged and not having any cases in court compromised is a great accomplishment."

Officials from the Sheriff's Office and State Attorney's Office deemed evidence from 68 cases were somewhat damaged by water. However, the State Attorney's Office may not be able to present the best evidence in only two cases, Dean said.

Evidence of his claim already has went through the county's criminal process.

Vero Beach resident Justin Lee Stribling, 23, was arrested March 16 and charged with fleeing and eluding law enforcement, driving while his license was suspended habitual offender and possession of marijuana less than 20 grams.

The marijuana the deputy alleged he found in Stribling's possession was processed accordingly and placed in the evidence room, only to be soaked during Frances. Although Assistant State Attorney Jason Bruin was able to use it during the trial, jurors acquitted Stribling of the drug charge but found him guilty of the other two charges.

"I got (the marijuana) introduced as evidence, but the jury couldn't open it because of potential toxic fumes," he said, adding the acquittal was not based on the evidence being damaged.

Attorney Jennifer Hixon, Stribling's public defender, also said the damage didn't pose a problem during the trial because Judge Dan L. Vaughn deemed the evidence admissible.

HEADLINE: Drugs and cash stolen from police evidence room

DATELINE: POTTSBORO, TX

Police in one North Texas town don't have to go far to investigate a brazen daytime burglary. Somebody busted into the Pottsboro police department evidence room. So far no arrests.

Investigators say a back door was broken Monday and a person -- or persons -- stole thousands of dollars worth of cash and illegal drugs.

Pottsboro leaders are looking into ways to keep the building more secure -- plus they're considering having a dispatcher in the building at all times.

Pottsboro is a town of about 1,600, located 65 miles north of Dallas.

HEADLINE: Ex-cop guilty of stealing cocaine

DATELINE: CHICAGO, Il

A federal jury convicted a former Chicago cop Wednesday of stealing cocaine out of an evidence room and selling it, then trying to hide his lavish lifestyle by claiming the money came from gambling.

After about four hours of deliberation, jurors found John Smith, 55, guilty on all counts, including charges of drug conspiracy, money laundering, tax evasion and filing false statements on tax returns.

Because the jury also found he dealt more than five kilos of powder cocaine and more than 50 grams of crack, he faces a minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison.

Smith was on trial for regularly supplying cocaine from 1995 to 1997 to the late William "Fats" James, who ran a South Side crack house. They said he tried to disguise the money as gambling wins, then lied about the cash he made in his tax filings.

Evidence room in problems

The trial exposed significant problems at the Chicago Police Department's Evidence Room and Property Section (ERPS) in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Evidence was in such disarray, Smith's attorney Donna Hickstein-Foley argued to jurors, that it's plausible trace amounts of cocaine were found in his car and on his safe dial because he had swept up cocaine that spilled on the evidence room floor. She pointed to testimony by ERPS employees who said they sometimes swept up drugs that had seeped out of broken boxes onto the floor.

"If an ERPS employee is sweeping up their drugs, is it so unusual they get it on their clothing or hands?" Hickstein-Foley asked. She argued anyone could have walked off with the drugs and prosecutors were only "guessing" that Smith was the culprit.

Different interpretations

Prosecutors Carrie Hamilton and Christopher Niewoehner agreed the evidence room was a mess -- making it that much easier for Smith to take bags of powder cocaine for years unnoticed.

Hamilton pointed to testimony of a fellow officer who saw Smith carry a large gym bag into a vault where the refrigerator -- and evidence -- was kept. When asked what he had inside the bag, Smith said it was his lunch. The refrigerator was later moved out of the vault.

Prosecutors during the trial, which started last week, questioned six people who lived at the crackhouse and pointed to Smith as the main supplier.

Lavish lifestyle

Hamilton said before Smith walked into the house there were no drugs.

"He would leave, and they'd be open for business," Hamilton said.

Above all, Smith's involvement in drug selling was apparent from his lavish lifestyle, Niewoehner said. Earning just $58,000 a year in his police salary, Smith owned a $177,000 Rolls-Royce, two Lexus cars, a Mustang and a large Olympia Fields home. He also bought expensive jewelry and furs for his girlfriends and jetted off to Las Vegas to gamble.

Smith tried to argue he had an unbelievable winning streak, cashing in more than $1 million by playing slots in Vegas casinos. But prosecutors paraded in experts who said it was impossible and that slot machines are programmed so the house ultimately profits.

"That's exactly what it is," Hamilton said of Smith's supposed winning streak. "Unbelievable."

HEADLINE: Clackamas County sheriff-elect calls for inventory of evidence

DATELINE: PORTLAND, Or.

The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office property building, which contains such evidence as guns, cash and drugs seized in criminal cases from murder on down, has not been fully inventoried in about three decades.

Sheriff-elect Craig Roberts is pushing for a review of the 81,000 items before he takes office in January. "It has been such a long time since it has been done," he said.  Interviews with all Portland-area sheriff's property rooms show that Clackamas County is among the most lax in its inventory procedure.

Clackamas County Sheriff Pat Detloff said he is exploring an inventory, at Roberts' request. However, Detloff said any review probably would not be complete by the time he leaves office.  Most other Portland-area sheriff's offices conduct either annual full inventory reviews or spot checks, where a sampling of items are pulled and matched with records.

Industry professionals are trying to move toward universal standards on property room procedures and protocol.  "If you can't find a gun used in a homicide, you have got a big problem," said Robert Giles, board president of the International Association for Property and Evidence, based in Burbank, Calif.

Located near the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, a nondescript building holds thousands of pieces of evidence -- beer cans, baseball bats, cash, dried marijuana plants, golf clubs, rifles, rings, shotguns, car parts, clothing, urine samples, a bloody mattress and more. Many of these items, a few dating as far back as the late 1960s, hold the key to someone's innocence or guilt.

Oregon law requires new sheriffs to assume responsibility for all property room evidence, including guns, cash and drugs.  Even though there have been no recent reports of theft or tampering in the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, Roberts said he has concerns about signing for the evidence without a full inventory.

Any misdeeds, even small ones, in the property room can create a ripple effect within the criminal justice system. Last week, the Milwaukie Police Department confirmed it is investigating a former Milwaukie police technician accused of filing false evidence reports. It is unclear how many cases are affected.

Clackamas County property specialist Sandi King said there hasn't been a full inventory review of the Clackamas County property room since she started working there in 1975.

King said specific checks for cash and guns have taken place as recently as November 2003. But a full audit "is something that should be done."  Detloff said he did not know whether there had ever been a complete inventory at the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.

The property room has had two spot checks in the past 20 years -- one in the early '80s and one in the early '90s, Detloff said. The spot checks showed "everything was working fine," he said.  "I'd rather spend dollars in direct law enforcement services than . . . for an inventory of the property room," Detloff said.  An inventory, he said, could take about three months and could cost $30,000.

According to the nonprofit International Association for Property and Evidence, property room inventory should be reviewed annually or when there is a turnover in key personnel.  Giles said the group has been promoting such industry standards for the past five years.  "We just started getting the word out that law enforcement needs to do these internal controls and keep the public trust," he said. "A minuscule percentage of law enforcement agencies are performing to these standards."

Calls to sheriff's office property rooms in the Portland area show a range of practices.

The Clark County Sheriff's Office conducts two unannounced spot checks annually, said Dave Beeman, who manages a property room with about 100,000 items. Full inventories are conducted when there is a turnover of key personnel.

Beeman said the last complete inventory review took place in 2001 after he was hired and another employee was accused of stealing drugs from the property room.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office has a 60,000-item property room that undergoes a full inventory check annually, as well as when there is turnover in property room personnel, said Sgt. Dave Anderson. The room also undergoes unannounced spot checks and other inspections.

The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office property room, with about 30,000 items, has not had a full inventory review in at least 26 years, said Rick Gustafson, a property-evidence technician. Spot checks happen almost annually, he said.

The Clackamas County property rooms are closed to the public. Detloff allowed reporter for The Oregonian to tour them but would not allow photography, citing security concerns and respect to victims' families.

The main property room resembles a library, but the wooden cubby holes are filled with items that reflect lives and deaths. Here, the ordinary takes on new meaning.

A plastic hockey goalie mask used by a criminal to hide his identity sits in one cubby hole. Cans of beer -- Bud Light, Miller, Busch -- and bottles of vodka and Jack Daniel's serve as evidence in drunken driving cases.

The oldest pieces of evidence are a child's shoes and clothing from a 1968 murder, King said. Homicide evidence is not destroyed until the killer has died or the case has exhausted all appeals.

Sheriff-elect Roberts said that after an inventory of items is completed, he hopes to continually review and audit the property room to meet state and national accreditation standards.  "This holds us all accountable," Roberts said.

DATELINE: BENSVILLE, Il.

HEADLINE: Police to keep rape kits longer; Bensenville to hold evidence 10 years

Although Illinois law mandates that agencies keep evidence of sexual assaults after a conviction, there is no law requiring that the kits be kept in cases where no one has been charged. That decision is left up to the individual police departments, whose guidelines vary.

Bensenville police came under fire from a DuPage County judge three months ago when officials admitted they mistakenly destroyed a kit in 2001 from a 1996 rape. The DuPage County crime lab kept part of the kit, and in 2001, officials said tests matched the evidence to a convicted sex offender.

The man, Kurt J. Serzen, was charged with the rape, but Judge Perry Thompson in August barred the prosecution's evidence because the rest of the kit was destroyed by Bensenville police. Prosecutors are appealing the decision.

Bensenville admitted that since 1999 it had destroyed kits in five other cases in which no charges were filed, and a sixth kit in which a conviction was obtained. Bensenville Police Chief Frank Kosman at first defended the department's actions, saying two of the cases were "unfounded," deemed by the department not to have been true assaults, and in three others, the victims or state's attorneys declined to prosecute.

But Kosman said Tuesday that he has reconsidered and decided the department should not have destroyed the kits before the expiration of the statute of limitations--10 years for adult cases. He said destroying the kits leaves little room for the victims or prosecutors to change their minds about pursuing a case.

"I would rather just go to the side of just keeping them until the statute of limitations runs out. There's always the possibility that even if we find it unfounded at one time, that could change," Kosman said. "It would make it very difficult to prosecute if we got rid of them."

Destroying rape kits before the statute of limitations runs out is not uncommon in many departments.  Some police departments, like Chicago's, said they keep the kits until the statute runs out. Others said they preserve them for 25 years, and still others keep them permanently. But all said there are exceptions to those guidelines, with the departments considering the kits on a case-by-case basis. That's necessary, they said, to make room for new evidence in increasingly overcrowded evidence rooms.

In Aurora, police keep the rape kits until the statute of limitations runs out, but won't keep the kit if a victim recants his or her testimony or doesn't want to prosecute, said Sgt. Rusty Sullivan, who runs the department's evidence room.

"If they won't prosecute, you have to ask yourself at that point, is it really evidence anymore?" Sullivan said. After the statute runs out, the department considers the evidence only useful for a civil case, he said. "We don't have the resources to become a repository for civil cases."

Bartlett police, who handle relatively few sexual assault cases, said they keep the kits until the case has been disposed of by the courts. They said that kits taken in cases where no charges have been filed would be kept indefinitely.

"It would be silly of us to destroy something that could be used in a pending case," said Sgt. John Mich, who oversees the department's evidence room. "We will be more inclined to hold on to something a greater period of time than we should. But we have space. As long as we do, what does it hurt?"

Nationally, there is no standard for how long departments should keep the kits. The practice varies from state to state and department to department, said Jessica Mindlin, senior attorney with the National Crime Victim Law Institute in Portland, Ore. She and other victim advocacy groups argue that agencies should err on the side of caution and keep rape kits at least until the statute of limitations runs out.  "You're not talking about storing boats," she said. "You're talking about something that's the size of a shoebox or smaller."  Even if a victim doesn't want to pursue a charge or prosecutors believe they can't get a conviction in the case, the DNA evidence could be used as supporting evidence in sentencing if the alleged attacker is convicted on another charge, Mindlin said.

And just because a victim recants doesn't mean the rape didn't happen, said Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Rape victims sometimes recant out of fear of their attacker or pressure from their peers and family. But over time, the victim's emotional stability may improve, prompting them to want to pursue the charges, Poskin said. 

Bensenville's accidental destruction of a rape kit is not the first such incident. Los Angeles police in 2002 admitted to accidentally destroying 1,100 rape kits. The mishap prompted passage of a state law in 2003 requiring law enforcement agencies to notify victims before dumping the kits prior to the statute of limitations running out. 

Poskin applauded Bensenville's decision to keep all sexual assault kits. "A lot of other departments, who may have more resources than Bensenville, should say to themselves, `If they can do it for 10 years, we can meet and exceed that.'"

HEADLINE: Police worker gets 10 years for theft

DATELINE: MEMPHIS, Tn.

A former Memphis police property room supervisor was sentenced Tuesday to10 years in prison for using the property room for what prosecutors called a "drug distribution hub."

Kenneth Dansberry, 42, stole more than $1 million cash and 150 kilograms Of cocaine seized as evidence, authorities said.

Dansberry pleaded guilty in January to stealing drugs to sell to former property room employee Patrick Maxwell. He could have faced more than 30 years in prison but got a reduced sentence because his cooperation helped authorities indict Maxwell and 15 other city employees an drug dealers.

"I'm sorry," he told the judge. " ... I ask the court to give me another chance in life."