DATELINE: Scottsdale, AZ

The Scottsdale Police Department has begun reducing the amount of blood, drugs and firearms held as evidence in its storage facilities, Chief Alan Rodbell said Tuesday.

The efforts come in response to a city audit, released in December, that found systemic failures within management of the police department’s evidence property room and off-site storage lockers. 

Some items had been held years after the cases they were associated with closed. In addition, the department was renting storage lockers that were not secured that exposed evidence to extreme heat in the summer, according to internal police department inspections and City Auditor Cheryl Barcala’s report. 

Rodbell presented the audit committee, which is composed of three City Council members, with an update Tuesday of what the department is doing to complete a 29-point list of evidence-handling reforms. 

Since July, more than 4,000 pieces of drug evidence have been burned and 218 weapons have been marked for disposal, Rodbell said. The department’s backlog of blood samples also has been destroyed. 

While property room employees have identified weapons to destroy, they are waiting for the council to alter city code, Rodbell said. The code does not clearly designate how or when weapons should be disposed.  The audit report identified 2,300 firearms in storage. 

In all, Barcala said she estimated the department is storing 120,000 pieces of evidence, many of which can legally be destroyed. 

Each year, Scottsdale police collect about 2,000 pieces of evidence, said Steve Garrett, crime laboratory manager. On average the department disposes of or releases about half of the items it takes in. 

A bar code system is being implemented that will create a database of all items in storage, Rodbell said. 

Police officials are working with City Manager Jan Dolan to propose changes to the city code that will dictate how long evidence and other property should be stored. 

A chicken-and-egg dispute arose between committee members as Councilman Wayne Ecton argued the City Council to refrain from altering the city code until the department institutes its own reforms. 

"I don’t think we should be telling you to do this one way or another," Ecton said. "We’re not here to run the police department." 

Councilmen Bob Littlefield and Jim Lane argued the other way, saying the department should base its procedures on the council’s changes to city code. 

Dolan said she was concerned a code could paint the department into a corner, with policies it could not maintain.

HEADLINE: Guilty pleas expected in Kennedale scheme Ex-chief, court worker accused of stealing $200,000 from city

DATELINE: Kennedale, Tx

From 1997 to 2001, the city of Kennedale paid then-Police Chief David Geeslin more than $200,000 in bonuses for purportedly serving dozens of city arrest warrants.

One problem: Mr. Geeslin never did the work, federal prosecutors say. 

Mr. Geeslin, 55, of Eastland, Texas, and a former municipal court administrator, Paula Lummus Fort, are expected to plead guilty today to conspiring so that Mr. Geeslin could steal the warrant money from the city.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment. Ms. Fort, 41, of Kennedale could not be reached for comment, but Mr. Geeslin's attorney, Michael Ware of Fort Worth, said his client had met with federal prosecutors and was cooperating with their investigation.

"He's anxious to get this behind him," Mr. Ware said, declining to discuss the charges specifically.

But a 10-page conspiracy charge filed Monday in Fort Worth federal court outlines the case.
The court documents state that the pair orchestrated a fraudulent scheme for several years, taking advantage of the city's policy of paying officers extra for serving arrest warrants.

Mr. Geeslin, who left the force in 2001 after 15 years and recently resigned as city manager in Eastland, is expected to admit today to stealing $147,000 in $35 and $50 increments by directing an officer to falsify paperwork.

The charge states that he told the officer he wanted a minimum amount of money every two weeks through the scheme.

"The pay sheets submitted by a KPD officer falsely represented that Geeslin had served arrest warrants on the defendants listed on the pay sheet submitted to the clerk," the charge reads. "Consequently, Geeslin was paid warrant fees by the city for warrants actually served by another KPD officer."

Ms. Fort, who left her job as municipal court coordinator in 2002, is expected to admit that she falsified other records at Mr. Geeslin's request, resulting in an additional $64,000 in fraudulent payments, according to the charge.

She "inflated the pay sheets by fraudulently adding the names of defendants whose warrants had not been served by Geeslin or any other KPD officer," it reads.

The charge doesn't say that Ms. Fort, who used the last name Lummus while a city employee, profited from the scheme.

Prosecutors charged the pair in a felony "information," as opposed to a more typical indictment or criminal complaint, an indication that both plan to plead guilty. Their arraignment, when defendants enter pleas, is scheduled for today. Both face a maximum of five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

The charges result from a more than two-year investigation by the FBI and the Tarrant County district attorney's office.

It began in spring 2001, after confiscated firearms turned up missing from the Police Department's evidence property room, said David Lobingier, a Tarrant County assistant district attorney.

That investigation exposed other possible corruption, and the FBI began working on the case, he said.

Last month, former Kennedale Officer Gary Cooper was charged with securing execution of documents by deception in relation to the warrant scheme.

Mr. Cooper, who was authorized to serve Kennedale warrants, faces up to two years in state jail if convicted. He could not be reached for comment.

HEADLINE: Ex-police captain indicted in theft

DATELINE: KENNEDALE

A former Kennedale police captain was indicted Thursday on a charge that he stole a firearm from the police property room.

Douglas R. Peters, 56, who resigned in April 2002 after 17 years with the Police Department, faces up to two years in a state jail and a maximum $10,000 fine if convicted of the felony.

The indictment came one day after two other former city officials pleaded guilty to federal charges in an unrelated case involving warrant fees.

Peters was arrested Thursday as he left his security job near Beaumont. Peters had not been booked into the Tarrant County Jail as of late Thursday.

City officials discovered in March 2002 that numerous firearms and more than $17,000 were missing from the police property room, where confiscated items and evidence for trial are stored. Peters was managing the property room at that time. Joe Shannon, chief of the Tarrant County district attorney's economic crimes unit, said Peters was charged in connection with a Colt 45 handgun that was in the property room.

"The gun later was being carried as a personal sidearm by Peters," Shannon said.

The property room problems came to light shortly after Police Chief Jim Rutledge was hired in March 2002.

Peters resigned on April 4, 2002, giving no reason in his letter to Rutledge. A week later, Rutledge presented a report to the City Council detailing the disappearance and mishandling of weapons and cash.

"Some 31 weapons were stored in Peters' residence and in his office, rather than the property  / evidence room," according to Rutledge's report. "At least 10 weapons are missing from the property/evidence room. There are 22 weapons that cannot be linked to an offense report. ... Many other items that indicated 'destroyed' were in fact being used by or stored at the police department."

Nine weapons had each been reported destroyed twice, according to the Rutledge report.

Rutledge declined to comment on the case Thursday.

On Wednesday, former Kennedale Police Chief David Geeslin, 55, and former Municipal Court administrator Paula Lummus Fort, 41, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit theft and other felony offense. They both resigned before the investigation began in 2002.

HEADLINE: Two former police officers admit federal crimes;  Ex-patrolman planted drugs. Ex-chief lied about machine gun.

DATELINE: SCRANTON 

Two former Panther Valley police officers pleaded guilty to federal charges Tuesday -- one to conspiring to plant drugs during raids on two brothers' homes and another to lying federal authorities about selling a machine gun to another officer.

Judge A. Richard Caputo accepted the pleas from former Coaldale Patrolman Michael Weaver and former Lansford Police Chief Joseph Stawiarski, but deferred sentencing them.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod said the pleas will help close a sad chapter for area law enforcement.

Zubrod said Weaver is facing 33 to 41 months in prison.

He said Stawiarski is facing probation to six months in prison, unless a judge finds that he was trafficking guns. In that case, which Zubrod believes is unlikely, Stawiarski is facing 18 to 24 months in prison.

Caputo reminded both men that they would have to serve the entire length of a prison sentence.
"There is no parole in the federal system," he said.

Weaver, 35, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate civil rights. In return for the plea, prosecutors dropped four charges against him, including a charge of intimidating witnesses.

Zubrod said Weaver in 2003 conspired with Lansford canine officer Jeremy Sommers and former Coaldale Police Chief Sean Nihen to plant drugs at the homes of two Panther Valley brothers during raids.

Zubrod said Sommers planted cocaine during a March 25, 2003, raid of the Coaldale home of George Becker, and Weaver arrested him.

Zubrod said the three men conspired again in July 2003. This time, Sommers planted heroin in the Lansford home of Vincent Becker and arrested him.

When FBI agents questioned Weaver, he initially lied about planting the evidence, Zubrod said.
Police found other drugs in the houses in addition to the planted drugs. Local prosecutors do not expect the charges against the officers to affect the cases against the Beckers.

Zubrod would not speculate why Weaver, who resigned in July 2003, and Sommers, who has been suspended without pay, would plant drugs in homes where drugs were already present.
"Who knows why people do dumb things?" Zubrod said.

He said the drugs that were planted came from police evidence rooms. He said Nihen supplied the cocaine and Sommers supplied the heroin.

Sommers is scheduled to plead guilty to conspiracy to violate civil rights on Jan. 20 before Caputo.

FBI agents learned of the drug planting from Nihen, Zubrod said.

At that time, agents had Nihen on a weapons charge, and Nihen offered the information about the planted drugs on the condition he would not be charged with it, Zubrod said.

According to court records, Nihen wore a wiretap to record conversations about the planted drugs with Sommers and Weaver. During the conversations, they discussed planting the evidence and lying to federal officials to cover up the crime.

Nihen on Nov. 1 pleaded guilty to buying the machine gun from Stawiarski without registering it with the National Firearms Registry. He is awaiting sentencing. He resigned as police chief in May.

Stawiarski, 47, pleaded guilty to giving false statements to federal authorities.

According to Zubrod, Stawiarski legally bought the M10 45-caliber machine gun in the 1980s and properly registered it. He sold it to Nihen in 1998 in exchange for a stereo.

But Zubrod said, this time, the sale wasn't registered.

FBI agents questioned Stawiarski in April, and gave him a Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms questionnaire, Zubrod said. Stawiarski wrote that he did not transfer the gun to Nihen. Stawiarski also told FBI agents he did not transfer the gun to Nihen.

Stawiarski retired in 2001.

His lawyer, Gregory Mousseau, said Stawiarski regrets what he's done.

"He's apologetic and feels sorry for the disrepute he's brought among themselves," Mousseau said.

All four defendants remain free on unsecured bail. Stawiarski and Weaver are scheduled to be sentenced on April 11.

Zubrod said an FBI investigation is continuing into police in the area, but he believes they have the "circle of wrongdoing."

HEADLINE: Ready to burst at the beams; Police property room is in a jam, but help's coming

DATELINE: Durham, NC

The police property room in the basement of the Durham Police Department's headquarters almost resembles an overstuffed storage shed.

Bicycles, televisions, a ladder, compressor and even a washing machine are crammed into the area, along with dozens of boxes containing the rest of the nearly 95,000 confiscated and found items. But it's the cabinets filled with handguns and rifles that show the area is no ordinary storage space.

If the department continues to collect evidence and other materials at its current rate, it will have to expand its storage facilities in the near future, according to the city's Audit Services Department, which recently surveyed the room.

Since 2001, the number of items packed into the rooms has increased by 38.2 percent. It now holds 94,729 objects.

The Police Department recognizes the need for more space, and wants to begin planning for a new property and evidence facility in fiscal year 2006-07, according to an audit response prepared by Police Chief Steve Chalmers.

In the meantime, the department plans to combat the growing lack of space by installing space-saving shelves in a room formerly occupied by its Identification Unit. It also hopes to use a warehouse at 213 Broadway St. to stow away bulky items and objects that won't be used as evidence.

But before it can haul things to the warehouse, the department would need to install a 10-foot- high fence, storage bins and racks for hanging bicycles inside the building, according to Chalmers.

Auctioning off the unused items or throwing them away isn't an option in many cases because authorities have to hang onto them until a case has gone through all appeals processes, department spokeswoman Kammie Michael said.

Evidence is expected to continue piling up at its current rate because of homicide cases, Michael said.

"Several years ago investigators started doing more thorough collections of evidence, which results in more items in the property room," Michael said in an e-mail. "The Police Department has also added more officers, which means an increase in caseload and property stored."

Although auctions made the top of Chalmers' list as a way to dispose of seized or found property, Michael said the department has no plans to increase the number of auctions it holds.
"Auctions don't help get rid of items being held as evidence," she wrote.

In December, Chalmers said he would review the way police handle auctions to see if the sales were making more money for some of the department's workers than the school system. In the last three years, 79 percent of proceeds from the department's auctions went toward expenses that included overtime for the employees running the sales.

Michael said the Police Department is still reviewing the ways other law enforcement agencies handle auctions to see how to improve Durham's system.

One way auditors suggested reducing the department's property load is by reviewing all of the property record cards that document why the items are being held.

Sorting through the more than 94,000 cards "is a very large task," according to Audit Services Director Wanda Page, but it would help police identify what items could go.

Chalmers said it would take more than a year to reconcile the records with the property. As a result, the department plans to request funds this year for a laptop computer and two new employees to sort through the items, develop an electronic database and ultimately get rid of unneeded property.

HEADLINE: Highland Park safe missing guns, drugs; Deputies didn't know it existed

DATELINE: Highland Park, Michigan

The Wayne County Sheriff's Office is investigating a possible theft of guns, drugs, cash and jewelry from a safe in the former Highland Park Department of Public Safety offices.

Sheriff Warren Evans said he wants to know what happened to the items and why Highland Park law enforcement officials did not tell deputies about the existence of the safe in the former municipal building. The sheriff's office has been under a 4-year contract, which began in July 2003, to provide police services for the city.

"If I had known there were guns and drugs in an abandoned building, they would have been moved out," Evans said Thursday.

About 20 guns, small packets of cocaine and marijuana, jewelry and a few thousand dollars in cash were reportedly in the safe in the building at 30 Gerald, according to Evans' spokesman John Roach.

"This was nothing that was under our care or control," Evans said. "It's a custody control issue."
In October, a tipster told deputies someone had broken into the safe and its contents were gone.

"At this point nothing has been determined to be actually stolen," Roach said. "There are still paper trails, gaps that we're trying to fill."

It could be that there was a valid reason Highland Park officers moved the items, Roach said. But, he added, "If so, what?"

The city's public safety officials have been asked why deputies were not told about the safe, Roach said. "That's a question that no one has really answered," he said.

Evans said: "They had to know the safe was there. They had to know the stuff was in it."

As part of the investigation, public safety officers and officials who had access to the property room where the safe was located were fingerprinted and interviewed.

Theodore Cadwell, director of the Highland Park Public Safety Department, said little other than: "There's an investigation about a break-in. It's not about nothing at all."

Evans said Michigan State Police are coinvestigators in the case because of past friction between the public safety officers and deputies. Some officers say they should still be doing the police work. Sheriff's deputies chose to operate out of a mini station on Woodward several blocks north of the former municipal building.

Most of the public safety officers were made firefighters when their police duties were contracted out because of budget cuts.

HEADLINE: Cop obligated to tag stolen laptop, trial told

DATELINE: Windsor, Ontario

A Windsor cop accused of stealing a laptop computer after seizing it during a raid was obliged to return it to its owner if he could not demonstrate it was stolen property, his supervisor testified Tuesday.

Staff Sgt. Jim Evans said Det. Tom Rettig failed to follow proper procedures at each step of a botched investigation. 

Evans was in charge of the police street crimes unit when Rettig was accused of taking the laptop Nov. 27, 2003, after mistakenly searching an apartment at 677 St. Luke Rd. during a drug investigation.

Evans told the court that, if Rettig believed the computer was stolen property when he took it, he should have tagged it, stored it in the department's stolen property room and returned it to the owner if he could find no evidence the Dell laptop was stolen.

"It must be returned to the person it was seized from," Evans told assistant Crown attorney Peter Leger when asked what procedures Rettig should have followed.

Evans testified that Rettig did not inform him that officers had entered the wrong apartment in the execution of the search warrant until Dec. 12, 2003, two weeks after the event.

Rettig, as the ranking officer in the case, had an obligation to ensure a full report on the mistaken forced entry was furnished to the service's professional standards branch, Evans said. He said such a report is required because of the possibility of a public complaint against the force.

During cross-examination, defence lawyer Andrew Bradie suggested Rettig had informed Evans of the search by leaving a voice message on his superior's office telephone tape recorder Nov. 28. An entry Evans made in his notebook about the voice mail indicates he received the message, Bradie said.

The cryptic notation Evans made in his notes refers to a joint Windsor police-OPP investigation about two break and enters, the date -- Nov. 26 -- the name of a possible suspect and the address, 677 St. Louis Rd. The initials T.R. were also included in the notes Evans took from the phone message.

Evans testified he believed the message came from the investigating OPP officer.

"Whether it came from the OPP or Tom Rettig, you knew that there was an investigation they were involved in," said Bradie. "What did you do to follow up?"

Evans said he considered the voice mail information to keep him abreast of an "outside investigation" involving the OPP and some of his officers. He insisted the message "did not state anything about a search at 677 St. Louis" or the seizure of a laptop.

"Are you 100-per-cent certain nothing was said on that voice mail?" Bradie asked.

"Correct," Evans replied.

"It would certainly look bad for you if it was mentioned and you didn't report it," Bradie suggested, noting Evans was in charge.

The trial was adjourned until Feb. 2.

HEADLINE: ESL chief testifies before grand jury; Officers also queried about missing gun

DATELINE: EAST ST. LOUIS

Police Chief Ron Matthews appeared before a federal grand looking into how a .38-caliber revolver seized from a businessman vanished from Matthews' custody.

Matthews appeared for about 30 minutes before the grand jury, which met Thurs day at U.S. District Court in East St. Louis. 

Also on hand to testify were East St. Louis patrolmen:

• Orlando Ward, 33, who interviewed Matthews for a report that Ward wrote on the gun's disappearance.

• Ricky Perry, 34, the department internal affairs officer, who investigated the case.

Matthews, 55, declined to discuss any details of his testimony.

"We're cooperating fully with the government in this investigation," Matthews said.

The grand jury is trying to sort out the fate of the pistol, which an East St. Louis Police officer had seized from David Qattoum, 40, in early August.

The officer had turned over the revolver to the Police Department's evidence vault in early August. The officer had confiscated the gun after arresting Qattoum, a former member of the auxiliary police force, in the wake of a traffic stop that turned into a scuffle.

Qattoum's pistol later wound up in Matthews' custody.

Some time last fall the pistol either disappeared from the desk in Matthews' office in City Hall or from his city-owned police car -- Matthews could not be sure, according to a report on the gun's disappearance filed Dec. 21 by Ward.

Matthews stated "that approximately one month ago from today's date, or maybe two, he placed a brown evidence envelope containing a silver Smith & Wesson handgun in his desk drawer located in his office," Ward wrote in his report.

Matthews was unsure of the date he placed the gun in his desk, Ward wrote.

"Chief Matthews searched for the weapon but was unable to locate it," Ward wrote. "Chief Matthews informed me that the weapon could have been placed or left in the rear seat of his unmarked patrol unit due to the fact that he had to take it to court, but was unsure."

Ward declined to comment for this story.

Matthews was ordered to produce "any and all records and physical evidence relating in any manner whatsoever to the arrest of" Qattoum, who is also known as Ayoub Qattoum, according to the subpoena signed Jan. 3 by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith.

Matthews must submit all police reports, memos, lab reports, correspondence dating from Nov. 16, as well as Qattoum's arrest record and the Smith & Wesson pistol, according to the subpoena.

Deputy Chief Rudy McIntosh, 45, appeared briefly before the federal grand jury last month.

McIntosh declined to discuss the reasons behind the subpoena that led to his appearance.

HEADLINE: Files found for 7 death row inmates; Most misplaced HPD evidence has been sorted and cataloged

DATELINE: Houston, Texas

Police property room is in a jam, but help's coming 

The cataloging of misplaced evidence in thousands of Houston Police Department cases is about 74 percent complete, Chief Harold Hurtt said Thursday.

"We're moving forward, sorting through the boxes of evidence," Hurtt told the Houston Chronicle editorial board.

The chief said the department hopes to finish sorting the evidence - which dates to the 1970s - before a "project leader" is hired to investigate problems that have plagued the HPD crime lab for more than two years. Nine candidates have shown interest in the job, Hurtt said, and he plans to have the post filled by April. 

The previously lost evidence was in 280 mislabeled boxes found in the HPD property room in August.

They sat unopened for a year, even as an effort by the Harris County District Attorney's Office to retest DNA from 379 cases - tested by the HPD's discredited and now-closed DNA lab - stalled because of missing evidence in 20 cases.

The 280 boxes also contain evidence from 28 capital murder cases, including seven in which the defendants are awaiting execution. The seven convicted killers are:

Jimmy Jackson: for the July 1985 robbery-slaying of 54-year old Robert Lee Brown, a Houston cabdriver.

Roger Wayne McGowen: for the 1986 slaying of Marion Pantzer, 67, during the robbery of a bar.

Michael Wayne Norris: for the November 1986 slayings of Georgia Rollins, 38, and her child, Keith Emmanuel Rollins.

William Robinson: for the 1985 murder of Montrose waiter Steve Creasey, 26, during a five-day crime spree.

Willie Washington: for the 1985 death of Kiflemariam Tareh, 27, an Ethiopian political refugee who was working at a grocery when Washington robbed it of about $ 100.

Arthur Lee Williams: for the 1982 killing of Houston policeman Daryl Wayne Shirley.

Bobby James Moore: for the 1980 slaying of grocery clerk James McCarble, 72.

Nevertheless, at least one defense lawyer is eager to review the evidence.

"This piques my interest," said attorney Mike Charlton, who represents Robinson. The District Attorney's Office contacted him via certified mail, he said.

Robinson gave investigators a statement indicating he was the shooter, but Charlton said his client is mentally retarded. He thinks another person may have fired the fatal shot.

HEADLINE: Mayor White and Police Chief Hurtt took a wrong turn in the effort to guarantee impartiality in the crime lab investigation.

The city of Houston urgently needs an outside investigator to sort through the misplaced evidence and botched DNA tests of the Houston Police crime lab. Only an independent master of unquestioned integrity can assure Houstonians that justice will be done.

Unfortunately, Mayor Bill White's administration has turned the search for such a person into a classic bureaucratic exercise and a 48-page contract proposal. According to Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt, the city expects to spend up to $2 million on the project ro oversee and reopen the shuttered DNA testing facility.

When critics called for the appointment of an independent investigator nearly a year ago, many hoped the administration would seek a semiretired jurist, attorney or law enforcement official with unquestioned credentials and impartiality. Houston and Texas have many citizens who fit this description. Instead, the administration appointed a "stakeholder" committee and put the matter up for bid.

Mayor White has shown a penchant for soliciting dollar-a-year volunteers with extensive business experience for key task forces to cut through City Hall red tape. In the case of the crime lab, the route chosen by the mayor guaranteed months of delay and in the end will wind up with just another city contractor.

Chief Hurtt estimates the investigator will be hired by April. Hurtt said the slow and methodical pace will contribute to the investigation's credibility, but with potentially innocent defendants in prison, the independent investigation should have been under way by now.

Since the investigator will be a contract employee, the winner's impartiality will be questionable, thwarting a prime purpose of selecting an outsider. Chief Hurtt says the selectee might have a continuing role in the lab after it reopens. What vendor would want to endanger future business by producing a scathing report? How is such a contract employee significantly more independent than the police task force examining some 280 boxes of misplaced evidence, some involving prisoners awaiting execution?

Houstonians of stature and high reputation have traditionally stepped forward to answer the call to community service. One need only recall attorney Leon Jaworski's role heading the Watergate investigation in the early 1970s and former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby's volunteer stint as chancellor of the University of Houston System. Mayor White, with his extensive contacts in Houston's business and legal community, should have been able to find such a person to oversee the crime lab investigation.

"We never to my knowing had anybody step forward and offer to do that," Police Chief Hurtt said. But he also admits that city officials never tried to solicit a volunteer overseer or even suggest the idea to any candidates. According to Hurtt, since the effort will take at least a year, it did not seem plausible to expect an unpaid volunteer would take on the task.

Last fall City Councilwoman Ada Edwards submitted to Mayor White a list of well-known Texas legal figures, including attorneys Rufus Cormier and Neal Manne, former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox and others. The administration decided to go forward with a contract procedure that will make the investigator a city vendor.

According to Chief Hurtt, the mayor told him that "whatever it costs to get this done, we will do it." However, no amount of money can take the place of an investigator whose independence and integrity can vouch for justice.

Mayor White's spokesman, Frank Michel, defends the strategy of appointing a committee of community figures, saying they will provide an impartial overseer role, guaranteeing transparency to the public.

The mayor's intentions might have been good, but the result is an unwieldy arrangement that has lengthened the time it will take to analyze the crime lab's problems, sort out the evidence and get the DNA lab operating again. City ordinances and policies should be formulated through lengthy public discussion involving all sectors of the community. Time-sensitive investigations that may have life or death import for prisoners on death row call for speed and decisiveness.

HEADLINE: RANGERS TO REVIEW CRIME LAB, HPD chief agrees to 'impartial review' by outsiders

DATELINE: Houston, TX

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt agreed Monday to let outside investigators examine the department's crime lab and property room, opening the scandal-plagued divisions to external oversight for the first time since problems were exposed more than two years ago. 

Hurtt made the decision after state lawmakers, with the support of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, strongly urged Houston officials to immediately open to external scrutiny the Houston Police Department's efforts to catalog thousands of pieces of misplaced evidence. Lawmakers said doing so would restore confidence in the lab.

Hurtt said he has asked the Department of Public Safety for assistance.

"We welcome someone with credibility to work shoulder to shoulder with our project team," Hurtt said in a prepared statement.

Under a plan proposed by Houston-area Sens. John Whitmire and Tommy Williams, Texas Rangers from the DPS will step in, possibly within days. They will, according to a letter the senators sent to Mayor Bill White, conduct "an impartial review of which cases might be affected."

What effect the Rangers' presence will have on HPD's plans to hire its own outside investigator was unclear Monday. That person was to begin work in April.

Hurtt's agreement may end months of tension between lawmakers and local officials over how best to handle the crime lab problems. Whitmire, D-Houston, and Williams, R-The Woodlands, reiterated their concerns that HPD, without impartial supervision, is sifting through evidence from 280 mislabeled boxes discovered in the property room and deciding which cases may have been affected by problems with crime lab analyses.

"Enough is enough," said Whitmire, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. "It is time for the city of Houston to see the urgency of this crime lab crisis because we cannot wait any longer for the city to put in place (an outside investigator.) This is too late and too slow."

Rebuilding confidence
Dewhurst said crime lab controversies in Houston and around the state have put a "dark cloud" over the justice system and may require an overhaul of the statewide network of forensic labs. 

"In Texas, we want to be tough on crime but to be tough on crime we have to be fair and just," he said. "If the fourth largest city in the United States cannot run a crime lab, what confidence do we have in smaller cities?"
HPD's crime lab has been under scrutiny after an audit exposed widespread problems with its procedures and personnel. Errors have since been identified in the work of several other crime lab divisions, including ballistics, serology and toxicology. Two men were released from prison after HPD's errors on work in their cases were exposed.

In August, HPD announced it had discovered in its property room mislabeled evidence from thousands of cases. The cases date to the 1970s and include evidence used against 28 death row inmates, including seven who await execution.

Two Harris County grand juries examined the crime lab problems without the traditional direction of a prosecutor. The Police Department and the Harris County District Attorney's Office, which is overseeing the retesting of evidence from hundreds of cases processed by HPD analysts, have been conducting the primary investigations.

Problems similar to those at HPD have been uncovered at crime labs around the state, including those run by the DPS, which conducted the analyses that led to the wrongful conviction of an El Paso man, who was released from prison last year after serving 17 years.

Dewhurst said problems in Houston and statewide may signal the need for an overhaul of the state's forensic system, which comprises a "patchwork" of labs run by large cities and counties around the state and DPS-run labs that serve smaller jurisdictions.

'One gold standard'

Among the ideas Dewhurst asked Whitmire to explore are centralized state crime lab or several regional crime labs. 

"I guess my instincts are that we eliminate controversy if we have one gold standard and it's done on more of a centralized basis," Dewhurst said.

In his statement, Hurtt said he agrees that regional crime labs should be created.

HEADLINE: DA says pressure influenced case of ex-sheriff

DATELINE: San Bernardino, California

Did politically powerful players pressure District Attorney Michael A. Ramos to back off on his prosecution of retired Sheriff Floyd Tidwell?

During a 30-minute speech Jan. 19 in Redlands to the Sunrise Rotarians, Ramos told the approximately 40 attendees that he had been pressed to go easy in the case or his political future would be sunk, said several audience members, including a councilwoman and a business owner.
"Internally, he didn't disclose exactly what happened or who was involved,' said Redlands Councilwoman Pat Gilbreath, a Sunrise member. "From what I can understand, there was some pressure put on him. I think he created a lot of animosity.' 

In an intriguing twist, Ramos denies making the comments.

Audience members misinterpreted his words, said the 47-year-old former Redlands school board member, because they overly support him as a former Sunrise member. If anyone had pressured him, Ramos said, he would have prosecuted the person.

"Believe me, it would be easier to say I said it,' Ramos said. "It would make me look better. But I'm just telling you the truth. They just took it wrong.'

The ex-sheriff's sentencing in the case involving the theft of 523 guns valued at thousands of dollars from the sheriff's evidence room has drawn heavy criticism for its leniency. There was no jail time. Ramos has said it was a difficult case and that the plea agreement took into account Tidwell's 30 years of service to San Bernardino County. He served as sheriff from 1983 to 1991.

Tidwell, known as a tobacco-spittin' rattlesnake-tough leader fond of wearing cowboy hats, was placed on three years' probation and fined $10,000. Other county employees have gone to prison for stealing a single item.

At the same time, it appears authorities have no interest in starting an internal investigation into the Sheriff's Department to ferret out who leaked word of the original search warrant to Tidwell.
"We need to move on,' Ramos said. "We need to move forward.'

A retired detective who supervised the Tidwell case believes the leak, which is a felony and calls for up to one year in county jail or state prison, occurred at a senior administrative level.

Dark clouds of corruption have long hovered over San Bernardino County, a place known for backroom deals and other forms of malfeasance for profit in a land ripe for development and growth.

When Ramos ran for his post in 2002, one of his key campaign platforms centered on bringing integrity and credibility to the job. He defeated the incumbent, Dennis Stout, who came under criticism for his role in a corruption investigation in 2001 that brought down a supervisor and other county officials.

Some consider Ramos as a potential replacement for Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, who like Ramos is a Redlands native.

Gilbreath said she wasn't surprised Ramos encountered some flak because elected leaders frequently run afoul of politically powerful people. Others said Ramos' comments made them proud.

"I left feeling that he's got a lot of guts to go in there, no matter what it did to his career,' said Cheryl Evans, a Sunrise member and owner of a Redlands beauty salon. "I left feeling so good.'
Like many of the Sunrise Rotarians, Evans has had an affinity for Ramos and contributed to his campaign. Ramos' remarks made her reconsider the amounts she has given, she said.

"I said to myself, 'I'm not giving this guy enough money,' ' Evans said.

Not everyone shared such positive feelings.

The District Attorney's Office, along with the Sheriff's Department and Superior Court Judge J. Michael Welch, who heard the case, have been looked at more skeptically since the Tidwell case.

Mike Cardwell, a former deputy chief in the Sheriff's Department who retired last year, has criticized Sheriff Gary Penrod and "administrators in the DA's office' for what he perceived as having little interest in prosecuting Tidwell.

Cardwell has been particularly galled by the lack of an investigation into who leaked the search warrant to Tidwell. He suggested convening a grand jury, granting Tidwell immunity and ordering him to tell who tipped him off or face another criminal charge.

Deputy District Attorney Cheryl Kersey, praised by Cardwell for her tenacity in the case, said it hasn't happened because "quite frankly, I don't think [Tidwell will] ever tell us.'

Tidwell would only face a contempt charge, a misdemeanor, and would unlikely face prison time, she said.

It's necessary to investigate, Cardwell argued, because alerting Tidwell to the search warrant eliminated investigators' chances to surprise the ex-sheriff, giving Tidwell ample time to take pre-emptive action.

"The case might have been able to take a whole different turn,' Cardwell said. "There's no telling what we could have found.'

Cardwell believes the leak was made at a senior administrative level because few people knew detectives planned to serve Tidwell with the search warrant.

Detectives were still writing their affidavit, the precursor to the warrant, when they informed their supervisor of their intentions, he said. The supervisor then informed someone on a senior level, he said, because getting a search warrant on the former sheriff's residence could be touchy.

"We don't think it took long for whoever tipped off Floyd,' Cardwell said.

While interviewing Penrod, Cardwell asked the sheriff if he knew who had leaked the search warrant. Penrod answered no, Cardwell said.

Penrod was not available for comment Tuesday, said Robin Haynal, a sheriff's spokeswoman who declined to discuss the search warrant leak issue.

"I don't even know anything about that,' she said tersely.

Cardwell has two potential suspects in mind but says he cannot prove who leaked the information.

"Certainly, I would be willing to talk to the DA's office,' he said. "And so would the investigators.'

An expert on authorities policing themselves said she was not surprised by the results because they often fail to adequately conduct internal investigations.

"It's absolutely important because when it's not, it's just a continuation of the code of silence,' said Carol Watson, a retired civil rights attorney and former president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

HEADLINE: Rangers' role at crime lab stirs debate; City and state officials disagree on scope of the external review

DATELINE: Houston, Texas

Houston officials and state lawmakers may have agreed that the Texas Rangers should oversee investigations of problems at the police crime lab, but differences lingered Tuesday over the scope of their involvement.

The state Department of Public Safety indicated that - at the request of Police Chief Harold Hurtt - the Rangers would limit their role to supervising the cataloging of thousands of pieces of improperly stored evidence found last year in the Police Department property room.

But state Sens. John Whitmire and Tommy Williams, who Monday urged Hurtt to immediately bring in an external investigator, said the Rangers should be able to examine any aspect of the lab. 

"They need to do whatever it takes to do a true and independent review and audit of the Houston crime lab to bring credibility to the forensics being conducted by HPD," said Whitmire, D-Houston.

The Police Department's forensic work has been under scrutiny for more than two years, during which errors in analyses from several lab divisions, including DNA, ballistics and serology, have been exposed.

HPD officials declined to comment on the Rangers' specific role, but Hurtt is expected to address the issue today. DPS officials indicated details of the Rangers' role had not yet been worked out.

Williams said overseeing the effort to inventory the 280 boxes of mislabeled evidence should be the first, but not the only, task for the Rangers. That work has been going on since August without outside supervision.

"The first thing is to get them in there and get our arms around the problem," said Williams, R-The Woodlands. "My top priority is that we get someone in there who can vouch for what's going on."

Hurtt had not planned to bring in outside investigators until April, after completing a months-long process to hire a "project leader" to guide efforts to address the crime lab problems and regain public confidence in its forensic work.

A spokesman said Tuesday that Hurtt still intends to hire an outside investigator this spring.
Meanwhile, critics of the crime lab - and of investigations into its problems - welcomed the Rangers' involvement, saying scrutiny from outsiders is essential.

"People who are really interested in solving the problem have been stymied at every turn by the fact that HPD and the (Harris County District Attorney's) Office have controlled all of the information and every aspect of the investigation," said David Dow, director of the Texas Innocence Network.

The network, which includes law, journalism and criminal justice students from several universities, investigates cases in which people may have been wrongly convicted.

"This is a very important first step in extracting control from the agencies who are basically responsible," said Dow, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

He acknowledged, however, that there are limits to what the Rangers can accomplish, since they are not forensic scientists.

The Rangers are a division of the DPS but are separate from the state's crime labs, which themselves have had problems with DNA analysis. Williams said he thinks the Rangers are well-equipped to study HPD's problems.

"This is the state's most elite and best investigative team," Williams said. "They have credibility."

RANGERS FACTS

HEADLINE: Judge sentences former civilian police employee to seven years

DATELINE: MEMPHIS, Tenn.

A federal judge has sentenced a former civilian employee for the Memphis Police Department to seven years in prison for his role in stealing drugs and cash from the department's property room.
In September 2003, Carl E. Johnson was one of 16 people - including city workers and accused drug dealers - indicted in the scandal. 

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.

Johnson, 43, was charged with 26 felonies and was facing at least 14 years in prison, but a federal prosecutor recommended a reduction because Johnson provided information about others involved in the crime.

Johnson told investigators that as a senior inventory-control clerk in the property room he helped former property room boss Kenneth Dansberry steal about 220 pounds of cocaine and was paid about $150,000 to $200,000 in cash. Both Johnson and Dansberry pleaded guilty.

During Wednesday's sentencing, Judge Bernice Donald asked Johnson "why would you do this?"

Johnson replied that it was the "the love of money" and that Dansberry "convinced me that we could get away with it."

"I know it was stupid," he said. "I've been trying to restore my image and my family. Until the day I die I'll be doing that."

Johnson is scheduled to report to prison in June. Donald sentenced Dansberry to 10 years in prison in November.
---

HEADLINE: Widow gets an apology over missing negatives

DATELINE: SUGAR LAND, Texas (AP)

City officials apologized to the widow of a former Enron executive for losing photographic negatives from the investigation of his suicide and agreed to pay her $250,000 if the pictures ever become public.

The apology to Carol Whalen came after a judge found the city in contempt and fined it $500 over the missing evidence.

Whalen and the city had agreed in 2002 that a 900-page police report on Baxter's death could be released but that certain photographs and a few documents would be withheld and then destroyed in 2004. Sugar Land officials destroyed the documents as agreed, but about 100 negatives could not be found.