HEADLINE: Officer's life 'devastated' by charges

Veteran Windsor police Det. Tom Rettig's life was "devastated" by accusations he stole a virtually worthless laptop computer and tried to sell it to a fellow officer, he told a Windsor court Wednesday.

Rettig said he felt persecuted in 2003 after the department executed a search warrant at his home, unsuccessfully looking for illegally obtained patio furniture for which another officer was eventually convicted.

He said that four days later he was charged with stealing a used laptop with a broken screen and most of its data wiped clean.

The officer of 24 years briefly choked up when he recalled the subsequent cold treatment he received from other officers and the ensuing media coverage.

"Total devastation," said Rettig, who took a moment to compose himself. "Totally devastated everything I've worked for in my life."

Rettig said he considered the Dell laptop, which he seized as stolen property in a botched search -- but failed to record on any police documentation for 12 working days -- so insignificant that he didn't even realize that's what concerned his superiors when they started interviewing him.

"The atmosphere in the office was horrible," he said. "It continued the next day, the next week. It continues to this day."
Rettig said he was barred from returning to the police station when he was suspended with pay Dec. 19, 2003, and escorted from the building.

The incident occurred Nov. 17, 2003, when officers, acting on a tip to Rettig from an informant, searched an apartment in the 600 block of St. Luke. Another officer broke the door to enter after nobody responded to a knock.

Rettig said he found the laptop in a closet and was convinced it was stolen because his informant had described it well. But he also realized police had broken into the wrong apartment, he said. He said he left his business card so the occupants would know police had forced open the door and taken property, and then went with officers to the correct apartment, where they found drug paraphernalia and suspected stolen food.

Assistant Crown attorney Peter Leger suggested Rettig's actions were highly suspect.

Leger said Rettig broke procedure and lied to two fellow officers about how he discovered the computer by saying that he found it outside. Leger said Rettig also lied to a superintendent who asked about the laptop.

Rettig admitted he lied, but said he did so to protect his informant.

"I did lie to my officers, absolutely," said Rettig. He said he considered the transgression minor and that he kept the laptop at his desk and openly asked many people in vain for help finding the computer's owner.

Leger said Rettig never made notes about the seized computer, never mentioned it in the first report he made on the incident two weeks later and never tagged it for the property room until questions were asked.

Leger said the warrant was issued for a narcotics search, even though Rettig had admitted he was seeking stolen property.

Rettig delayed filing a report even though police had broken into the wrong apartment and the only proof he had that it was stolen was the word of one informant, who got the address wrong, said Leger.

Rettig said the address was the first incorrect information the informant had given in three years.
He said the laptop did not have serial numbers, which usually indicates stolen material, and the occupants never phoned to recover the seized property, another indication it wasn't rightfully theirs.

Defence lawyer Andrew Bradie said the Controlled Drug and Substances Act allows officers to seize suspected stolen property while executing search warrants for narcotics, and that it's the duty of the officer who breaks a door to enter a premises to file a report about the incident.

The trial continues today in front of Ontario Court Justice John Menzies.

HEADLINE: Police destroyed suspected murder weapon

The Fort Worth Police Department draws criticism from prosecutors after it unwittingly destroyed a gun believed to have been used in a December 2003 homicide.

FORT WORTH--Prosecutors thought they had caught a lucky break last month with a tip that the murder weapon in a December 2003 homicide was buried in a back yard in an upscale neighborhood.

When an investigator went to the residence, the homeowner told him he had found the revolver five months earlier and turned it over to Fort Worth police.

Assuming police still had the gun in their property room, prosecutors believed they finally had their murder weapon.

Then, they learned the Police Department had unwittingly destroyed it.

"I was at a loss to explain to the victim's family how this happened," prosecutor Christy Jack said. "It's extremely frustrating to put in those kinds of hours on a case this serious to learn that one of the key pieces of evidence was in our grasp -- only to slip away through no fault of our own."

Prosecutors said the weapon's destruction was a factor in their plea bargain negotiations with Kenneth Gipson, one of two suspects arrested in the fatal shooting of Ruben T. Henderson.

Last week, Gipson, 21, pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence.

On Monday, his co-defendant, Clim Eugene Thomas, 22, who was originally charged with murder, received a 15-year sentence on the lesser charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

For their part, police said they didn't know the gun was connected to any crime when it was destroyed.

"In our mind, we saw this as found property," said Lt. Gene Jones, a police spokesman. "We had no reason to believe it was linked to any offense."

Stashed away

Authorities said that early on Dec. 30, 2003, Thomas, using his mother's car, drove Gipson to Henderson's apartment at the Commons at Ridglea in the 6000 block of Westridge Lane.

Authorities said Gipson was angry with Henderson in the mistaken belief that Henderson had tried to sexually assault Gipson's sister two days earlier.

When Henderson answered the door, authorities said, the men entered and, after a heated discussion, shots rang out. Henderson died a short time later at a hospital.

Three days later, Thomas was arrested in the shooting. Two weeks after that, Gipson was taken into custody.

In a subsequent interview with police, Thomas said he and Gipson had hidden in the apartment of Gipson's sister after the shooting.

Officers later found bloodstains in the bathroom sink and seized a sweat shirt and a sheet that appeared to have blood on them.

Still, officials had no murder weapon and, by then, both men were claiming the other had fired the shots that killed Henderson.

"I firmly believe the shooter is Kenneth Gipson, and he flunked a polygraph when asked about being the shooter," Jack said. "Clim Thomas passed the polygraph with flying colors."

Even so, polygraphs are not admissible in court and, without the gun, prosecutors had no scientific proof who pulled the trigger.

As the men's Jan. 31 trial date approached, an investigator with the district attorney's office received valuable information about the location of the murder weapon, Jack said.

The tipster said the gun was buried in a bucket of mud in the back yard of a residence in an upscale, gated community -- about a block and a half from the crime scene.

The investigator went to the address and spoke with the homeowner, who told him that, in July 2004, he had found a revolver with six spent shell casings in its cylinder buried in his back
yard.

The homeowner had taken it to the Police Department.

Routine destruction

Jack, believing that the gun would still be stored in the department's property room, thought prosecutors would finally have concrete answers.

But last week, Jack said, a senior firearms examiner in the police crime lab told her investigator that the gun, along with its shell casings, had been destroyed in September without any testing
being performed.

"Jurors come into the courtroom expecting CSI when it comes to crime scenes and ballistics," Jack said. "It's hard to reconcile what jurors expect when our crime lab destroyed a murder weapon without any testing being done."

Jones, the police spokesman, said the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure allows police to destroy property within 30 days of receiving it. The department typically holds property much longer, depending on space in the property room.

Jones said the department destroys weapons twice a year, and September was a scheduled "gun burn."

"That weapon just happened to be submitted to the property room under circumstances that, at that time, allowed for a very swift disposal," Jones said. "We had no reason to believe that it was
linked or related to any offense."

Jones emphasized that, before any gun is destroyed, a firearms examiner tries to test-fire it and then analyze and preserve the bullets.

Because every gun leaves unique markings on a bullet, officials can compare the grooves and striations on the test-fired bullet with those found at crime scenes or removed from victims. The
information can also be entered in a national database to see whether the gun was used in other crimes.

Jones said analysts tried to test-fire the revolver shortly after it was turned in, but it was inoperable.

"It was just rusted," Jones said. "It had been in water, and the parts were not moving."

Jones said the gun was not fingerprinted because of its condition. And, because police had no indication it was a murder weapon, the spent casings were not preserved.

Jack questions why police would destroy a revolver that was found in a bucket of mud in the back yard of an upscale community, with six spent shell casings in its chamber.

"It is disappointing that law enforcement did not recognize that this gun, and the circumstances under which it was found, was used in a crime," she said.

Melody McDonald, (817) 390-7386 mjmcdonald@star-telegram.com

HEADLINE: THE DNA DEBATE; Chicago rape kits ignored in latest G-Rod count

GRAPHIC: PHOTO (color): Despite what Gov. Blagojevich said last week in his State of the State address, State Rep. Patti Bellock says Illinois has a backlog of 1,427 DNA rape kits. 

Rape victims groups, state legislators and an organization raising money to analyze untested evidence collected in rape cases are demanding Gov. Blagojevich change state figures he used to tout a dramatic decrease in the state's backlog of untested DNA evidence.

The backlash occurred after Blagojevich announced Sunday that the number of DNA evidence kits left to be tested by the Illinois State Police amounted to 158 cases, a drop from the backlog of 1,113 cases state police acknowledged in January 2004.

The Tribune reported earlier this week that the state's figures do not include 1,269 kits that remain unanalyzed in Chicago police evidence vaults. The kits hold traces of DNA left by attackers that can lead to a suspect when compared with national DNA databases.

State police officials said they do not count Chicago's numbers because they send those kits to private labs. The officials said DNA samples must be in the state police's crime lab for more than 30 days to be considered part of the backlog, according to a report issued to legislators Feb. 1.

But Sasha Walters, director of advocacy services for Rape Victims Advocates, a Chicago counseling center, said "it's inaccurate to say there is no longer a backlog if there are more than 1,000 cases in a Chicago vault."

"It's playing politics," she added. "Certainly, it feels good to say we reduced the number of cases in the backlog. The fact that all these aren't processed immediately and aren't being kept up with immediately ... that's the upsetting part. Everybody deserves to have the same access."

A law passed last year required the state police to make yearly reports to the governor's office and the Illinois General Assembly on their progress in clearing a backlog of DNA evidence kits in rape cases highlighted in a Tribune story in December 2003.

After the story ran, Blagojevich found $2.6 million to have the backlog of evidence tested.

On Wednesday, state police Sgt. Lincoln Hampton said the agency knows about the number of cases the Chicago Police Department has in its possession. But the kits have not been sent to the state police, and the agency has an agreement with Chicago to accept 125 evidence kits per month for analysis, Hampton said.

"The other cases that Chicago police have are not in our lab system at this point--that's why they are not counted," Hampton said.

State Sen. Kirk Dillard and Rep. Patti Bellock--both Republicans from Hinsdale who sponsored the law requiring the yearly reporting--called on Blagojevich to change the report on the backlog to reflect the number of cases in Chicago.

Rather than a backlog of 158 touted by Blagojevich, the more accurate number between the state and Chicago's figures amounts to a backlog of 1,427 cases, Bellock said.

"Our concern now is that all cases be included so we know how many cases there are," Bellock said. "No matter how they are being treated, if they are still in the backlog, that means there are 1,427 total in the backlog."

Dillard said Blagojevich's numbers make it hard to get federal funds to deal with the issue. "When the governor paints an inaccurate picture for his public relations purposes, he is actually harming the population of Illinois," he said.

HEADLINE: Port officer faces theft charge after CCC sting

A Fremantle senior constable faces the sack after she was caught in a Corruption and Crime Commission sting allegedly stealing from the property room.

Station officers reported the 38-year-old single mother's actions to their supervisors.
The officer has worked for the WA Police Service for 15 years.

Earlier this week, the commission subjected her to an integrity test which resulted in raids at her home and the Fremantle police station.

The West Australian understands that the officer allegedly stole a pair of sunglasses inside a handbag handed in by an undercover agent.

Commission executive director Mike Silverstone said the integrity test related to lost property.

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said the officer would be charged by summons with stealing. Her name was not released yesterday because the summons had not been served.