HEADLINE:  Civilian manager will take charge of APD evidence room

Less than a week into the job, interim Police Chief Joe Bowdich has begun administrative house cleaning in the department's problem precinct - the evidence room. 

Bowdich said this morning a national search is under way for a civilian specialist to manage the operation, which until now was managed by a sworn officer. 

"We are looking for a person who is a specialist in property management and evidence," he said. Advertising for the position started today, he said, through the national association for property and evidence specialists. "Certification will be a requirement," he said. 

Bowdich said he expects to have someone on the job within weeks. 

The chief, who was appointed to the job by Mayor Martin Chavez following the resignation of Gilbert Gallegos on Wednesday, said using a civilian to run the evidence room is part of the evolution of a big-city police department. 

"We did this with communications and records. As the department grew and got more cumbersome, we realized the need for this in some areas," he said. 

The evidence room has sustained one scandalous revelation after another in the past few months, including allegations of lost or destroyed evidence and suggestions of wrongdoing within the department. 

Bowdich said the evidence room manager will report to a captain, who will report to a deputy chief, "at a later date might even report directly to deputy chief," shortening the administrative distance between the chief and the problem. He noted that Capt. Larry Sonntag "has done a tremendous job out there" in sorting out some of the problems. 

A civilian manager should add stability and continuity to the evidence room operation, Bowdich said, because it's an assignment few officers want - they join the force to become police officers, not property managers. 

"We often find out sworn officers don't want it, and they bid for other jobs when they get it," he said. "That's especially true of supervisors. You end up with lower seniority officers assigned, and they don t want it." 

Bowdich also noted previous audits of the operation have recommended hiring a specialist in the field to manage the unit. 

The evidence room, part of the Metropolitan Forensic Sciences Center in the North Valley, holds more than a million pieces of evidence, with some of the cases dating back 30 years. The department has been working through the warehouse, examining items to determine whether they are suitable for disposal or destruction and tagging those that are kept with bar codes being entered into a database. The unit employs about a dozen clerks supervised by sworn officers. 

Bowdich has considerable experience in law enforcement management, having been a member of the Albuquerque Police Department from 1957 to 1987, where he rose to deputy chief, and the sheriff of Bernalillo County from 1994 to 2003. 

HEADLINE: Former deputy admits taking $1,100 in cash

BYLINE: Carrie Coppernoll, Staff Writer

A former sheriff's deputy pleaded guilty Friday to stealing $1,100 from an evidence room last year.

Michael David Overton, 35, pleaded guilty to felony embezzlement at a preliminary hearing in Bryan County. 

He was given a one-year deferred sentence, which will allow him to avoid jail time and clear his record if he stays out of trouble until April 8, 2006, a court spokeswoman said.

Overton must repay the stolen cash by May 5, according to court documents.

The money was first discovered missing when a district attorney asked for it for a trial, Sheriff Bill Sturch said. Law officials typically deposit large amounts of confiscated cash within a few days, he said.

Overton was fired in November. The chief deputy had worked for the department six years as a jail administrator and detective.

Prosecutor Steven Ladd and defense attorney Ken Rainbolt were unavailable for comment Friday.

Bryan County judges recused themselves from the trial, and Coal County District Judge Richard Branam presided.

HEADLINE: Panther Valley police officers are sentenced for misdeeds; 
One gets 21 months in prison. The other gets house arrest, probation.

BYLINE: By Bob Laylo of the Morning Call

DATELINE: SCRANTON 

In his 30 years as a federal prosecutor, Gordon Zubrod has put away murderers, rapists and mob figures. He says he's always looked forward to sentencing.

But as sentencing came Monday for two former Panther Valley police officers -- one who got nearly two years in prison for conspiring to plant drugs, and another who received three months' house arrest for lying about selling a machine gun -- Zubrod was saddened.

"This is a bad day for everybody," Zubrod told U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo. 

It was an especially bad day for former Coaldale Patrolman Michael Weaver, who was sentenced to 21 months in prison followed by two years' probation and was fined $1,000 on the conspiracy charge.

Former Lansford Police Chief Joseph Stawiarski received two years' probation in addition to house arrest for the less serious charge of lying about a gun sale to former Coaldale Police Chief Shawn Nihen.

Zubrod said he wanted to shake Weaver and tell him to wake up, like an older brother would do to a sibling.

But he said Weaver's offense -- conspiring to violate the civil rights of two Panther Valley brothers by planting drugs in their homes -- amounted to "treason."

"This man betrayed his badge," Zubrod said. "He has damaged the criminal justice system." Weaver in 2003 conspired with former Lansford canine officer Jeremy Sommers and Nihen to plant drugs at the homes of the brothers during raids.

Sommers planted cocaine during a March 25, 2003, raid of the Coaldale home of George Becker, whom Weaver arrested. In July 2003, Sommers planted heroin in the Lansford home of Vincent Becker and arrested him.

Prosecutors said the planted drugs came from police evidence rooms; Nihen supplied the cocaine and Sommers supplied the heroin.

Weaver pleaded guilty in January.

Sommers, who was fired in February, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate civil rights. He is scheduled to be sentenced today in Harrisburg.

Nihen, prosecutors have said, told FBI agents about the planted drugs on the condition that he would not be prosecuted for it. However, Nihen has pleaded guilty to buying a machine gun from Stawiarski without registering the weapon and faces sentencing next week in Scranton.
Nihen resigned in May.

Weaver's lawyer, Gerard Grealish, argued that his client should receive leniency because he was a "minor player" in the scheme. He pointed out that Nihen was Weaver's boss, and Sommers supplied the drugs for a raid."The prime mover in his conspiracy was his chief of police," Grealish said.

However, Caputo rejected the argument that Weaver was a minor player.

"He was the engine that allowed this thing to go to charges," Caputo said.

During the hearing, Grealish told the judge about another side of Weaver -- a dedicated family man who took care of more than 40 foster children with his wife over the last several years. Grealish pointed out that Weaver coached T-ball, Little League and knee-high wrestling teams.

"He drove the crappiest cars in the world because all his money went to his family," Weaver's closest friend, Frank Miller, said.

Miller said Weaver always wanted to be a police officer, and now that job is gone.

Weaver, 35, of Nesquehoning, resigned in July 2003 and has been working as an electrician.Weaver, who was accompanied by his wife and several family members, told the judge he was sorry."I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart for what I have done," he said. "Show mercy for my family. They need me."

But Caputo was troubled by the seriousness of the crime.

"This shakes the confidence of the public," Caputo said. "It tars all policemen."Caputo gave Weaver until May 12 to report to prison. He said he would recommend that Weaver spend his time in a federal prison close to his home, such as one in Minersville.

Caputo sentenced Stawiarski immediately after Weaver. The first thing Stawiarski's lawyer, Gregory Mousseau, did was to distance his client from Weaver. "Don't put Joseph Stawiarski in the same boat of the man you just sentenced," Mousseau said. "They are not part and parcel of the same crime."

Prosecutors say Stawiarski legally bought an 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 this time, the sale wasn't registered with the National Firearms Registry.

FBI agents questioned Stawiarski in April 2004, and gave him a Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms questionnaire. Stawiarski wrote that he did not transfer the gun to Nihen. He also told FBI agents that he did not transfer the gun.

Stawiarski could not explain why he failed to register the sale.

"There are no words to excuse what I did," Stawiarski said. "I was wrong."He told Caputo that he got nervous when questioned by the FBI, so he lied. Mousseau asked the judge to keep Stawiarski, 47, of Summit Hill, out of prison because he takes care of his ill father. Mousseau also pointed out that Stawiarski's wife is ill, and the couple have three children.

Caputo agreed that the offense wasn't as serious, but said there could be consequences of unregistered gun sales.  "Unregistered firearms often end up in the wrong hands," he said.

HEADLINE: WITH MUG IN To Be Toned slugged WEST, Kristen.jpg

BYLINE: Elizabeth Ridenour

An employee of the Muskogee Police Department has earned the title that only four other people in the state have earned as property and evidence specialists.

Kristen West, 32, completed the Basic Property and Evidence course in Burbank, Calif., given by the International Association for Property and Evidence.

After completing the course, West passed the certification exam and became the fifth person in Oklahoma to become certified.

"This certification basically means that I'm knowledgeable in the area of property-room functions, I have attended professional activities and earned educational credentials in the area of my expertise," West said. "This certification will prove valuable should I be called to testify in a court of law."

West is the first Oklahoman certified who works for a municipal police department. The other four who have been certified work for the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation, West said.

In order to become certified, West not only had to complete the program but had to work in a property room for a total of 2,080 hours and pass the certification exam with a score of at least 75 percent. West scored 92 percent.

As part of the training, West received instruction in record keeping, security practices, legal guidelines, chain-of-custody issues, facility design, policies and procedures, and destruction and disposal.

"There was so much stuff I learned that we should have been doing different," West said.

West already has begun to take advantage of her certification by acquiring another room in the police department for storage, she said.

West, the mother of three, has worked for the Muskogee Police Department since August 2002. In April 2003, she began working in Property and Evidence on a part-time basis. She took over full-time in April 2004.

HEADLINE: EVIDENCE MANAGER PLEADS GUILTY

DELAND -- A former Volusia County Sheriff's Office evidence manager pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to traffic cocaine and official misconduct. 

Tim Wallace of New Smyrna Beach stole almost $500,000 worth of drug evidence from the DeLand evidence compound he formerly headed, police said.

At least 370 pounds of marijuana and 1.89 pounds of cocaine were missing from the evidence locker.

Wallace, a Marine Corps veteran, was fired in February 2004 for neglecting his duties at the compound. A month later, he was arrested.

He is scheduled to be sentenced June 8. 

HEADLINE: Experts to Albuquerque police: stop storing so much

DATELINE: ALBUQUERQUE

Two professional evidence room inspectors are suggesting that Albuquerque police stop storing so much stuff.  "If there's anything that concerns me, it's the size of the inventory," said inspector Joseph Latta, who along with inspector Robert Giles is in Albuquerque this week to consult with the Albuquerque Police Department about its evidence storage warehouses, which have been the target of allegations of mismanagement for more than a year.

The allegations led to the abrupt departure of Police Chief Gil Gallegos late last month. A former police lieutenant has said he and his officers brought allegations of theft in the evidence room to Gallegos but that Gallegos waited two months to begin an internal investigation and seven months to call in the attorney general. Three federal lawsuits also have been filed, and three citizens filed formal ethics complaints against Gallegos earlier this year over his handling of alleged problems.

The department is storing about 1 million items, more than normal for an agency its size, Latta said.  Evidence includes baseball bats, beer cans and cigarette butts from 25-year-old cases, said Capt. Larry Sonntag, who has been in charge of the repository since February.

Latta and Giles, Burbank, Calif., employees of Evidence Control Systems Inc., spent Tuesday touring the evidence room and talking with employees.

They made small recommendations - move shelves down to make more room for storage bins and put bar codes on the top instead of the bottom of envelopes to make it easier to scan them into a database for tracking.

By the end of the day, they also were talking about long-range improvements, such as streamlining the process for discovering which cases have expired, adding extra steps of paperwork for to track evidence checked out for trial, and simplifying the system for evidence and storage bins.

Latta said only about 1 percent of all evidence makes it to court, "but you don't know what that 1 percent is." Thus, police departments across the nation tend to keep what they can for as long as they can.

Sonntag is in charge of a piece-by-piece inventory of the evidence room. The goal is to eventually destroy everything that isn't needed.

Latta said the inventory will take years. Sonntag has estimated 18 to 24 months to do it.

He and Giles also will look at the written policy for deciding when evidence can be destroyed or auctioned.

Giles said computer systems - and he said Albuquerque has a good one - can be used to alert evidence room technicians when a case is past the statute of limitations.

HEADLINE: Lynch's office could charge officers who took guns

BYLINE: STEVE PEOPLES, Journal Staff Writer

The Town Council president agrees with the police chief's decision only to suspend the officers, citing their cooperation and otherwise clean records.

PORTSMOUTH - The attorney general's office may file criminal charges against local police officers who admitted taking guns from a police evidence room last fall, according to spokesman Michael Healey.

Earlier in the week, state prosecutors began reviewing the Portsmouth police investigation that resulted in the recent suspensions of three veteran officers. Healey said the attorney general could overrule Portsmouth police Chief Dennis Seale's decision not to file criminal charges. 

"We'll look at it from a purely legal basis and try to determine if the officers acted legally, illegally, or perhaps inappropriately but not illegally," Healey said.

Last week Seale said he decided against arresting the officers because of their cooperation and clean records serving the town.

Detective Sgt. Harry Leonard, a 23-year police veteran, was suspended without pay for 20 days. Detective Steven Hoetzel, a veteran of 7 years, and Patrolman John Huppe, an 11-year veteran who leads the Tactical Response Team, were suspended for 15 days each.

The trio were involved in cleaning out the evidence room -- as is done once or twice a year -- when they took five guns for their personal use. The weapons were among 30 to 40 firearms being taken to a foundry in Massachusetts for destruction.

The particular guns taken -- a rifle, shotgun and three handguns -- had not been involved in any criminal activity, according to Deputy Police Chief Lance Hebert. The weapons had been turned in to the police by people wishing to have them destroyed.

Hebert said that the Portsmouth Police Department is open to the attorney general's review."We've turned over all the materials and met with the attorney general's office and they are totally reviewing the entire case," he said. "We welcome it."

The officers and Seale met with the Town Council in a closed meeting earlier in the week to discuss the incident."The three gentlemen sat with us and apologized," Town Council president Mary Ann Edwards said. "We're all family. We're hurting bad here. The councilors didn't know what to say."

She said she's satisfied with Seale's decision to suspend the officers, instead of charging them criminally."I think it was something very, very stupid. They admitted it as soon as it came to light," Edwards said. "If they were people who weren't team players or something like that, that would be one thing, but these gentlemen have wonderful records ... The damage is done. I don't think these gentlemen will be ever promoted -- it's the end of their career."

The attorney general had initially planned to have its Newport office review the case, but decided to transfer it to Providence, according to Healey."We're definitely taking it seriously," he said, adding that his office hopes to conclude the review by the end of the month. "We'll go where the facts lead us."

HEADLINE: Missing guns lead to officer's arrest

A Jacksonville police officer who should have put three confiscated handguns in a police property room was charged Tuesday with stealing one of the guns and not turning the others in, according to a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arrest report.

Officer Thomas M. Parrell, 40, was charged with grand theft, official misconduct and failure to carry out his duty as an officer. He was arrested at the end of a four-month internal investigation that found Parrell took the weapons from a woman in November but did not turn them over to her family or place them in a police property room.

According to the investigation, Parrell went to a Jacksonville apartment complex where a woman said she was concerned about her mother's mental health and wanted the guns removed. The woman said she was told the .22-caliber, .38-caliber and .357-caliber Magnum handguns would be given to her aunt.

They were not given to the aunt, and family members who tried to get them from the police property room in December were told the weapons were not there. The family said Parrell retrieved two of the guns from the trunk of his police car in January after they complained to him. The .22-caliber Smith and Wesson valued at $241 was not recovered.

In his initial report, Parrell wrote that he gave the weapons to the aunt.

Parrell has been an officer with the Sheriff's Office since April 1999. He was suspended without pay Tuesday.

He was suspended once in 2002 for an improper action and has had eight other sustained complaints that resulted in counseling or a written reprimand, according to police personnel records.

Dana Treen

BYLINE: Steve Fry and Cait Purinton Capital-Journal

HEADLINE: 4.5 pounds of meth missing Drugs were last in possession
of officer charged in another case

Four and one-half pounds of methamphetamine checked out of the Topeka Police Department's property room by a narcotics officer is unaccounted for, Police Chief Ed Klumpp disclosed Thursday. 

The missing narcotics, valued at as much as $201,600, were checked out by officer Tom Pfortmiller on Sept. 28, 2003, Klumpp said at an afternoon news conference. He said another officer attempted to check out the meth for court purposes on March 3, 2005, but it had been checked out by Pfortmiller, who resigned from the department in May 2004. Pfortmiller is charged in a separate case with the misuse of public money that was to be used in police narcotics investigations.

Messages left by The Topeka Capital-Journal with Pfortmiller and his attorney were unanswered Thursday.

According to the property room log, the drugs were taken to a federal Drug Enforcement Administration laboratory, Klumpp said. The DEA has no record of receiving the drugs, he said.

"This required some investigation assistance by the DEA to thoroughly check their laboratories' records, and upon conclusion of that, they provided me with a letter that indicated they had no record of those drugs ever reaching the DEA office," Klumpp said.

He said no other labs had records of receiving the drugs, either.

"To this day, we still do not know the whereabouts of those drugs," Klumpp said. "The only thing we do know is that they were signed out for from our property room and they never reached the appropriate labs."

He said the ongoing investigation is being conducted by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

The missing drugs were seized by Topeka police officers in three separate cases. Of those cases, two have been resolved in Shawnee County District Court, Klumpp said, but one case is pending.

Klumpp was asked if the disappearance of the meth would compromise the third case. He said he would think there would be a problem if drugs are missing in a case.

When asked the same question in an interview following the news conference, Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht said, "I think it would be inappropriate for me to make any comment."

Hecht declined to comment about the missing meth and Pfortmiller's alleged involvement.

"It is the rule of this office that we don't comment on a pending investigation or if there ever is a pending investigation," Hecht said.

Klumpp said his office has been working with Hecht and turning over all information discovered in the internal investigation to Hecht and the KBI.

"I think that is the appropriate avenue to take in that investigation, and that is the path we are still taking," Klumpp said. "This investigation has taken an extraordinary amount of time, and I am a little frustrated that it is still ongoing, but I think we are nearing the end of it." He said investigators think no other officers are involved with the missing meth.

The KBI was asked to investigate the matter because that agency already was investigating Pfortmiller in the misappropriation case and due to the "seriousness of the allegations" in the drug case, Klumpp said.

No charges have been filed against Pfortmiller in regards to the missing meth.

Pfortmiller, 40, is free on bond in connection with 100 felony and misdemeanor counts, including the misuse of public funds, theft, perjury, forgery and official misconduct. He was charged Feb. 28 and is scheduled for a criminal assignment docket on Thursday.

The allegations center on 22 narcotics investigations between December 2002 and April 2003.

The internal investigation into Pfortmiller's actions began in October 2003 after his supervisors noticed discrepancies in his reports. He was placed on administrative leave in March 2004, and he resigned in May 2004.

Pfortmiller was the subject of two investigations --- an administrative investigation conducted by the police department's internal affairs unit and a criminal investigation conducted by the KBI and Hecht's office.

Pfortmiller was hired by the Topeka Police Department in January 1990. He received a letter of commendation in 2000 for a narcotics investigation involving five search warrants. Pfortmiller also received a Distinguished Service Bar in 2002.

HEADLINE: Fired Westwood cop accused of stealing drugs, using intimidation

BYLINE: By SEAN MURPHY (DAILY NEWS STAFF)

Westwood officials say fired cop Kevin J. McCarthy stole drugs, threatened people, illegally searched cars and homes and offered favors to suspects in exchange for dope.

McCarthy was fired on March 28 by the Westwood selectmen. 

There is no record of criminal charges being filed. A 12-page report detailing his alleged actions by retired Superior Court Judge John J. O'Brien found ``credible evidence'' of misconduct in six cases in 2003 and 2004.

Efforts to reach McCarthy have been unsuccessful.

According to the report, McCarthy took OxyContin from an elderly person's home during a medical call, and when questioned claimed he took it as a joke, intending to plant it on a firefighter. In another case, a woman claimed McCarthy stopped her son for a minor moving violation, but offered to let him off in exchange for drugs.

The report also alleges McCarthy lied his way into a home and illegally searched it, telling the homeowner that cars parked outside were blocking traffic and making the homeowner submit to a breath test.

The report accuses him of several other illegal searches and taking drugs in traffic stops but failing to turn them in as evidence, and taking drugs from the police evidence locker.

HEADLINE: PEEL COP SWIPED DRUGS

DATELINE: BRAMPTON 

A former Peel policeman was sentenced to eight years in jail yesterday for trafficking drugs he took from police evidence worth about $2.5 million on the street. 

Martin Goold, 60, pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, possession of hashish for the purpose of trafficking and breach of trust. He was sentenced to six years each for the drug possession, to be served concurrently; and an additional two years for breach of trust.

Goold, an officer for 30 years, managed to sneak six kilograms of cocaine and about 20 kg of hashish from police property rooms in 2004, said federal Crown attorney Ian Scott.

HEADLINE: AG Can't Make Case On Evidence

BYLINE: T.J. Wilham Journal Staff Writer

None To Be Prosecuted For Lost $58,000 at APD

The Attorney General's Office announced Monday it will not prosecute anyone in the alleged theft of cash from the Albuquerque police evidence room because, in part, critical records were missing.

It found that at least $58,000 in cash was missing, but problems with records made it impossible to determine a total.

The AG's Office officially ended its long-awaited, yearlong investigation into APD's evidence room and issued a report to Police Chief Ray Schultz.

According to the report, "poor record keeping, deficient supervision and unrestricted access to all evidence room employees" would hamper any prosecution. 

"All evidence personnel had unfettered access to the currency vault," the report said. "No record of persons entering or leaving the vault was maintained. The only record of money leaving or entering the vault, the money log, was readily available to all employees -- which facilitated tampering with the log -- and eventually theft of critical logs."

The report noted that employees suspected of stealing money were allowed to work in the evidence room for as long as five months, giving "ample time and opportunity for anyone in the evidence room to alter or steal critical records."

"Absolutely this is frustrating," Michael Cox, director of special prosecutions for the attorney general, said in an interview. "Our job is to catch and convict bad guys, and this time we couldn't. We are all very frustrated, and that bad guy is still out there ... money is missing."

In March 2004, then-Police Chief Gilbert Gallegos asked the AG's Office to conduct a criminal investigation of the evidence room after an anonymous memo was sent to law enforcement officials claiming that guns, drugs and cash were missing and that there was a cover-up. Gallegos said he had already begun an internal investigation.

Gallegos stepped down last month amid criticism by officers and former officers over his handling of the situation, including allowing employees suspected of theft to remain in the unit.
Two employees critical of his actions -- Capt. Marie Miranda and acting Sgt. Cynthia Orr -- later claimed they faced retaliation for going public with their accusations. Miranda was placed on administrative leave.

Mixed feelings

On Monday, after the report was issued, attorney Paul Kennedy, whose firm is representing both officers, said the AG's report proves the accusations made by his clients were accurate.

"This is absolute vindication," Kennedy said. "We are still puzzled why the chief of police is failing to protect our clients and reinstate Captain Miranda. They should be congratulating them, not punishing them."

Mayor Martin Chavez said he had "mixed" emotions after reading the report. He said he was pleased that no uniformed officers were implicated but concerned that APD's internal procedures were a mess.

"Clearly, the department needed to move more aggressively than it did," Chavez said. "I don't think there is any question about what the department is doing now."

Schultz on Monday announced several changes after receiving the report.

Joe Bowdich, who briefly served as interim chief after Gallegos' retirement, will be hired as executive deputy director of the police department.

Schultz said Bowdich, who will be paid about $90,000 a year, will serve as a top civilian assistant to the chief. He will continue to lead a committee that oversees the evidence room.

Schultz said more changes will be made in weeks to come: All evidence room employees will go through a thorough background check, be given a polygraph and go through drug screening prior to employment. There will also be changes in how cash is recorded and deposited.

"This report helps us validate a lot of the things that have been identified in the last two weeks," Schultz said. "Things were so sloppy ... and people took advantage of it."

The investigation

The AG's Office examined 2,526 police reports, issued 65 subpoenas, conducted 61 interviews and reviewed tens of thousands of documents.

When AG's investigators started their probe into the evidence room, APD officials gave them 76 cases in which currency, jewelry, guns or drugs were believed to be missing. The investigators directed their probe toward the cash after all other evidence was accounted for in those cases.

Cox said investigators focused on the cash in those cases and expanded their probe to include currency reports from January 2001 to March 2004.

Immediately, Cox said, investigators noticed that critical records -- logs that are supposed to document cash coming in and going out -- were missing or altered.

"We could see problems early on in the investigation, and we tried different avenues to find the proof," Cox said. "We kept telling ourselves, 'there has to be a way to do this.' That's why this took so long."

Investigators couldn't determine who altered the records or took them because the person or people used various passwords to access the computer system.

Cox said he didn't know if the records would have proven someone's guilt.

"I assume there was something in there that made them worth taking," Cox said. "The logs were the sole effort to keep track of the money that went in, when it came out and who took it."

Convictions impossible

The report states that it might be possible to secure indictments, but not convictions.

"We cannot prove at trial that any identified individual embezzled a specific sum of money during a specified time period," it states.

Investigators determined that about $58,000 in cash was missing, but Cox said that because of missing records, there could be more.

"APD's failure to use simple accounting practices created serious gaps in evidence," the report reads.

Procedures for handling cash weren't always followed, investigators found, and amounts recorded on police reports did not always coincide with amounts on evidence tags and logs.

The report noted that no record was kept of who deposited money seized by APD, that no financial audits had been done and that technicians were allowed to move currency from the evidence room without verifying the amounts with a supervisor. The only record of money leaving was readily available to all employees and could easily be tampered with, the report said.

Cox said the investigation would have gone more smoothly had APD done an immediate inventory of cash, copied all written records and brought in someone to do an inventory.

An inventory was not started until December 2004, nine months after the AG's Office started its investigation.

Former Chief Gallegos maintained that he acted in a timely fashion. The problems plaguing the evidence room dated back 30 years, he said, and no chief had acted until he took office.
Gallegos has requested that the Journal not contact him for comment.

Key findings

• The attorney general will not file criminal charges because "poor record keeping, deficient supervision and unrestricted access to all evidence room employees" in the past would hamper prosecution.

• At least $58,000 is missing from the evidence room. Because of missing records, the number could be larger.

• "The only record of money leaving or entering the vault, the money log, was readily available to all employees -- which facilitated tampering with the log."

• Cash amounts on police reports did not always coincide with amounts entered on evidence tags and logs.

• Employees suspected of wrongdoing were allowed to continue to work in the evidence unit.

• Procedures for handling money were inadequate and not always followed.

• APD did not begin an inventory of the evidence room until December 2004, nine months after the AG's Office started its investigation.

HEADLINE: Carlsbad police sergeant resigns after arrest on felony charges

DATELINE: CARLSBAD, N.M.

A Carlsbad police sergeant has resigned after being accused of having a friend claim a motorcycle from the police department's unclaimed property area, then buying it from him for $50.

Robert West, 29, was arrested last Wednesday on charges of receiving stolen property, fraud and conspiracy. West, who had been on unpaid leave since Jan. 31, resigned Saturday, city administrator Jon Tully said. 

The motorcycle was claimed by Bryce Smith from the Carlsbad Police Department's evidence room last Aug. 18, according to an affidavit for an arrest warrant filed by a state police officer. It had been reported as stolen last June.

West denied providing Smith with the vehicle identification number to claim it.

Smith also has been charged with receiving stolen property, fraud and conspiracy.

Magistrate Walter Parr set a May 31 initial appearance for the two men.
An investigator who talked to West after receiving a complaint that he had the motorcycle found the vehicle at Smith's residence.

According to the affidavit, Capt. Kelly Lowe told state police about conversations with West about the motorcycle. In one, West pointed it out and said he'd like to have it; later he commented that the vehicle would be auctioned eventually; and still later said it would be convenient to get the description and have someone claim it, the affidavit said.

Lowe said he told West that if he did that, somebody would probably report it stolen and he'd be in trouble, the affidavit said.

West also told Lowe he told Smith to claim the motorcycle after 90 days, but didn't give him the identification number, the affidavit said. Lowe said that comment stuck in his mind.

The affidavit said West's wife said Smith arrived their home with a motorcycle and that West told her to give Smith $50. She said West told her the bike was unclaimed property for more than 90 days and anyone could claim it, the affidavit said.

HEADLINE: Drugs, cash absent from police locker

DATELINE: ENGLEWOOD, TENN.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating how money and drugs disappeared from the Englewood Police Department evidence locker.

Spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson said the TBI was notified by the local district attorney and Englewood Police Chief Danny McDonald that $540 and 5 grams of cocaine could not be located.

She said Englewood Lt. Herb Adams noticed that money and drugs he seized in a Jan. 28 arrest were missing from the locker.

She said several people have keys to the locker and there is "no smoking gun" at this point.

HEADLINE: Ex-officer's hearing rescheduled

A hearing for former Topeka police officer Thomas Pfortmiller has been rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. May 13 in Shawnee County District Court. 

Pfortmiller, 40, was charged Feb. 28 with 100 felony and misdemeanor counts, including the misuse of public funds, theft, perjury, forgery and official misconduct. Officials also are investigating the disappearance of 4.5 pounds of methamphetamine that Pfortmiller checked out of the police property room on Sept. 28, 2003. The missing narcotics were valued at as much as $201,600, Police Chief Ed Klumpp said April 21.

HEADLINE: Former BCA lab official guilty; Cocaine theft admitted; 7 years in prison possible

BYLINE: BY SHANNON PRATHER; Pioneer Press

The former assistant director of the state of Minnesota's crime lab admitted Thursday that he removed a 2-pound brick of cocaine from an evidence locker to feed his own drug habit.

David Bruce Petersen -- who had testified as a law enforcement expert in court dozens of times over his three-decade-long career -- stood before Judge Salvador Rosas and pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree drug possession in Ramsey County District Court. Petersen faces more than seven years in prison, according to state sentencing guidelines."I am guilty, your honor," Petersen, 46, told Rosas. "It was an unlawful possession. I had no reason to take it."

Ramsey County prosecutors agreed to drop two lesser felony counts in exchange for the plea. 

Police do not believe Petersen sold any of the cocaine taken from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension lab. Petersen is out on bail until his June 17 sentencing.Petersen declined to comment outside court."My client was prepared to accept responsibility for his conduct," said his defense attorney Mark Larsen.

Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Bob Plesha said his office accepted the plea because Petersen agreed to admit to the most serious charge.

"He admitted his full involvement in the offense," Plesha said. "We have no reason to believe he distributed it to anyone else or sold it."

As an assistant lab director, Petersen was entrusted to keep track of evidence, including illegal drugs stored in the BCA vaults. Petersen's colleagues say he was a national expert in his field.

Petersen's arrest last month prompted the BCA to tighten its security even though a spokesman called Petersen's case an isolated incident. Petersen's position gave him unfettered access to evidence vaults. He was dismissed from the BCA, which changed procedures after his arrest.

"Now, one person can't go into the evidence area without someone else," said Kevin Smith, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety. "It takes two people to get into any of those sensitive areas."

St. Paul police arrested Petersen on March 4 after BCA co-workers noticed the assistant director making numerous trips to a storage locker. Officials investigated and discovered unsecured drugs in the locker.

According to a criminal complaint, Petersen told police that he began drinking again after a period of sobriety and in April 2004 started sneaking into the BCA's walk-in evidence vault and coring out a brick of cocaine used by undercover officers for drug stings. Petersen admitted that from December 2004 until his arrest he took one to two golf-ball-size amounts of cocaine.

Petersen told police he destroyed the brick of cored-out cocaine, with the intention of replacing it undetected with another brick of cocaine that had been inadvertently left behind when the BCA moved its St. Paul offices in November 2003. The new owners of the old BCA building called Petersen in January to report finding the cocaine. Petersen told police the call that presented him the opportunity to cover his crime felt like a "gift from God." But he was arrested first.

St. Paul police searched Petersen's home on Hamline Avenue and discovered trace amounts of cocaine behind a bookcase in the basement, according to the criminal complaint.

Petersen started at the BCA in October 1981 as a crime lab analyst trainee. He left in 1986 to work for Hewlett Packard but returned in 1989. He was promoted to one of three assistant lab director positions in 1998, overseeing toxicology and breath tests, firearms and evidence intake in 1998. Petersen earned $81,600 a year.

"He spent his whole life in the criminal justice system," Smith said. "He knew what he was doing and he knew the ramifications of what he did."

HEADLINE: Suit calls police negligent; Man says a safe with $17,000 in it either was taken by cops or stolen after they searched home.

BYLINE: LATEEF MUNGIN

A man recently acquitted of child molestation charges has sued Gwinnett police, claiming that a safe containing $17,000 vanished after officers searched his Lawrenceville home.

Erik Adam Cooper, a former foster parent, was acquitted last month of molesting six boys in his care. The suit Cooper filed Friday stems from a Jan. 14, 2004, police search of his home when officers were investigating the molestation accusations. 

According to the Gwinnett County State Court suit, about seven Gwinnett police officers searched Cooper's home on Twin Brook Way while he was at work. The officers entered his house by breaking in his back door, cracking the door frame, the suit said. The officers' entry damaged the door to the point that it would not close and police also left the house unlocked when they left, the suit alleges.

The officers seized several items, including a bank bag containing more than $21,000 in cash and seven credit cards that were in his bedroom closet, the suit says. Those items later were returned, according to the suit.

Also in that closet was a small safe that contained an additional $17,000 in cash and other personal items, Cooper said.  When he returned home, the safe was gone.

Police did not mention the safe in an inventory sheet that officers filled out when they logged items confiscated from his home, Cooper said.

"My belief is that the police officers took the safe and did not document it," Cooper said. "Or somebody else came in the house and helped themselves after police left the place unsecure. Either way, they were negligent."

Gwinnett police spokesman Darren Moloney said the department is aware of Cooper's allegations. The Gwinnett police internal affairs department is investigating Cooper's claims, he said.

Cooper said he has evidence that the safe exists and it was in his closet before police entered his home.The cash was in Cooper's home because he recently had sold several vehicles, he said.

It has been difficult trying to get his life back together after being acquitted of the molestation charges, Cooper said.

"It has been tough for me since the trial," he said. "I am unemployable because of the arrest on my record. My wife and I have filed for bankruptcy. That money could have helped me pay my bond when I was in jail or to pay my lawyers."I am definitely seeking punitive damages," Cooper said.

HEADLINE: Take evidence room problems to a grand jury

TODAY'S EDITORIAL

City Hall has a serious credibility problem, and its political and managerial leadership should be held accountable.

The saga of the Albuquerque Police Department's evidence room raises questions about the city's fundamental ability to manage the public's assets. It also raises the ante for independent oversight, audits, inventory and routine monitoring of public property, vehicles and supplies. 

If the city lacked sufficient protections to prevent $58,000 in losses from what should have been a highly secure evidence lockup, what assurance does the public have that its interests are protected any better at the city's other departments?

It's bad enough the thefts occurred. But what's truly damning is the attorney general's investigation, which found insufficient evidence to charge anyone. The report concluded that records had been altered, stolen or are so messy there's little hope of ever determining who did the deed.

It found "poor record keeping, deficient supervision and unrestricted access by all evidence room employees." It also charged the Police Department with poor supervision and lax procedures that provided years of opportunity for criminal activity in a place that should be as secure as Fort Knox.

In an age of high-tech surveillance and security measures, how is it the department didn't prevent these thefts or nab the culprits?

Civilians employees, who claim a whistle-blower role, contend supervisors ordered them to cover up missing evidence. And when it was clear evidence was missing, suspect employees were allowed to remain on the job in the evidence room for months. This, investigators charge, provided ample time to alter or destroy records and documents.

Mayor Martin Chavez has organized a committee of criminal justice experts and political leaders to oversee evidence room procedures and reforms. Police Chief Ray Schultz is implementing a list of security and anti-theft measures, including requiring new evidence room employees to take and pass a polygraph test.

Such tests as scientific research has demonstrated are unreliable and confounding. More important, the department must implement 24-hour evidence room surveillance and stringent, no exception rules and procedures that require sufficient checks and balances and ensure no evidence can be tampered with.

Likewise for the rest of the city. The City Council and mayor should appoint an independent investigative panel to look into and publicly report on the city's property protection procedures and standards.

Where deficiencies are uncovered, recommendations should be made to correct them as soon as practical. Any evidence of criminal activity should be presented for prosecution.

Finally, state and local investigators should consider taking the evidence room probe to the next level a grand jury inquiry in which police officers and civilians who had evidence room access or command are compelled to testify under oath.

Citizen grand jurors might be better at uncovering the truth and, perhaps, issuing indictments.