IAPE Evidence Blog

The Hous­ton Chron­i­cle
BYLINE: By CINDY HORSWELL, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Cleve­land, OH

Ex-Cleveland law­man named in doc­u­ments; arms found at gun shop 

GUNS: Trans­fer not approved

Fed­eral author­i­ties are inves­ti­gat­ing whether more than 500 weapons miss­ing from the Cleve­land Police Department’s evi­dence room were part of an ille­gal firearms-trafficking scheme.

Court doc­u­ments also con­nect Lib­erty County sheriff’s Capt. Harold Kel­ley and oth­ers to the gun-trafficking alle­ga­tions. Kel­ley pre­vi­ously served as cus­to­dian of the evi­dence room at the Cleve­land Police Depart­ment and had con­trol over one of only two keys to the locked room.

The other key was held by then Assis­tant Cleve­land Police Chief Henry Pat­ter­son. When Pat­ter­son was elected sher­iff in 2009, Kel­ley went to work as a cap­tain for the new sher­iff. The guns were dis­cov­ered miss­ing in Jan­u­ary 2009 dur­ing an inven­tory taken after Kel­ley departed.

The U.S. Bureau of Alco­hol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explo­sives declined to dis­cuss the probe. “It’s an ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion, and we can’t com­ment,” said Franceska Perot, the bureau’s spokes­woman in Houston.

Yet, a sworn affi­davit by ATF agent Alex Johny filed in Decem­ber to obtain a search war­rant for a gun shop, Sportsman’s Out­let and Indoor Range in Hum­ble, links Kel­ley to the miss­ing guns.

The affi­davit states the gun shop owner, Gary Lee, reported that Kel­ley had given him guns from 2007 to 2008 that were sup­posed to be destroyed in exchange for ammu­ni­tion, tar­gets and firearm-cleaning supplies.

112 weapons seized

As a result of the search in Decem­ber, author­i­ties con­fis­cated 112 of the con­tra­band firearms that Lee reported receiv­ing from Kelley.

Kel­ley referred all ques­tions to his Hous­ton attor­ney, Jack Zimmermann.

“These are mere alle­ga­tions unac­com­pa­nied by any proof,” said Zim­mer­mann. “Kel­ley is a well-respected long­time peace offi­cer, who deserves the ben­e­fit of the doubt. No charges are filed.”

Lee did not return phone calls. He serves as a Lib­erty County reserve deputy, said Capt. Steve Greene with the Lib­erty County Sheriff’s Office.

Accord­ing to the affi­davit, Cleveland’s police chief at that time, Ike Hines, stated he never gave per­mis­sion for any weapons to be taken to the gun shop.

Hines had been approached by Pat­ter­son and oth­ers who sug­gested Cleveland’s con­tra­band firearms could be sold to gen­er­ate funds for the depart­ment, the affi­davit said.

Hines never autho­rized the trans­fer or dis­posal of any of the weapons, the affi­davit said. How­ever, Cleve­land Munic­i­pal Mag­is­trate Bob Steely acknowl­edged sign­ing sev­eral “destruc­tion orders” and had trusted Kel­ley to han­dle things prop­erly, accord­ing to the affidavit.

Listed as destroyed

Of the 112 firearms recov­ered from Lee, 98 had been listed by Kel­ley as destroyed, the affi­davit said. Mys­tery remains over what hap­pened to the other guns still miss­ing from the Cleve­land police evi­dence room. Among the miss­ing weapons are 12-gauge shot­guns, Glock pis­tols and .357 revolvers.

The affi­davit also notes that the gun shop’s log books on the acqui­si­tion and dis­po­si­tion of these weapons were sketchy. For some, there were no records at all, the affi­davit said.

Dur­ing this time, Kel­ley also received 26 guns from Lee for which there were no records found to doc­u­ment the trans­fer of such a large cache of weapons, the affi­davit said.

The Texas Rangers, who inves­ti­gated the miss­ing weapons before ATF took over, thought turn­ing con­tra­band weapons over to a gun shop looked “sus­pi­cious and irreg­u­lar,” the affi­davit said.

“Texas law enforce­ment agen­cies gen­er­ally attend to the phys­i­cal destruc­tion of con­tra­band firearms them­selves … through the use of smelters, crush­ing devices and shred­ding machines,” said the affi­davit, adding that the process is usu­ally wit­nessed by officers.

cindy.horswell@chron.com

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