IAPE Evidence Blog

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BYLINE: Ray­mond Legendre, Staff Writer

Assump­tion Parish, LA

THIBODAUX — As an inves­ti­ga­tion into poten­tial wrong­do­ing in its evi­dence room con­tin­ues, the Assump­tion Sheriff’s Office announced Wednes­day that it has hired a for­mer State Police lieu­tenant to improve pro­ce­dures for stor­ing and main­tain­ing evidence.

Among his many duties, Thane Matis, a retired State Police lieu­tenant who has 28 years of law-enforcement expe­ri­ence, will install the Assump­tion Sheriff’s Office’s newly pur­chased Jus­tice­Trax prop­erty and evi­dence soft­ware and enter the evi­dence data into the new track­ing sys­tem. He also will be asked to ensure the integrity of evi­dence from the time it is col­lected until a case goes to trial and tes­tify at tri­als about the chain of cus­tody of the evidence.

“The heal­ing process has begun, and we’re mov­ing for­ward,” said Assump­tion Sher­iff Mike Waguespack.

Matis is enter­ing a messy sit­u­a­tion that could result in crim­i­nal charges for his pre­de­ces­sor and have major impli­ca­tions for hun­dreds of drug cases in Assump­tion Parish.

Lt. Louis Lam­bert, who served as the Assump­tion Sheriff’s Office’s evi­dence cus­to­dian for seven years, is being inves­ti­gated by the State Police after he allegedly “mis­han­dled” evi­dence in a drug case that was sched­uled to begin trial in April. Offi­cials have not released details as to how Lam­bert allegedly mis­han­dled the drugs or what type of drugs were involved.

Lam­bert, who is sus­pended with pay, has not been charged with a crime. That could change based on State Police’s inves­ti­ga­tory find­ings, Wagues­pack said.

It is still too early to pre­dict when State Police’s inves­ti­ga­tion will con­clude, said Sgt. Markus Smith, a State Police spokesman. “We want it to be com­pleted as soon as it can,” he said, “but we don’t want to rush it and miss some­thing that’s key.”

A sep­a­rate audit that could affect hun­dreds of drug cases in Assump­tion Parish also remains open. The Pub­lic Agency Train­ing Coun­cil, based out of Indi­anapo­lis, is per­form­ing an inven­tory on the items inside the Assump­tion Sheriff’s Office’s evi­dence room in Labadieville.

The Assump­tion Sheriff’s Office is tem­porar­ily keep­ing evi­dence in a vault inside its main office in Napoleonville. That evi­dence will be moved to the agency’s crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions office in Labadieville once all inves­ti­ga­tions into Lambert’s con­duct are completed.

A deputy who has worked with evi­dence since alle­ga­tions against Lam­bert arose will assist Matis, Wagues­pack said. That deputy’s name was not imme­di­ately available.

“We’ve got our boots on the ground impli­cat­ing a new sys­tem,” Wagues­pack said. He added that he expected a com­plete re-inventory, an over­haul of pol­icy and pro­ce­dures and the instal­la­tion of a new evi­dence data­base within three months.

Staff Writer Ray­mond Legendre can be reached at 448‑7617 or raymond.legendre@houmatoday.com. Fol­low him on Twit­ter @cometcrime.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
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