IAPE Evidence Blog

The Asso­ci­ated Press State & Local Wire, STATE AND REGIONAL

Hawkins County, TN

The Ten­nessee Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion has arrested a Hawkins County sheriff’s deputy on theft and related charges.

The TBI said in a news release Thurs­day night that 42-year-old Brad Depew of Church Hill was booked into the Hawkins County Jail after a search war­rant was exe­cuted at his home look­ing for miss­ing nar­cotics and other evi­dence from the sheriff’s office.

He was charged with one count of bur­glary, one count of theft and one count of tam­per­ing with evi­dence.
The TBI said Depew was a night shift deputy.

Inves­ti­ga­tors said they received a request last week from the Dis­trict Attor­ney Gen­eral to look into miss­ing items fromthe evi­dence room in March.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org

Ven­tura County Star (Cal­i­for­nia), SECTION: VENTURA
BYLINE: Raul Her­nan­dez. rhernandez@vcstar.com 805 – 437-0264

Ven­tura County, CA

Grand jury mem­ber had job with sheriff

The state Supreme Court will con­sider whether to hear legal argu­ments to dis­miss an indict­ment against slay­ing sus­pect Joshua Gra­ham Packer because a mem­ber of the grand jury that indicted him was a civil­ian cler­i­cal employee of the Ven­tura County Sheriff’s Department.

Packer, 21, of Ven­tura is accused of mur­der­ing Brock and Davina Husted and their unborn child. On May 20, 2009, Packer allegedly entered the family’s house in a gated com­mu­nity in Faria Beach wield­ing a firearm and demand­ing money.

Packer was arrested a year later. His DNA was found on the visor of a motor­cy­cle hel­met found under Brock Husted’s body and under Brock’s fin­ger­nails, accord­ing to court documents.

Packer’s lawyers main­tain the indict­ment was based on grand juror bias and that Packer was denied due process.

Deputy Dis­trict Attor­ney Michelle Con­tois, who filed the prosecution’s response to defense lawyers’ writ of man­damus said the Cal­i­for­nia Supreme Court will decide by May 27 whether to accept and hear the case.

Packer is set for trial Sept. 12, but if the Supreme Court decides to hear the case, the trial could be delayed, she said.

Packer’s lawyer, Ben­jamin Maserang, with the pub­lic defender’s office, declined to com­ment on the filing.

In her writ­ten response, Con­tois said the grand juror was work­ing with the High Tech Task Force of the Sheriff’s Depart­ment, which ana­lyzes com­put­ers and other elec­tronic devices. Her pri­mary func­tion was pro­cess­ing pay­roll reports for the ‘nar­cotics side,’ she said.

Con­tois said in the peti­tion that Ven­tura County Supe­rior Court Judge James Cloninger was aware of the grand juror’s job. The juror had said she ‘might have received one com­puter’ from the Packer case and put it in the evi­dence room.

‘Based only upon on a spec­u­la­tive and the­o­ret­i­cal pos­si­bil­ity of bias, Packer seeks dis­missal of his indict­ment, an indict­ment which is unques­tion­ably sup­ported by prob­a­ble cause,’ Con­tois wrote.

Packer is charged with three counts of first degree mur­der and other felonies, includ­ing rob­bery, bur­glary and the spe­cial cir­cum­stances of com­mit­ting mul­ti­ple mur­ders, com­mit­ting mur­ders dur­ing a rob­bery and com­mit­ting mur­ders dur­ing a burglary.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org