IAPE Evidence Blog

WPAS News Chan­nel 7, wspa.com
BYLINE: Rich Klind­worth , WSPA Staff

Asheville, NC

Miss­ing evi­dence has led to an audit of the room and the 90,000 pieces of evi­dence inside

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — More than 2,000 pend­ing felony cases may be effected as the Asheville Police Depart­ment is fac­ing an evi­dence investigation.

Bun­combe County Dis­trict Attor­ney Ron Moore says pills were dis­cov­ered miss­ing last Fri­day dur­ing a drug case.

Moore says the Asheville Police Department’s evi­dence room has now been shut down for an SBI inves­ti­ga­tion and an inde­pen­dent audit of the evidence.

Asheville Police Chief Bill Hogan says the two evi­dence work­ers have been put on non-disciplinary admin­is­tra­tive leave pend­ing the out­come of the investigation.

Chief Hogan says there were a lim­ited amount of peo­ple with access to the evidence.

“It’s heart­break­ing to me; very dis­ap­point­ing to me because it has an impact on the entire depart­ment and all the good men and women who are part of this orga­ni­za­tion,” says the chief.

Asheville Crim­i­nal Defense Attor­ney Corey Atkins of Bar­nett & Falls says depend­ing on what is found dur­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion, some defen­dants could ben­e­fit from this situation.

D.A. Moore says this all started back in Feb­ru­ary when a for­mer evi­dence worker resigned from his posi­tion, witch prompted a manda­tory sam­ple audit.

Chief Hogan says some evi­dence was miss­ing but it all came to a head with last week’s drug case.

The Chief says a new evi­dence room has been opened with new workers.

Moore says all jury trial cases with the Asheville Police Depart­ment are on hold for the next month.

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