IAPE Evidence Blog

Des Moines Reg­is­ter
BYLINE: REGISTER STAFF REPORT

Pleas­ant Hill, IA

A for­mer Pleas­ant Hill police offi­cer who stole metham­phet­a­mine from an evi­dence room and crashed his squad car pleaded guilty Thurs­day to drug and bur­glary charges.

For­mer Sgt. Daniel Hebert Edwards, 42, pleaded guilty to pos­ses­sion of a con­trolled sub­stance, oper­at­ing while intox­i­cated, and third-degree bur­glary. His sen­tenc­ing was set for Sept. 29 in Polk County Dis­trict Court.

Edwards was charged shortly after he crashed his cruiser near U.S. High­way 65 and East Uni­ver­sity Avenue on April 1.

Edwards first drove through a ditch along the on-ramp to the U.S. High­way 65 bypass, then struck another vehi­cle and col­lided with a cen­ter con­crete bar­rier. He then drove back into a ditch, with his car com­ing to rest against a fence.

Edwards was fired after tox­i­col­ogy tests showed metham­phet­a­mine in his system.

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

The Asso­ci­ated Press, The Salt Lake Tri­bune, KSL Broad­cast­ing
Link to Article

Moab, UT

MOAB, Utah (AP) — A 43-year-old for­mer Utah police offi­cer has been sen­tenced to 30 days in jail for steal­ing $900 from his department’s under­cover drug account.

Edward Arvel Guer­rero was sen­tenced Tues­day in Moab’s 7th Dis­trict Court. A judge ordered him to begin serv­ing his sen­tence Saturday.

Guer­rero also has to pay $958 in fines and will spend the next two years on probation.

Guer­rero pleaded guilty in May to mis­de­meanor theft, and pros­e­cu­tors agreed to drop a felony bur­glary charge.

He was accused of break­ing into the Moab Police Depart­ment and steal­ing the money some­time between Aug. 15 and Oct. 6 of last year. Author­i­ties say the money was intended for mak­ing under­cover drug buys. 

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

Leesville Daily Leader, leesvilledailyleader.com
Link to Article

Leesville, La

Dis­trict Attor­ney Asa Skin­ner and Ver­non Parish Sher­iff Sam Craft dis­play $13,000 worth of crack cocaine and $40,000 in cash that was con­fis­cated in 2008 as part of a multi-agency inves­ti­ga­tion between the Ver­non Parish Nar­cotics Task Force and the Fed­eral Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion. The crack cocaine shown here, known as “cook­ies” for their resem­blance to the treat, were found in a birth­day gift bag in car of Court­ney Zeno, who was sen­tenced to life in prison on Thurs­day for charges result­ing from the inves­ti­ga­tion. The street value of one “cookie” is about $500, depend­ing upon weight. Some of the crack had been pre-cut into quar­ters. Three evi­dence bags worth of cash, bun­dled in $1,000 stacks to make drug trans­ac­tions less con­spic­u­ous, accord­ing to the agent, were found in the vehi­cle dur­ing the ini­tial search, while the major­ity of the cash was found in a safe at a res­i­dence con­nected to the inves­ti­ga­tion. The cash will be held at the dis­trict attorney’s office until it’s been approved to be dis­trib­uted. Then, it will be divided among three enti­ties: the sheriff’s office will receive 60 per­cent to be used for drug enforce­ment; the dis­trict attorney’s office will receive 20 per­cent; and the parish court sys­tems will receive 20 per­cent. Leader photo by TAMMY SHARP

LAFAYETTE – Court­ney Donell Zeno, 39, of Leesville, was con­victed by a fed­eral jury Thurs­day fol­low­ing a two-day trial for dis­tri­b­u­tion of crack cocaine and pos­ses­sion of crack cocaine with intent to dis­trib­ute, Act­ing United States Attor­ney William J. Flana­gan announced.

Accord­ing to court tes­ti­mony, Zeno sold more than 120 grams of crack cocaine to under­cover agents on six sep­a­rate occa­sions in Leesville. Evi­dence also showed that on the day of Zeno’s arrest, Novem­ber 13, 2008, 129 grams of crack cocaine was found in a car Zeno used which was parked at his res­i­dence. The cocaine was found in a birth­day gift bag on which agents dis­cov­ered Zeno’s fingerprints.

In addi­tion to the cocaine, agents seized more than $40,000 from Zeno.

Due to his mul­ti­ple prior drug traf­fick­ing con­vic­tions, Zeno now faces a manda­tory life sen­tence in fed­eral prison.

The case was inves­ti­gated by agents of the Ver­non Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Fed­eral Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion Gang Task Force. The case was pros­e­cuted by Assis­tant United States Attor­ney J. Collin Sims.

Zeno had two prior con­vic­tions for drug traf­fick­ing accord­ing to Ver­non Parish Sher­iff Sam Craft, one each in Louisiana and Texas. At the time of his arrest in Ver­non Parish, Zeno was on pro­ba­tion for his Texas offense and was being super­vised in Louisiana.

“He is a career crim­i­nal,” said Craft. “And we are glad to get him off the streets.”

The con­vic­tion came even after evi­dence in the case came under scrutiny for being compromised.

Just days after Zeno’s arrest, the Ver­non Parish Sheriff’s Office evi­dence room was bur­glar­ized by inmates of the parish jail. The break-in was dis­cov­ered on Nov. 19 when employ­ees noticed that a ceil­ing tile in the room was bro­ken and had been pushed aside, said Calvin Turner, chief deputy. 

“After we got to look­ing around, we dis­cov­ered that some­one had been in (the room),” he added. 

“Imme­di­ately fol­low­ing the dis­cov­ery of the bur­glary, I assigned mem­bers from the VPSO Crim­i­nal Divi­sion and the VPSO Nar­cotics Task Force to the case,” Craft said. 

“We don’t believe the integrity of (any) evi­dence has been dam­aged,” said a nar­cotics agent assigned to the case, includ­ing the $13,000 worth of crack cocaine from the Zeno case.

Craft said he was cer­tain that the two inmates, who have already been charged with the crime, were after drugs and that they did get to some of the drug evi­dence and use it before being caught. No drugs were recov­ered nor found on the per­sons of the inmates charged with the theft.

Leader photo by TAMMY SHARP

Leader photo by TAMMY SHARP

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