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

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Lit­tle Rock)
BYLINE: DAVE HUGHES ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Van Buren, AR

FORT SMITH — A for­mer Van Buren police sergeant walked out of fed­eral court Thurs­day a free man after a judge sen­tenced him to time served fol­low­ing a fed­eral appeals court rul­ing that the judge’s sen­tence was too long.

U.S. Dis­trict Judge Robert Daw­son told Mik­los Mol­nar, 49, he was free to go fol­low­ing a short hear­ing. After Daw­son left the bench, the court­room filled with Molnar’s fam­ily and friends broke out in applause. Some for­mer co-workers, includ­ing Van Buren Police Chief Ken­neth Bell, also were present and stood silently after the hearing.

Mol­nar, wear­ing tan slacks and a white T-shirt, spent the next few min­utes hug­ging rel­a­tives until a court secu­rity offi­cer told him he could leave the courtroom.

“I just praise God. That’s all I have to say,” he told reporters after the hearing.

Thursday’s hear­ing was sched­uled after the 8th U.S. Cir­cuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that the five-year sen­tence Daw­son gave Mol­nar was too long, accord­ing to fed­eral sen­tenc­ing guide­lines. The court pointed out that, under the guide­lines, Mol­nar should have been sen­tenced to 10 – 16 months in prison.

Molnar’s attor­ney, Richard Bar­low of Van Buren, said after court that Mol­nar served more than 11 months in prison and that his one year anniver­sary would have been March 12.

Daw­son noted dur­ing the hear­ing that Mol­nar had paid the $50,997 resti­tu­tion he was ordered to pay dur­ing his ini­tial sen­tenc­ing Jan. 29, 2009, as well as a $3,000 fine and a $100 spe­cial court assess­ment. On Thurs­day, Daw­son ordered only that Mol­nar observe two years of super­vised release.

Accord­ing to the 8th Cir­cuit, Molnar’s ini­tial prison sen­tence was based on the erro­neous belief by Daw­son that some of the $50,997 Mol­nar took was des­tined to be used as under­cover drug buy money.

“With­out ques­tion, Molnar’s activ­i­ties impaired access to funds that ought to be rel­a­tively acces­si­ble,” Daw­son wrote in a sen­tenc­ing mem­o­ran­dum last year. “Not hav­ing the funds avail­able could then have sig­nif­i­cantly impaired local drug pre­ven­tion activ­i­ties.” Daw­son seemed eager to cor­rect the error Thurs­day as he addressed Mol­nar at the start of the hearing.

“You’re here sooner than I expected you’d be,” Daw­son told Mol­nar. “I’m glad you’re here.” Mol­nar, a 20-year vet­eran of the Van Buren Police Depart­ment, pleaded guilty in August 2007 to a charge of embez­zling money while work­ing as an offi­cer or employee of the government.

Mol­nar was a nar­cotics offi­cer for the Police Depart­ment and a mem­ber of the fed­eral Drug Enforce­ment Administration’s drug task force.

He was sus­pended July 2, 2007, after he told Bell he had taken money from the department’s evi­dence room. Bell had con­fronted him about money miss­ing from the evi­dence room which Mol­nar supervised.

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

The Colum­bus Dis­patch (Ohio)
BYLINE: Mary Beth Lane, mlane@dispatch.com, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Fayette County, OH

Cash gone from evi­dence room

Fayette County Sher­iff Ver­non Stan­forth said he is adding a sur­veil­lance cam­era to his prop­erty room and enlist­ing a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor to inves­ti­gate after learn­ing that money seized in a crim­i­nal case is missing.

Stan­forth and county Pros­e­cu­tor David Ben­der would not say how much money is missing.

Ben­der has sought a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor from the state attor­ney general’s office to con­duct inter­nal and crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions into the miss­ing money. Detec­tives have been pro­vided from the sheriff’s offices in Franklin and Ross coun­ties to help in the inves­ti­ga­tions, Stan­forth said in a news release yesterday.

The inves­ti­ga­tions will be con­ducted sep­a­rately, and the spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor might, after review­ing their results, present evi­dence to a grand jury, the sher­iff said.

The dis­ap­pear­ance was dis­cov­ered when a deputy retrieved the case file for trial prepa­ra­tion, he said.

Stan­forth said he has ordered reviews of all crim­i­nal cases involv­ing con­fis­cated money and the pro­ce­dures his office uses. Any rec­om­mended changes will be made promptly, he said.

He also has ordered the instal­la­tion of a 24-hour, digital-recording sur­veil­lance cam­era in the prop­erty room, where evi­dence is stored.

Stan­forth said no pub­lic money is miss­ing. The miss­ing money was con­fis­cated in a crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion and was being held for trial. After court cases con­clude, for­feited money goes into a spe­cial fund for law enforce­ment and investigations.

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