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

DailyComet.com
Link to Arti­cle
BYLINE: Ray­mond Legendre, Staff Writer

Assump­tion Parish, LA

THIBODAUX — The impact of a for­mer Assump­tion sheriff’s deputy’s alleged tam­per­ing with evi­dence could be felt on hun­dreds of drug cases, pros­e­cu­tors said.

Lt. Louis Lam­bert, 47, who spent seven years as the agency’s evi­dence cus­to­dian, allegedly used cocaine, mar­i­juana and pills from the evi­dence room to feed his drug addic­tion. He faces mul­ti­ple charges, includ­ing 538 counts of malfea­sance in office. Lam­bert, a Labadieville res­i­dent, remains free on a $70,500 prop­erty bond.

Sher­iff Mike Wagues­pack said author­i­ties are still deter­min­ing how many of the affected cases were open. Most were closed and likely won’t be affected, said Assump­tion Dis­trict Attor­ney Ricky Babin. As for those that remain open, “each case is dif­fer­ent,” Babin said. “We’re not going to whole­sale dis­miss cases just because there was tam­per­ing … But if we can’t prove our case, we’re going to dis­miss it.”

Lam­bert came under sus­pen­sion when deputies learned drug evi­dence for a par­tic­u­lar case had been “mis­han­dled,” Wagues­pack said. That prompted a three-month State Police probe that ended with Lambert’s arrest. Wagues­pack has since said he believes Lam­bert is a drug addict who used the evi­dence vault as his med­i­cine cabinet.

The deputy avoided detec­tion until April because there is no need to review evi­dence in closed cases, the sher­iff said.

The out­come of affected open cases will likely be var­ied. Some charges will be dis­missed, oth­ers could result in plea deals.

Babin said poten­tial jurors should not be skep­ti­cal of police tes­ti­mony because of the alle­ga­tions against Lam­bert. It is impor­tant to “iso­late this as one indi­vid­ual instead of putting a label on every police offi­cer,” Babin said.

Lambert’s alleged mis­han­dling of evi­dence can serve as a pow­er­ful learn­ing tool for law-enforcement agen­cies across the state, said Hal Turner, exec­u­tive direc­tor for the Louisiana Sheriff’s Asso­ci­a­tion. Turner knows first-hand the dif­fi­cul­ties Wagues­pack faces because he expe­ri­enced a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion about 17 years ago while he was sher­iff of Allen Parish, he said.

“We try to remind our other mem­bers to update audits on stuff,” he said, “not just think that just because some­body is a good guy that it won’t hap­pen … It’s a bad thing, but if you don’t learn from it, it’s more likely to repeat itself.”

Babin said poten­tial jurors should not be skep­ti­cal of police tes­ti­mony because of the alle­ga­tions against Lam­bert. It is impor­tant to “iso­late this as one indi­vid­ual instead of putting a label on every police offi­cer,” Babin said.

Lambert’s alleged mis­han­dling of evi­dence can serve as a pow­er­ful learn­ing tool for law-enforcement agen­cies across the state, said Hal Turner, exec­u­tive direc­tor for the Louisiana Sheriff’s Asso­ci­a­tion. Turner knows first-hand the dif­fi­cul­ties Wagues­pack faces because he expe­ri­enced a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion about 17 years ago while he was sher­iff of Allen Parish, he said.

“We try to remind our other mem­bers to update audits on stuff,” he said, “not just think that just because some­body is a good guy that it won’t hap­pen … It’s a bad thing, but if you don’t learn from it, it’s more likely to repeat itself.”

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”
www.IAPE.org

DailyComet.com
Link to Arti­cle
BYLINE: Ray­mond Legendre, Staff Writer

Assump­tion Parish, LA

THIBODAUX — A for­mer Assump­tion sheriff’s deputy faces hun­dreds of counts of malfea­sance in office after a three-month State Police inves­ti­ga­tion alleged he used drugs seized as evi­dence by his department’s nar­cotics agents.

Lt. Louis Lam­bert, who spent seven years as the agency’s evi­dence cus­to­dian, allegedly used cocaine, mar­i­juana and pills from the evi­dence room to feed his grow­ing drug addic­tion, Assump­tion Sher­iff Mike Wagues­pack said.

Lam­bert, 47, of Labadieville, had long exist­ing “pain man­age­ment issues” due to a knee injury suf­fered more than a decade ago, the sher­iff added, but it was unclear what role his injury played in his alleged crimes. Lam­bert has not spo­ken to author­i­ties since the inves­ti­ga­tion started.

“It’s a sit­u­a­tion where the indi­vid­ual became addicted and used the evi­dence vault as a med­i­cine cab­i­net,” Wagues­pack said. “This is a sheriff’s worst night­mare as far as evi­dence is concerned.”

Lam­bert was arrested and charged late Fri­day night with 538 counts of malfea­sance in office (tam­per­ing with evi­dence), 17 counts of ille­gal car­ry­ing of a weapon with nar­cotics and one count of pos­ses­sion with intent to dis­trib­ute a sched­ule I nar­cotic. He was also arrested on an out­stand­ing war­rant in Lafourche Parish for obtain­ing a con­trolled dan­ger­ous sub­stance by fraud.

He was being held Sat­ur­day at the Assump­tion Parish jail with­out bond.

It was unclear Sat­ur­day night how many court cases or drug pros­e­cuitions might be affected by Lambert’s alleged actions. Phone calls made to Assump­tion Dis­trict Attor­ney Ricky Babin were not returned.

Wagues­pack said he expects pros­e­cu­tions to go for­ward in many active cases, in which video evi­dence and deputy tes­ti­mony can be used in court.

“This is not a sit­u­a­tion where there will be blan­ket dis­missals of all drug cases,” he assured.

Most of the items Lam­bert is accused of tam­per­ing with were from cases that had already been com­pleted, Wagues­pack said.

Asked why no one dis­cov­ered Lambert’s alleged mis­deeds sooner, Wagues­pack explained there was gen­er­ally no rea­son to look at or deal with evi­dence in closed cases, so other deputies would not have noticed any­thing awry. Lam­bert was a “loyal” employee who gave no signs of drug addic­tion, the sher­iff added.

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”
www.IAPE.org