IAPE Evidence Blog

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Amer­i­can Press, The Repub­lic, a divi­sion of Home News Enter­prises, therepublic.com
BYLINE:
Link to Article

Cal­casieu Parish, LA

LAKE CHARLES, La. — A judge has ordered a for­mer Cal­casieu Parish deputy to pay close to $100,000 in resti­tu­tion to make up for money miss­ing from the sheriff’s office evi­dence room.

The Amer­i­can Press reports (http://bit.ly/qjfACs) Troy Hugh Tay­lor pleaded guilty Tues­day to felony theft, malfea­sance and drug pos­ses­sion. Pros­e­cu­tors said he stole prop­erty, drugs and money from the evi­dence room.

Inves­ti­ga­tors report­edly found some of the items at his home, includ­ing a lap­top com­puter, fish­ing poles and iPods.

Tay­lor was charged with sev­eral counts of drug pos­ses­sion after detec­tives report­edly found more than 3,000 pills in a safe in his office.

Carter pre­vi­ously sen­tenced Tay­lor to five years in prison on each count, but sus­pended the time. He ordered Tay­lor to make monthly pay­ments of $400 toward the balance.

___

Infor­ma­tion from: Amer­i­can Press, http://www.americanpress.com

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

Braden­ton Hearld, bradenton.com
BYLINE: LAURA C. MOREL — lmorel@bradenton.com
Link to Article

Man­a­tee County, FL

MANATEE — A Man­a­tee County Sheriff’s Office prop­erty clerk resigned late last month after he was arrested for tak­ing money from a bag at the jail, accord­ing to a pro­fes­sional stan­dards investigation.

On Aug. 19, Gammahl Pierre-Louis was arrested on drug charges. Detec­tives found money on Pierre-Louis. They counted, orga­nized and stacked the cash and placed it into an enve­lope inside a bag, doc­u­ments show. The total amount: $1,902.

Clerk Fred­er­ick Rober­son was work­ing when detec­tives entered the jail with Pierre-Louis and his property.

Video sur­veil­lance cap­tured a deputy plac­ing the bag on the win­dow ledge of the prop­erty unit.

Rober­son then removes the bag from the ledge and takes it inside the prop­erty unit where he is work­ing alone, doc­u­ments show.

Moments later, he places the bag back on the win­dow ledge.

When deputies counted the money again, $300 were missing.

When Rober­son was informed about the miss­ing cash, he placed the crum­pled bills on the win­dow ledge, doc­u­ments show, and told the deputies the money was inside Pierre-Louis’s shoe.

But accord­ing to his arrest report, Pierre-Louis’s clothes were placed in a sep­a­rate bag as deputies placed the other bag con­tain­ing the money on the win­dow ledge.

Rober­son, of Ruskin, told a pro­fes­sional stan­dards inves­ti­ga­tor “sev­eral dif­fer­ent expla­na­tions on the where­abouts of the miss­ing money,” his arrest report says.

The inves­ti­ga­tion began Jan. 27.

On Jan. 30, Rober­son was placed on admin­is­tra­tive leave with pay “pend­ing the result of this case,” doc­u­ments show.

On Feb. 3, Rober­son, 37, was arrested and booked into the Sara­sota County jail on a war­rant. He was charged with grand theft, Man­a­tee court records show, and posted $10,000 bond seven days later.

On Feb. 22, Rober­son resigned. He worked at the sheriff’s office since 1996, said spokesman Dave Bristow.

Inves­ti­ga­tors found Rober­son guilty of con­duct unbe­com­ing of an employee. He could have faced between five days of sus­pen­sion and ter­mi­na­tion, doc­u­ments show.

He resigned before the sheriff’s office could decide on any dis­ci­pli­nary action, Bris­tow said.

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

The Patch.org Foun­da­tion, hinsdale.patch.com
BYLINE: Joe O’Donnell, joe.odonnell@patch.com
Link to Article

Claren­don Hills, IL

Numer­ous felony counts against Daniel Ryan were dropped in a plea agree­ment that led to two years’ pro­ba­tion for offi­cial misconduct.

For­mer Claren­don Hills police offi­cer Daniel Ryan pleaded guilty to offi­cial mis­con­duct Fri­day and was sen­tenced to two years’ pro­ba­tion. Credit Cour­tesy of DuPage State’s Attorney 

For­mer Claren­don Hills police offi­cer Daniel Ryan pleaded guilty to felony offi­cial mis­con­duct Fri­day and was sen­tenced to two years’ pro­ba­tion nearly 10 months after he was charged with steal­ing six guns from the Claren­don Hills Police Department’s evi­dence room.

Ryan was orig­i­nally charged with two counts of aggra­vated pos­ses­sion of a stolen firearm, five counts of unlaw­ful pos­ses­sion of a stolen firearm, one count of theft, and three counts of offi­cial mis­con­duct when he was arrested last spring.

The 49-year-old West­mont res­i­dent pleaded guilty to one of the offi­cial mis­con­duct counts, a Class 3 felony, accord­ing to pros­e­cu­tor Helen Kapas. The other charges were dropped. Ryan will pay no fines.

Ryan’s lawyer, Jeff Kendall, said two years pro­ba­tion, cou­pled with the facts that his client lost his job and can­not work as a police offi­cer again, is a “strong punishment.”

“He’s extremely remorse­ful and sorry for let­ting the [Claren­don Hills Police Depart­ment] down,” Kendall said after the hear­ing at the DuPage County Judi­cial Cen­ter in Wheaton.

Ryan turned him­self in on May 13, 2011. A joint inves­ti­ga­tion by the FBI and DuPage State’s Attor­ney Inves­ti­ga­tion Divi­sion had been ongo­ing since Feb­ru­ary of 2011, accord­ing to Kapas.

The guns Ryan was accused of tak­ing from the evi­dence room between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2007, accord­ing to DuPage County State’s Attor­ney Robert B. Berlin’s office, are an Ithaca M1911 A1 World War II U.S. Army .45 cal­iber gun; a .22 cal­iber Short But­ler; a Smith and Wes­son .38 cal­iber Airlight Spe­cial; a Moss­berg 590 12 gauge shot­gun; and a Con­necti­cut Val­ley Bob­cat .50 cal­iber gun.

The guns were given to the depart­ment via a com­mu­nity turn-in pro­gram and none of the guns were used in crimes. 

Accord­ing to the plea agree­ment read by Kapas to Judge Daniel Guerin, Ryan sold two of the six guns to two cousins who are police offi­cers in the Wil­low­brook and Darien police departments.

“He obtained money that was used to pay bills,” Kapas said.

One of the guns, the Ithaca M1911, will be donated to the Cantigny War Museum in Wheaton, accord­ing to the plea agree­ment. The other five guns have been or will be destroyed.

Claren­don Hills Police Chief Ted Jenk­ins attended Friday’s hear­ing and pro­vided a writ­ten state­ment from the department.

“Chief Jenk­ins and mem­bers of the Claren­don Hills Police Depart­ment offer their sin­cer­est thanks to State’s Attor­ney Robert B. Berlin, his staff and mem­bers of the FBI inves­tiga­tive team for their efforts to insure that the Claren­don Hills Police Depart­ment is only staffed by offi­cers who hon­or­ably serve with the high­est integrity and com­mit­ment to ser­vice,” the state­ment reads. 

Kendall said Ryan’s pro­ba­tion is effec­tive immediately.

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