IAPE Evidence Blog

NewsChannel5, newsnet5.com
BYLINE
By: Sarah Budu­son, newsnet5.com
By: Mike Water­house, newsnet5.com
Link to Arti­cle
One Video

Euclid, OH

Pho­tog­ra­pher: WEWS

EUCLID, Ohio — The city of Euclid’s police chief has turned in his res­ig­na­tion, the city’s Mayor Bill Cer­venik con­firmed to NewsChannel5.

Cer­venik said he and Repicky have been dis­cussing Repicky’s res­ig­na­tion for about five weeks.

Cer­venik said sev­eral fac­tors con­tributed what he called a “mutual deci­sion” for Repicky to leave his post.

Among those fac­tors, a no con­fi­dence vote by Euclid offi­cers con­cern­ing Repicky’s lead­er­ship and the April sui­cide of Sgt. Kevin Blakeley.

Blake­ley, a 28-year vet­eran of the Euclid Police Depart­ment, shot and killed him­self inside the police depart­ment moments after Repicky told him he was being inves­ti­gated for miss­ing money from the police evi­dence room.

Repicky will con­tinue work­ing with the depart­ment until Decem­ber 31, 2011 on spe­cial assign­ments, said Cervenik.

Cap­tain Tom Brick­man will serve as the act­ing chief and over­see the department’s day-to-day oper­a­tions, accord­ing to Cervenik.

NewsChannel5 has left mes­sages for Repicky, but he has not returned our calls.

[Read a copy of the let­ter that Mayor Cer­venik sent to city council. ]

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

World­Now and WOIO, a Ray­com Media Sta­tion, woio.com, 19 Action News
Link to Article

Euclid, OH

EUCLID, OH (WOIO) — 19 Action News has uncov­ered new doc­u­ments in the inves­ti­ga­tion inside the Euclid Police Department.

The lat­est is an inter­nal memo.

Accord­ing to 19 Action News Reporter Ed Gallek, Euclid Police made it hard for us to get our hands on it but it shows slop­pi­ness pro­tect­ing evi­dence from cases and the slop­pi­ness goes back months and months.

We filed a pub­lic records request and Euclid gave us a memo from a cop to a boss. 

Big ques­tions were raised in March about how Euclid Police con­trol the room where they hold evi­dence. Evi­dence that helps decide if someone’s guilty or not.

Last month Euclid lead­ers told us Sergeant Kevin Blakely killed him­self. They say he did it in a meet­ing with super­vi­sors about an inves­ti­ga­tion into the prop­erty room.

But the memo shows the mys­tery was more than about him.

An offi­cer wrote, “I do not recall see­ing prop­erty log books in the last year. The sign in sheets folder has been removed. There was a long period where the door was bro­ken also.”

It is not clear how this affects any cases. The Sheriff’s Depart­ment is not talk­ing but they are investigating.

Euclid Police first said they didn’t have any memos about it but now we have this and we plan to keep digging.

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

NEWS5ABC, newsnet5.com
BYLINE: Gar­rett Down­ing
Link to Arti­cle
Two Videos
Link to Mayor’s State­ment
Link to Video

Euclid, OH

EUCLID, Ohio — The Euclid police offi­cer who com­mit­ted sui­cide at the sta­tion Wednes­day morn­ing was not coop­er­at­ing with an inves­ti­ga­tion con­ducted by the sheriff’s office and FBI, accord­ing to a state­ment Thurs­day from Euclid Mayor Bill Cervenik.

Sgt. Kevin Blake­ley was asked to meet with Euclid Police Chief James Repicky Wednes­day, in regards to why he was not coop­er­at­ing with the inves­ti­ga­tion, Cer­venik said.

“At the out­set of this meet­ing, Sergeant Blake­ley sud­denly and trag­i­cally ended his own life with a self-inflicted wound from his police weapon,” Cer­venik said. “No words were spo­ken, and no alter­ca­tion took place. This action taken by Sergeant Blake­ley occurred so quickly that the chief and the super­vi­sors present had no chance to stop this tragic incident.”

Euclid Mayor Bill Cer­venik talks to the media the day after an offi­cer com­mit­ted sui­cide at the police sta­tion. Pho­tog­ra­pher: Paul Kiska/WEWS

The inves­ti­ga­tion stemmed from a dis­cov­ery by the depart­ment that records and prop­erty logs were not being prop­erly main­tained within the depart­ment. An inter­nal audit was then con­ducted, Cer­venik said, con­firm­ing that incon­sis­ten­cies existed within the records.

Chief Repicky then asked the Cuya­hoga County Sher­iff, along with the help of the FBI, to inves­ti­gate the mis­han­dling of the records, Cer­venik said.

That inves­ti­ga­tion has yet to be com­pleted, Cer­venik said.

“While we are con­cerned with the family’s grief, we must also reduce mis­in­for­ma­tion, rumors and spec­u­la­tion that could make this very sad sit­u­a­tion even worse,” Cer­venik said.

Keep check­ing newsnet5.com for more information.

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