IAPE Evidence Blog

Idaho Falls Post Reg­is­ter (Idaho), THE WEST; Pg. B1
BYLINE: By LAURA ZUCKERMAN

Novem­ber 2, 2010 

Lemhi Co. pros­e­cu­tor wants AG investigation

Lemhi County, ID

SALMON — Lemhi County Pros­e­cu­tor Bruce With­ers on Mon­day asked the Idaho Attor­ney General’s Office to inves­ti­gate alle­ga­tions that a for­mer Sheriff’s Office deputy took prop­erty from the county evi­dence room and filed a false insur­ance claim, among other accusations.

Before he resigned from the sheriff’s office Aug. 31, Deputy Jef­frey Stokes told law enforce­ment offi­cials he took guns that were meant to be secured in the county evi­dence room, accord­ing to a probe released in Octo­ber by inves­ti­ga­tors with the Tri-County Sheriff’s Association.

Stokes admit­ted to tak­ing home the guns, which were rusted, say­ing he intended to clean them and hang them in the sheriff’s office for dec­o­ra­tion. Years later, the guns remained in his possession.

Under Idaho law, any­one who steals one or more firearms, rifles or shot­guns is guilty of grand theft, a felony.

Offi­cials also looked into an accu­sa­tion that Stokes filed a false insur­ance claim in 2005. Two mem­bers of the sheriff’s office said Stokes told them that he dam­aged his camper-trailer while det­o­nat­ing explo­sives and then told the insur­ance com­pany — which ulti­mately paid the claim — it was dam­aged by rocks falling off a mountain.

Stokes denied that he filed a fraud­u­lent claim on the vehicle.

With­ers has sub­mit­ted that report to the Attor­ney General’s Office in hopes the state will launch its own inquiry and sub­mit the results to a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor to deter­mine whether charges are warranted.

“Although Mr. Stokes is no longer employed by the sheriff’s office, I worked closely with Mr. Stokes for approx­i­mately 10 years in the course of his employ­ment as a deputy and as such feel oblig­ated to make this request for inde­pen­dent review of this mat­ter,” With­ers wrote to Deputy Attor­ney Gen­eral Stephen Bywa­ter, head of the office’s crim­i­nal law division.

The accu­sa­tions sur­round­ing Stokes sur­faced when for­mer Bon­neville County Deputy Pros­e­cu­tor Randy Neal was appointed spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor to review alle­ga­tions of drunken dri­ving by then-Sheriff Sam Slavin, Stokes’ stepfather.

Slavin resigned dur­ing Neal’s inves­ti­ga­tion on July 9 and later pleaded guilty to a second-offense DUI.

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

Idaho Falls Post Reg­is­ter (Idaho), A SECTION; Pg. A1
BYLINE: By LAURA ZUCKERMAN

Lemhi County, ID

SALMON — Before he quit in August, a Lemhi County deputy told inves­ti­ga­tors he took home guns that were meant to be placed in the county evi­dence room.

Jeff Stokes, who resigned Aug. 31 after 15 years with the Lemhi County Sheriff’s Office, has been at the cen­ter of an inquiry since accu­sa­tions arose this sum­mer about the guns, a ques­tion­able insur­ance claim and other allegations.

The probe into those mat­ters was released Mon­day, with inves­ti­ga­tors from neigh­bor­ing Custer and Jef­fer­son coun­ties sub­mit­ting their find­ings to Lemhi County Sher­iff Lynn Bow­er­man and Lemhi County Pros­e­cu­tor Bruce With­ers. The inquiry shows that sev­eral shot­guns and rifles found near Salmon between 2003 and 2004 were taken to the Lemhi County Sheriff’s Office, where they were checked in by Stokes and ““then over time they dis­ap­peared,”” accord­ing to the report.

When ques­tioned, Stokes told inves­ti­ga­tors he had taken the guns, which were rusted, with the inten­tion of clean­ing them and hang­ing them in the sheriff’s office for dec­o­ra­tion. He said he never was asked about the guns and was unaware that any­one was seek­ing their whereabouts.

““Deputy Stokes said that he has other weapons at his house that are evi­dence, but he kept them at his res­i­dence because of the humid­ity in their evi­dence room,”” wrote Ricardo Frakes, a detec­tive with the Jef­fer­son County Sheriff’s Office.

Stokes could not be reached for comment.

With­ers said Tues­day that he is review­ing the infor­ma­tion to deter­mine whether it should be passed to an inde­pen­dent pros­e­cu­tor for poten­tial charges.

Lemhi County Sher­iff Lynn Bow­er­man and other offi­cials agreed Stokes’ actions were inap­pro­pri­ate but declined to say whether they were charge­able offenses since it is unclear whether the guns con­sti­tute stolen prop­erty and whether he intended to keep them for his own per­sonal use.

Under Idaho law, any­one who steals one or more firearms, rifles or shot­guns is guilty of grand theft, a felony.

Vio­la­tions of that law played out in a high-profile case with for­mer Bon­neville County and Idaho Falls pros­e­cu­tor Kim­ball Mason, who was paroled in May after serv­ing nearly four years in prison for steal­ing guns from the Idaho Falls Police Department’s evi­dence vault and lying to pros­e­cu­tors about the where­abouts of those firearms.

In gen­eral terms, any gun seized or turned in to a law enforce­ment agency should remain in that agency’s pos­ses­sion until it is legally deter­mined that it can be released to its owner, auc­tioned off by the agency or destroyed, said Mike Dil­lion, head of the office of pro­fes­sional respon­si­bil­ity for Idaho Peace Offi­cer Stan­dards and Training.

Inves­ti­ga­tors also looked into an alle­ga­tion that Stokes filed a false insur­ance claim in 2005. Two mem­bers of the sheriff’s office told inves­ti­ga­tors that Stokes told them that he blew up his camper-trailer and told the insur­ance com­pany — which ulti­mately paid the claim — it was dam­aged by rocks falling off a mountain.

Stokes denied to inves­ti­ga­tors that he filed a fraud­u­lent claim on the vehicle.

Accu­sa­tions of Stokes’ mis­con­duct or crim­i­nal activ­ity arose when for­mer Bon­neville County Deputy Pros­e­cu­tor Randy Neal was appointed spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor to review alle­ga­tions of drunken dri­ving by then-Sheriff Sam Slavin. Stokes is Slavin’s stepson.

Slavin resigned dur­ing Neal’s inves­ti­ga­tion, later pleaded guilty to a second-offense DUI and was sen­tenced to 20 days in jail — with 10 days sub­ject to work release — and a year’s sus­pen­sion of his driver’s license.

Neal and his team of inves­ti­ga­tors uncov­ered the alle­ga­tions against Stokes while inter­view­ing wit­nesses related to the Slavin matter.

Con­tacted Tues­day about the Stokes case, Neal said a review of the inves­tiga­tive report con­vinces him that felony charges could be filed against the for­mer deputy.

Neal said he has referred infor­ma­tion about Stokes to the Idaho Peace Offi­cer Stan­dards and Train­ing, which licenses law enforce­ment offi­cers in the state.

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

Lewis­ton Morn­ing Tri­bune (Idaho), Tri­bune Pub­lish­ing Co.
BYLINE: JOELYN HANSEN

Bon­neville County, ID

KKK robe, guns, drugs, bur­glary tools are just a few of the things

IDAHO FALLS — The Bon­neville County Sheriff’s Office has no clear answer as to why there’s a Ku Klux Klan robe in the evi­dence and prop­erty room, offi­cers just know it’s there.

A res­i­dent found the robe, which dates from around the 1970s, on the side of a county road years ago, along with a KKK book and a T-shirt imprinted with the hate group’s sym­bol, Sgt. James Fos­ter said.

Fos­ter said its owner never came for­ward to claim it. He ulti­mately plans to make it part of the department’s edu­ca­tion pro­grams. “My inten­tions are to use it in a train­ing class on hate crimes,” he said.

Although a KKK robe may stand out as unex­pected in the evi­dence and prop­erty room, Fos­ter said, it’s cer­tainly not alone in doing so.

Fos­ter said the sheriff’s office has been in pos­ses­sion of a vari­ety of unusual objects — whether gath­ered through nor­mal crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions or found items turned in by citizens.

There’s the expected array of bur­glary tools, lock picks, car parts, guns, drugs, drug para­pher­na­lia, and DNA and blood sam­ples — pre­served in large refrig­er­a­tors — linked to crim­i­nal investigations.

At one time, the sheriff’s office had a human skull that was drudged up from the Pal­isades Reservoir.

Fos­ter said the skull was tested for DNA iden­ti­fi­ca­tion but didn’t match any of the county’s open miss­ing per­sons or drown­ing vic­tim cases. The skull is now in the pos­ses­sion of the Fed­eral Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion in hopes agents will be able to make an identification.

The Idaho Falls Police Depart­ment has also col­lected its share of items. It has stored any­thing from silly string to car bumpers taken from hit-and-run acci­dents to people’s underwear.

Right now, there are about 8,000 pieces of evi­dence, includ­ing a wheel detec­tives took from the car Frank Crazythun­der was rid­ing in when he fired shots at Sgt. Steve Poul­ter in March.

Not too long ago, Capt. Mark McBride said the Idaho Falls Police had tem­po­rary cus­tody of two urns filled with human ashes until offi­cers could find the next of kin.

It took some savvy inves­tiga­tive work to accom­plish the reunion, but it was finally done.

Idaho State Police Tech­ni­cian Katie Den­nent said the Idaho Falls Police will occa­sion­ally receive unusual items, like stat­ues, found along the highways.

McBride said the Idaho Falls Police Depart­ment even­tu­ally throws out aban­doned prop­erty or evi­dence no longer needed. With lim­ited space, McBride said unnec­es­sary items can’t be stored forever.

“For a long time, law enforce­ment wasn’t real good about purg­ing the evi­dence, they just kept fill­ing it up,” he said.

State law requires that found prop­erty be held for at least 60 days. At the end of the time period, McBride said any­thing of value is put into an auc­tion. The city used to hold auc­tions but now uses the ser­vices of propertyroom.com.

Fos­ter said the law does allow for items val­ued less than $25 to be dis­posed of sooner.

In the com­ing days, Fos­ter said the depart­ment is get­ting ready to clear out a stash of guns. Fos­ter said peo­ple who know they have guns there should come and claim them. Even con­victed felons, pro­hib­ited from legally pos­sess­ing guns, can trans­fer own­er­ship of seized guns to a friend or fam­ily member.

McBride said evi­dence is treated dif­fer­ently. Drugs and drug para­pher­na­lia are never returned. In a pend­ing or open case, evi­dence is kept until a con­vic­tion. Offi­cers keep evi­dence in closed cases until the defendant’s appeals process is complete.

“It could be as lit­tle as 42 days after a con­vic­tion or once a life sen­tence is served,” he said.

For exam­ple, the Idaho Falls police still have evi­dence from the Paul Ezra Rhoades kid­nap­ping case from 1987.

Rhoades was sen­tenced to be exe­cuted but remains on death row at the Idaho Max­i­mum Secu­rity Prison.

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