IAPE Evidence Blog

www.tv20detroit.com
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BYLINE: Jorge Avellan

Detroit, MI

DETROIT (MyTV 20) — Detroit police are still inves­ti­gat­ing who killed exotic dancer Tamara Greene back in 2003. But they now find them­selves in the hot seat after a Michi­gan State Trooper revealed in a depo­si­tion that evi­dence tapes from Greene’s case, who once allegedly danced for for­mer mayor Kwame Kil­patrick at a Manoogian Man­sion party, dis­ap­peared from the police department.

Attor­ney Nor­man Yatooma, who rep­re­sents Greene’s fam­ily in a wrong­ful death law­suit against the city of Detroit says as many as thirty 9 – 1-1 tapes are miss­ing. He says those tapes could help his client’s case.

Detroit’s Police Depart­ment refused to com­ment on Greene because her case is still open.

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

www.lenconnect.com
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Lenawee County, MI

ADRIAN, Mich. — Between 30 and 40 stolen bikes recov­ered by the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Depart­ment will be donated to Adrian Lock­smith & Cyclery, which in turn will restore the bikes and donate them to those in need.

Lt. Jeff Ewald said it’s taken about two years to accu­mu­late the 30 to 40 bikes stored at the sheriff’s depart­ment. The bikes were recov­ered from around the county, exclud­ing the city of Adrian.

“About 99 per­cent of the time no one ever comes in to see if their bike was picked up,” he said.
Since the county doesn’t have reg­u­lar auc­tions any­more, the num­ber of bikes stacks up now, he said. When the bikes are auc­tioned, they nor­mally are sold for $1 per bike.

Lenawee County Sher­iff Jack Welsh thought the bikes would be more val­ued if they were donated to the com­mu­nity, Ewald said. So Adrian Lock­smith & Cyclery was con­tacted by the sheriff’s depart­ment. The sheriff’s depart­ment has since received a let­ter of agree­ment from the bike shop, Ewald said.

This won’t be the first time Adrian Lock­smith & Cyclery, at 611 N. Main St., has accepted donated bikes to restore. Tim Wil­son, co-owner of the busi­ness, said this time it’s just on a larger scale.

Wil­son said he’s proud the county approached his busi­ness based on word of mouth.

“It feels good that we’re doing some­thing good, and some­one is see­ing it,” he said.

The bikes that can’t be repaired will be recy­cled, Wil­son said. Parts from mul­ti­ple bikes might be used to pro­duce one good bike, he said.

Sue Wil­son, co-owner of Adrian Lock­smith & Cyclery, said bikes have pre­vi­ously been donated to The Daily Bread of Lenawee soup kitchen and the Lenawee County Mission.

Tim Wil­son said the major­ity of this batch of bikes will go to The Daily Bread and other non­profit organizations.

Any­one inter­ested in obtain­ing a restored bike may con­tact Adrian Lock­smith & Cyclery at 263‑1415.

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

The Detroit News (Michi­gan)
BYLINE: David Josar, djosar@detnews.com

Detroit, MI

The Paper

A 16-page Detroit audi­tor gen­eral report lam­bast­ing the Police Depart­ment for the way it han­dles cash and vehi­cles seized dur­ing drug for­fei­tures. The most scathing rev­e­la­tion in the Sept. 8 report: The force spent just $46,022 of $5.2
mil­lion of fed­eral for­fei­ture funds from 2004 through 2008.

The chase

The U.S. Jus­tice Depart­ment since 1994 has required state and local agen­cies that receive more than $100,000 in for­fei­ture funds to file reports detail­ing the use of the money. The fed­eral agency rec­om­mends forces spend the money within two years.

The audit also found mon­i­tor­ing of the prop­erty room was inad­e­quate. No one watched old footage of tapes, two cam­eras didn’t work and only one of eight offi­cers reviewed footage to see if any­thing was amiss, accord­ing to the report.

The audit, which cov­ered July 2006 to Sep­tem­ber 2008, pre­ceded the tenure of Police Chief War­ren Evans.

In a writ­ten response, Evans acknowl­edged the force has “been very cau­tious” with its money but is imple­ment­ing changes.

Evans wrote that the depart­ment plans to fix non-functioning cam­eras and beef up over­sight of the prop­erty room.

Got docs?

Thurs­days, the Paper Chase takes a close look at doc­u­ments — from gov­ern­ment reports and bud­gets to police reports and cor­po­rate e-mails — that offer an intrigu­ing, reveal­ing or off­beat look at the news. They’re inde­pen­dently ver­i­fied. Got one? E-mail jkurth@detnews.com or call (313) 222‑2513.

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