IAPE Evidence Blog

Area Wide News, areawidenews.com
BYLINE: Linda Greer, Assis­tant Edi­tor
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Carter County, MO

Sher­iff Tommy 

Since his arrest in April, many changes have taken place in for­mer Carter County Sher­iff Tommy Adams’ life.

Adams was ini­tially charged with pos­ses­sion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of metham­phet­a­mine, after allegedly snort­ing the drug with a Mis­souri High­way Patrol infor­mant. For two months, Adams was held in a Cape Girardeau jail on a $250,000-cash-only bond.

In June, Adams, 31, of Ellsi­nore, pleaded not guilty to the sin­gle felony charge and had his bond reduced to $200,000 cash or surety. On June 8, Adams posted the 10-percent require­ment and is free on bond, await­ing trial.

Kear­bey

On June 13, Adams, who was elected two years ear­lier to his first term as sher­iff, filed for divorce from his wife, Danielle, who now lives in Poplar Bluff. The cou­ple have an infant son.

On July 8, Mis­souri Assis­tant Attor­ney Gen­eral Kevin Zoell­ner, who is pros­e­cut­ing the case, was granted a court con­tin­u­ance from July 12 to 9 a.m. Fri­day, Aug. 12, because a lab report was not yet complete.

On July 22, the state added two more felony counts against Adams for dis­tri­b­u­tion of cocaine.

The new charges allege Adams dis­trib­uted cocaine to the same high­way patrol infor­mant in March and April.

Carter County sheriff’s deputy Stephanie Kear­bey, who had been with the depart­ment almost a year since grad­u­at­ing from the law enforce­ment acad­emy, was arrested shortly after Adams, charged with receiv­ing stolen property.

Carter County Pros­e­cu­tor Rocky Kingree dropped her charges in July, say­ing the state refused to pro­vide him with evi­dence needed to pur­sue the case.

Kear­bey, 23, of Ellsi­nore, was accused of sell­ing a gun taken from the department’s evi­dence locker and steal­ing a bag of coins from a home. Kear­bey alleged to inves­ti­ga­tors that Adams told her to steal the coins and insti­gated the gun sale.

With the arrest and res­ig­na­tions of Adams and Kear­bey, the depart­ment relied on aide from the Van Buren Police Depart­ment to cover shifts.

In June, vot­ers elected Demo­c­rat Bruce Van Belle, a retired Navy cap­tain, as sher­iff in a spe­cial elec­tion until the next gen­eral election.

Adams’ case will be heard in Greenville in Wayne County by Asso­ciate Cir­cuit Judge Randy Schuller, appointed by the Mis­souri Supreme Court. 

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

BND.com, bnd.com
BYLINE: HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH — Asso­ci­ated Press

Lee’s Summit/Kansas City, MO

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A busi­ness­man who spent sev­eral years in prison after he was wrong­fully con­victed of molest­ing his step­daugh­ter said Fri­day that he has reached a $15.5 set­tle­ment with the Kansas City sub­urb of Lee’s Summit.

Ted White was freed in 2005 after a fed­eral court deter­mined that his estranged wife and the detec­tive inves­ti­gat­ing the case were hav­ing an affair and con­spired to get White con­victed on false charges.

White, now 49 and liv­ing in the Salt Lake City area with his new wife and tod­dler daugh­ter, said at a news con­fer­ence in Kansas City that he hoped the set­tle­ment would bring about changes in the crim­i­nal jus­tice system.

“We, as cit­i­zens, have to stand up for our rights even when peo­ple try and abuse the sys­tem to their own ben­e­fit,” said White, who occa­sion­ally cried as he spoke. “This abuse ran ram­pant in my case and should have never been allowed to happen.”

He said his par­ents mort­gaged their farm to help pay for his defense and that he planned to drive to the south­west Mis­souri town of Aurora on Sat­ur­day to “make them whole.” White, who lost con­tact with his three older chil­dren after his arrest, also said the door is open for them to reunite.

White’s attor­neys had been fight­ing to get Lee’s Sum­mit to pay the $16 mil­lion a fed­eral jury awarded in 2008 after find­ing that for­mer detec­tive Richard McKin­ley and White’s ex-wife, now Tina McKin­ley, con­spired to vio­late White’s right to a fair trial. In exchange for being dropped from that law­suit, the city of Lee’s Sum­mit agreed to pay White any judg­ment against McKinley.

Later, the city claimed a local ordi­nance for­bid it from indem­ni­fy­ing a city employee who vio­lates someone’s con­sti­tu­tional rights. Mean­while, inter­est on the judg­ment had been grow­ing at a rate of $27,000 per month.

The set­tle­ment cov­ers claims against the city and its for­mer police chief, Ken­neth Con­lee, who allegedly knew about the affair. Lee’s Sum­mit said in a state­ment that the indem­ni­fi­ca­tion ordi­nance that would have made it unlaw­ful to pay such a set­tle­ment was enacted after a man­age­ment agree­ment with Con­lee was signed.

Lee’s Sum­mit Mayor Randy Rhoads said in a state­ment that the city is “hope­ful that this set­tle­ment pro­vides clo­sure for Mr. White and his fam­ily.” The state­ment said that the money will be paid out of the city’s finan­cial reserves and that the city will seek reim­burse­ment from its insur­ance policies.

White’s attor­ney, Brian McCal­lis­ter, said it’s still pos­si­ble for the city to go after Richard McKinley.

Robert Weeks, who was so frus­trated over the city’s han­dling of the case that he made an unsuc­cess­ful run for the City Coun­cil in Lee’s Sum­mit, showed up at the news con­fer­ence with signs that read “Stop the Bleed­ing” and “Above the Law.”

“They acted like he wasn’t a human being,” Weeks complained.

The 13-year legal bat­tle began in 1998 after White’s then-wife made the molesta­tion claims while the cou­ple was sep­a­rated. After his 1999 con­vic­tion but before sen­tenc­ing, White fled to Costa Rica, where he stayed for sev­eral months before being cap­tured and brought back to Mis­souri. He was sen­tenced to 50 years behind bars.

While he was in prison, his attor­neys dis­cov­ered that White’s wife was hav­ing an affair with McKin­ley while he was inves­ti­gat­ing the case. McKin­ley, who no longer works for the Police Depart­ment, failed to dis­close the rela­tion­ship to the court and also didn’t take into evi­dence the stepdaughter’s diary, even though it might have helped White’s defense.

White won a new trial that ended in a hung jury in 2004. By then White’s fam­ily was run­ning out of money, so Larry Stew­art, a secret Santa who gave away more than $1 mil­lion to strangers each Decem­ber in mostly $100 bills, helped pay White’s attor­ney to con­tinue his defense. White was exon­er­ated in 2005 after a third trial.

A fed­eral jury in 2008 awarded White $16 mil­lion — $14 mil­lion in assessed dam­ages and $1 mil­lion each from Richard and Tina McKin­ley in puni­tive damages.

Tina McKinley’s home­own­ers insur­ance pol­icy paid $600,000 toward her share, money that White said went mainly toward attor­ney fees. He also received roughly $363,000 in Jan­u­ary from one of the city’s insur­ance carriers.

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

Post Dis­patch, stltoday.com
BYLINE: VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN • vhahn@post-dispatch.com
Link to Article

Lin­coln County, MO

Almost 16 years ago, a worker clear­ing ice from High­way W found the partly clothed body of 18-year-old Stephanie Hog­land face­down in a ditch. She had been blud­geoned to death.

On Fri­day, inves­ti­ga­tors announced an arrest in the case — say­ing it is the old­est case matched by DNA in the state lab.

Michael Edward Dow­ell, 44, of the 9700 block of New­ton Drive in Fer­gu­son, was charged Fri­day with first-degree mur­der, armed crim­i­nal action and forcible rape. He had sub­mit­ted a DNA sam­ple on Oct. 30 as part of his pro­ba­tion for an unre­lated assault case in St. Louis.

On Nov. 30, the Mis­souri High­way Patrol’s crime lab reported it had a match. The DNA sam­ple taken from Hogland’s under­wear in 1991 was the first to be sub­mit­ted to the crime lab, patrol spokes­woman Julie Scer­ine said Friday.

“Never give up,” said Mary­land Heights Police Capt. Bill Car­son, com­man­der of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis. “There are cases that are going to be solved in the future because of tech­nol­ogy like this.”

Hog­land, a 1990 grad­u­ate of Fort Zumwalt North High School who lived in Wentzville, was last seen in the early morn­ing of Jan. 6, 1991, after attend­ing a wed­ding recep­tion with friends in Old Mon­roe. At some point on her way home, she got a flat tire and pulled her 1977 Pon­tiac Fire­bird into a dri­ve­way along High­way W north of High­way 47.

The owner of a nearby house found the car later that morn­ing and called the Sheriff’s Depart­ment, but deputies found no sign of Hog­land. More than a day passed, and the high­way worker found her body about 15 miles away from her car in a ditch along High­way W north of High­way B. She had been raped and beaten on the head.

Inves­ti­ga­tors inter­viewed hun­dreds of peo­ple. They did not inter­view or sus­pect Dow­ell, who lived off High­way Y, east of where the car was found.

“This appears to be a crime of oppor­tu­nity,” Car­son explained. “It would appear she had car prob­lems, and the wrong per­son stopped to help her.”

Police went to Dowell’s home Thurs­day after­noon and inter­viewed him at the Sheriff’s Depart­ment. Detec­tives took Dow­ell, an unem­ployed painter, to the spot where Hogland’s body was found and showed him pic­tures of Hog­land, but he denied involve­ment in the case and denied know­ing or see­ing her, author­i­ties said.

Lin­coln County pros­e­cu­tor John Richards said police have addi­tional evi­dence against Dow­ell but would not elab­o­rate. He said pros­e­cu­tors would con­sider seek­ing the death penalty because of the bru­tal­ity of the crime. Dow­ell was being held in the Lin­coln County Jail with­out bail. Police said he has a long crim­i­nal record that includes arrests for rape, assault against a law enforce­ment offi­cer and unlaw­ful use of a weapon.

Hogland’s par­ents, Gene and Gayle Hog­land of Spring­field, Mo., and her two younger sis­ters stood by at the Lin­coln County Jus­tice Cen­ter in Troy on Fri­day as inves­ti­ga­tors announced the arrest, but they declined to comment.

Friends had described Hog­land as cheer­ful, car­ing and enthu­si­as­tic. At the time of her death, she worked as an inspec­tor at an elec­tron­ics plant in O’Fallon and was sav­ing money for com­mu­nity col­lege classes.

Inves­ti­ga­tors said they con­tinue to inter­view peo­ple about Hogland’s death. They are ask­ing any­one who has infor­ma­tion about the case or Dow­ell to call the Lin­coln County Sheriff’s Depart­ment at 636 – 528-8546.

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