IAPE Evidence Blog

Omaha World-Herald
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Omaha, NE

Never trust a rusty gun.

One Omaha police offi­cer learned that les­son ear­lier this month while check­ing a shot­gun into the evi­dence room at Cen­tral Police Head­quar­ters, 505 S. 15th St.

Offi­cer Dar­relle Bonam, a vet­eran of more than five years with the depart­ment, was book­ing the gun into evi­dence. While pulling back the rusty slide to check if it was empty, he touched the trig­ger and the gun went off, hit­ting a money-counting machine.

No one was injured in the inci­dent, which occurred Feb. 3.

Offi­cer Jacob Bet­tin, a police spokesman, said that any­time a firearm is dis­charged in a city build­ing, the mat­ter is reviewed by the Omaha Police Department’s safety review com­mit­tee to deter­mine whether proper pro­ce­dures and safety tech­niques were fol­lowed and whether dis­ci­pli­nary action is in order.

“This shows firearms are dan­ger­ous, even for peo­ple trained to prop­erly han­dle them,” Bet­tin said.

— Jason Kuiper

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

www.ketv.com
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Case County, NE

Urns Con­tain Remains Of Made­line, William Kay

Cass County Sheriff’s deputies are try­ing to track down fam­ily mem­bers of a deceased cou­ple whose remains are in two urns stored in the sheriff’s department’s evi­dence room.

Each day, depart­ment employ­ees walk past the two urns.

It has been like that since 2007, when some­one found the urns sit­ting on a pic­nic table out­side the Eagle, Neb., fire depart­ment. The fire chief called sheriff’s inves­ti­ga­tors, who have been try­ing to track down fam­ily mem­bers for two years to give some­one a chance to take the remains.

The urns are adorned by small name plates. The remains belong to Made­line and William Kay, inves­ti­ga­tors said. They know both died in Dou­glas County. William Kay died in 1992 at the age of 89. Made­line Kay died in 1996 at the age of 88.

“We would love to return the remains of these two indi­vid­u­als to fam­ily mem­bers so they can prop­erly put them to rest,” said Capt. David Lamprecht.

Inves­ti­ga­tors were able to trace the Kays to a funeral home in Omaha. The funeral home led inves­ti­ga­tors to the couple’s son, Michael White, also of Omaha. But Michael White had also died.

Then inves­ti­ga­tors learned that Michael White had a son, Bill White, who may be liv­ing in either Wash­ing­ton or Dou­glas counties.

Any­one with infor­ma­tion in the case may call inves­ti­ga­tors at 402 – 296-9370

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

Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska)
BYLINE: WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE

Coun­cil Bluffs, NE

COUNCIL BLUFFS — Drunken-driving charges against a for­mer assis­tant Pot­tawat­tamie County attor­ney were resolved Wednes­day when Jeff TeKippe pleaded guilty Cass County.

TeKippe, 47, was sen­tenced to 48 hours in jail but given credit for time served. He also was ordered to take an impaired dri­ver course, fined $620 and ordered to pay resti­tu­tion in the amount of $400. He was arrested in March at his home after police reports indi­cated that he had crashed his vehi­cle into a parked car.

In a sep­a­rate case, TeKippe is await­ing sen­tenc­ing after plead­ing guilty in fed­eral court to pos­ses­sion of stolen firearms in Novem­ber. He faces up to 10 years in prison but is expected to be sen­tenced to two years as part of a plea agreement.

In Sep­tem­ber 2007, TeKippe was found guilty on 12 counts, includ­ing theft, pos­ses­sion of drugs and mis­con­duct in office for steal­ing evi­dence from the Coun­cil Bluffs Police Depart­ment prop­erty room. He was sen­tenced to a maxi-mum of 10 years in prison.

TeKippe remains free on a $43,000 bail while an appeal in that case is pending.

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