IAPE Evidence Blog

The Con­way Daily Sun, conwaydailysun.com
BYLINE: Erik Eisele
Link to Article

Con­way, NH

CONWAY — New details emerged this week about the theft inside the police depart­ment that occurred this past spring, but still no sus­pects have been identified.

The amount stolen, accord­ing to town offi­cials, was $1,000.

It was cash, Con­way Police spokesman Lt. Chris Per­ley said, held by a paper­clip — no wal­let, no enve­lope, no identifiers.

“It was just turned-in money,” he said. “That’s all it was.”

The cash was found prop­erty some­one turned in to the depart­ment in case any­one came to claim it. It was being stored in the department’s secure evi­dence room.

Not return­ing found prop­erty is a crime in New Hamp­shire, but if prop­erty goes unclaimed for six months the per­son who found it can claim it.

The $1,000 this per­son found, how­ever, dis­ap­peared from behind the department’s locked doors before the six-month period was up.

The money went miss­ing in late March, at least two months after it was turned in. The depart­ment launched an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion, and then in early April turned the case over to State Police.

“The case is still active and ongo­ing,” Per­ley said after speak­ing with State Police. “I don’t think it’s far from being closed.”

The per­son who turned the $1,000 in was enti­tled to the money if no one claimed it within six months. With the cash no longer sit­ting in the police evi­dence room, how­ever, the depart­ment had to dip into its bud­get to pay the person.

The money came out of the police pro­fes­sional ser­vices line, town man­ager Earl Sires said, and it was paid on July 28.

For pri­vacy rea­sons, offi­cials with­held the iden­tity of the indi­vid­ual who received the money.

Although these details answer sev­eral minor ques­tions about the inci­dent, the main ques­tion of who stole money from within a secure area inside the police depart­ment remains unanswered.

“It was clearly some­body within the police depart­ment, hence the rea­son there was an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion,” chief Ed Wag­ner said when the inci­dent was first made pub­lic, but “I have no con­cerns about any­body who works here.”

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

The Boston Globe, www.boston.com

Con­way, NH

CONWAY, N.H. — Police in New Hamp­shire are inves­ti­gat­ing the theft of a large amount of money from the Con­way police department’s evi­dence room.

Con­way Police Com­mis­sioner Theresa Ken­nett tells WMWV-FM radio that the inci­dent was brought to her atten­tion in April. She says she’s con­fi­dent everyone’s ques­tions will be answered once the inves­ti­ga­tion is complete.

She didn’t say how much money is thought to have been stolen or when it disappeared.

The inves­ti­ga­tion, which had not been made pub­lic, was recently leaked to media.

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Infor­ma­tion from: WMWV-FM, http://www.wmwv.com/index.html

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

The Asso­ci­ated Press State & Local Wire, Foster’s Daily Demo­c­rat, fosters.com
SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL

Farm­ing­ton, NH

A for­mer New Hamp­shire police detec­tive has been sen­tenced to at least three months in jail for steal­ing nearly $4,000 from the Farm­ing­ton police station’s evi­dence room. 

Foster’s Daily Demo­c­rat reports 28-year-old Bren­don June of Mid­dle­ton was sen­tenced in Straf­ford County Supe­rior Court on Mon­day on one count of theft. He was sen­tenced to a year in jail with nine months suspended.

The charge was the result of an inves­ti­ga­tion by the Attor­ney General’s Office regard­ing June’s activ­i­ties while a detec­tive with the Farm­ing­ton Police Depart­ment. The inves­ti­ga­tion showed he stole $3,790 from the evi­dence room.

June has paid the money back, relin­quished his cer­ti­fi­ca­tion as a police office, and resigned.

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