IAPE Evidence Blog

NorthJersey.com, northjersey.com, Neigh­bor News (Denville Edi­tion)
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Denville, NJ

Eugene Blood, 38, a for­mer Denville Police offi­cer, has plead guilty to one count of offi­cial mis­con­duct, by admit­ting he unlaw­fully obtained the key to the department’s evi­dence room and stole drugs for his per­sonal use, reported Mor­ris County Pros­e­cu­tor Robert A. Bianchi, Esq. on a Nov. 30.

The inves­ti­ga­tion con­ducted by the Mor­ris County Prosecutor’s Office Pro­fes­sional Stan­dards Unit and the Denville Town­ship Police Depart­ment, revealed that Blood, who had been with the depart­ment since Jan­u­ary of 2003, began tak­ing the drugs while he served as the department’s evi­dence cus­to­dian in 2007, and con­tin­ued after he was re-assigned to patrol duties by using a stolen key.

Accord­ing to the Mor­ris County Prosecutor’s Office, Blood has accepted the state’s offer of three years New Jer­sey State Prison with a manda­tory period of parole inel­i­gi­bil­ity of two years.

He has also for­feited his posi­tion with the police depart­ment and any right to a pub­lic pen­sion and is barred from future pub­lic employment.

“This plea strikes the bal­ance of severely pun­ish­ing this con­duct, but also takes into con­sid­er­a­tion that the defen­dant imme­di­ately accepted respon­si­bil­ity for his actions,” said Bianchi. “Blood has lost his job and pro­fes­sion, will serve a min­i­mum of two to five years in state prison and is for­ever barred from future pub­lic employ­ment. This case sadly demon­strates how drug addic­tion, and the havoc an addic­tions causes, unfor­tu­nately exists at all lev­els of society.”

Bianchi also reit­er­ated that the Denville Police Depart­ment should be “applauded in how they han­dled this dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion and I con­tinue to have the utmost con­fi­dence in the Denville Town­ship Police Department.”

“This [sit­u­a­tion] demon­strated the Denville Town­ship Police Depart­ment is not only an eth­i­cal and well run depart­ment, but also shows that they will not tol­er­ate mis­con­duct,” Bianchi said. “To be clear, this mat­ter is lim­ited to this one offi­cer, and is by no means a reflec­tion of the Denville Town­ship Police Department.

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

NorthJersey.com, northjersey.com, Neigh­bor News (Denville Edi­tion)
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Denville Town­ship, NJ

Mor­ris County Pros­e­cu­tor Robert A. Bianchi, Esq., announced on Oct. 27 that Denville Police Offi­cer Eugene Blood, 38, had been charge with offi­cial mis­con­duct and other crim­i­nal offenses.

Accord­ing to a state­ment released by the prosecutor’s office, in April 2011, Denville Lt. Paul Nigro con­tacted the Mor­ris County Prosecutor’s Office Pro­fes­sional Stan­dards Unit to report that he sus­pected that some­one was tam­per­ing with the Police Department’s evi­dence room.

The inves­ti­ga­tion, which was jointly con­ducted between the Mor­ris County Prosecutor’s Office Pro­fes­sional Stan­dards Unit and Tech­ni­cal Assis­tance Response Unit (TARU) and the Denville Town­ship Police Depart­ment, alleges that Offi­cer Blood broke into the Denville Town­ship Police Department’s evi­dence room and allegedly stole con­trolled dan­ger­ous sub­stances that were in evidence.

The inves­ti­ga­tion, reports say, also included the assign­ment of a mem­ber of the Pro­fes­sional Stan­dards Unit to the police depart­ment for a four month period.

The list of charges against Offi­cer Blood include two counts of offi­cial mis­con­duct, third degree charge of bur­glary and attempted bur­glary, theft of con­trolled dan­ger­ous sub­stances, attempted theft of con­trolled dan­ger­ous sub­stances and crim­i­nal mischief.

“We imme­di­ately brought for­ward this mat­ter as soon as we iden­ti­fied that we had an issue,” said Chief Christo­pher Wag­ner. “I am extremely dis­ap­pointed in the actions of this one officer.”

Offi­cer Blood was hired by the Denville Town­ship Police Depart­ment on Jan­u­ary of 2003 and had served in the department’s patrol divi­sion and in the Detec­tive Bureau and Police Depart­ment Evi­dence Custodian.

“I do, how­ever, stand by all of the other fine offi­cers of the Denville Town­ship Police Depart­ment who wear the uni­form with pride and go out each and every day to serve the res­i­dents of Denville Town­ship with honor and integrity,” Chief Wag­ner said. “Offi­cer Blood has been sus­pended with­out pay from the Denville Town­ship Police Depart­ment since the end of August 2011.”

Pros­e­cu­tor Bianchi also com­mended Chief Christo­pher Wag­ner and Lt. Paul Nigro for imme­di­ately bring­ing the sit­u­a­tion to the atten­tion of the Pro­fes­sional Stan­dards Unit.

“These alle­ga­tions are very seri­ous in and of them­selves, as well as the fact that it com­pro­mised numer­ous crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tions,” said Mor­ris County Pros­e­cu­tor Robert A. Bianchi, Esq. “The Mor­ris County Prosecutor’s Office and the Denville Town­ship Police Depart­ment have spent the past four months exam­in­ing every piece of evi­dence on every case in the Denville Town­ship Police Department’s evi­dence room to deter­mine what cases have been com­pro­mised. On cases that may have been com­pro­mised in Supe­rior Court, this office is in the process of noti­fy­ing all affected defen­dants and/or their attor­neys of the inves­ti­ga­tion. The same will occur in Munic­i­pal Court, as well.”

Bianchi also said that the “mat­ter is lim­ited to this one offi­cer, and is by no means a reflec­tion of the Denville Town­ship Police Depart­ment. Chief Wag­ner and Lieu­tenant Nigro have been involved in every aspect of this inves­ti­ga­tion. They have pro­fes­sion­ally and admirably rep­re­sented the oth­er­wise fine offi­cers of the Denville Town­ship Police Department.”

Offi­cer Blood will be sched­uled to appear for his first appear­ance for arraignment.

Despite these pend­ing charges every defen­dant is pre­sumed inno­cent, unless and until found guilty beyond a rea­son­able doubt fol­low­ing a jury trial at which the defen­dant has all of his or her rights guar­an­teed by the U.S. and New Jer­sey Con­sti­tu­tion and rel­e­vant state law.

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

The Star-Ledger, nj.com
BYLINE: Ben Horowitz/The Star-Ledger
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Denville, NJ

For­mer Denville police offi­cer, Eugene Blood, right, appears in Supe­rior Court with his attor­ney Edward Bilinkas, left. Blood pleaded guilty to break­ing into the police evi­dence locker to steal drugs for his own use. Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger/Court Pool

DENVILLE — A vet­eran Denville police offi­cer pleaded guilty today to steal­ing drugs from the department’s evi­dence room.

Eugene Blood, 38, a Denville res­i­dent who has served on the force for nine years, admit­ted tak­ing less than $200 worth of oxy­codone and heroin on var­i­ous dates in 2010 and 2011.

Under a plea agree­ment with the Mor­ris County Prosecutor’s Office, Blood will receive a three-year state prison sen­tence that would require him to serve two years before becom­ing eli­gi­ble for parole.

Blood also agreed to give up his job, his pen­sion and future pub­lic employment.

Blood, who was expe­ri­enc­ing neck and back prob­lems, became addicted to pain killers and was tak­ing “up to 20 pain pills a day,” said his attor­ney, Edward Bilinkas.

Blood pleaded guilty to a sin­gle count of offi­cial mis­con­duct. He had also faced six other charges, includ­ing bur­glary and theft of a con­trolled dan­ger­ous substance.

Blood, who was arrested just a month ago, decided “from day one to plead guilty and put this cir­cum­stance behind him,” Bilinkas said.

Blood is to be sen­tenced on Jan. 20 in Supe­rior Court in Morristown.

Mor­ris County Pros­e­cu­tor Robert Bianchi, who appeared in court for the plea, called it “a very sad case.”

He pointed out that “numer­ous cases have been com­pro­mised” because of the thefts, but added, “I’ve never seen an offi­cer so will­ing to accept responsibility.”

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