IAPE Evidence Blog

The Ore­gon­ian, oregonlive.com
BYLINE: Jeff Man­ning, The Ore­gon­ian
Link to Article

Polk County, OR

Philip Scott Can­non, left, walks arm in arm with his son, Math­ias, 20, after being released from the Polk County Jail, Dal­las, Ore., on Fri­day, Dec. 18, 2009. His con­vic­tion on a triple homi­cide was over­turned because of doubts about the valid­ity of key foren­sic evi­dence. The Asso­ci­ated Press

Attor­ney Gen­eral John Kroger has asked the Ore­gon State Police to inves­ti­gate mis­han­dling of evi­dence at the Jus­tice Depart­ment after four boxes of believed lost evi­dence from a noto­ri­ous 1998 triple mur­der were found.

Philip Scott Can­non was con­victed in 1999 and sen­tenced to life in prison for the mur­der of a man and two women in rural Polk County. He spent a decade in prison before win­ning his release in 2009 due to the lost and dis­cred­ited evidence.

The Can­non evi­dence was found in the offices of the Jus­tice Department’s trial divi­sion, which has sep­a­rate quar­ters from the Attor­ney Gen­eral, said Tony Green a Jus­tice Depart­ment spokesman. Rather than attempt an inter­nal probe, Kroger decided to put it in the hands of the state police.

“We found some records that were believed to be destroyed,” Green said. “There will be ques­tions as to how the records got there.”

Kroger said in a state­ment that he’s also ordered a com­plete review of evi­dence pro­ce­dures at the department’s trial divi­sion. “Mis­han­dling of evi­dence is com­pletely unac­cept­able,” Kroger said. “As Attor­ney Gen­eral, I take full responsibility.”

The sud­den appear­ance of the Can­non files marks the sec­ond embar­rass­ing evi­dence foul-up at the Jus­tice Depart­ment in five months. Kroger put Sean Rid­dell, for­mer head of the department’s crim­i­nal jus­tice divi­sion, on tem­po­rary leave last spring after it was deter­mined he deleted e-mails that related to the department’s probe into the Ore­gon Energy Depart­ment and its con­tract with Cylvia Hayes.

Riddell’s destruc­tion of e-mails from the case was inad­ver­tent, the depart­ment said. He has since returned to the Jus­tice Depart­ment in a less senior role.

In 1998, Can­non was a plumber sent to repair a water leak at rural Polk County mobile home occu­pied by Jason Kinser. A neigh­bor later found Kinser and two oth­ers, Suzan Renee Osborne and Celesta Graves, dead or dying of bul­let wounds.

Can­non main­tained his inno­cence, claim­ing the three were alive when he left. Kinser was a meth dealer, Can­non claimed in court fil­ings, who had earned plenty of ene­mies among com­pet­ing dealers.

But Can­non was con­victed and his appeals denied.

Can­non con­tin­ued to fight. In 2005, he filed a peti­tion for post-conviction relief in which he argued that he didn’t get ade­quate legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Specif­i­cally, Can­non claimed his for­mer attor­ney failed to chal­lenge the bal­lis­tics evi­dence pro­vided at trial by the prosecution.

Polk County pros­e­cu­tors relied heav­ily on a kind of bal­lis­tics evi­dence known as “bul­let lead analy­sis.” The FBI and other law enforce­ment agen­cies stopped rely­ing on the tech­nique last decade after new research showed that it was unre­li­able. But even dur­ing Cannon’s first trial, bul­let lead analy­sis was known to be flawed, he argued.

Can­non also alleged that both Polk County pros­e­cu­tors hid and destroyed evi­dence and that Jus­tice Depart­ment attor­neys cov­ered up the fact that evi­dence had gone missing.

In a sub­se­quent civil law­suit filed in 2010, Can­non claimed that state lawyers stalled the case for years try­ing, among other things, to con­vince Can­non to give up his right to seek mon­e­tary dam­ages in the event he was released. “For the next five and one-half years, (for­mer assis­tant Attor­ney Gen­eral Susan) Ger­ber know­ingly delayed the judi­cial process…engaging in delay tac­tics, numer­ous post­pone­ments, and fail­ing to dis­close the loss and/ordestruction of evi­dence,” Can­non claimed in his law­suit, which was later dismissed.

In 2009, the Jus­tice Depart­ment agreed to grant Can­non a new trial. The case was returned to Polk County for pos­si­ble re-prosecution, but this time with­out the dis­cred­ited bal­lis­tics data. But there was a prob­lem. The miss­ing boxes of evidence.

State and county pros­e­cu­tors decided jointly to drop the charges against Can­non with­out prej­u­dice, mean­ing they can refile charges. Green said the Jus­tice Depart­ment will defer that deci­sion to their local coun­ter­parts. Polk County Dis­trict Attor­ney Stan But­ter­field could not be reached for comment.

In Decem­ber 2009, Can­non was released from the Polk County jail after 10 years behind bars. 

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

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The Repub­lic, therepublic.com

Port­land, OR

PORTLAND, Ore. — An audit of the Port­land police evi­dence stor­age sys­tem found it’s run pretty well but there is some room for improvement.

The Ore­gon­ian reports the audit rec­om­mends that evi­dence room employ­ees undergo annual or bien­nial criminal-background checks. Now, staff mem­bers are checked only before they’re hired, and some have worked in the ware­house for more than two decades.

It also sug­gested that large amounts of money be trans­ferred into bank accounts and upgrad­ing the elec­tronic data­base that tracks all evi­dence and property.

Over­all, city audi­tors found that few items out of place, and none was missing.

Three years ago, the Port­land Police Bureau spent $18.8 mil­lion to retro­fit a city ware­house into its prop­erty evi­dence room and moved out of an aging build­ing that had been used for 23 years.

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

KTVZ.COM News Sources, ktvz.com
BYLINE: KTVZ.COM News Sources
Link to Arti­cle
One Video

Red­mond, OR

Larry Prince Accused of Sell­ing Guns From Armory, Tak­ing Funds

REDMOND, Ore. — Since Dec. 30 Red­mond Police Lt. Larry Wayne Prince, 48, has been on paid admin­is­tra­tive leave. Now, after nearly a month-long crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion, he’s behind bars. Prince was arrested in Coos Bay for offi­cial mis­con­duct, first degree theft and forgery.

“It’s hor­ri­ble — that’s a ter­ri­ble thing,” Crooked River Ranch Res­i­dent Sue Schnei­der said Wednes­day. “This is the first time I’ve heard about it, and I really can’t believe it, actually.”

Red­mond Police Chief Dave Tar­bet had the Ore­gon State Police step in to inves­ti­gate Prince after “irreg­u­lar­i­ties and dis­crep­an­cies” were dis­cov­ered in the firearms inven­tory, and the armory Prince was in charge of.

“We made sure that is was fol­lowed up prop­erly,” Tar­bet said Wednes­day. “It wasn’t hid­den, or let go by the wayside.”

Locals won­dered if a mem­ber of the police force could be accused of sell­ing the station’s guns, what else could be going on?

“Who knows what else they’re doing?” Red­mond res­i­dent Danny Kilmer said. “Like, if they con­fis­cate drugs of the street, what are they doing with them? Are they being sold? Are they being put away? It just makes you kind of won­der with what’s going on now if they’re not really more corrupt.”

Red­mond Mayor George Endi­cott said he doesn’t want Prince’s arrest to tar­nish the badge of the police department.

“There are some improve­ments that are going to be taken in our admin­is­tra­tive pro­ce­dures to make sure it doesn’t hap­pen again,” Endi­cott said. “But you know, what’s the old adage, say­ing? You know you don’t want one bad apple to spoil the whole bar­rel, and that’s where we are.”

–

Here’s the ini­tial news release from Tarbet:

After a nearly one-month crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion requested by Red­mond Police Chief Dave Tar­bet, Ore­gon State Police detec­tives arrested a Red­mond police lieu­tenant Tues­day, accused of sell­ing guns from the department’s inven­tory and other wrongdoing.

The arrest is con­nected to irreg­u­lar­i­ties and dis­crep­an­cies dis­cov­ered in the Red­mond Police Department’s firearms / armory inven­tory and items he is alleged to have per­son­ally sold while he was in charge of that program.

On Feb­ru­ary 8, 2011, OSP Crim­i­nal Inves­ti­ga­tions Divi­sion detec­tives assisted by OSP patrol troop­ers and the Bureau of Alco­hol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explo­sives (ATF) arrested Larry Wayne Prince, 48, with­out inci­dent in Coos Bay.

Prince, who has been on paid admin­is­tra­tive leave since Dec. 30, was taken into cus­tody and lodged in the Coos County Jail for Offi­cial Mis­con­duct in the First Degree, Theft in the First Degree, and Forgery in the First Degree.

Chief Tar­bet requested the crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion after a recent inven­tory audit dis­cov­ered irreg­u­lar­i­ties, pos­si­ble miss­ing funds, and firearms and acces­sories miss­ing from the department’s armory supply.

Prince was in charge of the department’s firearms pro­gram and armory for about ten years until those respon­si­bil­i­ties were assigned to another super­vi­sor for admin­is­tra­tive rea­sons. Prince joined the depart­ment in 1994.

“I am deeply dis­ap­pointed regard­ing the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing this arrest and that the badge of the Red­mond Police Depart­ment may have been tar­nished in the eyes of some peo­ple,” Tar­bet said.

“As a result of this inves­ti­ga­tion, we have already made changes to ensure this will not hap­pen in the future after iden­ti­fy­ing how we can improve our inven­tory man­age­ment of this pro­gram. How­ever, I am proud of the integrity and courage dis­played by sev­eral employ­ees dur­ing this time and I also appre­ci­ate the tena­cious efforts of the Ore­gon State Police Crim­i­nal Inves­ti­ga­tion Divi­sion detec­tives. We will con­tinue to sup­port and work with them until the case is closed,” said Tarbet.

Tar­bet asked the com­mu­nity for their con­tin­ued sup­port and under­stand­ing dur­ing the ongo­ing crim­i­nal and inter­nal investigations.

“The Red­mond Police Depart­ment staff and offi­cers are hard­work­ing, hon­est, and eth­i­cal men and women whose inten­tions are to serve the cit­i­zens of this com­mu­nity. I am very proud of my staff and have never worked with a finer team of law enforce­ment pro­fes­sion­als,” he said.

No other infor­ma­tion will be released related to the ongo­ing OSP crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion with­out approval from the Deschutes County Dis­trict Attorney’s Office.

–

Dis­trict Attor­ney Patrick Fla­herty released this news release early Wednes­day afternoon:

MEDIA RELEASE

Yes­ter­day, the Ore­gon State Police arrested Larry Prince in Coos Bay, Oregon..

The Dis­trict Attorney’s Office was con­tacted on Jan­u­ary 4, 2010 by Red­mond Police Depart­ment and requested to assist in the inves­ti­ga­tion of Red­mond Police Lt. Larry Prince. Dur­ing the last month, the Dis­trict Attorney’s Office has worked in con­junc­tion with the Ore­gon State Police inves­ti­gat­ing Prince for offenses rang­ing from Offi­cial Mis­con­duct to Theft in the First Degree.

Chief Deputy Dis­trict Attor­ney Traci Ander­son worked closely with the lead OSP detec­tives pro­vid­ing legal coun­sel and assist­ing in the prepa­ra­tion of search warrants.

Dis­trict Attor­ney Patrick Fla­herty said “I am grate­ful that Chief Tar­bet and his offi­cers imme­di­ately brought this mat­ter to our atten­tion. It speaks vol­umes for the integrity of the Red­mond Police Depart­ment that as soon as they dis­cov­ered one of their own may have engaged in mis­con­duct, they requested OSP and the Dis­trict Attorney’s Office to assume their investigation.”

Fla­herty said that “Pub­lic cor­rup­tion will not be tol­er­ated in Deschutes County.”

Infor­ma­tion regard­ing Prince’s first appear­ance in court will be avail­able after his trans­port from Coos to Deschutes County. No fur­ther infor­ma­tion will be released prior to arraignment.

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