IAPE Evidence Blog

ldnews.com, The Asso­ci­ated Press
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Yeadom, PA

YEADON, Pa. — Authorities in sub­ur­ban Philadel­phia say DNA evi­dence has led to the arrest of a sus­pect in a mur­der more than eight years ago.

Police in Delaware County say 41-year-old Shawn Gall­man of Philadel­phia was long known to have been vis­it­ing the ex-girlfriend of Shawn Hughes just before Hughes was found dead of gun­shot wounds in his car in Octo­ber 2001. Now they say DNA tests on the grip of a hand­gun led them to Gall­man as a suspect.

Gall­man, also known as Shawn Reid and Shawn Bur­ton, was arraigned last week on charges of first– and third-degree mur­der and sent to the Delaware County prison with­out bail pend­ing a pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing Fri­day. A listed num­ber for him could not be found Sun­day and it was unclear whether he had an attorney.

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Infor­ma­tion from: Delaware County Daily Times, http://www.delcotimes.com

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

The York Dis­patch (Penn­syl­va­nia)
BYLINE: ELIZABETH EVANS — The York Dispatch

Man­ches­ter Town­ship, PA

After sen­tenc­ing fired West Man­ches­ter Town­ship Police Detec­tive Steven Edward Crider to nine to 18 months in prison for steal­ing and using drugs from his department’s evi­dence room, a judge spoke directly to the defendant.

“I’ve got to believe an enor­mous bur­den was removed from your shoul­ders when you decided to deal with this,” Com­mon Pleas Judge Michael E. Bort­ner said on Friday.

“Absolutely,” Crider agreed.

Bort­ner said he knew the prison sen­tence, which will be fol­lowed by four years of pro­ba­tion, would be con­sid­ered too lenient by some peo­ple, and too harsh by oth­ers. But he said he believes it accom­plishes jus­tice both for soci­ety and for Crider, who must report to York County Prison on Feb. 8.

The judge noted it was a “dark day” for Crider and his fam­ily, but wished Crider well.

Also at Fri­day morning’s sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, West Man­ches­ter Town­ship Police Chief Arthur Smith Jr. spoke pub­licly about Crider for the first time. He asked the judge to impose the max­i­mum pos­si­ble sentence.

“This sit­u­a­tion has totally torn the heart out of the police depart­ment,” Smith said, adding that he fears the dam­age is irreparable.

“A long time ago, Offi­cer Crider took an oath of office,” the chief said. “He took it upon him­self to vio­late that oath of office.”

Smith said he holds his offi­cers to a very high stan­dard of con­duct and that offi­cers abide by high stan­dards, not only because the cit­i­zens deserve it, but also “so we do have the trust and respect of the public.”

Because of Crider’s actions, “scores” of crim­i­nal charges have been com­pro­mised, soci­ety has been let down and hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars have been spent on drug inves­ti­ga­tions “with no pos­i­tive results in the end,” the chief said.

“I can’t turn that around,” Smith said.

State police Sgt. Robert Kelly told the judge that Crider’s coop­er­a­tion with the inves­ti­ga­tion against him was only partial.

For instance, Crider failed to tell inves­ti­ga­tors that he shared drugs he stole with another per­son, and also allegedly con­spired with that per­son “to frus­trate the efforts of the state police inves­ti­ga­tion,” Kelly said.

“The things that may not nec­es­sar­ily (have) come to light, he did not dis­close,” Kelly said.

Out­side the court­room, Deputy Attor­ney Gen­eral Christo­pher Jones, who pros­e­cuted the case, said the per­son Crider shared drugs with was a friend, not a fam­ily mem­ber or police officer.

Kelly said the shar­ing was not exten­sive, and that the per­son is not fac­ing charges.

Crider spoke dur­ing the sen­tenc­ing hear­ing as well, telling the judge he’s a dif­fer­ent per­son now and that he regrets caus­ing pain to his fam­ily and for­mer co-workers. His wife, eldest daugh­ter and sister-in-law all spoke up in court for him, too.

Crider’s tes­ti­mony revealed he’d smoked mar­i­juana on a daily basis for 14 years, and began steal­ing drugs from the evi­dence room about seven years ago.

Jones argued the “sophis­ti­cated nature” of Crider’s crimes, cou­pled with the very seri­ous breach of pub­lic trust, war­ranted a harsh sentence.

But defense attor­ney Suzanne Smith argued Crider was a good cop, and that mit­i­gat­ing cir­cum­stances made a lesser sen­tence appro­pri­ate, includ­ing his cooperation.

“It’s sim­ply just a drug addic­tion that got way out of hand,” she said.

Bort­ner said he doesn’t ques­tion Crider’s sin­cer­ity and noted the “enor­mous per­sonal costs that have already been inflicted” on Crider and his family.

“On the other hand … you did betray the oath you took as a police offi­cer,” Bort­ner said.

Addic­tion can con­trol a person’s life, the judge said, but Crider had oppor­tu­ni­ties over those 14 years “to decide enough was enough” and seek treat­ment, rather than con­tin­u­ing to use mar­i­juana, cocaine, heroin and even ecstasy.

And while Crider did “come clean,” he did so because his crimes were on the verge of being dis­cov­ered, Bort­ner noted.

“It’s a tragedy. It’s a sad day … for those in the town­ship and the col­leagues whose trust he betrayed,” the judge said.

Crider declined com­ment through his attorney.

West Man­ches­ter Town­ship Man­ager Kelly Kelch said Crider — who was with the depart­ment for 32 years — lost his pen­sion. He was fired April 13.

Crider, 55, of Lilac Lane in the town­ship, pleaded guilty Nov. 17 to six counts each of forgery, tam­per­ing with pub­lic records, theft, tam­per­ing with or fab­ri­cat­ing phys­i­cal evi­dence and drug possession.

He stole drugs — pri­mar­ily cocaine — from his department’s evi­dence room between Novem­ber 2001 and April 2009 and snorted and smoked them, state police said.

Crider stole drug evi­dence in more than 100 crim­i­nal cases, some­times replac­ing the drugs with chalk, police said.

He also tam­pered with offi­cial evi­dence records and crime-lab records to cover up his thefts, police said.

– Reach Eliz­a­beth Evans at levans@yorkdispatch.com, 505‑5429 or twitter.com/ydcrimetime.

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

Pitts­burgh Tri­bune Review, Tri­bune Review Pub­lish­ing Com­pany
BYLINE: Adam Brandolph

Pitts­burgh, PA

Pitts­burgh City Coun­cil yes­ter­day approved spend­ing nearly $4 mil­lion to set­tle civil law­suits at its last meet­ing of the year.

The largest set­tle­ment was $3.8 mil­lion for a Home­wood man wrong­fully impris­oned for nearly 19 years after being con­victed in 1986 of rape. Thomas Doswell, 50, was released from prison in 2005 after being exon­er­ated by DNA evidence.

Down­town attor­ney James E. DePasquale, who rep­re­sented Doswell in his crim­i­nal case appeal, said no amount of money could replace the years Doswell spent “caged up like an animal.”

“The Amer­i­can jus­tice sys­tem isn’t mag­i­cal, so the only imper­fect way to give him back those years is through money dam­ages,” DePasquale said. “It’s a lot of money, but I wouldn’t want to trade places with him.”

The city’s pay­out will include pay­ments total­ing $1.26 mil­lion a year to Doswell, his attor­ney and Lib­erty Life Assur­ance Co. of Boston in 2010, 2011 and 2012, accord­ing to city doc­u­ments. Doswell’s civil attor­ney, Peter J. Neufeld of the New York law firm Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, did not return calls seek­ing comment.

U.S. Dis­trict Judge Donetta Ambrose dis­missed part of Doswell’s 2007 civil law­suit against the city and police in June, but refused to dis­miss vio­la­tions of Doswell’s rights to due process and against cruel and unusual punishment.

“(These pay­ments) will take care of him for the rest of his life,” DePasquale said.

Attor­neys for the city declined to comment.

Coun­cil also approved set­tle­ments for two for­mer city employees.

It agreed to a $40,000 set­tle­ment with John Moon, a for­mer assis­tant chief of the city’s Emer­gency Med­ical Ser­vices. Moon, who is black, retired in Octo­ber as part of the set­tle­ment of a case in which he alleged he was passed over for a 2005 pro­mo­tion to deputy chief because of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion. Moon’s attor­ney, Paul G. Kay, did not return calls seek­ing comment.

Coun­cil approved a nearly $10,000 set­tle­ment with Mer­cedes C. Tay­lor, a retired police offi­cer, for pen­sion, longevity and ben­e­fits, after a dis­pute over the num­ber of years she worked for the city. Taylor’s attor­ney, Jon Pushin­sky, said she was employed by the city for 24 years up until her retire­ment in 2003, but only received retire­ment ben­e­fits for 23 years of employment.

“It’s impor­tant to keep the city hon­est,” Pushin­sky said.

Legal set­tle­ments are paid out of the city’s oper­at­ing bud­get. It bud­geted $1.74 mil­lion for legal judg­ments for 2010, the same as 2009.
The city spent $1.55 mil­lion on set­tle­ments in 2008.