IAPE Evidence Blog

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Mar­shall County, WV

MARSHALL COUNTY, W.Va. — After the pre­scrip­tion drug fen­tanyl went miss­ing from the Mar­shall County Sheriff’s Office in Jan­u­ary, deputies started an inves­ti­ga­tion, look­ing over sur­veil­lance footage to see who had been in and out of the build­ing that day. But they then handed things over to the state police.

“I talked to Sgt. Robin­son of the state police on Wednes­day. I think I was his last poly­graph exam­i­na­tion,” said Mar­shall County Sher­iff John Gruzinskas.

While Gruzin­skas is still wait­ing to read the report, Cap­tain James Mer­rill of the West Vir­ginia State Police told NEWS9 that Sgt. Dave Robin­son has “pretty much wrapped up” a thor­ough inves­ti­ga­tion and unfor­tu­nately, right now, Robin­son can’t deter­mine what hap­pened to the drugs.

Mer­rill said the longer it takes for a case to be reported, the tougher it becomes to solve. After exhaust­ing every means avail­able, he said the inves­ti­ga­tor will need new infor­ma­tion before he can advance the case.

The pre­scrip­tion fen­tanyl patches were brought in to the sheriff’s depart­ment for deputies to turn them over to the Drug Enforce­ment Admin­is­tra­tion ear­lier this year. Since the patches went miss­ing, Gruzin­skas said his office has changed policy.

“We have a lot of ven­dors who are in and out of this build­ing all the time. So now we have an employee who will accom­pany those ven­dors,” he said.

A main hall­way is one area Gruzin­skas said they will also increase sur­veil­lance. There are cam­eras at the doors, but there isn’t a cam­era watch­ing over the hallway.

“We are con­tact­ing our secu­rity com­pany that takes care of our cam­eras. We’re adding more cam­eras inside the build­ing,” he said.

Gruzin­skas also said he wants an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion — one that he will per­son­ally con­duct — to find out whether there was any neg­li­gence in the way the pre­scrip­tion drugs were han­dled before they went missing. 

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

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, therepublic.com

Mar­shall County, WV>

MOUNDSVILE, W.Va. — State police are inves­ti­gat­ing the dis­ap­pear­ance of a box of pre­scrip­tion painkillers from the Mar­shall County Sheriff’s Office.

Sher­iff John Gruzinksas tells WTOV-TV of Steubenville, Ohio, that the drugs went miss­ing from Chief Deputy Kevin Cecil’s office at the end of Jan­u­ary while Cecil was out of the office. The box con­tained fen­tanyl patches, a painkiller intended for can­cer patients.

Gruzinksas says the drugs had been turned over to his office. The sheriff’s office planned to turn the drugs over to the fed­eral Drug Enforce­ment Administration.

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

The Jour­nal, mobile.journal-news.net
Link to Article

Berke­ley County, WV

A betrayal of the pub­lic trust.

For the gen­eral pub­lic, a betrayal of the pub­lic trust is the most seri­ous accu­sa­tion result­ing from the case against for­mer Berke­ley County Sheriff’s Depart­ment Cpl. Christo­pher McCulley.

Sadly, the pub­lic can’t decide who com­mit­ted the greater betrayal: McCul­ley, who stole drugs from the sheriff’s evi­dence room, or Berke­ley County Pros­e­cut­ing Attor­ney Pamela Games-Neely, who closed the case with a no-contest plea and a $5 fine plus court costs.

The Jour­nal is cer­tain of one thing: The actions of both McCul­ley and Games-Neely allow the pub­lic to ques­tion the integrity of our law enforce­ment community.

McCul­ley was sworn to uphold the law when he stole nine oxy­codone pills from the sheriff’s evi­dence room. That action erodes the rep­u­ta­tion of all law enforce­ment officers.

Games-Neely, by her expla­na­tion of the charge against McCul­ley, almost dares the pub­lic to ques­tion the integrity of her office.

“That’s the illu­sion that every­body has that there was this big felony here. There is no felony. There was a mis­de­meanor. He stole pills. He stole nine of them. The street value was less than $180,” Games-Neely said.

The Jour­nal doubts the pub­lic real­ized that the street value of the pills taken would be the decid­ing fac­tor in fil­ing charges against an expe­ri­enced deputy who stole a con­trolled sub­stance from the sheriff’s evi­dence locker. Some­how, it seems other fac­tors — the theft, the ille­gal pos­ses­sion of a con­trolled sub­stance, the destroy­ing of evi­dence in a crim­i­nal case — might have been considered.

The han­dling of this case has been ques­tion­able from the begin­ning. Why didn’t an out­side agency han­dle the case? Why didn’t an out­side agency inven­tory the evi­dence room to look for addi­tional thefts?

And now this: a no-contest plea, $5 fine and court costs. It only adds insult to injury when you real­ize that McCul­ley con­fessed to the crime and the prosecutor’s office ended up with a no-contest plea, not a guilty plea.

Court and law enforce­ment offi­cials are expected to serve and pro­tect the pub­lic. In this case, it’s easy to think they pro­tect their own first.

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