IAPE Evidence Blog

ASAZ NewsChan­nel 3, wsaz.com
BYLINE: Hanna Fran­cis, hanna.francis@wsaz.com
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Fort Gay, WV

The Fort Gay Police Depart­ment found itself the vic­tim of a crime Thurs­day morn­ing after a thief broke into the department’s evi­dence room and stole mul­ti­ple items.

FORT GAY, W.Va. (WSAZ) — The Fort Gay Police Depart­ment found itself the vic­tim of a crime Thurs­day morn­ing after a thief broke into the department’s evi­dence room and stole mul­ti­ple items.

About a hun­dred dol­lars in cash, pre­scrip­tion drugs and guns — all con­fis­cated — were stolen from the Police Department’s evi­dence room, accord­ing to West Vir­ginia State Police. Police now have to get those ille­gal items off the street for the sec­ond time.

“It’s extremely frus­trat­ing. Offi­cers go out and work hard put a lot of time and effort into tak­ing even the small­est amount of drugs from some­body,” Fort Gay Police Chief Chet Napier said. “Then some­body does some­thing like this. The only thing that did was waste offi­cers time because now those drugs are back out on the street.”

The Fort Gay Police depart­ment does not have sur­veil­lance cam­eras, so police are rely­ing on tips from citizens.

If you know any­thing about the rob­bery of the Fort Gay Police Depart­ment, you are asked to call the Fort Gay Police Depart­ment or the West Vir­ginia State Police.

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

The Jour­nal, journal-news.net
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Berke­ley County, WV

We are sad­dened, but not really shocked, by the news that a cor­po­ral with the Berke­ley County Sheriff’s Depart­ment con­fessed to tak­ing nine Oxy­Codone pills from the BCSD evi­dence room. Law enforce­ment offi­cers are human and face the same, if not more, temp­ta­tions as the rest of the population.

The cor­po­ral has resigned his posi­tion. Con­sid­er­ing the avail­able infor­ma­tion, if only nine pills were taken and this cor­po­ral has a good ser­vice record, we hope the court reviews his work his­tory and his ser­vice to the com­mu­nity and con­sider pro­ba­tion at sentencing.

That’s right, sentencing.

Regard­less of work his­tory, the cor­po­ral should have been arrested. The sheriff’s depart­ment is a law enforce­ment agency. They arrest peo­ple and those rules apply in this case.

Wait, that is incor­rect. The sheriff’s depart­ment should not arrest the cor­po­ral because it should not inves­ti­gate crimes within the BCSD. The cor­rect action would have been to call offi­cials from another agency and have them arrest the corporal.

We actu­ally were shocked by the admin­is­tra­tive han­dling of this incident.

The Berke­ley County Sheriff’s Depart­ment can’t be allowed to inves­ti­gate an inci­dent involv­ing one of its own offi­cers and a theft from its evi­dence room. There must be an inde­pen­dent investigation.

It must be clear that no other drugs or evi­dence are miss­ing from the evi­dence room, and it must be made clear by an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion by an out­side agency.

The han­dling of this case not only gives an appear­ance of impro­pri­ety, it was clearly improper.

While we’re on the sub­ject of impro­pri­ety, the BCSD and the Berke­ley County Pros­e­cut­ing Attorney’s Office should not keep such crimes a secret from the pub­lic for a month. This inci­dent only became pub­lic knowl­edge after the crim­i­nal case involv­ing the pills reached the courthouse.

The sher­iff and pros­e­cut­ing attor­ney should have held a press con­fer­ence and called for an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion when the crime was discovered.

Elected offi­cials are charged with a pub­lic trust. How can the pub­lic have faith in its law enforce­ment or court sys­tem when it appears offi­cials don’t fol­low the rules if the case involves one of their own?

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

The Her­ald Dis­patch, The Asso­ci­ated Press, herald-dispatch.com

Link to Article

Berke­ley County, WV

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A 14-year vet­eran of the Berke­ley County sheriff’s depart­ment has resigned after allegedly admit­ting he stole painkillers that were stored as evi­dence for an attempted mur­der trial.

Forty-one-year-old Cpl. Christo­pher McCul­ley of Hedgesville resigned Mon­day. Court records say he admit­ted tak­ing nine oxy­codone pills from an evi­dence locker.

McCul­ley had been on admin­is­tra­tive leave since the charges sur­faced last month.

Sher­iff Ken­neth Lemas­ter says McCul­ley was a com­mit­ted offi­cer and had been on a spe­cial response team until he was injured in the line of duty.

The inci­dent became pub­lic Thurs­day dur­ing a pre­trial hear­ing in the attempted mur­der case.

Pros­e­cu­tor Pamela Games-Neely wouldn’t tell local media whether McCul­ley would be charged.

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