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Case review follows poor police audit

The State Attorney's Office in Brooksville works to assess the possible damage to cases.

By JOHN FRANK
Published June 2, 2007

The Hernando County Sheriff's Department property evidence room. The locks for the entrance door were changed on Friday.
	[Times photo: Maurice Rivenbark]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Maurice Rivenbark] Brooksville Police Department's evidence room. An audit has found that two dozen guns, more than $4000 in cash and unknown quantities of drugs are missing from the room.

BROOKSVILLE - An alarming audit revealing widespread mishandling of evidence at the Brooksville Police Department sparked a massive review at the State Attorney's Office on Friday as prosecutors scramble to assess the possible damage to an untold number of criminal cases.

Assistant State Attorney Bill Gladsen, the supervisor in Hernando County, read the news about the audit's findings in Friday's Hernando Times and quickly scheduled an impromptu afternoon meeting. He said prosecutors' first priority is to pull all major cases currently involving the Brooksville police in order to determine to what extent they rely on evidence for a conviction.

"We are obviously very concerned about this new information," Gladsen said. "I am not saying it is going to cripple these cases, but it could."

Defense attorneys, including the county's top assistant public defender, think all evidence collected by the police department's officers is questionable now that the audit -- prepared by the Hernando County Sheriff's Office -- showed discrepancies with more than one-third of the police department's 6,000-plus items in evidence.

In court, especially during jury trials, defense attorneys aggressively try to demonstrate that evidence was improperly handled so that it can be ruled inadmissible or seem unconvincing. The audit report could provide mounds of fodder for legal challenges.

"Certainly we are going to take a closer look at pending cases," said Alan Fanter, the assistant public defender who supervises the Hernando County office. "It will affect whether prosecutors have the evidence to proceed."

The report attributed the bulk of the problems to poor record keeping and haphazard storage procedures under former Chief Ed Tincher, who was removed from office this year amid accusations of misconduct and mismanagement.

Interim Chief Frank Ross, who called for the audit in April when he took over the department, said Friday that he is already taking action.

The locks on the department's main evidence room were immediately changed after the release of audit, which highlighted a variety of security concerns, not to mention missing evidence such as two dozen guns, more than $4,000 in cash and large quantities of drugs.

More policy changes are expected in the coming weeks, said Ross, who noted that in many cases it is likely that the evidence was properly disposed of but not properly documented.

"I am confident that many of these discrepancies will be explained as a procedural error," Ross said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting a preliminary investigation to determine if any criminal violations occurred, said spokeswoman Trena Reddick. The agency was contacted by Ross on Thursday, she said, and officers are continuing to review the audit and interview key players.

The news of the audit came as a surprise to prosecutors, who say they expect additional challenges and litigation from defense attorneys based on the report.

The county's lead prosecutor, who has been in charge less than a year, said evidence problems at the police department have not come to the attention of his office. It is the responsibility of each law enforcement agency to handle evidence and there is virtually no oversight.

"At least the drug cases are victimless and I don't have to look someone in the eye and tell them we messed up," Gladsen said. "Now, the guns scare me."

The audit's affect on particular cases is still undetermined, though it's clear open cases involving the department will face more scrutiny.

Defense attorneys said closed cases where defendants' agreed to plea deal have no remedy, but those convicted based on evidence at jury trials could have some grounds for a retrial.

"There is no way to measure the extent of damage yet," Gladsen said. "These are (issues) we are going to have to flush out in court."

John Frank can be reached at jfrank@sptimes.com or 754-6114.

[Last modified June 1, 2007, 20:47:27]