Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 2004
Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
Copyright: 2004 News-Journal Corp
Contact:  http://www.n-jcenter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/700
Author: Kristen Moczynski, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/timothy+wallace

INVESTIGATORS SAY DRUGS SEIZED, SOLD, SEIZED AGAIN

DELAND -- Volusia County sheriff's investigators seized bricks of
marijuana during several drug busts.

Then they seized the marijuana again.

It's the first time Florida law enforcement officials have
investigated a case where seized drugs were put back on the street,
they say.

Sheriff's officials learned during the criminal investigation into the
theft of half a million dollars' worth of drugs from their evidence
compound that they seized the same narcotics more than once.

How many times it may have happened isn't known. But the situation was
already turning up before the evidence compound bust in an April
investigation into an Oak Hill home growing operation. Investigators
"hadn't quite connected the dots yet," spokesman Gary Davidson said.

Nearly 900 grams of cocaine and 370 pounds of marijuana were stolen
from the sheriff's evidence compound by an employee, Sheriff Ben
Johnson said. Former evidence manager Timothy W. Wallace, 47, New
Smyrna Beach, was arrested Wednesday and charged with conspiracy to
traffic in cocaine and conspiracy to traffic in marijuana. He is being
held in the Volusia County Branch Jail on $300,000 bail.

The theft was discovered last month when a discrepancy in the weight
of seized cocaine was brought to light in a narcotics trafficking
case. But Davidson said officials were on the verge of finding the
theft through another investigation.

In April, narcotics agents seized 151 marijuana plants and 12 pounds
of cultivated marijuana from a trailer in Oak Hill. The packaged
marijuana was separated into one-pound bags.

During that investigation, agents determined Daniel Sturtevant was
running the indoor growing operation. They used Sturtevant as a
confidential informant to purchase drugs and his sources led back to
Wallace, an arrest affidavit states.

Sturtevant purchased marijuana and cocaine from Thomas Belmonte, the
affidavit states. Belmonte later told agents he received the drugs
from Leonard W. Southard, who got them from an "evidence guy" Southard
raced cars with.

Sturtevant was charged with possession of marijuana. Belmonte and
Southard have not been charged for their involvement with Wallace, but
FDLE officials said they might face charges.

Southard and Wallace have known each other for years through the New
Smyrna Speedway.

According to the affidavit, Wallace distributed the seized narcotics
off and on during an 18-month period. But the theft wasn't noticed
during periodic spot inspections at the evidence compound.

"Spot inspection means just that. You don't physically inspect every
piece of evidence. You spot check a certain number of cases to satisfy
yourself," Davidson said.

Gary Frazee, director of professional standards, said sealed packages
were not opened during spot inspections, and officers would check to
make sure the packages were stored in the proper area.

He said the thief knew how the inspections were conducted and could
take narcotics out of sealed packages and reseal them. Frazee said the
office has changed the way it inspects the narcotics and now opens
packages.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman Geo Morales said this
is the first case he is aware of in Florida where seized drugs were
stolen from an evidence facility and then redistributed on the street.
He said agents did not know of any other cases where the same drugs
were seized twice.

Davidson said sheriff's investigators are not sure whether they have
re-seized drugs in other cases, adding: "It's disgraceful to think
that the actions of one rogue employee caused our investigators to
risk their lives seizing dangerous narcotics that had already been
taken off the street before."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin