Pubdate: Thu, 16 Jun 2005
Source: Advocate, The (LA)
Copyright: 2005 The Advocate, Capital City Press
Contact: http://www.2theadvocate.com/help/letter2editor.shtml
Website: http://www.theadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2
Author: Penny Brown Roberts, staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

SHERIFF'S OFFICE EVIDENCE PROBE DISCIPLINES FIVE

Four narcotics investigators and one uniformed patrol deputy in the
East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office have been suspended without
pay as part of an investigation into whether evidence was mishandled,
a top administrator said Wednesday.

The agency opened an administrative investigation last week into
allegations that employees may have failed to "properly secure and
document evidence," said Col. Greg Phares, chief criminal deputy for
the Sheriff's Office.

Two investigators have been transferred out of the narcotics division;
the other two remain assigned there, Phares said.

The uniformed patrol deputy has not been reassigned.

Their suspensions range from two to 10 days.

"The investigation is still ongoing," Phares said. "The nature of the
investigation at this point is regarding a failure to properly secure
and document evidence."

Phares would not say what prompted the investigation, nor would he
provide additional details about it.

He also declined Wednesday to release the names of the employees
involved "at this point."

The investigation comes less than six months after another Sheriff's
Office employee was fired and arrested for allegedly stealing money,
drugs and weapons from the evidence room, possibly jeopardizing an
unknown number of criminal cases.

Lt. Gwendolyn Carroll, 66, was arrested after a search of her home at
2016 Government St. turned up scores of evidence envelopes stashed in
18-gallon tubs, according to an arrest warrant.

Deputies found evidence from about 130 cases.

She is accused of stealing more than $200,000, as well as cocaine,
marijuana and guns from the evidence room, which she supervised.

Carroll had been with the Sheriff's Office since 1988 and the Evidence
Department for eight years.

At the time, the theft was dubbed the worst breach of evidence
security in four decades.

Former Col. Mike Barnett said at the time of her arrest that it
appeared she went undetected for a while by replacing evidence when it
was subpoenaed and only raised suspicions with co-workers when she
reacted nonchalantly to missing evidence, telling them it would turn
up eventually.

Carroll has a hearing before Judge Wilson Fields scheduled June 30.
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