Pubdate: Tue, 16 Feb 2010
Source: News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)
Copyright: 2010 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact: http://www.newsobserver.com/about/newsroom/editor/
Website: http://www.newsobserver.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304
Author: Josh Shaffer

DRUGS TAKEN FROM SHAW

RALEIGH - A Shaw University police officer kept four bags of seized 
marijuana and other campus evidence in the garage of her Johnston 
County home, police reports say. After deputies recovered them from a 
plastic box near the house, she also reported case files had been 
stolen from the home.

In September, Johnston County deputies followed an anonymous tip to 
the home of Officer Argentina Rojas near Garner. There, they found 
the drugs, knives, toy guns, pictures and envelopes in the box, 
police reports said. It was unclear how much marijuana the bags contained.

Shaw's interim president, Dorothy Cowser Yancy, said that the 
university has disciplined the officer, who remains on the force.

"I think it was an isolated incident, and there were remedies taken," 
she said. "You're no more shocked than I was. I was quite surprised."

In September, deputies arrived at the house on Belve Drive and found 
foot-high grass and an apparently vacant house, reports said. The 
drugs were stuffed in evidence bags addressed to Shaw's police, 
reports said, and like the other items in the box, bore campus police markings.

In court records, Rojas' attorney said they had been in her garage 
for some time and that police Chief Thomas Lee knew they were there.

Rojas has no criminal record. She was not charged, but Yancy said her 
punishment remains in effect. A note left at Rojas' Raleigh address 
went unanswered, and an administrative assistant at the Shaw police 
department would not comment.

Shaw is a small school occupying only a few blocks of downtown 
Raleigh. The school's problem with evidence stemmed from too little 
space on campus, Yancy said. The problem, she said, has since been 
fixed by moving the six-officer department into a bigger space. Legal 
and practical questions remain.

For one, Yancy did not know what happened to cases supported by the 
evidence at Rojas' house. She referred questions to Lee, who would not comment.

Johnston County police reports described the marijuana as evidence 
from "past or pending cases," and police records say the drugs were 
taken back to Shaw for inventory. In court filings, Rojas' attorney 
said the drugs were evidence in a case Rojas was investigating. If 
the cases are pending, legal scholars say they will be hard to prosecute.

Duke University law professor Lisa Kern Griffin said criminal 
evidence must show a "chain of custody," meaning if a drug case goes 
to trial, prosecutors must show that the drugs were always in secure 
police custody.

"The fact that they were kept in the private residence makes it 
possible for the defense to argue that they are not the drugs in 
question," Griffin said. "Others may have had access to them."

Shaw University is the oldest historically black school in the South, 
and the downtown school has been trying to dig out of a $20-million debt.

Its police department is certified by the state Department of 
Justice, said Noelle Talley, the justice department's spokeswoman. 
Rojas is certified, she said, adding that personnel law keeps her 
department from commenting on whether Shaw's department or officers 
have accumulated complaints.

Reports filed with the U.S. Department of Education show sparse crime 
at Shaw. Between 2006 and 2008, records show eight arrests for drug 
law violations on campus - six in 2006 and two in 2007. Raleigh 
police spokesman Jim Sughrue said that Shaw is not set up to handle 
large cases and that Raleigh officers sometimes assist.

Battle for Custody

Much of the information about the Shaw drug evidence came to light in 
a civil case between Rojas and Edwin Maldonado over custody of their 
four children, ages 5 to 9. They were living at the house on Belve 
Drive with Rojas, who in January won temporary custody of them.

Jonathan Breeden, a lawyer who represents Maldonado, told the story 
of the wayward drugs as an argument that Maldonado should receive full custody.

In filings, Rojas said she was moving out and was in a dispute with 
her landlord, who was trying to evict her. Rojas' attorney, Christi 
Stem, said in court papers that the drugs had been at the home "for 
some time," that Maldonado knew of them and that they never left 
their "secure location."

Missing Papers

Rojas told deputies she suspected her landlord had moved the drugs 
evidence from the garage to outside the house, and she reported 
several items missing from her home the day after deputies came in 
September. Among them: birth certificates, Social Security card and 
Shaw University case files.

Rojas' attorney also put in the custody case file an unsigned report 
that she attributed to Lee, the police chief. That report describes 
maintaining evidence as a long and serious issue for Shaw police.

"There was unacceptable storage facilities and evidence was left in 
unrestricted areas," the document said. "On many occasions evidence 
was reported missing by the previous police chief."

Moving the Shaw police department from the Dimple Newsome building to 
the old graphics building greatly improved the situation, and a chain 
of custody procedure is in place, the report said.
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