Pubdate: Thu, 16 Dec 1999
Source: Daily Times, The (MD)
Copyright: 1999 The Daily Times
Contact:  (410) 749-7290
Author: Angie Basiouny, Daily Times Staff Writer
Bookmark: Link to Maryland articles on this and other stories:
http://www.mapinc.org/states/md

DYKES PROBE UNCOVERS ABUSES

No Criminal Charges Will Be Filed By State

A state probe of Coulbourn Dykes' handling of drug task force assets as
city police chief reveals financial mismanagement and abuses of power, but
will not result in criminal charges, the state Attorney General's Office
announced Wednesday.

The 31-page analysis shows the late Dykes funneled thousands of dollars
from the sale of vehicles and other assets seized by the Wicomico County
Narcotics Task Force back into the Salisbury Police Department through
equipment purchases. It also states that Dykes acknowledged destroying
paper and computer records related to the task force.

``In a nutshell, there was an abuse of authority,'' said Mayor Barrie
Parsons Tilghman, who joined Wicomico County Sheriff R. Hunter Nelms,
Salisbury Police Chief Allan Webster and Wicomico County State's Attorney
Davis R. Ruark in a news conference detailing the report.

``I believe this report substantiates the administrative action I took
against Chief Dykes,'' Tilghman said of her June 1998 decision to place
Dykes on administrative leave. ``He was the chief of police ... and he
destroyed the records.''

A further criminal investigation is unlikely because of incomplete records
and Dykes' accidental death in an Oct. 31 plane crash.

``The lack of records makes it very difficult to pursue any criminal
investigation,'' Tilghman said. ``There's just not a good enough paper
trail.''

The task force is a multi-agency unit formed in 1987 to target drug crimes.
Money from the sale of seized property is supposed to recirculate into task
force activities, but the state report says Dykes used the money to benefit
the city department and allowed a friend to conduct sales of the forfeited
cars.

There is ``no direct evidence'' that Dykes used task force monies for
personal gain, according to the analysis.

State investigators conclude the task force was not regularly audited and
lacked adequate accounting procedures to track its revenue. Witnesses told
investigators Dykes alone knew how assets were collected and spent.

The analysis also lists eight recommendations to correct the problems,
including budget monitoring, uniform procedures for receiving and recording
seized property, and selling the property only through public auctions.

Nelms said his department complied with the suggestions earlier this year.

``We have already adopted each and every recommendation,'' he said. ``Now,
we have a foolproof system in place for the accounting of those assets.''

The investigation began in June 1998 after Tilghman placed Dykes on leave
amid an officer's allegations he mishandled task force revenue.

In August, state prosecutors agreed to oversee an independent review
conducted by Maryland First Financial Services Corp., a securities firm.
The analysis was culled from documents research, site visits and interviews
with officers who worked for Dykes -- including Col. Edward Guthrie, who
had become acting police chief.

Guthrie told investigators that during spring 1998, he received a call at
home from Dykes concerning task force records.

``At that time (Dykes) related that the inquiry was completed, the task
force had a copy of all the records and asked where the financial records
were,'' Guthrie says in the report. ``I advised him where they were in my
storage area and they were gone when I returned to work the next morning.''

Dykes conceded that he destroyed the records because he believed they were
no longer needed, the report states.

Questionable Sale

The report also includes an example of the questionable sale of a Mercedes
automobile seized in October 1996. A court order declared the vehicle would
be forfeited to Dykes as city police chief. The vehicle was sold for $4,000
by Stephen Hitch, an insurance agent and friend of Dykes, to Bill Creamer's
Auto Sales. There was no dated bill of sale.

Owner William Creamer told an investigator he then resold the vehicle for
$12,000 after spending several thousand dollars to improve the car. Yet
photos taken by task force personnel prior to the sale show the vehicle to
be in good condition.

``The $8,000 difference between the sale proceeds received by the (task
force) and the sale proceeds received by Creamer's raises questions,'' the
report states.

``If this pattern of profit on resale was often repeated, it would be more
significant. However, there were few other examples identified with
substantial resale profits,'' the reports says.

Credit For System

The report closes with recommendations for improving internal controls.

``Like other governmental organizations, (the task force) should budget and
justify its needs, and then operate within the parameters of those budget
appropriations.

``Reliance upon forfeiture proceeds for either operating or capital funds
introduces a set of incentives that can only have an adverse influence on
monetary controls,'' the report says.

Tilghman said she hopes the report brings closure for residents and the
families involved in the investigation.

``You're going to get a sense (from this report) that whatever can be
gleaned has been gleaned and it's time to move on,'' said Tilghman, who has
been under considerable political fire for her initial handling of the
Dykes matter.

``I hope the people will believe the system ultimately worked and this
abuse has ended,'' she said. ``I think it's going to be tough time to get
through this, but this is it. This is the end.''
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake