Lieutenant Hart points out that the current evidence locker was never intended to be used for that purpose, so several upgrades are needed. July 16, 2018 BILLINGS, Mont. - The 2.8 million dollar proposed expansion and renovation of the Billings Police Department's evidence locker was on the agenda Monday as part of the City Council work session. Co...

Officers were searching for two suspects who broke into the department's evidence building. June 29, 2018 Police Chief Rich St. John issued this press release later Thursday morning: Last night at 0220 hours, officers responded to an alarm at our evidence facility located on Midland Road. The first responding officer was checking the perimeter fenc...

Prosecutors said he used a crowbar to break into the investigations office on several occasions to steal opiates, meth and cash, compromising more than two dozen criminal cases. June 29, 2018 A former Fort Peck tribal police officer has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for burglarizing the tribe's drug investigations office in 2...

"I just completed my inpatient treatment and my outpatient treatment and I'm currently in continuing care for drug and alcohol addiction, June 13, 2018 Charging documents filed against a former Billings Police Department evidence technician describe her using record-keeping software to allegedly steal enough drugs from the evidence locker over roug...

In the course of investigating the evidence locker thefts, St. John said, "there were some rumors flying around" about officers having had sexual relations with Strizich, and when asked, she identified the three officers. April 18, 2018 Three Billings police officers who admitted having sex on city property with a civilian employee of the departmen...

Officer broke into the Fort Peck Tribal Law and Justice Building and used a crowbar to get into the drug investigations office where he took opiates, methamphetamine and cash Enter Article DATE HERE GREAT FALLS — A former Fort Peck tribal police officer has pleaded guilty to stealing drugs and money from the tribe's drug investigations office,...

Thrush allegedly saved leftover portions of the drug evidence and later ingested them. Larson said Thrush was properly vetted for his position as chemist for the crime lab. FEBRUARY 23, 2018 On February 23, KGVO reported that Derek Thrush, a former chemist at the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula, had allegedly stolen samples of methamphetamine f...

The Billings Police Department said during a press conference that it had fired the technician , on Feb. 6 after she confessed to stealing oxycodone and other opioids from evidence, affecting 138 cases. March 1, 2018 Yellowstone County will drop criminal charges in roughly 40 cases and dismiss another dozen cases under review because a Billings Pol...

It is the second time in roughly three years drug cases have been affected by BPD evidence technicians stealing drugs. Enter Article DATE HERE A Billings Police Department employee was fired earlier this month after stealing prescription painkillers from the evidence locker, police said Tuesday. The revelation throws into question hundreds of ...

"With DNA technology moving in the direction it's moving, we're able to get DNA from things we couldn't in the past," October 10, 2017 The state crime lab is in the preliminary stages of reconfiguring the sexual-assault evidence kits used by doctors and nurses to collect samples from women who have been raped. Since 2011, the number of cases the la...

"His initials, his name, is on almost every piece of evidence that came into our laboratory," she said Enter Article DATE HERE An evidence technician at the Montana State Crime Lab who stole opioids that were being stored as evidence in criminal cases, forcing prosecutors to drop charges against 69 defendants across the state, was given a susp...

Part of what's driving the higher estimate is meeting the storage standards of the International Association for Property and Evidence, said Allen Rapacz, president of Schutz Foss, the architectural firm designing the new facility. May 9, 2017 The pungent odor of marijuana permeates Beth Gartner's workplace — a place where Gartner knows the wh...

The MSU Voice Center wanted to get the word out that although there is a backlog of rape kits, action is being taken to resolve the issue April 5, 2017 BOZEMAN - Wednesday at Montana State University, the Voice Center presented the efforts being made across the state to end the rape kit backlog.The MSU Voice Center wanted to get the word out that a...

Enter Headline here September 29, 2016 HELENA – Montana will test 1,400 rape kits dating back to 1995 that weren't submitted to the state's crime lab by local law enforcement authorities, Attorney General Tim Fox said Thursday. The state also will add personnel to track the kits, counsel victims and investigate when DNA from the kits result in rape...

Billings Gazette, billingsgazette.comBYLINE: ASHLEY NERBOVIG, , MTCoby James Lewis, 25, pleaded not guilty Friday to felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs and misdemeanor theft. Ga...

THE BILLINGS GAZETTE, billingsgazette.comBYLINE: THE BILLINGS GAZETTE EDITORIAL BOARDBillings, MTThe autopy room at the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula, Montana photographed in October 2015.KURT WILSON, MissoulianA contin...

States News ServiceBYLINE: States News ServiceRoosevelt County, MTThe following information was released by the FBI:The United States Attorneys Office announced that during a federal court session in Great Falls on May 25, 20...

Great Falls Tribune (Montana)BYLINE: Tribune StaffRoosevelt County, MTA 20-year-old Wolf Point man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday on drug charges after he was found to be stealing drug evidence from the Roosevelt Cou...

The Billings Gazette - Billings, MT - billingsgazette.comLink to ArticleBYLINE: KAHRIN DEINES Of The Gazette StaffMusselshell County, MTMusselshell County Sheriff Woody Weitzeil, shown in July 2009, is accused of misusing pro...

The Billings Gazette, billingsgazette.comBYLINE: JESSIE MCQUILLAN and DAN WEINBERG The Billings GazetteLink to ArticleBillings, MTThe Montana House of Representatives has before it a bill that, if enacted, will measurably imp...