Convicted of stealing nearly $70,000 in drug money seized by his department, according to the attorney general's office March 24, 2017 A former South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of stealing nearly $70,000 in drug money seized by his department, according to the attorney general's office....

After former trooper Brian Biehl was convicted of stealing nearly $70,000 in drug money seized by his department from 2012 to 2016, it was time to re-evaluate how evidence is managed June 22, 2017 Evidence seized by South Dakota Highway Patrol troopers will soon have a new home. After former trooper Brian Biehl was convicted of stealing nearly $70,...

Officials now are trying to determine how many DNA profiles police or courts failed to collect as required by state law. It could be as many as 10,000. June 16, 2017 CLEVELAND, Ohio - DNA samples from thousands of people arrested or charged with felonies in Cuyahoga County since mid-2011 were never collected, or were not properly collected, and are...

guns, cash and drugs were unaccounted for Enter Article DATE HERE RIVERSIDE The Riverside Police Department's property room became a place where guns, cash and drugs were unaccounted for by the time Montgomery County Sheriff's Office officials this year declared it was "not in operational capacity," according to a Riverside police memorandum o...

DNA evidence was linked to a Pontiac native currently serving time for his involvement in a similar crime. June 6, 2017 Testimony began Thursday in a 1994 homicide-criminal sexual conduct case, brought to trial in Oakland County Circuit Court after DNA evidence was linked to a Pontiac native currently serving time for his involvement in a similar c...

According to the sheriff, they found several guns that were propped against the door and a backpack containing several handguns sitting near the doors to the evidence room. May 25, 2017 NEW MADRID COUNTY, MO (KFVS) - A man is accused of breaking into the Parma Police Department evidence room on Tuesday, May 23. Anthony E. Leisure was charged with s...

They have already expanded the cooler once last year because space for 36 wasn't enough. It now holds 42 bodies. Enter Article DATE HERE DAYTON, Ohio -- For the second time this year, a coroner's office in Ohio has run out of space for dead bodies due to the opioid epidemic, CBS Pittsburgh reports. The Tribune-Review reports the Montgomery Cou...

May 15, 2017 MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Only about 60 of 6,000 untested sexual assault evidence kits sitting on Wisconsin shelves have been analyzed so far, state Department of Justice officials said Monday. Attorney General Brad Schimel has said the kits are sitting for a variety of reasons, including that prosecutors decided some cases were too weak to...

Trooper take ammunition Enter Article DATE HERE OMAHA, Neb. - A Nebraska State Patrol investigator has been accused of stealing ammunition from the patrol's facility in Omaha. The Omaha World-Herald reports that 44-year-old Christopher Kober, of Bellevue, was arrested Friday and has been charged with felony theft. If convicted, he faces up to ...

A diligent sergeant in the property room of St. Paul Police Department reunited a family with the ashes of James Harris, which had been left abandoned at Oakland Cemetery in St. Paul May 5, 2016 James Harris was a family man; a father of nine, uncle and brother beloved by kin from Illinois to Arkansas to Minnesota. Now, more than seven years after ...

Local officials said there are many reasons a kit may not have been tested, the most common being that the victim did not cooperate or declined to move forward with the case. April 22, 2017 INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana State Police plan to conduct an audit of untested sexual assault kits that may have lingered for years in evidence collection rooms acros...

An audit by Ingham County found 1,758 cases were improperly tracked over the years. April 26, 2017 The Michigan State Police have completed their investigation into the mishandling of evidence by the Ingham County Sheriff's Office and they've turned the report over the prosecutor. The previous prosecutor, Gretchen Whitmer, asked the troopers to inv...

So he sold drugs that had been stolen from the evidence room 4/25/2017 Gregory Salvi was rapidly nearing retirement from the Melrose Park Police Department in 2015, and he hoped to use the job to make as much money as possible. So he sold drugs that had been stolen from the evidence room. He offered to illegally move narcotics in "the f—in' police ...

Last fall, a DNA sample collected in Ohio helped Indiana police link a man to the fatal shooting of John Clements, 82, in Zionsville, and two other attacks in October. Enter Article DATE HERE By DARCY COSTELLO, Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS (AP) —  Indiana senators voted Thursday to allow DNA swabs to be taken upon a person's felony arres...

Prosecutors say another 555 rape kits languished in police storage after the 2009 discovery of 11,341 abandoned sexual assault kits. March 27, 2017 DETROIT, MI — Problems with forgotten rape kits persisted in Detroit after public outcry over more than 11,000 — some of them dating back 30 years — found languishing in a police warehouse in 2009, acco...

An audit revealed that nearly 1,800 cases had missing evidence April 3, 2017 The Ingham County Sheriff's Office is now saying it's lost track of seven sexual-assault kits. The department announced Monday those seven kits are part of the 1,756 cases in which evidence was lost dating back to the year 2000.  Prosecutor Carol Siemon is not happy. ...

Walters, 37, of Madison, was sentenced to two years of probation. He pleaded guilty on Jan. 5. Enter Article DATE HERE MADISON, Wis. - A former lieutenant with the state Department of Veterans Affairs Police Department was sentenced Tuesday for possession of a controlled substance. David Walters, 37, of Madison, was sentenced to two years of p...

Enter Headline here Enter Article DATE HERE LANSING -- A total of 77 cases were dismissed following an investigation into missing evidence at the Ingham County Sheriff's Office, according to a March 24 report from Ingham County Prosecutor's Office. The 5-page report, which will be discussed at Ingham County's law and courts committee meeting T...

"It's embarrassing for law enforcement, the prosecutor's office but now we move forward." Enter Article DATE HERE LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Ingham County's evidence room was a mess for years according the county prosecutor's "A colossal failure in leadership," Ingham County Sherriff Scott Wriggelsworth said. "It was unacceptable, it was inapprop...

admitted to stealing money from evidence March 24, 2017 A former South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper who admitted to stealing money from evidence while on the job has been sentenced to five years in the state penitentiary. In addition, 48-year-old Brian William Biehl received a $10,000 fine.  Attorney General Marty Jackley announced the senten...

Brian William Biehl, 47, of Platte, has been arrested by complaint on one count of grand theft by law enforcement of seized property for taking $69,668 in money confiscated between May 21, 2012, and Oct. 19, 2016, court documents state. November 27, 2016 A former South Dakota highway patrolman is charged with taking nearly $70,000 from drug arrests...

One challenge for Cook and her team: tracking down the evidence used for these convictions, some of which date back a quarter of a century. Hair comparison evidence was frequently used before DNA testing became standard practice. January 30, 2017 The State of Iowa is getting a $632,000 federal grant to continue a review of convictions in Iowa court...

The 30-year-old cold case, which led to the filing of charges against Withers on Thursday, was solved after additional DNA testing of the fingernails of the victim, March 16, 2017 In 1987, several days after pleading guilty to a string of burglaries in St. Paul's Macalester-Groveland neighborhood — and being released from jail a day later — Michael...

Licking County Sheriff's Office Detective Captain Chris Slayman announced the arrest of Gustave Sapharas, 72, of Canton March 1, 2017 NEWARK - More than 25 years after the body of 20-year-old Bonita Parker was found near Pataskala, the person police believe to be responsible for her death is behind bars. Licking County Sheriff's Office Detective Ca...

A Washington County Sheriff's Office investigation conducted last fall concluded that items missing from evidence were $2,231, narcotics from 12 cases, four handguns and a bow. In addition, a report says, drug evidence used to be flushed down a toilet to be disposed. February 14, 2017 A final investigative report on the now-disbanded Newport Police...

By Minnesota law, sexual assault survivors don't have to decide whether they want to go to police when they arrive at a hospital to be examined.The reasoning: It's hard enough to decide, in those traumatic hours, to even come in for an exam. February 18, 2017 By Minnesota law, sexual assault survivors don't have to decide whether they want to go to...

The disappearance of money, drugs and firearms from Newport's former police department remains a mystery after a lengthy law enforcement investigation ended this week. Enter Article DATE HERE The disappearance of money, drugs and firearms from Newport's former police department remains a mystery after a lengthy law enforcement investigation en...

Wisconsin received the two largest grants in the country to locate and address untested kits in hospitals and law enforcement agencies across the state, Schimel said. The DOJ announced the receipt of $4 million in grants in September 2015 to inventory the untested kits. January 31, 2017 In an attempt to curb the backlog of an estimated 6,000 u...

Two BCI agents did a preliminary investigation of the evidence room about three weeks ago. January 25, 2017 CAMPBELL, Ohio - State agents working for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation or BCI have taken over the investigation into a Campbell police sergeant accused of tampering with evidence. Two BCI agents did a preliminary investigation of...

The attacker also left a cigarette butt at the victim's house, according to police reports filed after the incident. With new techniques allowing crime labs to analyze trace amounts of saliva, Fleischaker had it tested and said the DNA does not match Wilkerson's. JANUARY 14, 2017 Two decades ago, Mike A. Wilkerson was a familiar face in Jasper Coun...

We had the snowy or staticky background, then the tape resumes six minutes later," Meadows told FOX19 NOW Investigative Reporter Jody Barr, describing the version the jury saw at trial. January 11th 2017 HAMILTON, OH (FOX19) - Jeff Meadows stood in his law firm's conference room watching that now-infamous Butler County Sheriff's Office dash cam vid...

Johansen made the decision to fire Schmitz after finding that the things had not been documented with the department's evidence custodian.  Enter Article DATE HERE McKenzie County officials say a deputy who was fired last week had undocumented evidence from criminal investigations in his squad car when he turned the vehicle in last month....

Garrett DeWyse was overseeing the evidence and property room and protested when he was ordered to remove $2,000 for the bag that was needed for a confidential informant drug buy. January 13, 2017 More than $22,000 was taken from a man by a sheriff's deputy, and then that money was used by the sheriff's department for confidential informant drug buy...

Evidence presented against retired MI trooper January 10, 2017 CADILLAC — Michigan State Police Lt. David Street noted something out of place in a photograph of a drawer that once was a repository for evidence money collected in MSP-investigated cases as he displayed the image to onlookers in a Wexford County courtroom. "It is empty," Street said. ...

Attorney General Marty Jackley confirms that South Dakota Forensic Lab (SDFL) has completed the testing of all rape kits from law enforcement agencies in South Dakota. Untested rape kits have become and continue to be a national concern. January 9, 2017 PIERRE, S.D. (KOTA TV) – Attorney General Marty Jackley confirms that South Dakota Forensic Lab ...

The Omaha Police Department's Cold Case Unit is a recipient of the 2014 Solving Cold Case with DNA Grant from the National Institute of Justice December 22, 2016 OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) - Omaha Police have announced an arrest in a cold case murder from 2012.The Pottawattamie County Sheriff's office arrested 41-year-old Shanna Golyar in the murder of Car...

Enter Headline here Enter Article DATE HERE A former Columbus Police Department narcotics division supervisor who admitted taking drugs from the department's evidence room will not be going to prison. Jeremy R. Coomes, 39, was given a nine-year sentence Wednesday afternoon in Bartholomew Circuit Court on a Level 3 felony, possession of methamp...

He said he stole the pills because he became addicted to opioid painkillers after he was prescribed the drugs for painful intestinal disorders. Haugen said the last three and a half years "have been absolute hell," noting addiction affects the frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls judgment. December 19, 2016 MASON CITY | A former state ...

The St. Louis-based business destroys approximately 2,000 guns a year October 10th, 2016 (KTVI) Guns from cities across the United States are ending up in the St. Louis area. And while it might sound unusual, police are pleased. "The departments want to get rid of them," Scott Reed, Vice-President of Gunbusters said.Gunbusters is exactly what the n...

​Santa Fe PD is ahead in processing rape kits—because they already cleaned out a freezer full of them -  December 16, 2016 The trouble started with a freezer, and the question of just what could be done to get rid of it and open up some space at the Santa Fe Police Department headquarters. Someone cracked the door, and found materials tied to ...

A police officer accused of destroying evidence when he was the evidence officer has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and sentenced to court costs only. December 2, 2016 ALTON — A police officer accused of destroying evidence when he was the evidence officer has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and sentenced to court costs only. Jonathan Forrler plea...

The backlog of sexual assault kits at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2016 was 737 cases. That number increased to 1,177 a year later, as of Sept. 30, according to a recent Michigan State Police report to the legislature. November 12, 2016 The number of rape kits in Michigan's backlog is up compared to this time a year ago, as police worked to te...

Testing of backlogged rape evidence leads to hundreds of convictions Enter Article DATE HERE Hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits, also known as sexual assault kits (SAKs), languish in evidence storage facilities across the U.S. This backlog denies justice to victims and allows rapists the opportunity to continue to harm others. Based o...

A lone cigarette butt found in the impounded auto sat for years in an evidence locker, but it was worthless at the outset of the probe. October 22, 2016 nvestigators were right on target in 1991 when they looked to Myrtle McGill's abandoned car for clues that would lead to her killer. A lone cigarette butt found in the impounded auto sat for years ...

Sergeant's gambling tied to missing $9,600 from evidence room November 7, 2016 CADILLAC, MI – A former state police sergeant in charge of a post's evidence room is accused of stealing nearly $10,000, police said. Malcolm Lindsey Irwin, 52, of Cadillac, had financial problems and a gambling problem when the money was taken, a felony complaint says. ...

Highway Patrol officials, discovered $1,540 was missing from another evidence bag November 7, 2016 A former South Dakota highway patrolman is charged with taking nearly $70,000 from drug arrests over the past four years.Brian William Biehl, 47, of Platte, has been arrested by complaint on one count of grand theft by law enforcement of seized proper...

Changes to how the Mount Vernon Police Department handles and disposes of evidence have been implemented in the wake of the FBI's investigation into former detective November 5, 2016 MOUNT VERNON — Changes to how the Mount Vernon Police Department handles and disposes of evidence have been implemented in the wake of the FBI's investigation into for...

Coomes, who resigned from CPD Oct. 22, 2015, was accused of obtaining narcotics out of the police department's evidence room under the guise of using them in educational programs. November 3, 2016 A former Columbus Police Department narcotics division supervisor pleaded guilty Thursday to felony possession of methamphetamine, felony official miscon...

A man serving prison time for a 1995 rape and murder case in Pontiac has been identified and is now charged in a similar slaying in 1994 that went cold until recently, when DNA indexing tied the man to the crime. October 17, 2016 A man serving prison time for a 1995 rape and murder case in Pontiac has been identified and is now charged in a similar...