Hartford Courant, courant.com
BYLINE: David Moran
Hartford, CT
A civilian employee in Hartford PD property room fired and arrested for misappropriating evidence
HARTFORD – A former city employee assigned to the police department's evidence room was fired and later charged with larceny and unlawful removal of records after police said she took narcotics from the room.
Police said they noticed during a routine audit of the property room that a bag of marijuana was missing, and a supervisor traced the missing bag of marijuana to Liza Aponte, a 40-year-old Hartford civilian clerk assigned to the police department's property room.
Police then began a thorough audit of the entire property room and a criminal investigation, and Aponte was transferred to another department, police said.
Aponte, who was hired in January, was terminated Sept. 3 after "the appropriate administrative process," police said.
The investigation determined that Aponte removed three bags from the property room, all containing small amounts of marijuana, while one of the bags also contained an unknown type of pills, police said.
Aponte turned herself in to police on Sept. 23 and was charged with two counts of second-degree larceny and two counts of unlawful removal of records.
Police said the expansive audit they conducted on the property room did not find any other missing property and that it has implemented "further safeguards" as a result of the incident to ensure that civilians do not misappropriate evidence in the future.
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International Association for Property and Evidence
"Law Enforcement Serving the Needs of Law Enforcement"
www.IAPE.org