Lawyer: Police security 'loosey-goosey':

The News Herald (Panama City, Florida)
BYLINE: David Angier, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.

Lynn Haven, FL

$2,900 remains missing from Lynn Haven evidence room

Nov. 11 -- LYNN HAVEN -- Panama City attorney Waylon Graham said Monday he is defending a Lynn Haven police supervisor from being made a scapegoat in the case of a missing $2,900.

Graham said Sgt. Larry Thomas has been overseeing an evidence storage system that is "looseygoosey" and open to nearly everyone in the office. The situation became a problem when Thomas could not find $2,900 that was to be returned last month to Santiago Iglesias.

The money was seized from Iglesias after a 2008 drug arrest, but it was ordered to be released to him after those charges were dropped.

"There's not a shred of evidence that Larry took a penny of that money," Graham said Monday. "There's no evidence that Larry took anything that didn't belong to him."

Lynn Haven Police Chief David Messer said Monday the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the missing cash.

Graham said many people at the police department had keys and unrestricted access to the evidence stored there.

He said it presents more than a just a problem in securing seized money.

"This does not bode well for the criminal cases in which the evidence is stored at the Lynn Haven Police Department," Graham said.

He said the FDLE is cataloging everything in the storage area and determining who has access to that area.

Iglesias was charged last November with possessing cocaine, forged identifications and drug paraphernalia. Money was seized in two searches, one Nov. 14 and another Nov. 17.

On March 18, prosecutors dropped the cocaine and identification charges and Iglesias pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor paraphernalia charge.

Defense attorney Bill Price said the case against his client was weak and Iglesias pleaded guilty only because he was on federal supervised release and the arrest alone violated that probation. Iglesias was looking at going to federal prison for the violation and wanted to get started on serving his time, Price said. He was getting no credit toward that sentence by sitting in the Bay County Jail on unrelated state charges.

Price asked Circuit Judge Dedee Costello to issue an order returning Iglesias' property, and she did Sept. 16.

On Sept. 21, Price sent a letter to the Lynn Haven Police Department asking for the items. On Sept. 29, Price received 13 items, including $5,490 in cash. Along with that, Price received Iglesias' laptop computer, cell phone, address book, black shaving bag, laminating machine and "blood glucose system."

What was missing was another $2,920 in cash.

"I'm not saying anyone stole the money," Price said Friday. "My client just wants his money back."

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International Association for Property and Evidence
"Law Enforcement Serving the Needs of Law Enforcement"
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