2nd missing-evidence case in year

The Baltimore Sun

Twice in the past year, important evidence has gone missing from police custody in separate rape cases against city police officers.

In the latest incident, soiled clothing, a rape kit and other items that were to be used in next month's trial of Officer William D. Welch have been missing from the police evidence control unit since at least May.

And in the unrelated rape case of Officer Jemini Jones, frame-by-frame footage of his accuser entering a local hospital emergency room went missing late last year from evidence control. The hospital was able to provide another copy of the surveillance tape, but prosecutors said it wasn't as detailed as the first. Jones was acquitted.

"It is extraordinarily rare for us to be missing evidence," police spokesman Matt Jablow said yesterday. "But it's unacceptable for it to happen even once."

He said internal investigations are under way to determine what happened to the missing evidence in the Welch and Jones cases.

Since those incidents, security cameras have been installed throughout evidence control. About two dozen employees - a mix of sworn officers and civilians - work in the unit, which is housed in the basement of police headquarters downtown.

Both rape cases stemmed from alleged attacks inside police station houses. Both accusers said they saw sex with the officers as a way to freedom from criminal charges.

Welch, 41 and a 13-year police veteran, is accused of assaulting a 16-year-old girl inside the Southeastern District station. She had been arrested on an open Baltimore County warrant for prostitution.

Jones, 29 and an officer since March 2000, went to trial in early January. He had been charged with second-degree rape and misconduct in office after being accused of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman whom he had brought to the Southwestern District station in handcuffs.

After the hospital supplied a second copy of the surveillance tape, it and the rest of the Jones evidence was moved out of evidence control and into a "special place" until trial, prosecutors said.

In the Welch case, the remaining evidence has been moved to the money vault, which few people can access.

The environment in the evidence control room is similar to picking up a package at the post office: To access evidence, an officer must come to a long counter, sign out an item and wait for an evidence control employee to retrieve it from a warehouselike room.

Cameras in the unit went up about a month ago, Jablow said, but, noting security issues, he declined to give specifics about how many there are or what prompted their installation.

When asked if the cameras give the department extra peace of mind about what is happening inside evidence control, Jablow replied, "That's certainly the intention."

Maj. Steven Lukasik oversees the property section, which includes evidence control. He could not be reached for comment. A sergeant in evidence control directed questions yesterday to the public information office.

The problem with the Welch evidence might have been discovered when his attorney, Warren A. Brown, asked prosecutors May 11 for access to clothing confiscated from the victim and the defendant. DNA reports in the public court file show that genetic material from Welch and his accuser was found on those items.

At a hearing May 15 in Baltimore Circuit Court, Assistant State's Attorney Temmi Rollock told the judge and defense attorney that "apparently evidence control has misplaced some of the evidence."

Brown said he does not believe anything "sinister" happened to the evidence.

Welch's trial is scheduled for Aug. 6. He is charged with second-degree rape and misconduct in office.

The girl he is accused of assaulting said in a taped statement that Welch flirted with her, confronted her about marijuana he said he found in her bag and asked her to have sex. She said she complied but told county police about the incident when she was taken there, according to court documents.

The Sun does not identify those who allege sexual assault.

The tiny samples of DNA that were suctioned or swabbed from clothing said to have been worn by the girl and by Welch are still available, but the clothing is not.

Also missing is the rape kit, which includes evidence taken from the girl's body, and discarded wipes that she said were used after the sex act. Those wipes were found in a station house trash can and contained DNA from Welch and the girl, court documents state.

Brown said he plans to ask a judge to rule the DNA evidence inadmissible because prosecutors can no longer produce the items from which it allegedly came. Prosecutors still believe their case is viable, said Margaret T. Burns, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office.

Legal experts say that, without the clothing, prosecutors will have to show an airtight chain of custody to convince a judge that the DNA can be used as evidence.

The missing tape in the Jones case was recorded hours after the rape is alleged to have occurred inside the Southwestern District station Dec. 27, 2005.

When the woman walked into the emergency room at University of Maryland Medical Center, security cameras recorded her encounter with hospital employees. She later testified they told her that she needed to go to Mercy Medical Center, which is the hospital designated to handle sexual-assault victims. The woman left but did not immediately go to Mercy.

Prosecutors described that video evidence as important for demonstrating the woman's credibility as a witness - to show that she had sought treatment right away, just as she said she had.

The first copy of the tape was discovered missing in late November or early December, just before a scheduled trial date. Mercy made another copy, but instead of homing in on just the woman's presence, it contained 24 hours of footage. Prosecutors did not use it in trial.

Burns said prosecutors "are dependent upon the professionalism and expertise of the law enforcement officers who conduct an investigation, handle the evidence, and are called to testify as witnesses."

"These relationships become more complex when the police are investigating themselves and our colleagues are investigating each other," she said. "Where possible, the state's attorney's office encourages independent investigations of these matters to avoid potential conflicts of interest."

julie.bykowicz@baltsun.com

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