[Let us hope that this will wake the public up about forfeiture. Hopefully
this will get national attention. Leon]

Please go to
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/local_news/article/0,1426,MCA_437_2314571,00.ht
ml
or
http://tinyurl.com/pfld

to read the  rest of the story -- and to see the cop's seized mansion.
Leon]

MPD theft probe grows
Audit indicates problems as early as 1999

By Shirley Downing
downing@gomemphis.com

October 2, 2003

Stolen drugs and other goods may have been going out the back door of the
Memphis Police Department's property and evidence room for five years or
more, with proceeds used to purchase expensive homes and cars in three
states. 

Federal indictments unsealed Tuesday say the crimes occurred between
February 2002 and last week, and link three current or former property room
workers to a cocaine ring with ties to Atlanta. And federal, state and
local officials on Wednesday would not comment on the scope of the
investigation. 

But as far back as 1999 a state audit of the police Organized Crime Unit
cited inadequate controls over the recording of confiscated cash in the
property room. An internal audit noted "severe storage and overcrowding
problems." Auditors said cash, guns and narcotics were not removed from the
property room on a timely basis and marijuana was found on the floor.
Police promised to fix the problems. 

And it was learned Wednesday that one of the 16 defendants is a former
property room worker, Patrick D. Maxwell, 32. He faces federal cocaine
charges. 

In 1998, Maxwell worked as an attendant in the property room making $18,975
a year. His resignation letter that year said he was leaving for work that
put his talents to better use. 

On Tuesday, federal agents seized Maxwell's three-story mansion in
Lithonia, Ga., an Atlanta suburb. 

The two current employees who were indicted, both on charges of financial
crimes, were property room shift supervisor and 21-year veteran Kenneth
Dansberry, 41, and Carl Edward Johnson, 42, a senior inventory control
clerk who was hired in 1999. Both made less than $34,000 a year. 

More than $1 million in cash was confiscated from Dansberry's home and car
in a raid on Tuesday. Federal raids in Memphis, Olive Branch and the
Atlanta area thus far have yielded 29 vehicles - from luxury cars to
18-wheeler trucks - as well as jewelry, cash and real property in
Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia. 

. . .

Property room thefts are not uncommon in police departments, said Joe Latta
of Burbank, Calif., executive director of a company that trains law
enforcement agencies on how to maintain property and evidence rooms. 

He said property rooms across the country contain literally "billions of
dollars" of guns, money and narcotics that often prove to be a temptation
to workers. 

"It becomes easy money to get to because we don't always have the best
controls in place,'' he said. 

- Shirley Downing: 529-2387
Copyright 2003, GoMemphis. All Rights Reserved.

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