Pubdate: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 Source: Quad-City Times (IA) Copyright: 2001 Quad-City Times Contact: http://www.qctimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/857 Author: Marc Chase Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture) RECORDS MESS, PROBE STALL VEHICLE FORFEITURE PROCESS Times Investigation: Inside Q-C Drug Fight A Seasprite pleasure boat seized in a drug raid three years ago by Davenport police still sits in a city impound garage along with 19 other seized vehicles, all wearing thick coats of dust. The courts already have ruled that the department can sell the collection of cars, trucks and boats and use the proceeds for crime fighting. But the process of disposing of the 20 vehicles has been on hold for 15 months as state criminal investigators probe the records kept by a former Davenport police vice unit commander, department officials say. Evidence in the case now casts doubt on the validity of some of those records. A Quad-City Times review of five years worth of Davenport police seizure records and other department documents found: - - One case in which fired Davenport police Sgt. Greg Collins falsified court records to show that a seized 1985 Chevy Blazer had been returned to its original owners when, in fact, he had kept the vehicle for himself and sold it for an $1,100 profit. - - A case in which police inventory forms show Collins and other vice officers seized $898 from three suspected drug dealers. Court documents for the same case show $165.22 of the money was awarded to law enforcement but give no account of what happened to the remaining $732.78 in cash. Those discrepancies explain why Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation detectives have to go through hundreds of cases supervised, or personally handled by Collins, trying to determine if he should face criminal charges. In addition, Davenport investigators now say a mess of envelopes amassed in the police evidence locker includes 171 envelopes containing $111,442.54 in seized money that should have been turned over to the Scott County Attorney's office for forfeiture proceedings. Some of the cases were as many as eight years old. These findings come more than a year after separate probes by the Times and the Davenport police internal affairs office showed Collins had used seized property and money for his own benefit. Collins, a 22-year veteran of the force, was fired in July 2000 as a result of those probes. Most Davenport police officials, DCI investigators and prosecutors from the Iowa Attorney General's office have refused to comment about the findings until the criminal investigation is complete. But one police official, who spoke last month under condition of anonymity, characterized the examples as a "trail of confusion," making it necessary for DCI investigators to examine hundreds of seizure cases to get to the bottom of what actually happened. Davenport police officials say the mess has created problems for internal affairs investigators as well. "Just in our department's review alone, these kinds of things have made things harder because you can never find what you are looking for all in the same place," said Lt. Scott Sievert, who had worked as one of Collins' supervisors. "Records are out of place or don't show you what actually happened." The Cause Davenport police officials and Scott County prosecutors blame part of the problem on the unbridled control of vice squad accounts and seized property given to Collins by his supervisors. A Times investigation published in January 2000 showed Collins had sole authority over transferring titles and setting prices for vehicles his vice squad seized in drug raids. He later purchased two of the vehicles - a 1990 Cadillac and a 1989 Chevrolet Astro Van - shortchanging the city $2,300. Collins' vice officers seized the Cadillac from the same suspected drug dealer who owned the Seasprite boat, now sitting in storage. And in another case, he falsified court documents to obtain a Chevrolet Blazer his vice unit seized from two suspected drug dealers in November 1998, department documents allege. A letter sent to Collins by Interim Chief Wayne Nelson on July 13, 2000, accuses Collins of using his position to purchase the Blazer for $500 on June 26, 1999. Court documents in the case stated the vehicle was returned to its original owner. But Nelson's letter stated that an internal investigation showed Collins falsified the court documents and then sold the Blazer for a $1,100 profit. These findings have meant investigators have had to review the paper trails of all vehicles seized by the Davenport vice unit during Collins' nearly 8-year tenure as commander, police officials say. And with evidence that at least one document has been falsified, investigators have not always been sure exactly what they are looking at, one official said. According to Scott County Court documents kept on file at the county attorney's office, the Davenport Police Department was given legal title to 32 seized vehicles between Jan. 1, 1996, and November of 2000. Normally, seized vehicles are either used by the department as undercover cars or sold and the proceeds used to fund crime-fighting programs. "But we've been holding on to 20 vehicles because of the problems," Sievert said. "And we've only moved to seize two vehicles since January of 2000 because of the investigation." The Solutions Sievert said the department recently received approval from DCI to begin disposing of the 20 backlogged vehicles. "We just haven't had time to get to it yet," he said. "Our plates are full with working through several issues, and it will take time." When the vehicles are sold, it will be at public auction - not on consignment through a local used car dealer as Collins had done. The method Collins used to sell the vehicles was prohibited by state law. "From now on, they will go through the same auction process as all other forfeited property," said Sievert, noting that Scotty's Auction Service, 5403 Rockingham Road, Davenport, handles all city auctions. Police Chief Mike Bladel also has added the position of department auditor to the force, naming Capt. Jay Verhorevoort, a certified public accountant, as the overseer of police funds. Authority over vice accounts has been split up between Sievert and the sergeant of the unit, with oversight by Verhorevoort. "We know we took some hits on this one, and rightfully so," Bladel said. "But we're getting things in order and have added safeguards to try to prevent it from happening again." - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe