Policeman Kevin Burnham holding cocaine evidence.
No mention if he stole any drugs. The City and MA Attorney General appear only interested in the cash money. Police Commissioner and Mayor called it a lesson learned? Is this the first time evidence was stolen from a police department? Hello? Were these two public officials born yesterday?
[From article]
Police Commissioner John Barbieri said he and members of his department were blind-sided by the alleged discovery of a staggering $385,000 in systematic thefts of cash from the evidence room by retired Officer Kevin Burnham.
During a press conference followingBurnham's arraignment Monday in Hampden Superior Court on multiple counts of larceny, Barbieri said the tip of an apparent pattern was uncovered during a city audit in the summer of 2014, after the then-new commissioner took office and approximately when Burnham retired.
The city's internal auditor initially reported "there were some problems" after Barbieri ordered a review of the department's cash and evidence protocols. He said the review was part of an overall plan to modernize the department, as opposed to a response to any internal rumblings about Burnham.
"We wanted to determine if that cash had simply been misplaced or mis-stored, or whether we, in fact, had been the victim of a larceny," Barbieri said. "Officers reported back that they couldn't locate the cash."
[. . .]
More than a year later, Attorney General Maura Healey's office on Monday announced it was bringing charges against Burnham after a grand jury returned indictments in late December. The indictments state Burnham swiped cash from evidence envelopes stored in connection with about 162 criminal cases. Along with the indictments, Healey's office filed a five-page spreadsheet detailing the alleged thefts
[. . .]
Burnham pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on his own recognizance. He had been a police officer for 43 years and retired as the department's senior officer in 2014. Healey's office said he "took advantage" of his position as narcotics evidence officer, a position Barbieri said Burnham held for almost 20 years.The citations include piddling amounts under $100; but in one case, nearly $108,000 was never recovered, according to the documents. The spreadsheet tracked cases back to late 2009.
[. . .]
The overall message by Barbieri and other officials at Monday's press conference, including Mayor Domenic Sarno, amounted to: "Lesson learned."
[. . .]
Thus far, the issue has shaken out to be more than a $500,000 problem for a struggling city – given the $385,000 missing from the evidence room, $170,000 for the private auditing firm and thousands more spent on new equipment for the department.
Barbieri said no other police officers have been implicated in the investigation. It remains a question how one officer could allegedly lift nearly $400,000 in cash under the noses of his supervisors, however.
[. . .]
Barbieri said evidence money is now stored in a bank account, as opposed to in lockers in the evidence room
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/01/springfield_police_commissione_30.html
Springfield Police Commissioner John Barbieri: Department blind-sided by alleged theft of $385,000 in evidence money by retired officer
By Stephanie Barry | sbarry (at) repub.com
January 11, 2016 at 7:01 PM
No mention if he stole any drugs. The City and MA Attorney General appear only interested in the cash money. Police Commissioner and Mayor called it a lesson learned? Is this the first time evidence was stolen from a police department? Hello? Were these two public officials born yesterday?
[From article]
Police Commissioner John Barbieri said he and members of his department were blind-sided by the alleged discovery of a staggering $385,000 in systematic thefts of cash from the evidence room by retired Officer Kevin Burnham.
During a press conference followingBurnham's arraignment Monday in Hampden Superior Court on multiple counts of larceny, Barbieri said the tip of an apparent pattern was uncovered during a city audit in the summer of 2014, after the then-new commissioner took office and approximately when Burnham retired.
The city's internal auditor initially reported "there were some problems" after Barbieri ordered a review of the department's cash and evidence protocols. He said the review was part of an overall plan to modernize the department, as opposed to a response to any internal rumblings about Burnham.
"We wanted to determine if that cash had simply been misplaced or mis-stored, or whether we, in fact, had been the victim of a larceny," Barbieri said. "Officers reported back that they couldn't locate the cash."
[. . .]
More than a year later, Attorney General Maura Healey's office on Monday announced it was bringing charges against Burnham after a grand jury returned indictments in late December. The indictments state Burnham swiped cash from evidence envelopes stored in connection with about 162 criminal cases. Along with the indictments, Healey's office filed a five-page spreadsheet detailing the alleged thefts
[. . .]
Burnham pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on his own recognizance. He had been a police officer for 43 years and retired as the department's senior officer in 2014. Healey's office said he "took advantage" of his position as narcotics evidence officer, a position Barbieri said Burnham held for almost 20 years.The citations include piddling amounts under $100; but in one case, nearly $108,000 was never recovered, according to the documents. The spreadsheet tracked cases back to late 2009.
[. . .]
The overall message by Barbieri and other officials at Monday's press conference, including Mayor Domenic Sarno, amounted to: "Lesson learned."
[. . .]
Thus far, the issue has shaken out to be more than a $500,000 problem for a struggling city – given the $385,000 missing from the evidence room, $170,000 for the private auditing firm and thousands more spent on new equipment for the department.
Barbieri said no other police officers have been implicated in the investigation. It remains a question how one officer could allegedly lift nearly $400,000 in cash under the noses of his supervisors, however.
[. . .]
Barbieri said evidence money is now stored in a bank account, as opposed to in lockers in the evidence room
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/01/springfield_police_commissione_30.html
Springfield Police Commissioner John Barbieri: Department blind-sided by alleged theft of $385,000 in evidence money by retired officer
By Stephanie Barry | sbarry (at) repub.com
January 11, 2016 at 7:01 PM
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