JUDGE ASKS INDEPENDENT AUDIT FOR CONTENTS OF TWO DRUG VAULTS IN
ODESSA

ODESSA, Texas {AP}- A judge has requested an independent audit of
contents of two drug vaults overseen by the Ector County district
attorney after discrepancies from a previous inventory were discovered.

State District Court Judge Jay Gibson of Odessa wrote a letter to
District Attorney John Smith on Monday asserting it would be
inappropriate for Smith's office to inventory the vaults, which have
been under the control of Smith's office since 1998.

Gibson suggested that the Drug Enforcement Administration perform the
audit.

"This letter doesn't say (Smith's office) will do an inventory wrong,"
Gibson told the Odessa American. "It just says we should have an
independent audit and be able to show the process around it,
especially if inconsistencies crop up."

Smith has said the Texas Department of Public Safety would conduct an
audit with his office to reconcile questions stemming from an
inventory that concluded March 1.

In that audit, not all of the drugs in the vault were weighed, and
some of the contents of the vault didn't show up on the inventory.

Questions also came up about whether it would be possible to tell from
vault documents if some items might be missing from the two vaults.
The vaults contain about two tons of marijuana and 40 pounds of
cocaine, the newspaper reported.

The March 1 inventory also did not compare the drugs, guns and
paraphernalia inventory done by the DPS in 1998, when Smith's office
took control of the vaults from the Permian Basin Drug Task Force when
it disbanded.

Smith called the judge's intervention politically motivated, irregular
and shameful.

"For him (Gibson) to suggest that my office not have anything to do
with this audit, well that's not going to happen," Smith said. "If
he's not happy with that, he can take it up with me."

Smith said he was shocked that Gibson expressed his concerns in a
letter, a copy of which was sent to the Odessa American.

In the letter, Gibson wrote that a story in a recent edition of the
Odessa American prompted his letter but that maintaining public
confidence was the motivation behind it.

Gibson also singled out the vault's former custodian, who is accused
in the theft of two paintings from a hotel in Kerrville.

The former custodian has admitted taking the pictures, but said it was
a prank, the Odessa American reported. A Kimble County prosecutor in
charge of the case has said the case is expected to go to a grand jury.

The case was transferred out of Kerrville at the request of a Texas
Ranger who investigated the theft.