COPS FUMING OVER MISSING COCAINE

Chicago police thought they were opening a box filled with 20 kilograms of
cocaine as they got ready for a drug trial this week.

But when the container was unsealed, the $400,000 in drugs was gone. A
duffel bag and a 35-millimeter camera had been stuffed inside, police said.

Lyle Wooden, who faced trial on a drug possession charge, was able to walk
out of jail Friday after pleading guilty and being sentenced for time
already served since his 1997 arrest.

Prosecutor Bernie Murray denied the missing narcotics damaged the case
against Wooden. But his attorney, Adam Bourgeois, disagreed.

"Obviously they were seeking a long term for possession of 20 kilograms,"
Bourgeois said. "The state made him an offer to walk right away. He
couldn't refuse it."

Bourgeois said prosecutors previously offered Wooden a plea agreement of 18
years in prison. He said he doesn't think any drugs were stolen, and
accused officers of setting up his client.

Police rejected the allegation, saying they have a report from the Illinois
State Police detailing the tests on the drugs after Wooden's arrest.

"This is not a case of missing evidence," said Chicago police Deputy Supt.
Joseph DeLopez, who oversees the Evidence and Recovered Property Unit.
"This is not an administrative foul-up. This is a crime."

The apparent theft follows a string of mistakes involving the unit. Earlier
this year, about $16,000 in jewelry turned up missing when a woman went to
claim her stolen rings, tennis bracelets and necklace.

And police destroyed several pieces of evidence in the Girl X case,
although prosecutors insist they weren't crucial. One of the items was a
blood-stained paper bag that prosecutors said was already tested and not
linked to the main suspect, Patrick Sykes, who was convicted anyway.

A 1996 audit of the Evidence and Recovered Property Unit showed almost $7
million in drugs was missing at one point. Two years later, Jill McClendon,
a former civilian police aide, was sentenced to 10 years for trying to
steal $1.1 million in drugs from an evidence warehouse.

Police this year have been moving evidence from the Criminal Courts
Building at 26th and California to their Homan Square facility on the West
Side. The move will tighten access and security, officials said Friday.

They're also planning to put bar codes on every piece of property for
better tracking.

Their criminal investigation, meanwhile, will look at every person with
access to the box of drugs since 1997, police said. The FBI is helping.

DeLopez would not describe how many times the box of cocaine has been
moved, simply saying "a minimum number of times."

The sealed box was opened Thursday at Homan Square in the presence of the
arresting officer and the prosecutor, police said.

Investigators believe the camera and duffel bag were taken from other
evidence to make the box heavier, but when officers picked up the container
at Homan Square, they commented it seemed too light to hold 20
kilograms--or 44 pounds--of coke, a source said.

A larger audit of the millions of items in storage is expected, a top
police official said. Despite the theft and the other mistakes, Murray said
the state's attorney's office remains confident that evidence is being
stored properly.

"This is so very rare," Murray said, while other officials said millions of
pieces of evidence are processed every year.

Officers said they found 20 kilos of cocaine and about $1,350 after
stopping Wooden on July 15, 1997, on the Dan Ryan Expy. near 63rd,
according to the police report.