DALLAS COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE INVESTIGATED FOR MISSING CASH

Some money seized from a traffic stop was reported missing, court
documents say.

State agents are investigating the Dallas County sheriff's office
after some money seized during a traffic stop came up missing three days later.

Dallas County Sheriff Brian Gilbert's rural Adel house was searched
Thursday by state investigators, who took a personal computer,
compact discs, sales receipts from places such as the Rec Room Plus
and Travel World, and a note on yellow sticky paper, according to
documents filed Thursday in Dallas County District Court.

The investigation was initiated on March 21 after an undetermined
portion of the hundreds of thousands of dollars seized in a traffic
stop by a sheriff's deputy was found to be missing, according to
Eugene Meyer, director of the state Division of Criminal Investigation.

Chief Deputy Kevin Frederick said Friday that Gilbert himself
requested the investigation, that the sheriff said he is on vacation
now, and that Frederick is temporarily in charge of the department.

While Gilbert could not be reached for comment, his attorney,
Montgomery Brown, said: "As a former assistant Dallas County attorney
and a lawyer practicing in Dallas County for over a decade, I know
that Sheriff Gilbert has dedicated his life to law enforcement in
Dallas County.

"When the issue under inquiry was brought to his (Gilbert's)
attention, he immediately contacted the county attorney, and they
contacted the Division of Criminal Investigation. We want them to
conduct a full and fair investigation."

According to court documents, the episode began on March 15 when
Sheriff's Deputy Scott Faiferlick stopped an Audi with Illinois
license plates at mile marker 110 in rural Dallas County because the
car had tinted windows.

The car had fresh paint and smelled of adhesive, the documents said,
and Faiferlick became suspicious that the man and woman inside gave
conflicting stories. The man agreed to drive the car to a Department
of Transportation garage a mile away so that it could be searched.

Faiferlick and other deputies found 27 packets of money in secret
compartments throughout the car, the court documents said. The man
and woman -- unidentified in court papers -- were taken to the
sheriff's office, questioned and, apparently, released. They
forfeited the money found in the car, saying that it wasn't theirs.

Back at the DOT garage, Sheriff Gilbert and Chief Deputy Frederick
arrived, the documents said. The bags of money were photographed and
taken in a vehicle driven by Gilbert to his office.

However, the documents said, Gilbert stopped at his home to close his
garage door. Although he was not the last person to leave the DOT
garage, he was the last person to arrive at the sheriff's department,
several minutes after the last deputy involved had arrived.

The packets of money were unloaded and taken into the sheriff's
office, where Faiferlick noted that one of the plastic sacks seemed
to be missing. He mentioned it out loud, the documents said, and
"someone replied to him, 'It is all there.' "

The men decided not to count the money that day because they wanted
to get an electronic bill counter. Gilbert and Faiferlick carried the
money to the evidence room, where it was locked up for the night, the
court papers said. Faiferlick told Deputy Steve Bandy, who is the
department's evidence custodian, that a "property sheet" form would
be completed in the morning.

The next day, Faiferlick arrived at the office at 10:30 or 11 a.m. to
find that Gilbert and Deputy Adam Infante had placed 26 packages of
money on the conference room table. They took a photo of the money at
that time.

The men took the money out of the packages and left it on the
conference room table. Because the electronic bill counter had not
yet arrived, the men decided to leave the money in the conference
room and go to lunch, the documents said.

Infante "stated that he had . . . concerns over doing that, and he
was reassured by Sheriff Gilbert that the (money) would be fine," the
documents said.

After lunch, the money was counted with the bill counter. During that
time, the deputies were joined by the sheriff's wife, Tina Gilbert,
and former Dallas County sheriff Art Johnson, among other people.

They counted $781,724.

The money was placed in an evidence tub and locked in the evidence room.

Two days later, as Faiferlick compiled his official report, he played
over in his mind the events of March 15 and 16 and became suspicious,
the documents said. He compared the photos of the money taken at the
DOT garage with the photos taken at the sheriff's office and decided
that there was one package missing in the office photos.

Faiferlick went to Infante's home, the documents said, and shared his
concerns. The two talked with Bandy, who looked at the photos and
also concluded that one package of money was missing.

On March 21, they told Gilbert of their concerns and requested an
independent investigation by an outside agency, the documents said.
After consulting with the Dallas County attorney, Gilbert requested
an investigation by the state DCI.

Meyer, the DCI director, said his agents and state auditors are
trying to determine how much money is missing.

He wrote in a news release Friday: ". . . at the appropriate time we
will provide our . . . findings to the Polk County Attorney's office.
The Polk County Attorney has agreed to review this investigation at
the request of the Dallas County Attorney."

Meyer did not say that Gilbert himself was under investigation, and
authorities said no charges were filed against him on Friday.

Brown, Gilbert's attorney, said, however: "I think it's safe to
assume that (a person is under investigation) when your house is searched."