MISSING DRUGS SPARK CHANGE

Eight Sheriff's Office Deputies Reassigned

Col. Greg Phares, chief criminal deputy for the East Baton Rouge Parish
Sheriff's Office, announces Friday that 7 pounds of marijuana and a small
amount of methamphetamine are missing from the narcotics division. One
deputy resigned, eight others were disciplined and the division has new
leadership.

The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office narcotics division has new
leadership after 7 pounds of marijuana and less than a gram of
methamphetamine turned up missing.

At a news conference Friday afternoon, Col. Greg Phares said one
employee resigned and eight others -- including Capt. Jason Palmer,
who oversaw narcotics -- were disciplined after an internal
investigation found they were mishandling evidence. No criminal
charges are expected.

"Obviously, if the missing marijuana as opposed to just being
improperly disposed of was stolen, then we would make every effort to
bring criminal charges against whoever is responsible for that," said
Phares, the chief criminal deputy.

"At this point we haven't established probable cause, and at this
point I'm not very optimistic that we will."

The missing methamphetamine was evidence in a criminal case with
multiple counts, Phares said -- one of which is now compromised. The
marijuana -- which has a street value of $2,100 -- was not. Neither
has been found.

Phares said the Sheriff's Office launched its investigation June 9
after there was an "indication that we might have a problem."

A subsequent audit of the narcotics division turned up no other
missing drugs, Phares said, but it did conclude that other employees
were not following procedures for seizing and labeling evidence.

Cpl. Kenath Black -- one of two deputies who seized the marijuana --
quit Thursday after refusing to take a polygraph test while answering
questions about the drug. He initially was suspended for 10 days.

Eight other employees were punished for failing to properly secure and
document other narcotics evidence, but are not believed to have
anything to do with the missing marijuana and methamphetamine.

They include Palmer -- the head of the narcotics division -- who was
suspended for 10 days, demoted to sergeant and reassigned to general
detectives. He is replaced by Lt. Todd Compton.

The others are:

n Lt. Lee Alfred Livingston, who was suspended for 10 days, demoted to
corporal and reassigned to armed robbery and burglary.

n Deputy Lee Henderson, who was suspended for two days and reassigned
to uniformed patrol.

n Sgt. John Dempre, a uniformed patrol officer who was suspended for
five days and demoted to deputy.

n Cpl. Shawn Anderson, Deputy Todd Martin, Cpl. Chad Montgomery and
Sgt. David Grunewald all were suspended for one day but were not
demoted nor reassigned.

Phares said no further disciplinary action is expected.

"I think it's important to note that with the exception of the deputy
who resigned -- but against whom I'm making no accusation -- the other
deputies we do not believe had anything at all to do with the missing
marijuana," Phares said. "However, we have acted on our belief that
they failed to properly document the seizure of evidence other than
the 7 pounds."

The discovery comes less than six months after another Sheriff's
Office employee was fired and arrested for allegedly stealing money,
drugs and weapons from the evidence room -- possibly jeopardizing an
unknown number of criminal cases.

Lt. Gwendolyn Carroll, 66, was arrested after a search of her home at
2016 Government St. turned up scores of evidence envelopes stashed in
18-gallon tubs. Deputies found evidence from about 130 cases.

Carroll is accused of stealing more than $200,000, as well as cocaine,
marijuana and guns from the evidence room, which she supervised.

But Phares emphasized the two cases "are not related although clearly
they both concern the handling of evidentiary matter."

Despite the loss of top administrators in the narcotics division,
Phares said he's optimistic the changes will only "improve it."

"We do have new leadership in the narcotics division and clearly
everyone who remains in there has been very strongly instructed . as
to proper evidence handling procedures," he said. "So we hope and
believe it will improve the performance of the narcotics division."

Phares also said he believes the deputies who were disciplined will
"perform well and continue to be valuable to the office and to the
parish. Obviously if we had not thought that, we would have dismissed
them."