PROVIDENCE POLICE LACK RECORDS ON SEIZED CARS

The Department's Failure To Account For Hundreds Of Cars Comes To Light
After Questions Are Raised About The Trail Of A 1991 Honda Seized In A Drug
Case.

PROVIDENCE -- Over the past eight years, the Providence Police Department
says, it has sold 250 cars seized in drug arrests.

But the department has almost no records of how much the cars were sold
for, or who bought them.

Capt. John J. Ryan, the department's director of administration, said the
police did not begin keeping records until the most recent car auction --
last July.

"Does this embarrass us?" Ryan said. "Of course it does. But then we fix it."

The disclosure raises new issues with how the state's largest police
department handles evidence seized in raids.

Last month, Ryan acknowledged that the department had lost 16 items seized
during a raid of a pawnshop in the Washington Park section of the city.

And the pawnshop's owner, who won a court order forcing the police to
return its merchandise, said some of the goods came back used.

The sides are negotiating over compensation for the missing and used property.

The department's failure to account for seized cars surfaced as a result of
inquiries by The Providence Journal into how a 1991 Honda Accord obtained
in a drug arrest wound up in private hands.

THE HONDA, with 147,272 miles, came into the possession of the Providence
police as the result of a drug investigation two years ago.

On June 18, 1997, police arrested two men on charges that they were selling
heroin from a garage at Eddy and Chapman Streets.

Police seized 200 packets of heroin, $473, and the Honda that the suspects
used to deal the drugs.

About a month later, on July 24, the state attorney general's office moved
to confiscate the money and car.

Under state law, suspected drug dealers may be forced to forfeit cars,
money and other property allegedly connected to their crimes. The
forfeiture process involves the police, the attorney general and the state
treasurer's office.

In August 1997, as required by law, the attorney general's office ran three
legal notices in The Providence Journal announcing a series of drug-related
property seizures across the state. The ad specifically mentioned the $473
and the 1991 Honda.

The forfeiture was completed Sept. 25, 1997. The money and car officially
became the property of the Providence police.

Four months later, on Jan. 30, 1998, the Providence police submitted an
annual report to the state treasurer's office. State law requires detailed
reports of money and property seized in the previous year.

Providence's six-page document was signed by Col. Urbano Prignano Jr., the
Providence police chief. It listed $211,580 in property and money seized by
the department in 1997.

The report mentions the $473 seized in the June 18 drug arrest.

Not listed: the 1991 Honda.

THREE WEEKS later, the car was sold twice -- within 48 hours.

On Feb. 17, 1998, the Providence police held an auction at the Providence
Civic Center to sell 17 cars. The department publicized the auction.

Because the police have not kept records of their car sales, only Richard
Autiello can say what happened to the 1991 Honda. Autiello is co-owner of
Four A's Enterprises, a garage and car dealership in Providence that holds
a three-year, $1.75-million contract to provide service for the fleet of
city police vehicles.

Autiello said he always attends the auctions, but seldom buys any cars.

The Honda was put up for auction that day, but nobody bid on it, according
to Autiello. Afterwards, as he was "kibitzing" with police officers,
Autiello said, he decided to buy the Honda. He said he haggled with the
police and got the Honda for $450.

"It started up, but it didn't move," Autiello said.

He had the Honda towed to his garage on Cranston Street. He said he planned
to use the car for parts. "It was blowing black smoke."

But the next day, Autiello said, a buyer for the car walked into his
garage: Sandra L. Morgero, 45, then of 34 Spenstone St., Cranston.

Morgero, he said, was driving an older Honda.

"She had some toilet she was driving, some kind of junk box," Autiello said.

Autiello said he asked Morgero how much money she wanted to spend and that
she told him $3,000.

THE MECHANICS at Four A's went to work. Autiello said they spent at least a
week repairing a severe oil leak, rebuilding the transmission and replacing
the clutch.

He estimated that he spent more than $1,500 on repairs.

Records from the state Registry of Motor Vehicles show that Morgero bought
the car Feb. 18, the same day she stopped by the garage.

She had the car registered the next day.

Autiello said he didn't know why she bought the car and had it registered
before she could drive it.

"I was wondering that myself," he said.

Last September, Morgero joined the payroll of the city's Public Safety
Department. She works as a laborer earning $13 an hour at the Providence
Animal Control Center.

She drives the Honda to her job at the city dog pound. Approached early
this week by two reporters and asked about her purchase of the Honda,
Morgero declined to comment. "I'm sorry, that's personal information," she
said.

Within an hour, Ryan, of the Providence police, called one of the reporters
to announce that the dog pound is off-limits to reporters.

ON THURSDAY, Ryan was interviewed about police property procedures.

The department could not produce any records concerning the Feb. 17 sale of
the 1991 Honda.

When asked why the car's seizure and sale were not reported to the state
treasurer, Ryan placed a telephone call to Detective Wayne Ferland, who
oversees property seized by the department.

"Can you tell me how this would happen?" Ryan asked.

Ferland, who could be heard on a speaker phone, couldn't provide Ryan with
answers.

Ryan instructed Ferland to address the problem immediately and compile an
amended report for the state treasurer.

Then Ryan leafed through the department's internal list of seized cars to
see if there were other contradictions with the 1998 and 1999 reports to
the state treasurer. Within a minute, he found four other cars that were
not reported.

"It certainly isn't on purpose," Ryan said. "We wouldn't violate a state
law that requires us to report."

When the subject of the Feb. 17 auction came up in the interview, Ryan
again telephoned Ferland. This time, he spoke with Ferland over the
handset, not the speaker.

"What records do you have?" Ryan asked.

"Do you have a record of any car sold that day at the auction?"

"So how do we keep track of how much we get from it?"

"So what you're saying is we don't have a record of selling that car for
$450?"

"Do we have a total amount for that auction?"

Ryan said he did not know how many property auctions the department has
conducted since the forfeiture law was enacted 10 years ago. He said the
Providence police have been seizing cars since 1988. He said that since
1991, the department has seized 480 cars and has sold 250. He said the
police have records of one auction: the last one, held July 25, 1998. The
police report to the state treasurer said that eight cars were sold.

Ryan, during the interview, vowed to correct the problem of inaccurate
reports to the state treasurer. He said that the problem should be solved
by the pending installation of computer software.

Ryan later telephoned to report that, while there was no record of the sale
price of any car, records showed that the police deposited $15,209.53 in a
bank account after the auction on Feb. 17, 1998.