MISSING MARIJUANA PROMPTS REQUEST TO DISMISS CASE

Citing alleged misconduct by Shawnee County sheriff's narcotics officers in
1995 and a break in the chain of custody of marijuana confiscated in a drug
case, a public defender wants the case dismissed.

The request to the Shawnee County District Court to dismiss the drug case
against Carlos Hernandez was filed Thursday by Kris Savage, the public
defender assigned to the Northeast Kansas Conflicts Office. Hernandez is
charged with felony failure to pay the Kansas drug tax and misdemeanor
marijuana possession.

During a preliminary hearing Jan. 20, the drug weighed almost 0.5 ounce
less than when it was confiscated in January 1995. On Jan. 20, a judge
denied Savage's initial request to dismiss charges.

"Because of obvious and egregious misconduct by sheriff deputies during the
time of the Hernandez case, any testimony by these deputies concerning the
chain of custody is inherently suspect," Savage wrote in the appeal. The
court can't ensure Hernandez' fundamental right to a fair trial, Savage
said.

In the appeal, Savage summarized the 1996 Kansas Bureau of Investigation
probe into the theft of 0.75 ounce of cocaine from a sheriff's department
property room. Savage included allegations and denials that Cpl. Timothy P.
Oblander had taken and tampered with drug evidence, that drugs were missing
from Oblander's canine training aids, that Oblander disappeared in May 1995
and that Oblander had invoked the Fifth Amendment when called to testify at
an inquisition July 26, 1996.

Oblander denied stealing cocaine from the sheriff's department evidence
locker, denied being a cocaine user and denied telling Meneley that he
stole the cocaine and was a cocaine user. Oblander said he used the Fifth
Amendment during the inquisition and again Nov. 23, 1998, during another
drug preliminary hearing to avoid disclosing past alcohol problems.

In the challenge to throw out charges against Hernandez, Savage cited a
Dec. 11, 1998, news conference by Meneley, noting the sheriff called
statements by three of his deputies lies. In a prepared statement at the
news conference, Meneley said statements by some deputies that he knew who
took cocaine from the evidence locker in 1994 were "a lie."

The statements of detective Scott Holladay, the primary investigator in the
Hernandez case and a deputy who told KBI agents that Oblander's partner
related to Holladay that Oblander had a cocaine problem and had entered an
alcohol-drug treatment program and that Meneley knew about the problem,
didn't dovetail with Meneley in the KBI investigation, Savage said.
Holladay passed a polygraph test in the missing cocaine case.

District Attorney Joan Hamilton has given Meneley until Sunday to give her
a "reasonable and detailed explanation" of why the marijuana weighed less
or her office would join the defense in a motion to dismiss the case
against Hernandez.

Based on examinations of other confiscated drugs in the property room,
there can be "shrinkage" of 15 percent to 30 percent in marijuana due to
drying, Meneley has said.

Meneley has said Keith Coonrod, an expert from the New York City Police
Department, would audit the sheriff's department evidence room, including
drugs, on Saturday. Coonrod will make recommendations based on his
findings, Meneley said.

A KBI probe was triggered by the disappearance in 1994 of cocaine from the
sheriff's department evidence locker. At Hamilton's request, the attorney
general's office ordered the KBI to investigate the case in 1996. However,
the attorney general's office concluded there wasn't enough evidence to
prosecute anyone.