DEPUTIES STRIP-SEARCH POLICE

A West Des Moines officer is charged after some money disappears
during a raid.

Gordon Resigns

Police routinely strip-search criminal suspects, but nearly a dozen
Des Moines area officers had to strip and be searched this spring when
money disappeared during a raid of a suspected drug dealer's house.

Two Polk County Sheriffs deputies - one male, one female - took six or
seven male officers and two female officers, one by one, into a room
of Robert L. Willson Sr's, house for the strip search, said Polk
County Deputy Chief Dennis Anderson. No money was found in the strip
searches.

The searches came after money found in the house was counted a second
time. The second count indicated some of the original amount was missing.

One of the officers who was searched, former West Des Moines Detective
Edwin Gordon, was charged Friday with two misdemeanor theft charges,
said Assistant County Attorney Steve Foritano. Gordon is accused of
taking a gun and cashier's checks while on duty. Foritano would not
say whether the incidents were related to the March 18 raid at
Willson's house.

But in a federal deposition, West Des Moines Detective Lloyd Carlson
said Gordon was under investigation in connection with items taken
from the search at Willson's house in March.

Deputy Chief Anderson downplayed the importance of the police strip
search, saying the procedure is not unheard of.

"Once an officer is (allegedly) doing something like this, the other
officers, who have nothing to hide, feel (the strip search is)
necessary," said Anderson, whose deputies were called in for the
search because they were not involved in the raid at Willson's house.
"You've got to do something to ensure no evidence is leaving the scene."

The strip search and criminal charges against Gordon may jeopardize
the drug and weapons case against Willson. "We plan to present the
evidence and let the jury decide what impact it may have in the case,
who all was involved and how far it went," said Willson's attorney,
Dean Stowers.

Gordon, 42, resigned this summer after he was placed on unpaid leave.
His attorney, Maggi Moss, said Gordon will plead not guilty. She
declined further comment. Gordon is scheduled to be arraigned Oct.
16.

He has had at least two contacts with Willson, an east-side bail
bondsman who was indicted by a federal grand jury in May on
methamphetamine, other drug and weapons charges.

Gordon and Carlson were part of a raid on Willson's properties in
January 1997, but the case dissolved after Polk County District Judge
Robert Hutchison determined that Carlson, in search warrant
applications, listed three theft convictions for Willson that he
didn't have, court documents show.

Hutchison threw out some of the evidence in the case, and police were
forced to return Willson's seized property, including $14,682, Stowers
said.

Stowers said some of the evidence in that case was not returned,
although he refused to be specific. Gordon signed the evidence sheet
containing the money in the 1997 raid, according to the warrant.

After that investigation, the FBI took over the Willson case, raiding
a half-dozen properties March 18, including Willson's house, at 1244
E. 2th St., where the strip searches occurred.

Stowers, Willson's attorney, said he doubts, with nearly a dozen
officers in Willson's small house, that it is possible that no other
officers saw or knew about the alleged theft.

"Their approach is that (Gordon) is like a cancerous tumor and they
have to somehow excise it," Stowers said. "This is their master plan:

to take it off the table and now declare that they've cleaned house
and now they're clean and pure."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Patrick O'Meara, who is prosecuting
Willson, disputed the significance of the charges against Gordon. "I
don't know if it will have any impact on the case I'm working on," he
said. He declined further comment.

Willson's attorney questioned why prosecutors waited till the Friday
before a three-day holiday weekend to charge Gordon, when Foritano
said they were ready for several weeks.

"If they can afford that treatment to Mr. Gordon, I wish they would
have for my client," Stowers said.

When asked if Gordon received special treatment because he is a former
police officer, Foritano answered, "No."

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady