STATE POLICE DRUG PROCEDURES AT ISSUE

Former Unit Head Testifies At Trial Of Ex-Sergeant

DEDHAM -- The former head of the embattled State Police Narcotics
Inspection Unit admitted under oath yesterday that he violated his own
orders and failed to properly document a large batch of seized marijuana
destined for the drug evidence bunker.

Lieutenant Michael Kelly testified at the trial of former sergeant Timothy
White, who prosecutors say stole up to 27 pounds of cocaine that was
supposed to have been destroyed. The inadequate policies and sloppy
procedures in the narcotics inspection unit during Kelly's tenure have
become a focus of the trial. Prosecutors and defense lawyers are using them
to make their case. In the trial that began this week in Norfolk Superior
Court, state prosecutors have alleged that lax procedures and supervision
in the unit allowed White to steal drugs with impunity.

Defense lawyer Robert George, meanwhile, has argued that the records are
too unreliable to prove White's guilt and that a common practice of
troopers storing drug evidence in their homes overnight allowed White's
wife, Maura, to steal them.

White, 42, is charged with attempted murder -- accused of holding a gun to
his wife's head -- plus cocaine trafficking, marijuana and ecstasy
distribution, as well as eight other related charges. Beginning in the fall
of 2002, prosecutors allege, White and his wife began to deal large
quantities of cocaine with Robert Crisafulli, 49, of Hyde Park, and Nancy
White, a family friend who is not related to the couple.

Kelly was replaced as commander, and the narcotics unit came under scrutiny
after the allegations against White surfaced. Yesterday, Kelly testified
that when he took over the unit, there were no written procedures for the
sergeants who picked up seized drugs at State Police barracks around the
state and brought them back to the drug bunker at State Police headquarters
in Framingham. The sergeants assigned to the unit were in charge of keeping
an inventory of the drugs and destroying them at an incinerator in Millbury
after they were no longer needed as evidence.

"Is it fair to say that the record-keeping in your unit was lax at best
when you arrived?" George asked Kelly.

"It did not meet up with my personal standards," Kelly replied. Kelly
testified yesterday that he tried to firm up the standards in the unit. But
he also said that, because of manpower shortages, he was sometimes forced
to break a longstanding rule that no trooper would be allowed to transport
drugs to the bunker from outlying barracks alone.

George, however, used the department's records to question Kelly's
assertion. George showed the jury a copy of a report that said Kelly took
possession of 13 marijuana plants seized by the US Drug Enforcement Agency
in 2002. Kelly admitted that there was no corresponding entry on the drug
bunker's entry log for that day showing that he brought the drugs to
Framingham. Kelly insisted that he did turn in the drugs.

"But, just from the paperwork, doesn't it appear that the drugs were never
returned?" George said.

"It does look like I never signed the ledger," Kelly replied. "But I know
for a fact that I did turn them in."

Kelly also denied that he allowed troopers to take drugs home with them,
despite an assertion by George that a female sergeant under his command
told internal affairs investigators that he did.

Kelly testified yesterday that procedures were tightened and staffing in
the unit was tripled after his departure.

A State Police spokeswoman declined to confirm that yesterday or comment on
the current procedures for safeguarding drug evidence. Kelly also testified
that he participated in a search of Timothy and Maura White's home after
the sergeant was arrested on charges that he held his service pistol to his
wife's head in January 2003.

Kelly said various drugs were found in the home, including cocaine and 15
yellow ecstasy pills marked with a Volkswagen "VW" logo. He said those
pills matched the description of ecstasy pills missing from the bunker
after White's arrest. Under questioning from George, Kelly also said the
pills were found in Maura White's jewelry box and that Timothy White had
not been in the home for 11 days before the search.

Maura White and Nancy White have been given immunity from prosecution in
return for their cooperation with prosecutors. Crisafulli agreed to a deal
with prosecutors for his testimony.