BIG QUESTIONS IN HEROIN CASE

A police detective should not be able to waltz into the property room
at the Madison Police Department and remove evidence related to
criminal cases he has little or nothing to do with.

This is especially true when the evidence is heroin.

Investigators believe Madison Police Detective Jeffery Hughes got away
with removing bags of heroin from the property room at least 10 times.
The evidence so far suggests he may have been obtaining the drugs for
personal use.

Nobody seemed to pay much attention until Hughes crashed his car into
a guardrail Nov. 20 on Interstate 39-90 near Edgerton while off-duty.
He was badly injured.

Investigators say they found a ripped open bag of heroin at the scene
of the crash. They say they found needles and a tube commonly used for
snorting drugs. Hughes had drawn publicity in the past for undergoing
surgery to relieve severe headaches.

The investigation continues with a slew of unanswered
questions:

* Why didn't anybody seem to notice or flag what Hughes was up to until it was too late?

* Did Hughes ever return any of the drugs he is accused of removing from the property room?

* How long did the apparent ruse go on?

* Can property room clerks, who are civilians, deny requests from officers?

* Has other evidence been tampered with or removed?

* Have any criminal cases been compromised?

* What will the police department do to make sure this doesn't happen again?

As to that last and most important question, Police Chief Noble Wray
has wisely asked the Dane County Sheriff 's Office to investigate the
whole affair. Yet Wray and his department have released little
information to reassure the public that sensitive evidence will be
properly handled, processed and protected.

A short press release last week announced a new rule that is now in
place for handling sensitive evidence in the Madison police property
room. Officers who want to remove money, firearms, drugs and items of
"very high monetary value " will need to get a commanding officer 's
permission. Previously, any sworn police personnel could apparently
sign out just about any evidence they wanted.

The change makes sense. Law enforcement experts tell the State Journal
that the department 's previous practice of allowing officers to check
out evidence for testing on cases they weren't assigned to was rare
and much too loose.

Chief Wray won't speak publicly about the issue until the Hughes
investigation is completed, his press release states. When that
happens, Wray will have a lot of explaining and reassuring to do.

He needs to be frank with the public. He needs to detail what went
wrong. He needs to convince the public that similar mistakes won 't
happen again.