LOSS OF EVIDENCE FORCES MANAGER'S SUSPENSION

Employee Oversaw Locker That Held Missing Drugs

DELAND -- The man in charge of the evidence locker from which nearly
half a million dollars' worth of cocaine and marijuana disappeared was
suspended by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office last week, officials
said Wednesday.

Tim Wallace, the civilian evidence manager, also was one of two
employees reprimanded in October after evidence in two murder cases
was misplaced because of "laziness" and "ineptness," records show.

Gary Davidson, a sheriff's spokesman, said Wallace's suspension last
week was part of an ongoing internal-affairs investigation. He would
not discuss the nature of that investigation.

Wallace is the only evidence-section employee who has been suspended,
Davidson said.

Wallace could not be reached for comment. A woman who answered the
door at his New Smyrna Beach home Wednesday said, "He's not going to
be speaking."

Investigators have not named a suspect in the drug thefts, though they
say an arrest is imminent and an internal investigation is under way.

On Monday, sheriff's officials revealed that at least 370 pounds of
marijuana and 859 grams -- about 1.89 pounds -- of cocaine were taken
from the evidence compound during the past two years, putting at least
four cases in jeopardy.

Sheriff's investigators learned that the drugs were missing earlier
this month after they went looking for evidence in a case in which 577
grams of cocaine are now missing.

State prosecutors noticed in September that something was amiss with
the drug evidence deputies purported to have gathered against
Francisco Paco Mercado, 56.

Mercado had been arrested in June and was charged in July with
trafficking in cocaine -- 400 or more grams -- but the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement testing lab only received about half of
the 577 grams deputies said they seized.

The State Attorney's Office reduced the charge against Mercado to a
felony count of trafficking in cocaine -- 200 to 400 grams -- on Oct.
28, but sheriff's investigators didn't learn of the discrepancy until
Jan. 8. They later found that all of the cocaine seized in that case
was missing from the agency's evidence compound near DeLand.

If convicted of the lesser charge, Mercado faces a mandatory minimum
sentence of seven years in prison and a $100,000 fine. The more
serious crime would have carried a mandatory 15-year minimum and
$250,000 fine.

The same day prosecutors reduced the charge against Mercado, the
Sheriff's Office reprimanded Wallace and another employee for
mishandling evidence in two other cases.

On Oct. 28, Wallace, who had been promoted from evidence technician to
manager in May, was given a written reprimand and was told he would be
given an extra 90 days to complete the first part of a yearlong
training program.

He was required to complete that training to maintain his job and earn
a raise from his current salary of about $27,000.

According to the reprimand, Wallace knew in September that evidence
from one of the murder cases was missing, but he only told a
supervisor about the situation after being asked about it a few weeks
later.

The reprimand also shows that a sign-in log at the four-building
compound near DeLand did not accurately show who had access to the
evidence, among other problems at the facility that investigators said
led to the evidence being misplaced.

Deputy Steve Edwards, who also works in the evidence section, was
reprimanded for not returning the misplaced evidence to the proper
case files, records show.