CHIEF SAYS MONEY BELONGED TO NO ONE

No Charges Filed Yet In Case Of Cash Missing From Evidence Room

MOORESVILLE - The $22,000 missing from the police department evidence room
is mostly money police seized in drug or gambling cases, Chief John Crone
said Friday.

No crime victims claimed the money, it wasn't needed in court and no one
audited the evidence room, he said. That's why police did not notice the
thousands of missing dollars until last month, when two officers preparing
for a case couldn't find $4.

Crone called in the State Bureau of Investigation, which continues to
investigate. He confronted Debbie Compton, the only employee other than the
chief with a key to the room, and suspended her without pay.

The total of the missing money swelled to $22,436.28.

No charges have been filed. Compton could not be reached for comment Friday.

Crone declined to say how many cases were involved. They date to 1999, but
he said the date the case began doesn't reveal when the money was taken.

In most cases where money is missing, Crone said, the case has gone through
the court system.

Crime victims can collect evidence that was stolen from them after trial,
but in cases involving drug or gambling seizures, there were no victims to
ask for the money. Eventually, it would have been donated to the school
system, he said.

Compton, a police employee since 1993, served as records supervisor, Crone
said. Like the records supervisor before her, she became the evidence
custodian, in early 2000, he said.

Her job was to take possession of evidence and keep a record of each time
someone asked for it.

Crone said it was not unusual for a civilian employee to perform the
record-keeping task, though he said larger departments often assign sworn
officers to the evidence room.

Crone is now the only person in the police department with access to the
evidence room, he said. "There's not going to be anything else missing."