NEWS

Prosecutors ask state police to audit Sheriff's Office evidence room

Matt Mencarini
Lansing State Journal

LANSING - The Michigan State Police are reviewing a request from Ingham County prosecutors to conduct an independent audit of the Sheriff's Office evidence room days after it was revealed that a sewage leak and poor record keeping resulted in potentially hundreds of pieces of evidence being compromised.

The issue wasn't disclosed to prosecutors for years.

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Ingham County Prosecuting Attorney Gretchen Whitmer said she not only requested the audit, but also requested money from the county to pay for a review of past and current cases to see what might be affected.

"I don’t have confidence that I have a real sense of the problem," she said. "Communication (with the Sheriff's Office) has not been open."

The State Journal reported Wednesday that, as recently as last month, a high-ranking Sheriff's Office official misled prosecutors about the evidence issue. Estimates of how many pieces of evidence are missing, damaged beyond use, unable to be connected to a case or lacking proper chain-of-custody reports range from dozens to hundreds.

Sheriff’s Office officials interviewed this week gave conflicting accounts of the evidence problems, the contributing factors and what was to be disclosed to prosecutors. Officials attributed much of the issue to evidence kept in a room known to have sewage leaks and to a major leak in 2012.

Documents and emails the State Journal obtained show there was a divide within the department, with some pushing for prosecutors to be notified and others advocating to keep the issue quiet.

"Not afraid of it," Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth said of the independent audit. "It is what it is. There’s evidence missing, and we know there’s evidence missing. And that's what it’s going to find."

Sheriff's Office misled prosecutors about evidence issues

Wriggelsworth has defended his department's handling of the issue and the decision not to notify prosecutors or county commissioners. He said this week that he didn't think his office needed to disclose the issue because they weren't sure how many pieces of evidence or how many cases are affected.

Ingham County Commissioner Bryan Crenshaw, who has chaired the Board of Commissioners' Law and Courts Committee since 2013, said he "wholeheartedly would support" prosecutors reviewing past and current cases because it "protects the integrity" of investigations.

He added that he spoke with Whitmer on Friday about her request. Crenshaw said the county will have to discuss where money could be moved from to pay for the review.

The evidence issue has led to at least one case being dismissed, a six-year-old drug case in which charges hadn't yet been issued. Officials said the affected evidence includes guns, money and smaller items such as receipts or driver's licenses.

Contact Matt Mencarini at (517) 267-1347 or mmencarini@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter@MattMencarini.