The story about the troubles at the Asheville Police Department’s property room took a harsh twist, as told by Joel Burgess of the Asheville Citizen-Times:
Investigations into the city Police Department’s handling of evidence have forced the release on bond of at least four men charged with violent crimes, including one arrested in a 2001 rape case.
His companion story here:
Police have lost track of at least 27 guns seized as evidence, along with dozens of packages of cash and drugs, according to audit findings released Monday.
The Police Department audit — and a separate case in which 397 pills of the prescription painkiller oxycodone pills were discovered missing — have triggered a review of all 13,889 evidence room items deemed high-risk, authorities said.
The audit sampled about 10 percent of items logged as evidence from as far back as 1993.
Police ordered the review after the city’s longtime evidence room manager was disciplined in January for unspecified reasons and resigned 31 days later.