Defense attorney John Fuller last summer needed to get back more than $9,000 seized from his client during a drug arrest.
But when Fuller, armed with a court order, went to both the police Central Evidence and Property division and the clerk of court's office at Criminal District Court, he was told neither had the money, which he said belongs to his client's mother.
The only other agency that possibly could have the money was the Orleans Parish district attorney's office.
A DA investigator checked out all of the evidence in the case from the police evidence room the same day it was supposed to go to trial, Sept. 21, 2007, said Bob Young, a spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department. Investigators often pick up evidence from the police when it is needed in court, such as for a trial.
But the defendants, Jesse Perez and Clifford Havard, didn't go to trial that day, having pleaded guilty to being in the possession of various drugs when stopped by police in April 2006.
After the two men pleaded guilty, the district attorney's office apparently didn't check the money or other evidence back in with either the clerk of court or the NOPD.
Dalton Savwoir, a spokesman for new District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, who was sworn in last month, declined to comment beyond saying the office would investigate the matter.
Fuller's missing money is the second case in less than a month in which a defense attorney has sought to retrieve a client's cash and come up empty-handed.
Last month, lawyer Rick Teissier discovered that about $19,000 of his client's money -- the $100 and $50 bills from a $35,903 stash of cash -- had been taken from the NOPD Central Evidence and Property division.
NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley has acknowledged that money is missing or stolen and said the matter would be investigated.
Fuller plans to file a motion Monday to compel the district attorney's office or NOPD to produce the $9,193 seized from his client, which belonged to Perez's mother, the owner of a store in Jefferson Parish.
When stopped by police, Perez was bringing the money to his mother from her safe at their house. The mother had a check cashing operation at her store and needed to have enough cash on hand, said Fuller, adding that they have documentation to back up their claims.
Police stopped Perez in a car with Havard. As the police approached, they saw the men "frantically" trying to hide things in the car, according to a police report. The police discovered a bottle of pills, 2 lines of white powder on the center console and the money.
Perez's mother has had a heart attack and experienced a series of health setbacks since her son's arrest in April 2006 and has not been able to spend as much time keeping her stores successful, Fuller said.
"She really, really needs the money at some point, " he said.
Fuller first began looking for the evidence in July, when Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter signed the order allowing him to retrieve the $9,193.
Because Perez and Havard pleaded guilty -- and the evidence therefore wasn't introduced at court -- the evidence wouldn't have ended up in the possession of the clerk of criminal court, said Warren Spears, the head of the clerk's evidence operation.
"We never received any evidence on that particular case and that defendant, " Spears said.
And Young said the police have no record of the evidence being brought back to the NOPD Central Evidence and Property room.
The notation in the evidence room's paperwork shows the evidence was signed out on Sept. 21, 2007, by R. Hamilton, Young said. An investigator named Ryan Hamilton is employed at the Orleans Parish district attorney's office, according to a recent employee staff list provided by the agency several weeks ago.
Although the district attorney's office sometimes seizes money tied to drug arrests, no forfeiture paperwork that would allow the agency to take the cash was ever filed, according to court records.
Source: nola.com
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