KAILUA-KONA — The Department of the Attorney General maintains its silence on the status of a stolen drug evidence case involving the Hawaii Police Department.
On Tuesday, Special Assistant to the Attorney General James Walther stated there was no new information regarding the case since the last time West Hawaii Today inquired in July. On Wednesday, he confirmed that was still the case.
It has now been over six months since Hawaii police released it had been investigating one of its own for reportedly stealing drug evidence from the Hilo evidence storage facility.
In March, Hawaii County Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Roth looked over the pages-long investigation and determined it would be a conflict of interest for his office to prosecute. He forwarded the case to the Attorney General’s Office in Honolulu. That office determines whether the case will be handled in-house or be assigned to another county prosecutor’s office, which is common practice.
“We’re referring it to avoid even the appearance of impropriety or conflicts,” Roth said in March.
On Wednesday, Roth said, he was unaware of what office in the state was screening the case for charges.
“They would let us know that they declined the case, but that has not happened,” he added.
The initial police investigation began last fall when cocaine, originally recovered in 2014, was found to be lighter than reported during its initial recovery. The discrepancy was discovered when the evidence was being weighed in preparation to utilize a small quantity of the cocaine for training purposes.
The investigation identified a sworn employee as a person of interest for the missing portions of the drug, police said. The employee was placed on administrative leave without pay and subsequent audits of other evidence recovered by the officer revealed other anomalies, which revealed cases where there was a weight discrepancy in marijuana concentrate, (hashish), from two separate investigations.
The detective retired prior to the completion of the investigation and is no longer an employee with the county. The case was formally referred to Hawaii County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on March 2.
Because no arrest was made in the case, West Hawaii Today has been unable to confirm or report the identity of the former police officer. The newspaper, however, has confirmed that the sworn employee had served about 26 years with the department.
Police Commission President Peter Hendricks said Wednesday he hasn’t heard any updates on the case.
“By and large I’d like to know more about the investigation,” he said.
With more information about the case, Hendricks said, the commission could determine two things.
“One, if someone in the police department is responsible they’re held accountable and two, make sure when we find out the details, it doesn’t happen again,” Hendricks said.
Police Chief Paul Ferreira said in July that the department has already made adjustments to its procedures in how it handles the withdrawal of evidence from the evidence locker.
That includes requiring an officer to get supervisor approval for retrieval; audits and inspections of randomly selected drug evidence seized; in addition to annual random inspections of police evidence storage facilities conducted by the department’s Office of Professional Standards.