KAILUA-KONA — The state attorney general’s office 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 said there was no new information since the last time West Hawaii Today inquired in July. On Wednesday, he confirmed that was still the case.
It has been more than six months since the Police Department released that it was 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 AG’s office in Honolulu. That office determines whether the case will be handled in-house or assigned to another county prosecutor’s office, which is common practice.
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 an amount of cocaine, originally recovered in 2014, was found to be lighter than reported during its initial recovery. The discrepancy was discovered when the evidence was weighed in preparation to use 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 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 Roth’s office on March 2.
The sworn employee served about 26 years with the Police Department.
Police Commission President Peter Hendricks said Wednesday he hasn’t heard any updates on the case.
Police Chief Paul Ferreira said in July that the department already made adjustments to its procedures in how it handles the withdrawal of evidence from the evidence locker.
Email Tiffany DeMasters at tdemasters@westhawaiitoday.com.
