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Highlands Today

State Attorney, Sheriff Agree On Second Inventory

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: September 12, 2008

SEBRING - A press release from State Attorney Jerry Hill says Sheriff Susan Benton has agreed to account for all guns, drugs, cash and DNA evidence.

"Yesterday, Sheriff Benton and I met for nearly two hours to discuss evidence handling and procedures," Hill wrote in the Sept. 11 release.

"Within 30 days, under the supervision of an outside, independent agency, the following will be accomplished:

• "All guns not documented as properly destroyed will be accounted for.

• "All drugs and cash will be accounted for.

• "All DNA evidence will be accounted for.

• "One in four of the more than 35,000 bulk evidence items will be inventoried."

The sheriff's attorney, Mike Durham, described the original leader of a controversial evidence audit "a disgruntled former employee," whose inventory has a bunch of misinformation in it."

However, Benton and Hill agreed to revisit Stephen Newell's report.

"Certain issues were raised in a lengthy report by a former employee who reviewed the evidence room," Hill's press release said. "Each point raised will be responded to."
Newell was a 34-year police veteran, a former watch commander of the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, and an assistant police chief at the Pahokee Police Department when he was asked by Benton to inventory the evidence room.
Newell had a distinguished career, Durham admitted, "but it was not an accurate report. That's why the sheriff lost confidence in it. Over time, we are discovering more items that were missing or misfiled, and it shows it was not an accurate inventory."

That includes evidence in the unsolved murder of Sue Feathers, a Lake Placid dry cleaner who was found dead in her store five years ago on Dal Hall Boulevard. in Lake Placid.

"We reviewed the Feathers case, and lo and behold, we found the missing evidence," Durham said.

More than half of the items listed as missing in Newell's original 13-page report have been found, the attorney said. "Some of it was misfiled."

Hill conceded Benton's point, that evidence from more than 60 grow house busts have brought thousands of items into the inventory and overwhelmed her staff.

"Grow houses in Highlands County have created monstrous evidentiary problems," Hill wrote. "An exhaustive inventory of all grow house evidence simply cannot be accomplished within 30 days."

The results of the inventory and Benton's response to Newell's report will be public record, Durham said.

Benton had planned, within the next 60 to 90 days, to reorder the evidence room, Durham said. She planned to work with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to order mobile shelving units, dispose of old inventory, and set up a team to inventory the entire evidence unit.

"I feel confident that everybody's questions are going to be answered," Benton said.

Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863 386-5828

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