State's Attorney Meets With Sheriff On Evidence Audit

State's Attorney Jerry Hill met Wednesday morning with Sheriff Susan Benton at the Highlands County Sheriff's Office about the evidence audit she released publicly in April.

Benton could not be reached for comment, but she released a letter she wrote to Hill.

Hill did return a call on Wednesday afternoon, saying he also would issue a press release, but would not discuss the matter by telephone.

"We're going to get answers," Hill said. "The public has a right to know, and it's going to be cleared up."

However, Hill made plain the subjects he asked her about in an Aug. 29 letter to Benton.

"Last year, I began to hear of concerns about the Highlands County Sheriff's Office evidence room. It is now September 2008. I have waited patiently in an effort to see if you were going to resolve the issues surrounding the evidence in your custody," his letter began.

Benton said in April that 33 pieces of DNA evidence and a gun were missing. The 33 items were in three boxes that had been returned from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Crime Lab in Fort Myers. The inventory team believes they were set by the trash and accidentally removed by a biohazard service, which picks up and incinerates evidence containing blood and semen.

The sheriff said in April she consulted with Assistant State's Attorney Steve Houchin, who is in charge of the Highlands County office. Benton said Houchin told her no cases will be dismissed. However, Houchin has never confirmed Benton's statement.

Hill's letter also was not so certain: "There are some serious cases that may be adversely impacted. Answers are needed sooner rather than later, as evidentiary concerns have indeed begun to influence our cases."

At least two of those cases were murders:

Ana Jaramillo, 36, Lake Placid, who was viciously attacked on the morning of March 13, 2007; and

Sue Feathers, owner of a Lake Placid dry cleaners, who was attacked five years ago.

"As you know, we have an ethical obligation to disclose matters favorable to the defense, as such irregularities in the processing or maintenance of evidence," Hill wrote.

Hill then addressed the reports issued by the sheriff's office. Benton said in April that there were two reports, a five-page executive summary, and several hundred pages of computer paper stacked on a table in her office. The larger report couldn't be released, she said, because it included sensitive information.

However, she did not divulge that there was a 13-page report, written by the original leader of the inventory team, which was rewritten by several members of her staff.

"You apparently had two reports issued at your direction," Hill wrote. "Why is one public record and the other not? Why is the second one undated and not authored?"

Benton's audit was a sampling of a percentage of the evidence.

"What has been done to resolve the issues raised in the first audit?" Hill asked. "Has a complete audit been done - or even started, and if so, when?

Benton's reply was illustrated by in her Sept. 10 letter:

She would work with Hill's staff "to resolve any unanswered questions surrounding the issue of the evidence in the custody of the Highlands County Sheriff's Office.

"I would like to review the action steps we committed to achieve:

Review the working inventory document and specifically address each initial concern raised in writing, and articulate the progress made.

Conduct an additional inventory within 30 days, using outside independent oversight as previously arranged by my office to count all guns, drugs, cash, DNA, and 25 percent of the bulk evidence located within the main office evidence location. As directed, this count will not include off-site storage of any grow house evidence," Benton said.

In his letter, the prosecutor wrote to Benton: "Evidence processing and storage is an increasingly large job. It also is most often the key to a successful prosecution and therefore should, and should have, taken precedence over non-essential matters.

"Please let me hear from you immediately. This matter demands your - and now my - immediate attention."

View the documents:
5-page report issued by Sheriff Susan Benton
http://media.tbo.com/tbo/pdfs/090908report.pdf

13-page report issued by Steve Newell audit team
http://media.tbo.com/tbo/pdfs/090908audit.pdf

Letter from the Police Benevolent Association
http://media.tbo.com/tbo/pdfs/090908pba.pdf

Resignation of Steve Newell
http://media.tbo.com/tbo/pdfs/090908resignation.pdf