Colorado Springs – The improper purging of evidence in 553 police cases – characterized by city officials as a “colossal” breakdown in law enforcement – could damage the prosecution of a serial rapist and harm efforts to pursue criminals in dozens of other crimes, authorities say.
And the scope of the problem – which includes discarded evidence in at least six homicide cases and six suspected killings – keeps expanding as the district attorney’s office told The Denver Post that evidence was lost in an additional murder case not yet disclosed by police.
“These (553) cases are just one piece of the total picture,” said Lisa Kirkman, chief deputy district attorney for El Paso County. Her office is helping police dig into an additional 70,000 misdemeanor and felony cases that include other homicides. “We’re still moving forward and analyzing impacts in a lot of other cases.”
For the first time since problems were discovered in December, Colorado Springs officials Friday provided a partial accounting to the public of what was lost and how it happened – eliciting dismay from City Council members and others about the depth of the problems.
According to the report, evidence was lost in:
- 75 active cases, including eight in which warrants were issued. These were characterized as the most severely affected of the 553 cases. The remainder cover inactive investigations or cases without suspects.
- Eight cases involving active arrest warrants.
- Six homicides, four of which are open cases.
- Six missing-person cases, which also are possible homicides, including the 1986 abduction of infant Christopher Abeyta from his crib and the 2001 disappearance of 83-year-old J.D. Ferguson from his home. In the Abeyta case, police acknowledged destroying 16 of 20 items. Forty-four of 63 items were purged in the Ferguson investigation.
City Manager Lorne Kramer described the failures as rising to “colossal proportions” before distributing the 18-page report authored by Police Chief Luis Velez. The report blames weak controls and an evidence supervisor who veered outside proper policies, including a ban on disposing of evidence tied to homicide cases.
That supervisor, Terry Lauhon, is on paid administrative leave and has been replaced with a sergeant from the department’s training academy.
Kramer sought to assure the public he would pursue accountability at “all levels,” saying several investigations, including an internal-affairs probe into misconduct and a city auditor review, are still in the works.
The chief’s report sketched a picture of disarray in the evidence room during recent years as incoming materials – flowing into storage at a rate of 44,000 pieces annually – overwhelmed inventory space. Flawed computer data entry also compounded problems.
Velez and Kramer again stressed that criminal activity has not been found.
