In Part One of this interview, we spoke with John Calhoon – the Undersheriff for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office (KS) – about the revelations he had when he ran the property and evidence room for six months.
It’s important to mention that John wasn’t new to law enforcement when he was asked to come out of retirement and rejoin the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office – where he had served as the Captain. He was in Law enforcement for nearly 35 years, and when he retired, he had been Chief of Police for Horton, KS.
So, he thought he’d seen it all. Like most law enforcement leaders, the evidence department is usually out of sight, out of mind. But, once he walked through the door to the evidence room, he entered a whole new world; rife with challenges that he had no immediate solutions for.
Without having a state association, John turned to the one source people recommended repeatedly – IAPE. He devoured information as quickly as he could. Then… he pushed up his sleeves and got to work. And it was a LOT of work. He waded through…
- Large sums of cash from old cases
- Misplaced or undocumented evidence in the evidence management system
- Poor tracking of property releases
- Lack of policies and procedures
Even though John was rehired as “a Detective Sergeant who could help with enhancing the evidence room and conducting background investigation,” creating evidence order out of chaos was his primary goal. Part of him must have known that his time was limited in that role (he has a record of being quickly promoted to leadership positions), so he worked like he was on borrowed time.
We could go into how he turned the evidence department around, but that’s a story for another time. The takeaway for John was that while IAPE was a phenomenal resource for information, there needed to be an additional resource closer to home that addressed state-specific laws and regulations.
With over 370 law enforcement agencies in Kansas alone, it was high time they had their own state evidence management association – “It should have happened 30 years ago!” So John is doing what comes naturally to him, leading the cause.
In Part Two of this interview, the conversation took an interesting turn when Kristee asked, “Are you aware of the Coley-Bender case, John… since James brought it up?”
***The case is a classic example of what can happen when all the negatives line up and create the perfect storm. This was the 70’s so technology isn’t what it is today. Manual records and the chance of human error was much greater, coupled with a brand new over-zealous homicide detective, spelled disaster for an ex-boyfriend who was rushed to justice without proper due process. It is a topic near and dear to James’ heart, and he told the story of how he became aware of the case.
James Nally: “One day, I’m at work, and I hear about this guy named Craig Coley who was incarcerated for 39 years in state prison, and then all of a sudden was scientifically exonerated.
So I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a crazy situation. What was going on there?’ A kind of miscarriage of justice happened, right?
I think cops, by nature, are skeptical. So, I was thinking, ‘He just got out because they’ve appealed and don’t want to waste money on things. So they just let him out.’ But after I did a little research, I found an incredible story.
This case was flawed from the beginning. This happened back in 1978. There was a double murder of a lady named Rhonda Wicht and her son Donnie Wicht, who was four years old. She was allegedly raped and then strangled, and Donnie was suffocated. It was a horrific case for the city of Simi Valley. The obvious suspect was the boyfriend – they had just called it quits and had separated for a while – and that was Craig Coley.
He was a Navy veteran. He was a manager at a Howard Johnson restaurant in the late 70s, and his father was an LAPD officer.
The long and short of it is that the detective who worked in the detective bureau… was made aware of this case. After Craig was convicted, all of the courts exhibit evidence was destroyed before the appeals process. To this day, nobody knows how or why that happened.
Seven years later, when they had the first appeal process, all the court evidence was gone.
So the current detective, Mike Bender, looked at the case notes and said, ‘Yeah, something doesn’t look right. I don’t think you have to be in law enforcement long to understand that there are a lot of flaws with this case.
Mike visited Craig Coley to get a statement from him in Tehachapi and immediately realized, ‘Yeah, this guy didn’t do it.’ Mike said, ‘We need to take another look at this case.’ But there was a significant issue… his boss was the original detective who put Coley away.
When Mike broached the topic, his boss said, ‘This was my case. The guy’s guilty. He went to prison and got what he deserved. So don’t waste time on this.’
That’s when bad things started to happen to Detective Bender within the agency. So he resigned. And that’s all that Mike Bender ever wanted to do in life… be a cop.
***Craig Coley – left, Mike Bender – right
So he turned in his gun and his badge, but he continued to work on that case for 20-plus years until a private lab up in the Northern California area discovered some evidence from the case.
Simi Valley had given all their evidence to be analyzed at the Ventura County crime lab. Well, back in the 70s, think about blood evidence. Basically, there was only blood typing. There wasn’t DNA and everything as we know it now.
That evidence had gone to the Ventura County crime lab, which needed additional testing.
So, they sent it to a private lab. That private lab went out of business.
Fast forward to 2017… some detectives from Simi Valley were taking another look at the case, and discovered there was still some DNA available and preserved in the Bay area in California. They determined that Craig Coley did not commit the rape or murder because the DNA profiles weren’t even close.
In the meantime – during that 39-year window that Craig Coley was incarcerated – Mike Bender (the detective who gave up his career to pursue the truth for Craig) moved from Simi Valley and eventually settled in Carlsbad, California. When Craig’s dad passed away, the Bender’s (Mike and his wife Cynthia) moved Craig’s mom in to an assisted living home nearby. They are incredible people!
Unfortunately, both of Craig’s parents passed away while he was in custody. It’s a really sad story about misconduct in investigations and poor evidence management. It’s crazy. It’s surreal.
When I started teaching my evidence management class, I said, ‘What better way to make an impression on Evidence Tech’s than to bring these guys in – Craig Coley and his long-time advocate Mike Bender – to tell their story? People wept openly in class. Craig’s journey reinforced the message that everything you touch has the potential to change someone’s life. So do your job, no shortcuts, and take pride in the work you do.”
John Calhoon: “Did they develop another suspect?”
James Nally: “They have some leads, but they haven’t made any arrests on that case, so it’s still open.
A documentary is in the works, but everyone is hopeful to finish with the true suspects being arrested and the murders solved.
Of course, he received settlements from the state of California and the city of Simi Valley.
But just to hear him talk about getting out of custody and trying things for the first time is funny. The correction officers who drove him to Mike’s house on Thanksgiving Eve – it was a loooooong drive from Lancaster to Carlsbad, especially on Thanksgiving evening, right?
There was a lot of traffic, so it took several hours, and the corrections guy stopped at a Starbucks and asked Craig if he wanted anything. And Craig was like, What’s Starbucks?
They explained that it was coffee. He said, I don’t know what they have. Just get me something that you’d like. He tells the story of his first sip of a caramel macchiato as being heaven in a cup. The first place he wanted to eat when he got out of custody was In-N-Out Burger.
Anyway, it’s a great (and awful) story. I hope that one day, they do bring the killer to justice and take that burden off of Craig. Even some of Rhonda’s family members are still not convinced that he isn’t the one responsible. That’s a horrible place to be in your life when there’s that shadow of doubt about who you are and what you’ve done.”
Kristee Ulerick: “Boy, when you think you’re having a bad day, think about 39 years!”
James Nally: “Oh yeah. You know, I’m 100% pro-law enforcement. A Veteran as well. And I thought… This stuff can’t happen to good people in the United States, but unfortunately, it does. I’m not a big fan of defensive attorneys, but there are specific programs that I’m 100 percent in favor of, like the Innocence Project.
But, anyone in prison can now say, I was arrested and convicted before DNA technology. So, I’d like to have the case reexamined. That’s great, but you’ve got to have some meat in the game, right?
The Innocence Project says, If we spend time and money to re-analyze your evidence and that further proves your guilt, we may add time to your sentence. So it wouldn’t behoove anyone to do that. To jump up and say, Hey, check me out, unless you really didn’t do the crime.”
After closing that topic, John said…
John Calhoon: “I’m looking at the guns in Kristee’s background, and I have a question for you guys. I don’t know California’s gun destruction laws, but I attended a background investigation school in Nebraska a few months ago. They had a brand new facility, so I wanted to go in and see their evidence room – which they were kind enough to show me – but I learned that Nebraska is a state where when they get destruction orders on guns, they have to grind them up to dispose of them. How many states are doing that?”
Kristee Ulerick: “I’m from Kentucky, and when they get destruction orders, their guns go to the Kentucky State Police. What they do with them, I don’t know.”
John Calhoon: “I’m not a big gun nut, but I just can’t believe that when they give us destruction orders, they have to destroy the guns. In Kansas, we don’t do that, but in Nebraska, they do. I just wonder if it’s pretty popular nationwide to do that or if that’s kind of unique.”
James Nally: “In California, the penal code says that we can release the gun to the owner. Obviously, they have to go through state-mandated background checks, and California’s DOJ has taken it partially off of the evidence staff and requires the registered owner to pay some fees. It’s a money-maker but also tightens up the responsibilities of the owners. They have to register with the DOJ and put all their horsepower in there to petition to get their guns back. They pay a fee, of course. Once they get their authorization letter back, then they have 30 days to pick up that gun or those guns. So it’s a whole regimented thing.
In lieu of releasing them to the owner, we can convert firearms for department use. We don’t necessarily like to do that because you don’t always know what history that firearm has or what history is going to pop up on that firearm one day. Maybe it was used in a crime from another state or county, which taught us a lesson.
For example, in the early 90s, there was a guy named Buford O’Neal Furrow Jr. who went into a Jewish synagogue and shot up a bunch of people. His gun came back as once being an institution gun – meaning it was owned by law enforcement. Many agencies saw the liability in that and didn’t want to risk the negative publicity for any similar incidents.
***Buford O’Neal Furrow Jr.
Law Enforcement Agencies started saying, Hey, let’s destroy these guns. If you adhere to the California Penal Code, you can “Destroy, Release to owner or FFL, convert to department use.” (Be careful with this one. I’m not suggesting you convert to department use…..but if you must, make sure you have accountability between you and your armory so that those firearms go back to the evidence unit when they’re at the end of service life to be destroyed.)
The penal code also allows for the auction of firearms, but very few agencies do that. Maybe a couple of the rural sheriff’s departments in California. And how they do their auction is actually more impressive than the fact that they can auction. Let’s say your county has 12 Federal Firearms Dealers (FFL) that are all in good standing. They put all those names in a hat, then they pull one of those names, and that person is required to do the transfers and can not bid on the lots this round.
The auction house works with the other 11 FFLs, who can place their bids in a silent auction forum.”
John Calhoon: “In Kansas, we can go to FFL dealers, convert to law enforcement, and obviously, we can return on it. Most of the time, when we have a gun, it’s drug-related, or they end up being convicted felons, but not always. If they’re not convicted and not felons, then we return to owners.”
(John noticed Kristee’s gun storage background and asked for a picture because the evidence room doesn’t have an up-to-date gun storage system.)
John Calhoon: “If you saw how our guns are stored now, you’d have a cow. We have guns that have been here since the late 90s that are untagged, thrown in little boxes, thrown in big boxes with no evidence tags. It’s just a mess.
I would like to build something that looks like yours. Nice shelving that we probably won’t be able to afford, but we could build something similar. We could put our guns up neatly like that, as opposed to where they are.”
James Nally: “I can tell you from experience that putting them in boxes is really the way to go. It’s cleaner, more organized, and the boxes protect from damage or contamination.
John Calhoon: “We’re pretty good now about putting handguns in boxes, but a lot of the old ones I found were just in plastic bags or just thrown in a box. We have gun boxes for rifles and handguns, but our rifles aren’t in boxes yet.”
James Nally: “You can use paper, whether it’s cardboard or an envelope. Because if you put metal inside any type of plastic or poly bag, it leads to rust and degradation of the firearms. Do you have evidence folks check the guns when they come through your lockers? Do they check it to see if it’s safe? Because that’s a big argument in California now. For the longest period of time, we were always told, Hey, if an evidence gun comes through, you just put it on the shelf. You just process it through and put it on the shelf.”
John Calhoon: “We don’t because it’s evidence sealed with initials and everything, and it’s in the box. But if I get one that’s not marked, “gun is unloaded,” “gun is safe,” then I’ll rescind it and go back to the deputy and say, Hey, did you unload this?
The KBI basically will not accept guns into their evidence unless you write on there: ‘Gun is safe and unloaded’.”
James Nally: “Finally, California POST created specific verbiage that says if you’re forensically trained to inspect evidence firearms, have the correct PPE, and are in the correct environment to open that firearm (To ensure it’s made safe), then you can go ahead and do that. If you’re not, then leave it sealed, make your notes to process as far as you can, and put it on the shelf.
Well, Chief, thank you so much for taking time with us today. It’s great to talk to you and get your perspective on evidence management from an administrator. We greatly appreciate you and your time and wish the best to you and your new role as Undersheriff.”
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