Miscellaneous

Just Leave It in a Brown Paper Bag on the Courthouse Steps

By Anne Skove, Esq.

If you lose a glove in Gotham, it might turn up here. But we're not sure where the Worcester Superior Court can find missing evidence from a 1990 case.

Here's a description: cocaine, kilo-sized. (A kilo, for those who ignored the schools' attempts to cram the metric system down our throats, is about 2.679 pounds.)

Also missing:

• Smaller quantities of cocaine (perhaps a gill?)


• Heroin


• Marijuana


• Misc. other evidence from cases dating from 1990-2004

All courts (we hope) have rules regarding the storage and handling of evidence. Worcester does. An inventory was undertaken in preparation for a move to a new facility, and while most evidence was present and accounted for, a few items seem to have slipped through the crack, er, crack!

This could happen anywhere. But for the inventory, the missing exhibits would have remained unnoticed. When was the last time your court conducted an inventory? Maybe it's time for some Lunar New Year cleaning!

See Kilo of Cocaine among Unaccounted-for Evidence, Gary V. Muarray, Telegram & Gazette (January 27, 2008).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on January 27, 2008 (boomark / email).