‘State-of-the-art evidence room makes prosecution more efficient’

The state-of-the-art evidence storage facility of the Department of Public Safety is expected to make the prosecution of criminal cases more efficient, according to Chief Prosecutor Jeffrey Moots.

Moots said one of the things that defense lawyers immediately do is challenge the chain custody of the evidence.

“So, the better the system in DPS for controlling the evidence, the better for us [prosecutors]. It looks like the are going to have a wonderful system to take care of that,” Moots told the Saipan Tribune during the opening of the facility yesterday.

The facility, he said, allows them to segregate the types of evidence, making it easier for retrieval when needed in the investigation and in court.

“It will make the inventory much easier. When you’ve got good inventory control, good inventory accountability, good evidence security, it makes it a lot easier for the lawyers when we have to go to court,” Moots pointed out.

Moots, some staff from the Office of the Public Auditor, Maj. Edward Manalili, Sgt. James Guerrero, Capt. Lawrence Camacho and other police officers toured the facility, which used to be the law clerk’s library.

It was Manalili who pushed for the project and tapped Guerrero to look for federal funding to realize the project.

“I’m happy with this state-of-the-art facility. We’re going to further improve it. Hopefully, we will get it rolling in the right direction,” Manalili said.

Manalili said that DPS, through Guerrero, started looking for funding in June 2005 and that actual work began in August 2005.

Guerrero said the project will be extremely beneficial not just to DPS but to the Attorney General’s Office, particularly the Criminal Division.

He said a lot of criminal cases would be prevented from eventually being dismissed in court as investigators will be able to make sure that evidence are properly preserved and stored.

Guerrero said that despite the embarrassment caused by the audit findings made by OPA last year, he said he is grateful for having been given the opportunity to work on developing plans that are necessary to address the issue.

“As you are well aware, the DPS received enormous criticism over its evidence control practices and the state of the evidence facility in various forms of media reports late last year,” he said.

Many of the articles that were published were sourced out of an OPA report that was made public.

“They were not favorable to our standing; that had apparently led to disputes between the previous management of this department and the OPA,” Guerrero said.

The audit was conducted at the request of then DPS Commissioner Edward C. Camacho, Guerrero said.

“Today, I wish to commend the personnel of the OPA who performed the audit for having produced such a thorough report of their findings,” he said.

Guerrero thanked Manalili and Capt. Camacho for handling the project prudently “so that our department could work toward compliance.”

He also commended Ric Lee, sales manager of Sam Electronics Corp., for giving DPS a huge discount to make the necessary improvements at the facility.

He also thanked Kay Inos and John Cruz of the Criminal Justice Planning agency, the previous and present program managers of the Crime Scene Investigation Enhancement Project “for having supported the acquisition and release of federal sub-grant assistance.”

“I am proud to announce the completion of the interior renovation and installation of enhanced security measures equipment at our department’s evidence storage facility,” Guerrero said.

Lee explained that the whole system is automated.

“All the doors are in a five-hour back up unit. The whole premises actually has a 24-hour and longer back-up unit for all the doors,” he said.

The programming for the door system is custom built for the 17 doors, Lee said, as he explained other many security features of the facility.