FORT PIERCE, Fla. — An internal investigation at the Fort Pierce Police Department revealed decades of mismanaged evidence, which led to cases being dropped or people losing their personal belongings.
Now, changes are being made to prevent this from happening in the future.
Maj. Eric Chan tells WPTV’s Meghan McRoberts how audit led to change in procedures
According to an investigative summary, Chief Diane Hobley-Burney requested an internal investigation in February 2024 to look into the conduct of evidence technician Christoph Dreizehnter after receiving allegations of mishandling evidence.
She learned that Det. Robert Sarmiento was the lead detective on a case involving a felon in possession of a firearm. Sarmiento said he had a pretrial hearing in February 2024 for a trial starting the next day. While reviewing materials with the assistant state attorney, Sarmiento learned that out of 27 items submitted as evidence, only 6 could be located in the evidence room.
Items had been destroyed or were missing, according to the report.
The findings revealed that Dreizehnter mishandled evidence by disposing of it contrary to policy and state law. This led to court cases being dismissed, and in Sarmiento's case, the jury found the defendant not guilty, Sarmiento said.
Instead of firing Dreizehnter, he was allowed to resign.
Maj. Eric Chan initiated an audit of the entire evidence room, dating back more than 40 years.
“We did a complete top-to-bottom audit of the place,” Chan told WPTV’s Meghan McRoberts.
The full audit, according to Chan, found 9,115 items unaccounted for.
“Those numbers don’t tell the whole story. That could be just somebody not checking a box correctly, and that item was returned properly at the time,” Chan explained.
The investigation found "many discrepancies" throughout the audit. Some pieces of evidence were marked as stored but not found on the shelf. Others were listed as destroyed but were actually stored on the shelf.
Maj. Eric Chan talks about how missing evidence brings doubt into people’s minds
Chan said he was more concerned about the status of evidence for the 67 active felony and misdemeanor cases at the time.
“Out of the 67 we reviewed, 11 were found to have some sort of discrepancy, falling within categories of unaccounted for, improperly returned, destroyed, etc.,” Chan said.
Of those 11, Chan said two cases had to be dropped because of mismanaged evidence. Both were drug cases where paraphernalia had been destroyed prematurely.
“We actually have to have the evidence to prosecute,” Chan said. “It always brings doubt into people’s minds if you don’t have your I’s dotted and your T’s crossed.”
Other missing items weren’t evidentiary but were personal belongings of people in jail.
That included Levonte Smith, who was arrested on an attempted murder charge. When he was acquitted, he was released from jail and went to the Fort Pierce Police Department to retrieve 15 items of his that were taken for safekeeping during his arrest.
“They just told me, 'Oh, we disposed of your items,'” Smith told a judge.
Smith's attorney, Ashley Minton, represented him in court to try to find out what happened to his items and ensure he was given back anything the police might still have.
“My shoes, my jeans, boxers… I had two gold necklaces—one worth $1,400, one $1,100,” Smith said.
Ultimately, the department was able to locate some of his items, but for those they couldn’t find, Minton said Smith was given $6,000.
Still, no explanation was provided as to why some, but not all, of his items could be located. “Where’s my money? Where’s my jewelry?” Smith asked.
Chan said the department has been making changes to policies and procedures to better protect evidence and personal belongings in its evidence room.
“Since this has come to light, we have not destroyed a single thing,” Chan said.
The department is implementing more checks that must happen before destroying or returning evidence. A more user-friendly cataloging software will be used in the evidence room, and an additional sergeant will be assigned to oversee the evidence room full-time.
“We’re taking every step possible to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Chan said.
Chan also said there was no indication any evidence had been stolen.
