ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — Some criminal cases in St. Lucie County might be compromised due to damage caused by a tornado that hit the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office in the hours leading up to Hurricane Milton.
The tornado damaged a large pole barn and a storage shed that was housing drug evidence.
WATCH: Sheriff Richard Del Toro tells WPTV's Meghan McRoberts why the agency was storing evidence in sheds
“That really was an act of God that happened out here. Just the overhang that was here, the steel that was on that [roof] was very thick, and it was bent like it was a little piece of plastic," said St. Lucie County Sheriff Richard Del Toro. "Unbelievable, the force that went through there.”
According to Del Toro, there were multiple bins inside the shed storing drugs, including fentanyl, cocaine, crack cocaine, MDMA, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia. The bins, he said, experienced water intrusion, potentially compromising about 60 different pieces of evidence.
“Different amounts of damage, whether it’s a ripped bag or the evidence got wet itself," Del Toro said. "We didn’t lose anything; it’s just a matter of it being compromised, so we want to make sure we’re being transparent.”
That transparency, he said, comes from working with the State Attorney’s Office to help identify which cases the drugs belonged to and notify the attorneys.
State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl said his office went a step further and notified the attorneys on every case, regardless of whether they might have had evidence stored in that shed or not. The shed houses thousands of pieces of evidence, he said. The office sent out more than 1,000 Brady notices.
“At the end of the day, we’re talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe 10 cases that may have experienced some form of water intrusion," said Bakkedahl. "Although, even those cases, we don’t think it will ultimately impact the viability of the evidence or the prosecution itself."
SIMILAR COVERAGE: Missing, mismanaged evidence in Fort Pierce leads to criminal cases being dropped
However, evidence can be rephotographed and retested at a lab to ensure it is not compromised. If it is, “we’re going to do the right thing. I mean, we’re not going to go forward with the case,” Bakkedahl said.
But the shed damage is bringing a bigger issue to the surface. WPTV asked Del Toro why evidence was being stored in outdoor sheds that are not storm-rated in the first place.
“Would that have been a method you would have supported, keeping drugs stored in an outside facility?” WPTV’s Meghan McRoberts asked.
“No,” Del Toro said.
It was how previous sheriffs made room for a growing evidence log caused by more growth in the county, inevitably leading to more law enforcement encounters and criminal investigations.
“When I first came here, I actually thought we were selling sheds—that’s how many sheds we had. There were a lot of sheds on this property that are no longer here anymore,” Del Toro said. “Over the years, we were pretty much putting evidence everywhere, safely and securely, but we didn’t really have a central location,”
That's why he's pushing for faster progress on an evidence warehouse near the county jail, large enough to store all of the sheriff’s office evidence in one, storm-rated facility.
“All under one roof, more accessible, more efficient, and hopefully more effective in the long run,” Del Toro said.
That facility has been under construction since Sheriff Ken Mascara was in charge in 2020. Del Toro, in March, asked the county to get involved in speeding up the process to finish the warehouse and begin moving and storing evidence inside.
In a letter to County Administrator George Landry, Del Toro wrote in part:
“Unfortunately, in our evaluation of the project, the facts seem to suggest that the Agency’s previous management team has not lived up to our shared expectations for performance and partnership. To be candid, we do not believe that the Agency has treated the County as we would want to be treated, and we would like to change this immediately. With this goal in mind, we would like to invite you and your team to take on a greater role in completing this important project.”
A county spokesperson said there is still no deadline for when the warehouse might be completed, nor if it could be finished before the next storm season.
READ COMPLETE LETTER TO GEORGE LANDRY BELOW:
