Des Moines Reg­is­ter (Iowa)
BYLINE: JEFF ECKHOFF, jeckhoff@dmreg.com

Polk County, Iowa

Agents for Iowa’s top anti-drug police agency will stop using seized nar­cotics to stage cer­tain types of drug deals pend­ing a review of their legal author­ity to do so, accord­ing to newly sub­mit­ted papers in a Polk County lawsuit.

The Iowa Divi­sion of Nar­cotics Enforce­ment sus­pended the prac­tice after con­sult­ing with state gov­ern­ment lawyers, said Bob Bram­mer, a spokesman for the Iowa attor­ney general’s office.
The law­suit, filed Tues­day by a man accused of buy­ing mar­i­juana and cocaine from under­cover author­i­ties, alleges that Iowa police agen­cies for years have been vio­lat­ing a law that requires seized ille­gal drugs to be destroyed once they are no longer needed as evi­dence in a case.

James Edward “Beep” Banks, who faces fed­eral drug-dealing charges after he allegedly bought 44 pounds of mar­i­juana and 2 kilos of cocaine from author­i­ties in a “reverse sting” oper­a­tion in March, con­tends Iowa police agen­cies also have failed to prop­erly account for drugs checked out of evi­dence rooms.
The law­suit alleges that police failed to file required paper­work cer­ti­fy­ing under oath that drugs have been destroyed. As a result, court doc­u­ments con­tend, “52 plants of mar­i­juana, over eight pounds of metham­phet­a­mine and mul­ti­ple kilos of cocaine are unac­counted for at this time.”

Court papers seek an injunc­tion ban­ning police agen­cies from using seized drugs in reverse stings and a court order requir­ing that agen­cies account for the where­abouts of any drugs checked out.

Inves­ti­ga­tors with the Iowa Divi­sion of Nar­cotics Enforce­ment have agreed, for now, to stop ask­ing judges to release drugs for those uses, accord­ing to an e-mail con­tained in court papers sub­mit­ted by Dean Stow­ers, Banks’ attorney.

The e-mail, sent to Stow­ers by Assis­tant Iowa Attor­ney Gen­eral Jef­frey Peterza­lek, is attached to Stow­ers’ writ­ten request on Wednes­day that Polk County Dis­trict Judge Eliza Ovrom sched­ule an imme­di­ate hear­ing on the lawsuit.

“It is my under­stand­ing that DNE agents are being instructed not to seek orders in state court autho­riz­ing the use of seized drugs for reverse stings,” pend­ing clar­i­fi­ca­tion of legal issues, Peterza­lek wrote.

A hear­ing is set for Thursday.

- — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — -
Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
http://www.IAPE.org