Braintree MA PD is in need of a few good men

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Braintree police audit shows $407,998 and 60 guns missing from evidence room

Wednesday

Posted Sep 14, 2016 at 2:55 PMUpdated Sep 15, 2016 at 4:01 PM

 

By Fred Hanson
The Patriot Ledger 

SUSAN ZOPATTI 

BRAINTREE – An audit of the Braintree Police Department’s evidence room found thousands of items – including drugs, cash and guns – missing or unaccounted for, and sloppy record-keeping.

Town officials released the audit report at a press conference Wednesday.

Problems with evidence have already caused prosecutors to drop charges in a half-dozen Braintree cases and could result in hundreds of additional cases being dismissed.

The audit found that 4,709 pieces of narcotics evidence could not be accounted for, and that 38 pieces had been compromised – having been opened, left unpackaged or found to have items missing.

The audit report describes much of the missing drugs as “bags of cocaine.”

“The narcotics evidence is being stored haphazardly,” the audit found. “It should be stored chronologically by year and the Braintree Police property number.”

Also found to be missing were 2,490 pieces of property evidence, the report states.

The audit found that some of videos being stored as evidence were left unlabeled, and that test kits from sexual assault cases were stored in a trailer outside the police station.

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t also found that about $408,000 in seized cash was missing. Some of the evidence bags containing money are described in the audit report as having been ripped open in the back or cut open at the bottom, with cash missing.

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Much of the unaccounted-for money is from cases from 2001, 2002, 2012 and 2013. The audit lists $82,074.96 missing from 2001.

The audit report also lists 60 missing firearms. However, the police department’s response to the audit says two of guns were starter pistols and that all but 12 have now been located.

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Two firearms were recovered in June from the home of Susan Zopatti, who was the police department’s evidence officer until May, when she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A .40-caliber Glock Model 23 pistol and a .25-caliber Beretta handgun were recovered from Zopatti’s home in June. One was listed as having been returned to its owner, and the other, owned by Michael Flemmi – a retired Boston police officer and brother of convicted murderer Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, an associate of former mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger – was still listed as being stored in the department’s gun locker.

The audit recommended thorough researching of missing or unaccounted-for narcotics evidence from 2013 until now. If evidence cannot be found, “its absence should be attributed to the previous evidence officer, Susan Zopatti,” the report states.

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