Farmington Police Department holds daily command briefings to measure impact of evidence thefts

Editor's note: After an employee in the trusted position of evidence technician allegedly stole drugs and money from the Farmington Police Department, Chief Steve Hebbe invited The Daily Times to attend his daily command briefings. The effects of those thefts could be far reaching, and Hebbe said he wanted the process of determining the damage and formulating changes to prevent a reoccurrence to be transparent. It was an unprecedented offer in this editor's experience. The Daily Times accepted the invitation. We agreed to only one condition that we would discuss whether we would use information if police thought it could compromise a case. We attended the third briefing on Oct.

Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe speaks on Thursday during a daily briefing at the Farmington Police Department. Senior department officials have been meeting over the last two weeks to discuss the impacts of alleged thefts from the department's evidence room. (Jon Austria / The Daily Times)

FARMINGTON Less than a week after Farmington Police Department employee Ashley Goodvoyce was accused of pilfering cash and pain pills from the department's evidence room, senior officials met in a conference room for the first command briefing on the status of the investigation.

The officers and civilian employees tackled the task of dissecting the theft and its implications, which were many, in the daily briefings. The briefings also covered policy, command structure and physical remodeling of buildings, with the intention of making evidence more secure. As of Thursday, department employees had spent 753 hours investigating the thefts, Police Chief Steve Hebbe said.

Officials learned of the thefts on Oct. 14 when a detective requested evidence and a technician discovered it was missing. Goodvoyce was taken into custody on Oct. 17.

The thefts could have far-reaching consequences. The count as of Thursday: 69 bags of evidence were tampered with, 41 chain-of-custody records were falsified, one signature was forged and $5,597 in cash was stolen. The amount of cash could increase by $570, department officials said.

San Juan County Chief Deputy District Attorney Dustin O'Brien has said the thefts could impact 13 active cases involving drugs held in the department's evidence room. More could still be identified.

Detective Sgt. Brandon Lane gave a list on Oct. 21 to the District Attorney's Office that named 48 suspects who could be freed because of Goodvoyce's alleged actions.

Police say those actions could ruin active cases and potentially set criminals free. However, sloppy evidence processing by police in some cases also meant the exact number of pills stolen was unknown. Some officers, Hebbe explained in an interview, were not following procedure.

Senior police officers meet on Thursday during a briefing at the Farmington Police Department. (Jon Austria /The Daily Times)

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Farmington Police Department holds daily command briefings to measure impact of evidence thefts