Worst police blunders?

[Zlatko]

I'm bored, so I figured I may as well start a new topic. There are probably many cases that have been hampered by the police's incompetence. So, we should list some of them.

Eric Tamiyasu - Sheriff Joe Wampler's burning of Eric Tamiyasu's mattress has to be listed. Plenty of potential clues have possibly been lost. Though, some have argued he did it on purpose. Even if he did, he's now become one of the main suspects.

Gary Grant Jr - The police interrogation of Gary Grant Jr's friend was a hilarious mistake. For hours, they tried to get a confession from a mentally handicapped kid. Instead of focusing on other potential clues, they went off the beaten bath for nothing. I'm pretty sure this was early in the case, so that hurt any chance of finding any early clues on who killed Gary Grant Jr.

[MissFit29]

Michael Rosenblum. That whole business with the backdated letter is really suspicious.

[justins5256]

There are quite a few (I hope Kadrmas sees this, he has pointed out many in the past).

Right off the bat one name immediately sprang to my mind: Debbie Wolfe.

How anyone could believe that she somehow drowned herself in a barrel while wearing someone else's clothes in the lake behind her house is beyond me.

[ididn'tdoit]

Steve Sandlin.

Police Chief Carson (was it?) definitely knew more than he was telling. And I mean the whole thing being a suicide? Come on...

[MissFit29]

Danny Casolaro. Suicide, eh? I thought all cops were trained to view each death as a homicide when investigating. They also didn't alert the family until 2 days after Danny's body was found.

[Mastermind]

I think it should be specified what's bad policework and what's just a plain cover-up.

In a lot of these I think you could make an argument that the mistakes in the investigation were intentional.

[conservativejoe]

curious what you think mastermind in the Eric Tamiyasu case.....bad police work or cover up?

[Lakeboy]

Tommy Burkett-Why didn't the police interview the neighbors??? What about the 911 call??? Why did the police automatically think it was a suicide.

The guy who spoke for the police was full of ****.

[Mastermind]

curious what you think mastermind in the Eric Tamiyasu case.....bad police work or cover up?

Cover up.

It takes a lot of effort to burn a mattress. I'm sure everyone here has known how much hell it is to put a mattress into a room. It's not something you just do offhandedly. You have to move the materials of the sheet, move the mattress, gain the assistance of a third party, then find the materials to burn the mattress. It's practically a 6 step effort!!!!

My theory on Eric Tamiyasu's death has been that Don Davis hired either the sheriff or his deputies to committ the murder. Sherriff Wampler either burned the bad as part of the plan or decided to do so to protect his deputies.

It's even possible that Sherrif Wampler was going to expose Don Davis for the murder and may have made an on spot financial agreeement to burn the bed.

I've always found it bizzare that the two main suspects in this case were both privy to the burining of the bed. AND YET NEITHER ONE OBJECTED TO IT!!!!

[bugnpinky]

The Bordello Murders for sure. Kathy Bonderson.

[conservativejoe]

mastermind the I find the on the spot bribe theory in tamiyasu case very possible. I have never considered it before, seems a hell of alot more likely than the deputy theory. was don fairly well off? if so i wonder how much cash it would have taken? 10k at least probably.

[MissFit29]

Also, in the Eric Tamiyasu case, there was that jazz about Eric having some affair with the Polynesian woman, which was only mentioned by Don Dixon. Sheriff Wampler's wife was Polynesian, and supposedly the woman Eric was having the affair with. It seemed to be a convenient way for Don to turn the blame towards the Sheriff. The Sheriff ordering the burning of the bed looked awfully suspicious as well. So there are 2 things that help Don get the blame off himself. I wonder if he was blackmailing the Sheriff.

[MissFit29]

Stanley Gryziec is another case where the police did a real half-assed investigation. The police said he had been stabbed, and his body had to be exhumed to prove it was a gunshot wound. I think someone on that police force knew or was involved in the drug activity happening in the bar associated with Peter Gryziec, Stanley's brother.

[marlins3]

Tracy kirkpatrick. For more details, read my post on the thread on her. Frederick county police screwed this up completely.

[kadrmas15]

It was Frederick, Maryland city police not the county police or county sheriff that screwed up Tracy Kirkpatrick's case but yes Marlins, one of the rare times you and I agree that case was heavily screwed up by Frederick, Maryland Police.

Let's see, since Justin wanted me to point some out, here are some more police that in my opinion either bungled or covered up cases. They are on my top 20 personal crap list:

The Cumberland County, North Carolina Sheriff's Department in the case of Debbie Wolfe. Covering up evidence, lying about the barrel that Debbie was found in. In my opinion the Sheriff's Department started lying about the existence of the barrel because they did not secure the crime scene and Debbie's Property thus whoever killed Debbie came back and stole the barrel and the Sheriff's Department did not want to own up to the fact that they bungled it so they started lying about the barrel's existence and on top of that started to insist that Debbie Wolfe somehow killed herself by drowning herself and they also seemed to go out of their way to make Debbie Wolfe's mother seem mentally unstable.

The Fort Lauderdale, Florida Police in regards to the nailing of John Purvis for a crime they did not do and continuing to keep him in prison even though as early as a year after Purvis's conviction the two detectives on the case had strong evidence that someone other than Purvis committed the crime. Even though it appears this situation was eventually rectified in terms of John Purvis getting out of prison after spending nine years in there for a crime he did not commit, it is still an injustice that could have been prevented had procedure been followed properly and it allowed the real people behind it to the walk the streets for nearly a decade.

The Mountain Air, New Mexico Police Department and their role, specifically, Chief David Carson's role in the death of Steve Sandlin. Now, I am not saying that Chief Carson necessarily murdered Steve Sandlin. I do, in my opinion, think that Chief Carson knew much more than he was letting on. I do not care if he passed a polygraph or not, he knew more. Carson, I do not know, I just got a bad vibe off the guy. He just seemed really flat and it was not just that maybe he is not an emotional guy, he just seemed like he was almost bored with the whole conversation. Plus what really bothered me is he kept insisting that Sandlin must have killed himself and that just seems weird to me. His theories were either Sandlin offed himself or he accidently shot himself. But yet never says anything of murder? It is just weird. Plus it seems that the proof needed there was something more to that case was the New Mexico Attorney General's Office firing a Deputy Attorney General because he was investigating this case too much and forcing another Deputy Attorney General that was helping him to resign. Plus the planted marijuana. Yeah, there was a cover up there, in my opinion.

The Eddy County, North Dakota Sheriff's Department. The late Sheriff Ed Almarrajas (sp?) and his crackpot theory of Kathy Bonderson's 'accident' aka murder. I mean seriously, this guy must have been pals with Rob Bonderson, either that or did not want to admit that a murder occurred in his jurisdiction as I am sure that the Bonderson case was the biggest case Almarrajas ever had to deal with and it showed. I mean suggesting that Kathy somehow veered to the right, went over the tracks, the car somehow burst into flames, Kathy hitting her head on the roof of the car, than going over to the passenger side of the car, specifically on the floor. Allmarajas claimed it was a ruptured gas tank that did this? Please. The gas tank was not only fully intact but held 12 gallons of gasoline! The lines to the gas tank were intact. The keys were an obvious plant as they were virtually undamaged on the floorboard of the car (I have made a theory in that thread as to how those keys got there) plus an arson investigator saying that there were large amounts of gasoline in and around the car. Plus the empty gas can found not that far from the car. Allmarajas overlooked all of this and Rob Bonderson walked free for twenty years until he knew he was finally going down and then he killed himself.

The Lawrence County, Missouri Sheriff's Department for their beyond incompetent handling of the Johnny Lee Wilson case. Bullying a mentally impaired young man into confessing, tricking him, misinterpreting evidence. That is the classic formula for arresting and convicting an innocent person. Picking a suspect that you feel it will be easy to get him to confess, basically picking a guy out of thin air and building a case around him. Like basically taking random things in Johnny Lee Wilson's house and saying oh, he has these things he must have done it when in fact all of those items had nothing to do with murder at all.

The Fairfax County, Virginia Police Department and their incompetent handling of the Tommy Burkett case. I did not believe a word out of that dude's mouth that spoke for them. I mean you could tell he did not even believe the official bs that he was being told by his superiors to spew to the public.

The Rome, New York Police Department and their incompetent which in my opinion was a cover up of Stanley Gryziwek's (sp?) murder.

The Chicago, Illinois Police and their horrible handling of evidence in the Chad Mauer case, I mean, losing that jacket in his car, losing what could have turned out to be a critical piece of evidence, could have been tested for DNA, etc, who knows? I do feel that jacket was key to solving that case.

The Cook County, Illinois Sheriff's Police for covering up the death of Michael O'Mara. Now I also find it strange that a particular agency would be in charge of the investigation into the death of one of their own officers? The reason I find this unusual is because if an officer gets in a fender bender the whole investigation is typically turned over, yet an officer winds up dead under unusual circumstances and the Cook County Sheriff's Police insists on investigating it? Does not add up.

The Summit County, Colorado and Park County, Colorado Sheriff's Department along with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for all focusing on Jeff Oberholtzer way too long in that case.

Now I could be off on this one as the laws probably were not what they are now, in fact I know they are not. But still, the Manatee County, Florida Sheriffs Department for basically allowing Jim Burnside to kill his wife and then on top of that run off and be on the run for over 3 years.

The Miami-Dade, Florida Police Department for their hatchet job on the whole Luis Diaz/Bird Road Rapist case in railroading an innocent man.

The Orange County, Florida Sheriff's Department in their railroad job of Tommy Ziegler.

The Jacksonville, Florida Sheriff's Department for basically letting Michael Haim get away with murder.

The Blue Island, Illinois Police Department and the Illinois State Police for their nice little railroad job of the Dowalliby's.

The DuPage County, Illinois Sheriff's Department for their role in going after Rolando Cruz and not even looking at Brian Dugan.

The Pearl River County, Mississippi Sheriff's Department for their seeming cover up of the death of Norman Ladner. Last I checked, a wallet containing 140 bucks does not get up and walk off on its own. Plus the Sheriff's little cheap shot at the Ladner's was uncalled for.