TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT:

Robert Reid, Cuyahoga County Sheriff Rick Bell, Criminal Investigations Division Chief November 1,2011 KEVIN BLAKELEY INVESTIGATION CLOSED - ABATED BY DEATH.

On October 27, 2011,

I received from the Cuyahoga County Sheriffs

Office (CCSO)

their case investigation of deceased Euclid Detective Kevin Blakeley.

The CCSO had been

investigating theft of drug forfeiture monies from Euclid Police case files, as well as theft of Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) union dues monies, when Blakeley took his life. Blakeley was a narcotic detective as well as the treasurer for the FOP Union. After reviewing the Sheriff s

Office investigation I concur with their investigation and find that there was sufficient evidence to present to the Grand Jury an Indictment for Theft of both Law Enforcement Trust Fund monies and Theft of police officers union dues.

The Case Investigation began when Defendant Antwoine Garrett, after serving federal prison time for a drug trafficking conviction case that originated in the city of Euclid, completed his prison term and formally petitioned the court to receive the $5,719.20 which had been

confiscated at the time of his arrest in 1999.

The case was prosecuted federally however the

money was never forfeited as part of the disposition so the defendant Garrett hired an attorney to demand the return of the money. The attorney hired by Garrett corresponded with the the City of Euclid's law director who through email correspondence attempted to get Blakeley to retrieve the money. Blakeley was responsible for the Narcotic Property Log Books. However, according to documents and emails Blakeley responded that the monies were turned over to a Special Agent with the DEA (Ex. 1). After being contacted, the Special Agent denied that he and his agency ever received this seized money from Blakeley. Upon further inquiry by the city, Blakeley provided chain of custody property documents which purported to have a proper signature of the DEA Agent accepting receipt of the money. This document appeared to have been tampered with, that is, to have a signature of the Federal Agent copied from a previous entry on another chain of custody receipt in this same case. (Ex. 2) This matter was referred by the Euclid Police Chief to the CCSO for investigation.

In their investigation the CCSO interviewed Euclid Police Department personnel who had determined that there is a minimum of $40,000 missing from the Euclid Police Department cases listed in the 2009 and 2010 property books. Property Books from previous years could not be recovered and are presumed missing and possibly destroyed. Therefore a complete audit could not be performed. The CCSO's review of the 2009 and 2010 property log notations reveal three main types of entries. The first type are money entries with no dispositions, the second type are notation entries to " LETF" (Law Enforcement Trust Fund) and the third type are notation entries returning the seized money to a defendant i.e. "RET. KB" (returned Kevin Blakely). third type (returned to a defendant) the Sheriffs investigative Of this

reports indicate there are

approximately 49 persons who had money seized from them and who had log entry notations

marked returned.

The Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification (BCI) laboratory

report findings indicate that the questioned writings in the 2009 and 2010 property log books were written by the writer of the known Kevin Blakeley samples provided to BCl for comparison. (Ex. 3) After a thorough review of the personal bank accounts of the Chief of Police and all other police personnel who had access to the seized funds demonstrated no irregularities, the Sheriff's Office investigation focused on Blakeley as the sale person

responsible for missing monies.

Although other cash monies cannot be accounted for and

appear to have been stolen, the third type of property log entries with a notation to return seized money to a defendant became the focus of the investigation as they can readily be identified as entries made in Blakeley's handwriting and can be cross referenced with a court Journal Entry. The Journal Entries order the confiscated money to be forfeited to the LETF fund which is inconsistent with the property log entries to return money to a defendant. (ExA). Sheriff

Deputies report that some of these entries are of misdemeanor cases while others are felonies. A complete accounting of all monies seized from arrested persons cannot be completed as there is inadequate accounting and missing property logs. One example of the scheme is as follows: the 10/26/06 property log entry from the 2006 book shows an arrest of Stephan Hendrix by Euclid Police. Although the 2006 property log is now missing before it went missing the Euclid Police Department copied a suspicious log book entry which was turned over to the CCSO at the start of this investigation. The photo copied property log entry shows $1,339.00 was confiscated from his pocket while another $6,950.00 was confiscated from the console of the car. The Municipal domestic violence case was

dismissed for the drug case to be forwarded to the County. However, someone makes an entry that the judge ordered the money to be returned to the defendant even though the official Journal

Entry from the Court of Common Pleas says that the money is to be forfeited. The Clerk of Courts for Common Pleas sent the Journal Entry to the Euclid City Police Department which is responsible for dividing the money between the Law Enforcement Trust Fund (LETF) of the Euclid Police Department and CCPO. According to the Sheriff's investigation, Sheriff Deputies interviewed Hendrix who stated that he never received any money back. Blakeley had direct access to the confiscated money, was in charge of the retrieval of the money, and was also in charge of the property log entries. The money which should have been placed in the respective Law Enforcement Trust Funds has never been recovered.

Sheriff detectives have interviewed some of these criminal defendants to confirm that confiscated monies were never returned to them. These monies as well as the other entries

marked returned to defendant were not placed into the respective LETF funds. This money should have been utilized by Law Enforcement to fight future drug activity through investigations and DARE education programs.
A review of the 2009 and 2010 property books revealed the following:

police

In year In 2009 In 2009 In 2009 NOTE: In year In 2010 In 2010 In 2010 NOTE:

2009 there there there there

there were 40 entries made to LETF and 29 entries marked returned to defendant(s). was approximately $32,214.87 deposited in to the LETF Account. was approximately $7,110.01 returned to defendants. was approximately $4,614.05 without disposition. are 21 entries in this evidence book without a disposition.

2010 there were 6 entries made to LETF and 20 entries marked returned to defendant(s). there was approximately $3,049.00 deposited into the LETF account. there was approximately $23,005.74 returned to defendants. there was approximately $22,497.74 without a disposition. There are 35 entries in this evidence book without a disposition.

MISSING FOP FUNDS

During their investigation, the Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Office also examined Kevin Blakeley's bank records from 2 personal checking accounts. An examination of those accounts included itemized transactions and all canceled checks dating back approximately two years. It was learned that Blakeley received several checks from 2 checking accounts of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). A review of the FOP checks (15 from the FOP PNC account and 2 from the FOP Key Bank account which had Blakely's personal address) reveals the checks were made out to Blakeley, signed by Blakeley and endorsed on the back by Blakeley. Seven (7) of these checks went into Blakeley's personal PNC account ($8,923.06) and ten (10) ofthese checks went into Blakely's personal Eaton Bank Account ($15,714.19) for a total of $24,637.25. (Ex 5). Detective discussions with FOP president Kurt Eyman indicate Blakeley stole that money. Eyman indicated that Blakeley was not entitled to that money and that the board of trustees for the union had a two signature policy. Blakeley was the only signator on the checks. It was explained to Eyman that in the memo line of the checks Blakeley had written hotels, conferences and expenses. Eyman stated the Union has credit cards to pay for those particular expenses and therefore there would never be a need to reimburse Blakeley. The city of Euclid automatically deducts each police employee's union dues and once a month would issue a check directly to the FOP treasurer Kevin Blakeley. Blakeley would deposit these monies into the FOP accounts. Blakeley would write checks from these two FOP accounts to himself and deposit them into his personal checking accounts. The total amount of the (17) checks was $24,637.25. These funds belonged to the FOP membership.