Claim of Mishandled Evidence Under Review

The Orange County district attorney’s office is reviewing allegations that the Newport Beach Police Department either mishandled or planted evidence that linked a robbery and attempted rape suspect to another crime.

John V. Depko, an investigator with the public defender’s office, said he found evidence of “repeated and calculated violations of normal police procedures” in a case involving his client, Daniel DeHaven.

Depko turned over his findings to the district attorney’s office, and Deputy Dist. Atty. John D. Conley said he would read the report to determine whether an investigation is warranted.

The evidence in question involves a gray jacket that DeHaven was wearing at the time of his arrest in January, 1988.

According to police records, nothing was reported to be inside the jacket pockets at the time of the arrest. But when the jacket was presented during DeHaven’s trial in March, 1989, three credit card receipts were found in the pockets. The receipts were reported stolen in a burglary of another woman’s wallet.

“In the 2,000 cases I have worked on in my career, this case against Dan DeHaven represents the worst possible example I have ever seen of repeated police misconduct,” reported Depko, who had examined the pockets several months before the trial without finding the receipts.

Depko said Tuesday that he suspects someone in the Police Department may have planted the evidence in an attempt to link his client to the burglary. At the very least, he said, someone mishandled the evidence.

“There’s no legitimate explanation for this,” he said.

Newport Beach Police Lt. Tim Newman said that the receipts were in the jacket at the time of the arrest but not recorded because of a bookkeeping error.

At some point, Newman said, the receipts were taken out to be photographed and were wrongly placed in a separate evidence locker because they were not properly marked. Before the trial, the receipts were placed back in the jacket, he said.

“It was a mistake. The officer just forgot and didn’t document it properly,” Newman said.

He said that department conducted an internal investigation of the matter and disciplined the officer who failed to properly record the evidence.

The receipts were thrown out as evidence during DeHaven’s trial, and he was never charged with the burglary. DeHaven, a 64-year-old salesman from Newport Beach, was found guilty of attempted rape and robbery and is scheduled to begin serving a one-year jail term on Monday.

Newman said he did not understand the public defender’s request for an investigation.

“It wasn’t something that was done intentionally or maliciously,” Newman said. “In fact, it hurt our case. I don’t see their logic.”

Chief Deputy Public Defender Carl Holmes said his office is not trying to “create a feud” with Newport Beach police, but is only trying to find out if the evidence was improperly handled.

“We just want how and why the receipts got into the pocket and who put them there,” Holmes said. “It may be innocent reasons, but we want to know.”

Conley said that he probably would decide by the end of the week whether to investigate the Police Department.