Burbank Picks Department Veteran as New Police Chief : Promotion: David P. Newsham supervised a narcotics case that led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling.

A Burbank police captain, who supervised a case that led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that eased the ban on evidence obtained with defective search warrants, was appointed chief of police Friday.

Capt. David P. Newsham, 48, was named by City Manager Robert R. Ovrom to replace retiring Police Chief Glen Bell.

“Dave has the leadership necessary to carry the Police Department into the next century,” Ovrom said “He’ll be an outstanding chief.”

As a sergeant, Newsham supervised the handling of a Burbank narcotics investigation in which police seized large quantities of drugs under a search warrant issued by a state judge, a Burbank spokesman said.

But because the search warrant had been issued on the basis of an affidavit that failed to establish probable cause for the search, a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles threw out the case.

In 1984 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that some evidence obtained with defective search warrants could be used under what is now known as the “good faith exception to the exclusionary rule.”

Before joining the department, Newsham served in the Air Force and also worked as a laboratory technician at Lockheed and for NASA at Cape Kennedy.

He joined the Burbank Department in 1972 and became a captain in 1987.

Most recently he held the position of commander of uniform divisions.

A native of Long Beach, Newsham lives in Burbank with his wife, Patricia.

He will assume the new office on Dec. 31.