This California sheriff’s deputy mishandled evidence 92% of the time — and got a promotion
Sgt. Philip Avalos has been identified as one of the worst offenders in the department, which has reopened criminal investigations into 16 deputies.
One of the worst offenders among Orange County sheriff’s deputies who mishandled evidence was promoted to sergeant last year, 10 months after the agency sent his case to prosecutors for criminal consideration, court papers show.
The District Attorney’s Office initially declined to charge Sgt. Philip Avalos, a veteran of 16 years assigned to the Intake-Release Center in Santa Ana. But Avalos landed back in the hot seat after District Attorney Todd Spitzer recently reopened criminal investigations into him and 16 other deputies referred by the Sheriff’s Department.
More than 90 percent of the drugs, weapons and other property seized by Avalos in 51 cases for the gang enforcement team was booked late or not at all, according to court documents filed Monday by Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders.
Nearly 60 percent of the evidence was booked 30 or more days late, Sanders wrote. Under department policy, seized property must be booked by the end of the deputy’s shift. In nearly all the cases, Avalos wrote in his crime reports that the property had been placed in the evidence locker when it was still in his possession.
Sheriff’s officials declined comment, referring to state confidentiality laws for law enforcement.
Spending less time in the station
In a March 2018 interview with a sheriff’s investigator, Avalos said he was attempting to spend less time in the station and more time helping his partners or searching for criminal activity. This practice eventually led to poor endings to cases, Avalos said. He told the investigator he absolutely did not sell or give away evidence.
In the two-year period audited by the department — February 2016 to February 2018 — Avalos booked evidence in a timely manner only four times. His record, 30.6 days per item, was nine times worse than the average deputy, Sanders alleged.
Multiple grams of methamphetamine, as well as heroin and cocaine, were collected on various days. Sanders wondered how Avalos kept the drugs separated and organized.
“When Sergeant Avalos finally booked evidence in a case, was it the same evidence purportedly collected on the date of the incident?” Sanders wrote. “For many items, such as narcotics and paraphernalia, there is simply no way of knowing with reasonable certainty. Where did Sergeant Avalos keep the evidence he collected?”
Sanders said that before the first of two audits was conducted, word spread of the pending study and deputies rushed to turn in property they had kept in their patrol cars, at home or in the stations.
One-third of department evidence mishandled
Details in the Avalos case adds to the growing evidence scandal in the Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney’s Office. The sheriff’s main audit shows that nearly one-third of the evidence collected by deputies in the study period was booked late or not at all. The study showed that 300 items were booked 30 days or more late.
The rush is now on to determine how criminal cases were affected — how many people were convicted or pleaded guilty when the evidence was not booked.
The lack of a chain of custody can be seen in one of Avalos’ cases. On April 28, 2017, Avalos responded to a car stop and found a machete and 3.3 grams of cocaine in the vehicle. Avalos booked the cocaine 25 days after collecting it. The machete, however, was not placed into the evidence locker until nine months later.
Asked about the machete by sheriff’s investigators, Avalos said the weapon had slipped between and beneath some of his gear bags in the trunk of his car. It was not found until he did a complete search of the vehicle, he said.
Meanwhile, prosecutors did not charge the defendant for the machete because of a lack of evidence.
Sanders’ court motion was filed in a theft case to support his request to unseal more records on the evidence scandal.