A single charge of tampering with physical evidence was filed Wednesday against David Roark, former chief deputy of the McDonald County Sheriff's Department, following an investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol of a missing case file.
The Class A misdemeanor was filed by Prosecuting Attorney Jonathan Pierce in McDonald County Circuit Court.
According to a probable cause statement by Robert Vaughan, a sergeant with the highway patrol, Roark is accused of taking a case file generated by Deputy Jeremy Walker following a DWI stop and arrest on Feb. 8, 2014, in the Noel area.
Vaughan said the incident began during a traffic stop when Walker asked the driver to perform field sobriety tests. The suspect told the deputy "I think we need to call Dave Roark." Walker indicated he was not going to contact the chief deputy and continued his investigation, which resulted with the arrest of the individual for driving while intoxicated.
Vaughan's statement reported that the suspect failed a breath test at the McDonald County Jail. He was issued summonses for DWI and failing to stop at a stop sign. Walker also seized the suspect's driver's license. These items, as well as the evidence ticket generated by the breathalyzer, were placed in a case file and put in a filing cabinet.
Walker later filled out necessary forms and paperwork and placed them in the file. But on Sunday, Feb. 9, when he went to finish his reports for submission to Pierce, Walker was unable to locate the case file. Walker then contacted Sheriff Mike Hall and told him he may have misplaced a case file.
On Feb. 13, Walker was told by fellow Deputy Richard Gidcumb that he had witnessed Roark access Walker's file drawer and remove a case file. According to Gidcumb, Roark placed the file under his coat and stated something similar to "you didn't see that."
Walker stated he then contacted Hall, telling the sheriff the time and date the file was removed, but not mentioning Roark by name. He asked Hall to review a video surveillance of the area.
When he hadn't received any response from Hall by Feb. 17, Walker contacted Pierce about the incident. Pierce spoke to Gidcumb and then contacted Hall and asked for a copy of the video. Pierce said that after a couple of weeks when he had not received a copy of the video, he contacted the sheriff again. At this time, Hall told Pierce he had looked through the video, but "there was nothing on it."
Pierce said he then contacted Lt. Chris Allison and asked if he could make a copy of the video. Allison later told Pierce, "it appeared a substantial portion of the recordings captured by their system were missing." At this point, Pierce requested a highway patrol investigation.
Vaughan said on April 24 he contacted Hall and asked about the video. He said Hall confirmed he had reviewed the video, which he said "showed the defendant (Roark) in the deputy room talking to other deputies at the time specified by deputies Walker and Gidcumb." Hall went on to say he couldn't find the portion of the video where Walker placed his file in the drawer or where any other person had accessed Walker's file drawer.
Hall told Vaughan since "he didn't see anything" he did not make a copy of the recording. Hall also said due to limited data storage capacity, the surveillance system overwrites all recordings every two weeks, making the video unavailable for review.
Vaughan stated that Roark later admitted he had taken Walker's file and thrown it in a dumpster behind the sheriff's office. Roark told the investigator he and the individual arrested by Walker were friends and "he was trying to help him." He said it was a mistake to do so and that the individual had not asked him to help dispose of the case. Roark denied he had deleted or altered any video recordings and did not know who had.
Pierce said Roark worked as an investigator for his office from March 2012 through December of that year. He said he has no plans to recuse himself from the case unless the defense asks that he do so.
"I am disappointed that any officer thinks they can or is able to destroy evidence in a case," Pierce said. "I believe it creates mistrust with the public of law enforcement in general whenever someone in law enforcement does something like this."
Pierce said there will be no charges filed against the individual whose DWI arrest began this incident.
"The DWI case is so tainted at this point there is no way to successfully charge and convict him," Pierce said. "The breath sample will never be able to be admitted as evidence due to the missing slip from the Datamaster."
Pierce also said there is no way to find out what happened to the surveillance video.
"The video was erased, deleted in some form or fashion," Pierce said."The highway patrol looked at the system. The 'chip set' did not reveal who had accessed the system around that time period. The chip set itself was written over or deleted."
A person convicted of a Class A misdemeanor is punishable by one year in the county jail and/or a $1,000 fine.
General News on 07/24/2014