TYPICAL POLICE AND PROSECUTORIAL NEGLIGENCE WITH SEIZED DRUGS

It happens time and time again. Police seize drugs and then what happens to them? Controls are minimal. And when you hire a woman with a long history of drug abuse to handle the drugs ....!



The county should be held responsible for the death of a man poisoned by his wife, who worked as a toxicologist for the county Medical Examiner's office, a lawyer told jurors Tuesday morning. But a lawyer for the county said only Kristen Rossum was to blame for the death of her husband, Gregory de Villers. Rossum was convicted in late 2002 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing de Villers, then 26, with a mix of narcotics in Nov. 2000. He was found on the floor of the couple's La Jolla apartment with red rose petals around him. His death became widely as "The American Beauty Murder," because the rose petals were reminiscent of those in the movie. Authorities said his death was made to look like a suicide. Toxicology reports later concluded that he died of an overdose of fentanyl, a pain killer that is 100 times stronger than morphine.

The lawyers presented their opening statements Tuesday in the wrongful death case in which de Villers' relatives are seeking more than $2.1 million in damages. The lawsuit was filed against Rossum, as well as San Diego County and Michael Robertson, Rossum's lover and her supervisor at the county Medical Examiner's Office at the time of de Villers's death.

In his opening remarks, John H. Gomez, the family's attorney, told jurors that the county shares in the blame for de Villers' death. "She didn't act alone," Gomez said of Rossum. The "OME (Office of Medical Examiner) failed to provide effective controls and procedures to prevent the theft of drugs," he said. Gomez told jurors that during Rossum's time as a toxicologist, everyone working in the Medical Examiner's office had access to drugs that were seized for investigations.

At one point, Gomez said, Rossum used a methamphetamine pipe that was in the office as evidence and left it on her desk. "She took the stuff, was using it at work and left it at work," he said. Gomez also said Rossum would be erratic and do strange things while under the influence, and that the lax control of drugs in the office made it easy for her to access drugs when she relapsed.

More here. Background here




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