Property room theft easily turned routine

He was wearing a baseball cap, leaning against his green pickup truck in the driveway in front of his house, on a street where all of the houses look the same.

It was Friday afternoon on Cordova Club Drive in a neighborhood of quarter-million dollar homes, varying slightly in shades of brick veneer and shutters, neatly wrapped around a golf course.

A woman was walking her two Shih Tzus on the sidewalk. Another woman was power walking with a cell phone pressed to her ear.

He saw a car pull in front of his house, a pink brick two-story with black shutters. He went inside. A reporter got out of the car, walked up to the front door and knocked.

Dansberry, by all accounts, is a nice guy. An extrovert. Super friendly. Married with children. The kind of guy who, when you're sick, offers to mow your yard.

The kind of guy you would never suspect of stealing money, cocaine and marijuana from police custody "so many (times) I don't remember."

Dansberry, 41, a former Memphis Police Department civilian employee, pleaded guilty in federal court last week to drug conspiracy and money laundering charges.

Fifteen alleged co-conspirators and two other property room employees were charged in a separate indictment and await trial.

Dansberry had more than $1 million in his possession when police searched his home and car last year. He had so much cash that stacks of it grew mold.

"He was a normal person," said Norman Longmire, who lives next door to Dansberry's Hanna Drive home. "I never suspected he had lots of money."

Dansberry had been working as a civilian in the Police Department's property and evidence room since Jan. 15, 1982. He started as a clerk, making $591 a month. In 1991, he was promoted to shift supervisor. After more than two decades, he was making about $33,395 a year.

He had no criminal record. He appeared to be a model employee. He never scored below a satisfactory in his annual reviews, and he scored above average in judgment skills used when supervisors were absent.

Was it money trouble that made Dansberry give in to temptation? He filed for bankruptcy in 1992, but it was dismissed in 1996.

Or was he just sick and tired of working every day and still struggling to pay his bills? He has been married for 20 years. Neighbors say the Dansberrys have two daughters.

"All is not over," said Mike Stengel, who is representing Dansberry. "I really can't say anything more."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who knows how much money and drugs and weapons are - or were - in the property and evidence room? The police aren't answering any questions because the federal government has taken over the room.

"Think of anything you've ever seen in your life and it will be in a property room," said Joe Latta of Burbank, Calif., a 31-year police veteran and director of a company that trains law enforcement agencies on how to maintain property and evidence rooms.

"One percent of all evidence ever ends up in a courtroom, and 99 percent of it stays in the property room."

Stacks of money. Drugs. Jewelry. Body parts. Televisions. VCRs. Lamps. Guns. Golf clubs. False teeth.

The drugs are supposed to be burned once they're not needed in court anymore. The problem comes when no one is checking whether the drugs were destroyed.

"If you know no one is looking over your shoulder, it's a lot easier. Who is ever going to miss it?" said Latta, who has interviewed several property room thieves. He said property room stealing is very common across the country.

"If you're making $30,000 a year and there's $2 million in the vault, it's a hard temptation," he said.

In 1999, Memphis police officials knew their property and evidence room needed cleaning up. A state audit said the recording of confiscated cash was inadequate. An in-house audit said the room was overcrowded and had storage problems.

A new manager, Jay Liner, claimed to have cleaned up the place. His bosses applauded him.

"Things have improved 500 percent since Jay Liner took over as manager," Inspector J.D. King told The Commercial Appeal in January 2002.

By then, Dansberry already was stealing just about anything that wasn't attached, according to court documents filed in federal court last week.

Sometime in 2000, former property room employee Patrick Maxwell recruited Dans berry to supply cheap cocaine, according to written statements Dansberry made to police.

Dansberry, working with fellow property room employee Carl Johnson, began diverting cocaine that was scheduled to be burned. They sold the cocaine to Maxwell for $10,000 a kilogram, splitting the proceeds.

The first time went smoothly. Dansberry took a box of about 10 kilos of cocaine and gave it to Johnson. Johnson carried it out of the property room, which is in the basement of the Criminal Justice Center.

He walked down a dingy hallway - right below the Shelby County Jail, with the possibility of officers and city employees to stop him at any point - and outside the doors to the loading dock. Maxwell was there to take it.

Easy. So easy it became routine. Stealing cocaine and delivering it to Maxwell every four to six weeks. Court documents show that Maxwell sold the drugs to Eric Brown, who had residences in Atlanta and Olive Branch.

Johnson used a police car to make some deliveries. One time, Dansberry stole 200 pounds of marijuana and sold it to an associate of Maxwell's outside the police impound lot.

After Dansberry was arrested, authorities asked him how many times he stole cocaine from the property room.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dansberry's picture in the 1979 yearbook of Booker T. Washington High School is on page 32, beside the crease. He was handsome. His hair was big. His head was cocked slightly to the left. He had half a smile.

That year's theme was "This is Your Life." The message to students read: "This is your life, so challenge your obstacles and achieve your dreams. Only you are ultimately responsible for what your life becomes, so take charge. Remember, it's the only chance you have."

Fred Horton, the school's basketball coach and history teacher since 1974, tapped his finger on Dansberry's picture. "I know that face," he said.

"An extrovert. The friendly type. He wasn't in trouble here - but, then, when they get out, you never know."

Dansberry was born in Memphis on the Fourth of July in 1962. He has at least four sisters and four brothers. His mother and a brother passed away a few years ago.

On his job application in 1982, he gave his father's name, but didn't know his address. He has his stepfather's last name.

Dansberry and his family lived in a small, brick home on Hanna Drive from 1991 to 2002. Last week, some neighbors said they didn't know the family well, but Longmire had good things to say.

"He was a good guy," said Longmire, who has had two heart surgeries and can't do heavy work. Dansberry offered to mow his lawn for him.

In 2002, Dansberry contacted Steven Ford, a real estate agent with The Carter Group in Germantown. He and his wife wanted to look at a house on Cordova Club Drive.

The house has 3,384 square feet. Nine rooms. Four bedrooms. Three-and-a-half baths. Two-car garage.

Ford said Dansberry and his wife didn't drive fancy cars or wear fancy clothes. Dansberry told Ford that he had a landscaping business that was doing really well and that's why they were moving.

"He didn't act like he had a lot of money," Ford said. "I'm still floored by this. I can't believe it."

Dansberry made a $50,000 down payment on the house, according to court documents.

He bought five cars - a 2001 Toyota 4Runner, a 2002 Chevrolet double-extended pickup, a 2002 Volvo S80, a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe and a 2003 Toyota RAV4.

He gave $100,000 in hush money to two civilian employees of the property room, Jacqueline Layrock and Alnita Campbell. In separate indictments last week, the two women were accused of stealing about $48,000 from the property room.

Dansberry took the women on a $2,500 shopping spree. He took their husbands to the NBA All-Star game in Atlanta last February and gave them each $6,000, according to court documents.

When police searched Dansberry's car and home on Sept. 25, they found $1 million in cash. Some stacks were coated with mold, making them difficult to count.

Dansberry is out of jail on bond. Court documents show he has agreed to forfeit the cash found on Sept. 25, plus his homes and vehicles.

Friday afternoon, Longmire stood on his driveway and looked at Dansberry's home on Hanna Drive. He scratched his goatee and shook his head.

"I still can't believe it," Longmire said. "If you could just meet and talk to this guy, you wouldn't believe it either."

***"Things have improved 500 percent since Jay Liner took over as manager," Inspector J.D. King told The Commercial Appeal in January 2002***

Related?

100 Pounds Of Marijuana Found In Tennessee Cop's Car .... State troopers pulled over Terrance A. King, 39, after he passed too close to an emergency vehicle on Interstate 30 in New Boston, about 25 miles west of Texarkana. ... Mr. King, who is now a police officer in Memphis, Tenn.....

Another tale in the continuing soap-opera saga Days of our MPD....

Here's another bust you won't be seeing on the TV COPS show footage....

-archy-/-

"Booker T. Washington High School"

hmmmmm

Couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

-archy-/-

Jacqueline and Alnita.

Good names for hurricanes.

Explains where all the cocaine in the MPD property room went to. That big ol' wind jus' blowed it all away....

-archy-/-

And cops wonder why people don't respect them.

This guy acts like because he was only making $30,000 it was alright for him to steal cocaine. I can't stand crooks like that.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.