LOMETA, Texas (KXXV) — Police stations take protecting their evidence very seriously.
25 News spoke with a former City of Lometa employee who says police evidence there was tampered with.
The former City of Lometa employee did not want to be recognized for fear of retaliation, but she chose to come to 25 News to give her story.
“I just feel like the City of Lometa needs to be held accountable for the things they do," she said.
She claims she witnessed two employees who were not part of the police department contaminating police evidence.
“I saw the clerk going through the refrigerator with she said there were blood samples in there and didn’t have gloves on," she said.
This employee also claims there was another time the employee destroyed evidence.
“The court clerk had the maintenance man burn records up — I was in the office that day when she told him, 'You need to take them and burn them'," she said.
This claim comes three days after 25 News first brought you a story regarding Lometa Police Chief Linda Mauldin, who resigned, fearing employee’s were tampering with her computer.
"There was a missing cable that was suppose to be there that he and I put in a week prior," Mauldin said.
She tells 25 News she came back from a police call and found files being transferred without her permission from her computer.
“So many files were transferred successfully to Bob’s Notebook," she said.
25 News reached out to Lometa Mayor Bob Butler who sent a statement.
Here is his statement in its entirety:
“At this time the city of Lometa refutes any and all claims made by former interim chief Linda Mauldin. I have personally spoke with the tech at Motorola that set up our P.D. server. The tech stated to me that there has never been a cord where Mauldin has stated one is missing. Even if there was it would not constitute a possible breach in security as it is simply a back up ethernet port. He stated to me that the server is hooked up exactly as it should be. In regards to Mauldins statement of no one knowing who the administrator for the P.D. computer is. That is a wildly blatant lie. Mauldin is the admin and taped to one of the P.D. computers is the username and password along with her P.D. email and password. The "Bob's notes" file she mentioned has been addressed between her and I. It contained bill due dates and amounts for former police chief Bob Montgomery along with some college application forms for a university in North Dakota from 2014. Her and I sat together and viewed that file. Her claim of transfered files is accurate, but the paranoia regarding them is a sign of concern. Those files were not downloaded from the computer they were uploaded to it. They were body cam footage, dashcam footage, citations, etc. The server had been in for repairs at Motorola and recently returned. After she set it up, the files began uploading from the patrol car laptop to the main computer, just as they are supposed to. She has claimed some one came in the office and stole a shotgun, then remembered she put it in lock up. She claimed someone came in and stole keys she had taped to the under side of a desk, then remembered she put them on her key ring. Over the last couple weeks there has been a real concern from this office about her abilities. She has made statements on Facebook that I came in and removed the camera in her office. I was told by her after she pointed it down that the D.A. had instructed her to do so. Multiple people have texts from her confirming this. She also claimed that I had written up a former officers for complaints all of which is untrue. There is no write up from me on any officer ever. Lastly she has made very concerning accusations regarding the evidence being stolen. This is because I have instructed her to quit messing with it. We had just finished and entire inventory and log of the evidence cage with the assistance of a paid third party individual that does all of the evidence logs for the county S.O. and Lampasas P.D. and we were waiting for further instruction as what to do with each item from the county prosecutor. All video footage showed that NO ONE had entered that office at any point with her being present. Interim chief had the only key to her office. I did not even have a key. “
