By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - A special prosecutor may be appointed to investigate what went wrong with the Butler County sheriff's property room.

Sheriff Harold Don Gabbard Thursday said he decided to ask Prosecutor Robin Piper "to conduct an official investigation into the status of the property room."

The room holds more than 10,000 items, from unclaimed bicycles to drugs, money, guns and evidence needed in criminal cases. It has been under scrutiny since 2001 after some seized drug funds couldn't be found. In early 2002, two employees resigned after admitting they had taken amounts of cash for personal use. They later admitted to misdemeanor criminal charges.

Internal investigators who work for the sheriff have conducted a partial audit that showed seven guns and $4,681 in cash unaccounted for.

Gabbard's investigators said computer glitches, data entry mistakes and other record-keeping problems might account for the money and guns that couldn't be located, so the items might not actually be missing.

Still, the sheriff said he thought it was better for another agency to finish the probe "to avoid any perception that we're trying to hide something."

Piper said he was leaning toward asking a special prosecutor, probably from another county, to handle the request.

Citing a "close professional working relationship with the sheriff's office," Piper said a special prosecutor would be an independent observer who could "devote more full-time focus" to the matter.

Gabbard said he had no specific evidence suggesting further criminal wrongdoing, and he said he also had no reason to believe any criminal cases have been damaged by missing evidence.

Piper also said he was unaware of any such problems, "but maybe there's something we would find out" as a result of further investigation. So far, he said, "all of our cases have been running smoothly," and he had heard of no situations in which necessary evidence wasn't available for use in court.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com