Law enforcement loses video evidence

Video evidence of drug dealers caught in the act, obtained during a months-long undercover crackdown on Berlin's open-air drug dealing, has been lost by law enforcement.

Worcester County State's Attorney Joel Todd said members of the county's Narcotics Task Force lost or recorded over video evidence from two drug deals. The footage, shot from inside an undercover police car, would have clearly identified two suspects in the sting.

"Those tapes, they don't exist anymore," Todd said at a community meeting for his Take Pride in Berlin program, an initiative to rid the community of drug dealing. "There was an error committed, and that's affecting the prosecution of those two people."

He called it "a police issue."

Eleven suspects were videotaped selling drugs to undercover Maryland State Police troopers or Ocean City police officers between February and May. Two of those men did not have criminal records and, after being confronted by a room full of disapproving people, were not prosecuted after a promise that they'd clean up their act.

The remaining nine suspects all had prior criminal records of drug dealing. Todd said seven of them have since been tracked down and arrested based on the video evidence against them, leaving the two men from the missing tapes outstanding. Nobody answered the phone to comment at the Snow Hill offices of the Worcester County Narcotics Task Force on Thursday.

Modeled after a successful 2004 program in High Point, N.C., the Berlin program tackled the drug-dealing hot spot of Bay Street at Flower Street. Todd said he'll continue running the program, which is funded by seized drug money, in Pocomoke City and Snow Hill.

Berlin Mayor Gee Williams said the residents of east Berlin have lived with drug dealing for many years, and many have told him that they're ready to stand up against it.

"If you're planting in the fall and winter, you're not going to get crops," he said. "For the kinds of issues we've got, it's finally spring. We have to move now."

Todd said they've already seen results from the crackdown in east Berlin as more dogs are out being walked and more moms take their babies out in strollers.

"I believe we've already turned a corner in wiping out the drug market," he said. "The test isn't if we wiped it out now, but next year and the year after that. I like to think it's a sign of things to come ... that you can't buy drugs in Berlin anymore."

At the meeting, 66-year-old Berlin resident William Nick credited the effort.

"The drug dealing is down 90 percent," he told Todd. "We've definitely made progress."

VIA DELMARVANOW.COM