Internal Investigation Finds No Major Misconduct in Property Room

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Story Published: Oct 7, 2009 at 6:02 PM PDT

By Peter Bukowski

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YAKIMA -- Julie McGovern has worked at YPD for 34 years, and since 2001, she's been working with in the property room. In the middle of an internal investigation back in July we spoke to McGovern about overseeing all this evidence.

"Randomly, we will research each item to see if we can get it back to its owner."

When things can't be sold, they just get thrown out. But it was a few items bound for the dumpster that made their way into McGovern's car that prompted the investigation.

Co-workers accused McGovern of outright taking things from the property room including a decorative donkey and a newspaper box bound for the trash heap, as well as keeping separate collections of jewelry, brass knuckles and even cash.

In a meeting with Deputy Chief, Kelly Rosenhow, McGovern admitted she had taken things from the property room.

Yakima Police Chief Sam Granato met exclusively with KIMA to talk about this case.

"She readily admitted it. She acknowledged that she should not have done it, and we dealt with it appropriately."

That means a slap on the wrist for nothing more than simple lack of judgment.

"There was never any criminal (charges). If the investigator who had dealt with this case, if he had uncovered that there was a pattern or other issues that needed to be investigated that would have led to criminal charges, we would have immediately stopped the internal investigation, and opened a criminal investigation. "

Police insist there was no cover up. McGovern admitted to taking the newspaper box and donkey, but the rest was just a misunderstanding. No other items ever left the property room in McGovern's possession. The investigation was closed, concluding McGovern simply made a mistake.

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