Investigators threw away bomb parts (Well, they claim to have, anyway -- me)

Boston Globe ^ | 11/30/2001 | John Ellement

[Fixit]

In a move that could damage, but not derail, the case against five teenagers charged with conspiring to blow up New Bedford High School and kill classmates and teachers, police threw out an incomplete homemade bomb seized in late October.

[Fixit]

''The officer can certainly describe [in court] what he saw. There is no dispute as to what was there. What is someone going to say, `He's making it up?'''

That is exactly what they will say.

Heck, why even bother with physical evidence when someone could just testify to what they saw?

I suppose the officer could also testify to the kiddie porn, pot, coke, satanic images, tobacco, fatty snack cakes, wine coolers and fake ID's that he confiscated, but threw away before the trial...

[OWK]

Clock + batteries = bomb parts?

[eno_]

This smells very bad. If I were defense council I would find anything at all bad about this cop and hammer this point. Cops lie. Sometimes they lie a lot, and steal, and maybe murder, as was discovered in the Rampart investigation. I hope this isn't all the physical evidence they had.

[OWK]

FitzGerald described the device as a ''half-bomb''

Oops...

Clock + batteries = half-bomb.

I stand corrected.

(I'm beginning to wonder if they have anything on these kids at all)

[mvscal]

''That is sort of dumb, to be honest, not to at the very least have taken photographs,'' said retired Superior Court Judge Robert A. Barton.

Sort of dumb?!? C'mon, it's completely idiotic. That's some pretty "high speed" police work. Nice going fellas.

[Grut]

Not to quibble too much, but since when can the police throw away private property just because it isn't evidence of a crime?

[VeritatisSplendor]

you know, boys love things that go boom. My son is just full of questions that we tell him he better not dare ask in school. My brothers set off M-80s in the storm drains and the gentlest boys in school were the ones designing weapon systems. I wouldn't have put it past any of them to put together a clock face and batteries just to see if that actually worked...

These cops sure better have acted on better grounds than this alone.

Mrs VS

[Fixit]

I've been joking for years about things like this, I'm a bit scared to see it come true.

I've mentioned before on FR how I tried to buy an FAA test object (Fake bomb) at the auction of a bankrupt carrier a few years ago. My interest in the "devices" was merely curiosity and I was outbid by a professional in the field.

Anyway, the fake bombs were of two types: The first was a length of galvanized pipe, threaded with endcaps, and the second was an analog clock with a 9-volt battery, some wires, a few holes drilled in the face (hands would close circuit) and some fake dynamite.

Now I'm sort of glad I didn't win the auction...

[Fixit]

This is a good point. Of course, the defendants would be (almost) as dumb as the cops if they bothered to sue for the value of the wrongfully taken property ;-)

[Fixit]

It occurs to me that they may be releasing this story now in an effort to poison the pool of potential jurors. If this story becomes a part of the accepted background facts of the case it will not be such a big deal at the trial.