CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A random audit of evidence rooms at eight State Police detachments found shoddy recordkeeping and storage of evidence, including cash, jewelry - and in one instance, a sizable amount of marijuana, a legislative audit released Monday showed.

The audit found widespread and frequent inadequacies in documenting and safeguarding evidence, including:

In one instance, the audit found, $3,075 in cash seized in a drug case was left in temporary storage in the Kingwood detachment for 258 days before it was secured in the detachment's safe-deposit box.

In another case, auditors noted that a criminal investigation report at the Martinsburg detachment showed that 8 pounds of marijuana had been seized but had not been properly logged, nor had it been documented that the marijuana had been forwarded to the State Police forensic laboratory.

"During our initial inquiries about the location of the eight pounds of marijuana, detachment personnel were under the impression the marijuana was still in the possession of the laboratory," the audit found.

"When detachment personnel called the laboratory, they were informed that the marijuana had been returned to the detachment under a different CI [criminal investigation] number."

The audit notes that once the evidence was located at the detachment, the weight of the marijuana was 5.22 pounds.

"This resulted in a discrepancy of approximately 2.88 pounds that we were unable to resolve from the documentation provided," the audit notes.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A random audit of evidence rooms at eight State Police detachments found shoddy recordkeeping and storage of evidence, including cash, jewelry - and in one instance, a sizable amount of marijuana, a legislative audit released Monday showed.

The audit found widespread and frequent inadequacies in documenting and safeguarding evidence, including:

In one instance, the audit found, $3,075 in cash seized in a drug case was left in temporary storage in the Kingwood detachment for 258 days before it was secured in the detachment's safe-deposit box.

In another case, auditors noted that a criminal investigation report at the Martinsburg detachment showed that 8 pounds of marijuana had been seized but had not been properly logged, nor had it been documented that the marijuana had been forwarded to the State Police forensic laboratory.

"During our initial inquiries about the location of the eight pounds of marijuana, detachment personnel were under the impression the marijuana was still in the possession of the laboratory," the audit found.

"When detachment personnel called the laboratory, they were informed that the marijuana had been returned to the detachment under a different CI [criminal investigation] number."

The audit notes that once the evidence was located at the detachment, the weight of the marijuana was 5.22 pounds.

"This resulted in a discrepancy of approximately 2.88 pounds that we were unable to resolve from the documentation provided," the audit notes.

State Police Deputy Superintendent Steve Tucker told the legislative Post-Audits Committee that the initial report of 8 pounds seized was simply an estimate, since the marijuana was in eight food-storage bags, which if full would hold 1 pound each.

He said there was no reason to believe any evidence had been lost, but that the bags originally contained less than 1 pound apiece.

However, he said the State Police accepts all findings in the audit and is implementing changes to assure the proper documenting and safeguarding of evidence.

The audit also found a lack of adequate monitoring and recordkeeping for three fueling stations that the State Police operates in South Charleston, Institute and Charles Town.

State Police purchased $324,625 worth of gasoline for the stations in 2006 and $410,306 in 2007.

Although troopers are supposed to fill out gasoline receipt forms, the auditors were unable to reconcile receipts with pump readings, either because the receipts were not filled out at the time the gas was pumped, or were not completed at all.

While the audit found no evidence that gas had been stolen or used for personal vehicles, the audit warned that the lack of adequate record keeping could lead to problems, particularly with prospects for higher fuel prices.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or call 348-1220.