Murder trial testimony and a lawsuit allege frequent mishandling of evidence at Salinas Police Department.

Two employees who worked inside the evidence lab at the Salinas Police Department for more than two decades have alleged years of evidence mismanagement by a third-party forensics contractor. The former employees say carelessness from the contractor led to lost evidence in open cases.

Today, the employees and contractor no longer work with the city. The former employees, Betty Wilder and Jesse Gilpas, are suing for wrongful termination, alleging their efforts to blow the whistle on mismanagement led to the end of their employment.

The problems at the lab have now been raised in an ongoing 2017 Salinas murder trial. Attorney Charles Shivers, representing the accused Guadalupe Rosas, claimed during a May 13 hearing that evidence – including security footage from an apartment complex across from the crime scene, and officer body cam footage – is missing.

Shivers brought Gilpas to the hearing to testify about the evidence lab situation. Gilpas told the court that sloppy management by the third-party contractor, Tenacity Forensic Examination Services, led to the premature disposal of evidence in at least two open cases. (Shivers is not sure whether a connection exists between the missing evidence in his case and the claims from Wilder and Gilpas.)

Attorney John Klopfenstein is representing Wilder and Gilpas in their wrongful termination claims. In Wilder’s complaint, Klopfenstein says the Salinas evidence room, where his clients were the only full-time employees, was buckling under the weight of a growing inventory and lack of space and resources. In 2018, the city contracted with Tenacity, run by former Salinas cop Mark Babione, to help make space by disposing of evidence from old cases.

Wilder, who alleges she had an affair with Babione that pre-dated Tenacity’s contract with the city and ended in 2019, says Tenacity’s policies ran contrary to her training and the contractor was sloppy and unorganized, often leaving evidence boxes open and unattended. She told Babione his team worked “too fast with no attention to detail and were making so many mistakes that fixing their mistakes would take ‘years.’”

After Wilder complained, she alleges that Babione, two assistant police chiefs, a commander and a sergeant threatened to send her to jail if she kept it up. An internal investigation in 2021 revealed issues at the evidence lab such as improper handling of money envelopes, guns and drugs, according to the suit, but Klopfenstein says Wilder and Gilpas became scapegoats. In 2021, the pair were notified they would be transferred to positions in the city’s public library system; they declined.

City Attorney Chris Callihan says Wilder and Gilpas resigned. He confirms Tenacity’s contact with the city expired and says the city, under new City Manager Steve Carrigan and new Police Chief Roberto Filice, has updated policies at the lab. He says that no cases have been compromised by the alleged mismanagement.

If proven, Klopfenstein says his clients’ claims could unravel past convictions. Berkley Brannon, chief assistant DA, won’t speculate on the lawsuit but says if mismanaged evidence is proven, any possible wrongful convictions would be investigated. Babione says he has not seen the lawsuit and cannot comment other than to say he has nothing to hide.