News from the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller

News from the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller

Pam Childers

The Clerk’s Duty to Store and Dispose of Evidence

The Clerk has the statutory

responsibility of safely securing and maintaining all items of evidence admitted in state court in Escambia County. In 2019 alone, there were 6,994 items admitted into evidence. This evidence, coupled with the many items of evidence from years past, remains stored away in the Clerk’s evidence vaults. The sizes, shapes and types of evidence admitted into evidence vary greatly, including anything from golf clubs to firearms and even dangerous drugs such as fentanyl.

There are a number of measures in place to ensure safety of staff and safe keeping of physical evidence. Security measures include limiting access to evidence to certain deputy clerks. The Clerk’s security measures also include a process whereby a minimum of two deputy clerks are required in order to gain access to the vault. To enter the vault a combination and key are required. Entry into the area around the vault requires a key card and the area is also video monitored. Humidity and temperature monitors are present to ensure that evidence does not degrade due to Florida’s climate. Furthermore, with the popularity of dangerous drugs like fentanyl on the rise, the Clerk has taken extra precautions to ensure that staff has access to personal protective equipment like masks and gloves.

All evidence must be safely maintained until the evidence has met its retention period as set forth in court rule or statute. The general retention period for criminal evidence is three years in cases where there is no pending appeal or collateral attack. However, in cases where the defendant has been sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty has been imposed, the evidence is maintained for the life of the defendant. Similarly, certain DNA evidence is retained until the term of the defendant’s sentence is complete. Civil evidence, on the other hand, has a much shorter retention period of 90 days after a judgment has become final.

Like retention periods, when it comes to destruction or disposition of evidence, civil and criminal fall under different guidelines. In civil cases, when evidence has met its retention period, the Clerk provides notice to the parties of the Clerk’s intent to dispose of evidence. The notice provides 30 days for parties to call for return of the evidence. If a party requests return of the evidence, the Clerk’s office will arrange for return. If a party does not request return of the evidence, it will be shredded or disposed of accordingly.

On the other hand, criminal evidence is generally not returned to a party. The general rule for criminal evidence provides that items of no value are destroyed and those items with value are sold at auction. Firearms and other weapons as well as controlled substances are returned to law enforcement pursuant to law. Paper items are usually shredded. Other general items having no monetary value are taken by the Clerk’s Records Management Liaison Offer (“RMLO”) to the landfill where the RMLO ensures the items of evidence are deposited into the landfill and covered by landfill staff. Items having monetary value are sold at auction. It is not common for items to be sold at auction as items of value that aren’t returned to law enforcement are minimal. If evidence is sold at auction it will be listed on the web at myescambia. com/our-services/property-sales.

Proper evidence storage and retention takes considerable time and resources to ensure that our justice system continues to function properly through all the trials, appeals and post-judgment proceedings. Evidence storage and retention is a tough task. Staff assigned to the job of correctly inputting, safely storing, accurately inventorying and properly disposing of evidence do a commendable job.

Authored by Codey Leigh, General Counsel, on behalf of Pam Childers, Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller.