Tempe forensic unit's dysfunction known up the police chain of command, report shows

The Tempe Police Department's issues with processing forensic evidence for major crimes ran far deeper and lingered for far longer than previously disclosed, according to newly released police records.

A lack of standard procedures, a history of incompetence and a toxic work culture that managers didn't fix are among the problems highlighted in the department's 2022 internal investigation, which The Arizona Republic obtained through a public records request.

The investigative report documents that a second supervisor, a lieutenant, was disciplined for failing to follow up on proposed improvements in the unit. The Republic previously reported that the squad leader resigned after she was cited for lacking competence and mishandling evidence between 2015 and 2021.

The lieutenant, who had 23 years of experience, was slow and ineffective in dealing with the problem after he began managing the team leader in 2018. Investigators found the lieutenant took a year to confront the supervisor about misconduct allegations and failed to follow up on key improvements to training, equipment and procedures.

The forensic unit lacked standard evidence-processing procedures for years and an effort to draft them crumbled amid infighting.

It's not yet clear if sloppy forensics could undermine criminal prosecutions of murders, rapes and other serious crimes. Other evidence could convict a defendant, even if forensics are absent or dismissed.

But the unit's problems forced Tempe last year to review 400 serious such crimes, and, as of November, to have Mesa take a closer look at 20% of them for fingerprint re-evaluation, according to a Tempe memo sent to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which The Republic obtained through a public records request.

Tempe police said late last year they had found no instances in the past three years in which a case was jeopardized by sloppy evidence handling.

Already, one man facing murder charges has cited an internal investigation to challenge the validity of Tempe's evidence against him in court.

Tempe, in a prepared statement, said it's focused on the future and not the past — repeating statements by the city for earlier articles on the subject. It has contracted Mesa police to process major crime scene evidence while Tempe's forensic technicians get trained to higher standards.

The latest revelations about the unit raised concerns with other law enforcement experts, however.

Top brass should have made sure appropriate changes were being carried out, according to Frank Milstead, a former Arizona Department of Public Safety director who also led the Mesa Police Department.

"It sounds like (the department's) follow through was (the) problem," Milstead said. "It wasn't that (the lieutenant at the center of the internal investigation) didn't notify the chain of command. It wasn't that he didn't let human resources know there was a problem. It's that he had a solution that he never finished."

What the second internal investigation found

In November 2021, an investigation into Tempe Lt. John Thompson began amid another probe into the forensic unit's team leader, Laura Somershoe.

Employees said Thompson, Somershoe's manager, knew about issues within the unit but failed to resolve them efficiently. Somershoe told investigators she was never made aware of specific concerns to help change her behavior.

In August 2018, about a month into his role, Thompson was handed a packet of complaints from employees about Somershoe, according to the investigative report.

It took Thompson nearly a year until he formally spoke to Somershoe about those concerns. During that period, Thompson told investigators, he believed things within the unit had improved. When the two met in July 2019, he did not share the original complaint packet with Somershoe.

Thompson told investigators he needed to do more "digging" into the allegations and didn't share them with Somershoe since many were "hurtful."

"That's inappropriate. If you have a supervisor that's failing and there's complaints, you need to bring them in," Milstead said.

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Thompson declined to discuss the situation with The Republic.

Forensic technicians told Thompson they were concerned about a lack of standard operating procedures for processing evidence, something Somershoe was tasked with creating during her six-year tenure.

In response, Thompson said in mid-2019 he told the unit to create or update a portion of the procedures and recommended they reach out to other agencies. Employees submitted drafts and did peer reviews, but the procedures were never completed, even by the time he transitioned out of overseeing the unit in May 2021.

Thompson said the COVID-19 pandemic derailed progress.

His priority had been on improving the team's dynamic, so he assigned the unit to read the book, "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team," a suggestion that irked some team members.

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Thompson also told investigators there was no training budget when he was assigned to the unit, so he "opened up the budget" so employees could receive necessary instruction. He said he knew the unit lacked proper equipment, but said he addressed the issue and thought it was resolved, but said he never followed up.

While Thompson tried to manage the issues on his own, he told investigators his chain of command was informed along the way. This chain included his commander, Jefferey Glover, who later served as Tempe's chief of police and in February 2023 took over as Arizona Department of Public Safety director.

Glover and other lieutenants were given regular updates during group meetings on his actions and the unit's progress, Thompson told investigators. Glover confirmed to the Republic that information made its way up to the assistant chiefs and chief.

Thompson said he did not ever "downplay" the situation but never got direction to do something different, according to the report. Human resources staff also were aware of the situation, he said.

"(Thompson) is telling everybody what's going on and everybody's supporting his plan. I guess what really gets Thompson sideways is the fact that he doesn't follow up on it and make sure it's done," and I think that's the key to it," said Milstead.

Thompson told investigators he considered Somershoe at that time to be "incompetent in Forensic Science" by today's standards and had poor communication skills. But, he said, Somershoe was a good candidate when she was tapped to head the unit in 2014.

At that time many technicians had "zero" field experience, according to the report. But after more seasoned employees were added, Thompson reported Somershoe's confidence and communication skills worsened.

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Thompson said if Somershoe had been in a sworn position, he would have recommended removing her from the unit, according to the report. His only options were to fire or demote her.

"They either should have put somebody there who was competent or proficient enough to run the unit, or at least spent time providing whatever additional education or training was required," Milstead said.

In December 2022, investigators concluded Thompson failed to help Somershoe and the forensics unit be successful, and he failed to effectively and competently follow up and hold the unit's personnel accountable.

"The failure to take appropriate action has resulted in a unit that is still struggling and now needing more attention," investigators wrote in the report.

Bill Richardson, a retired Mesa police detective and former supervisor in the criminal intelligence unit there, said Thompson's failure to confront Somershoe with the allegations made Tempe's forensic unit sound "like an elementary school playground.”

"Thompson didn't (take control and) because of that, this playground fight continued for years and the damage that it has done (to resident trust in Tempe Police Department) really is immeasurable," said Richardson, who spent years working murder and sex crimes investigations in Mesa.

Richardson said, "There's no excuse for Thompson not taking action. There's no excuse for them to have tolerated this level of incompetence at so many levels for so long. There's no excuse.”

Thompson was later reassigned to become executive officer to the chief.

Head of unit asked to resign after issues continued for 6 years

Thompson's problems surfaced as Professional Standards investigators looked into Somershoe's conduct in August 2021.

Three months later, investigators reported performance issues dating to 2015 when Somershoe began supervising the unit. They noted the use of expired chemicals, lack of proper equipment, evidence sitting in temporary lockers for a year, evidence not logged, reports sitting on desks for years, and crime scene photos being deleted without being documented.

One homicide detective told investigators in the first probe the forensic unit lacked skill and knowledge and had so badly mishandled evidence he "dreaded" having to testify about it before a jury.

Internal investigators concluded Somershoe "lacked sufficient competency." The department asked her to resign.

Somershoe remains on the Brady List, a database prosecutors keep of law enforcement officials deemed untrustworthy as witnesses.

Somershoe declined to comment on her investigation.

But in an August interview with criminal defense lawyers filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, she argued the audio tapes for her interview did not match the summary of her report.

Somershoe said Thompson knew she was extremely busy, specifically throughout the pandemic, and could have used more help.

In the 2021 report, Somershoe said she was the target of a "witch hunt." She said she was "not neglectful" in her duties, adding, "I'm just trying to stay afloat."

What police leaders knew: A 'systematic failure'?

Department leaders were unaware of the unit's serious evidence-handling issues that have prompted Tempe's three-year review of cases, Glover said.

He told The Republic he was not aware of any ongoing issues with broken equipment, expired chemicals or incompetency within the forensics unit. He mostly heard about things like infighting and a lack of standard operating procedures.

“There was a lot of discord within the group. That was the main issue," he said. "They were operating under different procedures. That was a problem.”

But those issues had been around since at least 2015, according to Glover. He said the dysfunction in the forensic services unit was known to exist since before he or Thompson had any direct oversight.

Thompson's interview with investigators suggested homicide detectives mistrusted the forensic unit's work as far back as 2001.

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Then, members of the unit "did not know how to process a scene" so it was common for "a homicide detective to grab the camera from an ID technician and take" their own photos, adding technicians were considered "glorified photographers," Thompson reported to investigators.

Glover defended Thompson's work, saying that even though he was reprimanded for not fixing the unit's problems, he inherited them soon after he took over oversite.

“Thompson is a consummate professional. He is a very sound individual, very competent, very capable,” Glover said. “These things don't just happen overnight.”

Richardson said it would be unfair to single out Glover or Thompson because multiple people failed to fix the forensic unit's problems.

But, he added, their "handprints" on the issue.

“There is a systemic failure," he said. "Where's the accountability for the assistant chief or chiefs who are over the commander, who is over Thompson? And where's the accountability for the police chiefs?"

Milstead said too much remains unclear to lay blame, beyond the failures to follow up on reforms.

City leadership is 'laser-focused on creating a new day'

Tempe Police Chief Kenneth McCoy, who filled the role last year after the forensic issues had been investigated, told The Republic in September that the "unit has done nothing wrong."

McCoy eventually acknowledged the longstanding issues in November and vowed to fix them, writing in a statement that "this situation was not created on my watch. But it will be fixed while I serve as police chief."

Glover contends he only knew about "infighting and bickering between the employees" and that team members were dissatisfied with Somershoe's leadership, not about the expired chemicals or broken equipment. But he reported the dysfunction all the way up the chain of command, yet years went by without improvement.

The city did not answer why it took until a year ago to address the forensic unit's problems.

"We cannot speak for previous city leaders. What we can do is fix these issues in a timely manner," the city wrote in a statement to The Republic. "Our new leaders, and the Tempe Police Department along with them, are laser-focused on creating a new day for the (department) and for our city."

Richardson said that's a cop-out and the Thompson report makes clear the problems ran deeper.

After Somershoe's December 2021 resignation, no changes were made to the unit until a permanent replacement took the position in January 2023. After a six-month review by that supervisor, the team was suspended from collecting evidence from major crime scenes a month after McCoy took over.

Richardson called that delay unacceptable.

"There was a serious amount of evidence available that the unit was dysfunctional for years and (leadership) was aware of it," he said.

Reporter Elena Santa Cruz is a criminal justice reporter for The Republic. Reach her at elena.santacruz@gannett.com or 480-466-2265. Follow her on X at @ecsantacruz3.

Reporter Sam Kmack covers Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler. Follow him on Twitter @KmackSam or reach him at sam.kmack@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tempe police unit dysfunction known up chain of command, report shows