Evidence collected when police searched a home on March 29 looking for leads in the disappearance of a Pine Bluff woman 18 years ago was not sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory at Little Rock until Tuesday, police said Wednesday.
“The reason for the delay is unknown at this time and is being investigated by Deputy Chief Kelvin Sergeant,” Police Public Information Officer Lt. JoAnn Bates said Wednesday afternoon.
Kermit Channell, director of the crime laboratory, confirmed Bates’ statement that his agency did not receive the evidence from Pine Bluff Police until Tuesday.
“Normally, when we receive evidence from an agency, we don’t comment on it but we felt it was appropriate in this case so that people couldn’t say we weren’t doing anything,” Channell said.
The evidence was collected from 5309 Faucett Road, the last place where Cleashindra Hall was seen before she disappeared May 9, 1994.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Hall was 18 and a senior at Watson Chapel High School, and did clerical work at the house for Larry Amos, the owner of the property that was searched.
According to an inventory list prepared by Detective Lt. Bob Rawlinson, four items of evidence, listed as being taken from the west wall of the living room, were collected during the search.
Rawlinson was day shift lieutenant and supervised the search and according to affidavits filed to support the search warrant, interviews giving police probable cause to obtain the warrant were conducted in December 2011 and January 2012, while Rawlinson was day shift supervisor.
He was reassigned by Police Chief Brenda Davis-Jones on April 4 effective April 8.
Laurell Hall, the mother of Cleashindra Hall, was critical of police efforts to find her daughter, asking a number of questions following a meeting of the city council Monday.
After the meeting, Hall, Davis-Jones and Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. discussed the investigation, and Davis-Jones provided some information to Hall about the status of the investigation in front of the media.
“What I mean when I say recent update is that I talked to Mrs. Hall, I explained the details for over 2.5 hours, my staff and I met with her, we have nothing more to report, the forensics have not come back,” Davis-Jones said.
“That was a month ago. You assured me …” Hall said.
“Mrs. Hall, just let her complete her …” Redus said.
“She can defend herself, Mayor Redus,” Hall said.
“No, we are going to come by and see you and talk with you, and meet with you. All I’m trying to say is let her make her statement. There is nothing to debate here in the public,” Redus said.
“And I’m not trying to debate anything,” Davis-Jones said. “The forensics have not come back yet, there’s nothing we can do until they come back. We call the Crime Lab at least once a week and they have not got to it yet. Once they get those results back, we would be more than happy to go forward and give you the results of that crime lab report.”
Earlier that evening, Hall had asked several questions in front of Davis-Jones, Redus and the whole City Council.
“Eighteen years ago we let the ball drop when we sat back and waited for law enforcement to do their job,” Hall said. “I also stated that I had done a disservice to my daughter because I had not been aggressive enough, but that was ending. My husband and I met with Chief Jones, Assistant Chief [Ivan] Whitfield, Capt. [Kelvin] Sergeant, Lt. [Bob] Rawlinson and Detective [Jerry] Lambert. We were assured by the chief that they would continue to move forward with this investigation and we would be kept abreast of what was going on. It has been a month and we have not received one phone call.”
Hall asked why Rawlinson was reassigned. She said she has not heard from Lambert and did not know if he is still working on the case.
“Whatever internal issue is going on in the department is second to finding out what happened to Clea. With Lt. Rawlinson reassigned, who is aggressively pursuing our case?” Hall said, asking for the identity of Rawlinson’s replacement.
Alderman Thelma Walker has publicly accused Davis-Jones of removing Rawlinson from the case and his former position in retaliation after he refused to back up Davis-Jones’ version of events for how a department policy change failed to go through the proper legislative channels. Davis-Jones has denied retaliating against Rawlinson or any employee.
Attempts to contact Davis-Jones on her city cell phone Wednesday were unsuccessful. No one picked up the phone at the Hall house Wednesday afternoon. A memorial service for the 18-year-anniversary of Cleashindra Hall’s disappearance is scheduled for 7 p.m. today at St. Peter’s Rock Baptist Church.