Nearly 200 grams of methamphetamine, 25 methamphetamine pipes, $792 and a Smith and Wesson revolver were all removed from the Tillamook Police Department’s evidence storage at some point before May 9, 2023, an audit conducted by the Oregon State Police found.
On April 3, former Tillamook Police Chief Raymond Rau pled no contest to two counts of official misconduct and admitted to removing evidence related to two found property cases involving drugs, while denying responsibility for additional irregularities.
Despite the yawning gap between the amount of tampering confirmed and explained, the Oregon State Police (OSP) investigation into the matter has been concluded for eight months and a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Justice said that it has “filed criminal charges for each circumstance that was provable beyond a reasonable doubt.”
This reporting is based on a review of the report on the OSP audit of the Tillamook Police Department’s (TPD) evidence room by the Headlight Herald.
The audit was conducted May 16 and 17, 2023, a week after TPD’s evidence technician discovered methamphetamine missing from the evidence locker and Rau confessed to having removed it.
An OSP evidence supervisor and two evidence technicians conducted the audit, with a detective overseeing the process and writing the final report. Over the course of two days, the auditors found that a total of 83 cases had been tampered with, 64 with a connection to drugs and 19 without.
Most of the tampered cases involved the removal of baggies containing methamphetamine residue or small quantities of the drug, pipes for smoking it or, in some cases, both. But in one case, a baggie containing methamphetamine with a total combined weight of just under 150 grams was missing, accounting for a majority of the total weight.
In all, 32 cases had either baggies or containers containing methamphetamine missing, while 25 pipes were unaccounted for. Of the 32 cases with missing drugs, 19 had known weights totaling 195.3 grams including the packaging, while 13 contained unmeasured amounts of methamphetamine.
Additionally, seven hypodermic syringes, two containers of heroin, a dozen pills and two marijuana items were missing.
Auditors also found that in one case a Smith and Wesson model 65-5 .357 caliber revolver had been removed along with a baggie containing two grams of meth and that in another case $792 was missing in addition to a meth pipe.
After reviewing the report, the Headlight Herald asked Roy Kaufmann, director of communications for the office of Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, if investigators had identified other parties responsible for evidence removal, an alternate explanation for its disappearance or if investigations were ongoing.
In response, Kaufmann said that the Oregon State Police’s investigation into Rau’s involvement was complete before Rau was charged last August and that charges had been filed for each charge the department felt it could prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Kaufmann did not offer an alternate explanation as to the missing evidence.
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