They were accused of pulling off a $45,000 heist from Tenchtronics in February of 2004 and when 33-year-old Frederick Dougal and 21-year-old Frank Vasquez were busted with the stolen cash and electronics a conviction seemed certain. But today both Dougal and Vasquez walked out of the Magistrate's Court free men. Why? Well tonight that question has the Police and Tenchtronics pointing fingers at each other.
The problem is that though police recovered US$4,000 in cash in addition to some phones and digital cameras, none of that evidence was provided, in court. That is because after the items were recovered, the police agreed to release the phones to Tenchtronics on the condition that they take pictures of the phones which would then be used as evidence in the criminal trial.
Agents of Tenchtronics says they did their part including hiring divers to fish for the safe's door and paying a photographer. Tenchtronics' accountant Dawn Tillet says you'll have to ask the police what happened to the pictures, as well as the entire case.
Keith Swift,
What went wrong in terms of the evidence and phones that were stolen and stuff like that?
Dawn Tillet, Tenchtronics
"I cannot explain that. Maybe you will need to ask the Police Department and you will need to ask the prosecutor. They were both given a set of the photographs."
Keith Swift,
Why did Tenchtronics take back the phones from police?
Dawn Tillet,
"Okay the phones were part of our stock and we needed them so we could sell them. We needed to move our stock so that we could replenish our supplies. And we all agreed, both parties agreed, us and the police agreed that we would be given back the phones. They asked us to pay for the photographs as they at that time didn't have any Polaroid. We did that. They themselves brought back the pictures for us to see and we formally handed them over to them."
Keith Swift,
But when the trial started those pictures were gone.
Dawn Tillet,
"Again you would have to find out from the police department and the prosecutor what they did with their copies. I honestly believe that we cooperated fully with the Police Department. We assisted them in every way we could to get them to win this case. I can recall we even paid for Sea Sports to come in and dive up the safe, and you will recall that Channel 7 was out there to cover that story. Definitely we did our part."
The case was prosecuted by Jackie Willoughby. She did call 8 witnesses including Evan Tench who reported the burglary. The witnesses who were found with cell phones were uncooperative and without the pictures none could definitively say which phone the accused gave them. As for the recovered money, Tench says he got it back but that is a story in itself.
