PINE BLUFF, AR - A review panel overturned the suspension of a Pine Bluff police lieutenant after the police chief says he mishandled evidence.
Chief Brenda Davis Jones suspended Lieutenant Bob Rawlinson for two days.
She says he violated policy for
keeping evidence in the Cleashindra Hall disappearance case overnight in the trunk of his car. She also held him responsible for the
evidence getting the state crime lab forty days late. But Rawlinson appealed the suspension
He says he turned in the evidence the next day after he could not get in touch with a crime scene technician to pick up the evidence the night it was collected.
The review panel sided with Rawlinson, saying it's the crime scene technician's job to get the evidence to the state crime lab.
The chief also
suspended the crime scene tech for 5 days. The tech did not appeal.
Chief Davis Jones says she respects the appeal process.
Hall has been missing since 1994.
