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04/27/2007
High times in tanning shedDrug pipes, Playboys found with tanning bed in maintenance building
Drug pipes, rolling paper, a lighter and scale were among paraphernalia found in a Benzie County maintenance building that also housed a tanning bed. BEULAH — Stacks of Playboy magazines. Rolling papers and a large stash of drug pipes that contained traces of marijuana. Straws flecked with cocaine. Custodians created a vice-laden clubhouse in a maintenance building at Benzie County's government center, a structure that also housed a tanning bed. One janitor recently pleaded guilty to stealing electricity from the county to power the tanning bed he frequently used. The county's maintenance coordinator died in an alcohol-fueled, December car crash before charges could be brought against him. Police attempted to find the source of some of the bizarre and illegal contents of the janitors' room, and some of the marijuana pipes have been traced back to the evidence room at the Benzie County Sheriff's Department. Authorities, however, contend the pipes were not stolen from the evidence room and officials don't believe any of the marijuana or cocaine came from the sheriff's department, Undersheriff Rory Heckman said. 
A stack of Playboy magazines fill a drawer in the maintenance building at Benzie County's government center. Heckman said some of the marijuana pipes found in the janitors' room came from the evidence room, but first had been discarded according to department policy. He said janitor Alan Ernest Blattner, 56, likely alerted his supervisor, Donald Zaleski, 55, about their whereabouts. Blattner pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft for pilfering electricity for the tanning bed, while Zaleski died in a car crash near Frankfort in December. "I think they got thrown in the trash and they thought they were gone and someone fished through the trash and found them,” Heckman said. "Al says he never gave it to him and Don says, 'Well, he never gave it to me, but he may have told me it was in the trash.'” Investigators have not alleged that Blattner was in possession of drug paraphernalia, but such possession is not a crime in Michigan, Heckman said. Blattner passed a drug test. The case could lead to changes in the way the sheriff's department disposes of contraband. Heckman said the drug pipes should not merely have been thrown away. In the future, such items will be smashed with a sledgehammer before they are discarded. Heckman said he doesn't believe traces of marijuana and cocaine found in the pole building could have come from the department's evidence room because drugs are incinerated in the presence of two officers and the destruction is documented in paperwork. Heckman said access to the evidence room is limited and an audit was conducted as a result of this case that turned up nothing suspicious. Items are deposited into the evidence room through a two-way locker and not all officers are authorized to go into the room. "I don't even walk in there; I make a habit to not walk into any evidence rooms,” Heckman said. Zaleski admitted he brought the cocaine paraphernalia to work but denied using it, saying it had been 15 or 20 years since he had used cocaine, according to a police report. The stack of Playboy magazines found their way into the clubhouse after Blattner brought them to the government center to give to Zaleski, he told investigators, according to a police report. He told police his father gave him the magazines and he passed them on after he finished reading them. Heckman said the decision to allow Blattner, a union employee, to remain on the job rested with Benzie County Administrator Chuck Clarke. Clarke previously said Blattner was allowed to keep his job because the offense was minor and Blattner demonstrated bad judgment. Zaleski also was a central figure in a criminal investigation involving Elaine Lucille Saffron, 49, a state Department of Human Services worker accused of stealing state property. She faces a pair of theft-related misdemeanors, though prosecutors said an investigation continues into possible additional crimes.
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