Iraq veteran seeks his items returned

  By Tawsha Davenport

When a person is arrested, that person’s items are seized and taken into police custody. One expects eventually those items will soon be returned. Then when one is arrested, and it is proved that he didn’t do anything wrong in the first place, he expects his items to be returned.

At least that is what Sgt. Seth Hammer, a squad leader who is also an Iraq veteran, thought when he was recently arrested on a DUI charge by the Idabel Police Department.

“This nightmare all began last August when I was arrested by the Idabel Police Department. I had been up that day since 6 a.m., working until dusk at Hochatown doing my lawn service business. I was hot and tired. But I had to go to the VFW building because we were putting our building up for lease. I had to meet a guy over there and show him the building,” said Hammer.

When he left the VFW building, he headed to his post commander’s home to return the key to the building.

“He invited me to stay with him and have a drink and visit about post business. It was over an hour when we said our final goodbyes. When I left, I was headed back toward Broken Bow on that curve on 259 North past the Country Club when I drifted over that white line a bit. I tend to do that on that curve no matter what time of day. It is a super sharp curve, and I don’t know a time I don’t do it a little bit,” added Hammer.

Soon a patrol car pulled up behind him.

“The policeman hit his lights. He pulled me over at a local restaurant at the four-way.  As he is talking to me, I show him my insurance information. I tell him I have a gun and I am digging around trying to find my concealed weapon carry card. He looks up at me and says, ‘Have you had anything to drink tonight?’ I told him yes over an hour ago. So, he says, ‘Will you step out and do a field sobriety test?’ I said yes, no problem,” said Hammer.

Hammer did the balance test and he passed it. He stood on one foot, despite the fact Hammer says he isn’t very good at balancing.

“Then he said, ‘let me look at your eyes,’ and he said, ‘Have you had any recent head trauma?’ I answered no.”

Hammer stated, “He did this thing with his eyes and based on that he believed I was on something.”

“He told me he was going to arrest me. I didn’t say anything nor try to resist. I always have told my kids just be arrested if they are ever in that situation and be cooperative. Don’t let it escalate into something worse,” said Hammer.

Then Officer Zappala took him into custody and had his vehicle impounded.

“At that time the police took my Army-issued canteen, cup and holder and ammunition out of my car. This also included my Berretta 92F pistol,” stated Hammer. (The reason Hammer had a Berretta pistol was because while in the Army he had won a silver ranking in the German Marksmanship challenge with it.)

He was asked if he would agree to a blood test.

“I said absolutely draw my blood,” said Hammer.

They drew his blood. He was told the results would take seven months, but they took 10 months to come in.

“He takes me into Idabel police department where he has me blow into one of those little breath analyzers. He wouldn’t tell me the results. I knew then I was good. Then the surprising part to me was they take me from there the Idabel jail to the McCurtain County jail,” said Hammer.

He spent over 16 hours locked up in the McCurtain County Jail.

“I am not sure why. It was the city police department that charged me. But they locked me up in county. I had never been arrested before in my life, so I was kinda along for the ride. I didn’t ask any questions. Being in county was a real eye opener. I of course like everyone else had heard all of the stories. For one, none of the sinks worked in the cells – no water, nothing.  They gave me water to drink from empty seasoning containers like you buy from Sam’s. Really no way to treat people,” added Hammer.

After a long 16 hours he was able to see a judge. He was released on a $1,500 bond. His wife tracked down his car that had been impounded. Then he hired a local lawyer.

“The lawyer did a wonderful job. He told us they charged me with the wrong crime. He said they never did an inventory on my car.  Apparently when you are arrested, my lawyer said they are supposed to do an inventory of everything that is in your vehicle. That never happened for me,” said Hammer.

Hammer was arrested in August 2023. On June 07, 2024, his blood results arrived.

The court order states, “Pursuant to agreement, case dismissed without costs. Lab results show no alcohol or any drugs detected. Any evidence held by law enforcement is to be returned immediately, including firearms. Signed Judge Laurie Belvin.”

“I felt exonerated, but the damage had been done to my business, financially and personally. And I still wanted my personal items back. First my pistol was returned immediately, but they still had my Army-issued canteen, cup, holder and 14 rounds of ammunition. I waited for the rest because I was told Detective Voss was over the evidence room and he was on vacation. Apparently, he was the only one that could return my items I was told because of this,” said Hammer.

Finally, Detective Voss returned from vacation.

“I went there and asked him where are my belongings? I have a judge order for it to be returned to me. He had no answers for me, just the run around. The canteen and cup are going to hurt them because I don’t own them. They are government-issued. It is a standard U.S. Army Canteen in a carrier and a canteen cup. Those were issued to me by my unit. They were flat-out taken, including the 14 rounds of ammunition,” said Hammer.

When he asked Detective Voss for the items back, Hammer said the response was, “It is our policy not to give ammunition back. We keep ammunition.”

“When I asked, can you show me this policy, he couldn’t produce where it said that anywhere – posted on a wall, in a training manual, on the internet, in a book, in a folder. Nowhere could this statement be found for me to look upon with my own eyes. I wanted to read these rules. It was like a policy people just take their word for, but no one can read for themselves. I said then okay about the ammunition. Then where is the canteen and belongings? Again, there was no response from Detective Voss,” said Hammer.

Hammer them emailed Idabel Police Chief Martin about the matter. He was surprised when he received a returned call.

“Police Chief Martin was gracious and verbally assured me that the policy Detective Voss mentioned was an old policy and he personally said he would find my ammunition and canteen and give it back to me. To this day I still haven’t received my belongings,” said Hammer.

Hammer said it was explained to him by several individuals that the ammunition that is retrieved goes into a bin and is all mixed up. He said he mentioned this to the police chief and he still assured him he would search through it and find his ammunition.

“He told me to send him pictures of my ammunition in an email so he would know what it looked like, so I did. I told him I will email him once a week, so he won’t forget about me,” said Hammer.

After the second week of emailing him, Martin emailed him back and said, “We have lost it.”

“The evidence room is supposed to be secure. How is it lost?” asked Hammer. “How do you just lose Army issued items that are supposed to be tagged? It raises questions to me about evidence control.”

“I am a Sergeant Army Squad Leader of 721 Engineer Company of the Army reserves out of Grand Prairie, Texas. My company wants to play it out and see what happens. After I was arrested, I was still able to go out to the range with my guys. The Army is very happy with the blood results. They were never concerned because they all know me. They don’t understand the big deal of the items not being returned. They have never heard of such a fiasco,” said Hammer.

The last email exchange from Martin to Hammer stated:

“We have exhausted our efforts at attempting to locate your property, but have not been successful in doing so. If for some reason we locate it in the future, we will certainly notify you. I have spoken with City Attorney Don Shaw, and we ask that you direct any further correspondence concerning the matter to his office.”

“The Army has told me that they are going to need something with a department letter head from the chief of police of Idabel. A memo saying, “We have lost these items.” preferably from Detective Voss who was over the evidence room. Then I can give that to the Army. Then it is up to the Army if they want to make them refund the items. It doesn’t seem like much, but it is the principal of it.  I keep coming back to the ammunition. That costs money. I look at it as just theft. It adds up over time.”

The police chief promised, and he had me provide pictures in my emails, which I did. I have provided those emails and blood test results and court orders to this paper. So, it just comes back to the principal of it all,” said Hammer.

By coming forward, Hammer is hoping to gain three things – to clear his name, have his items returned, and evidence control awareness.

“When I was initially arrested – I am not knocking the press, but everyone knows the court report is published, it’s public information. I walked into a business and they were like, ‘Hey, we saw you in the court report.’ Then another business and of course so on,” said Hammer.

He began receiving less calls and he noticed it in his bank account.

“Then I was working on my job as a chimney sweep in Hochatown on a lady’s fireplace.  I was halfway finished.  A lady looked up at me and said, ‘I saw you in Jailbirds.’  This has affected my business, stress on my family and financially. I had to take out a loan and I am still paying it back.

“As for my belongings disappearing, mine was just a simple case. What if mine had been a more complicated case? What if I had been wrongly accused of murder or something with evidence disappearing?  I would think citizens should be concerned about that. We put our trust in law enforcement. They are supposed to take the evidence in and take control of it, not lose it. It is their responsibility to make sure evidence and property are documented properly and stored carefully. That is what I am wanting to accomplish.

“All of it has made me more aware of what others have gone through and are still going through in the court system. I know they are just hoping I just go away, but I won’t be any time soon. I want our community to be aware this is happening,” added Hammer.

Hammer tried to contact the city attorney, but he is out of the country. His local lawyer told him to contact the state representatives and federal representatives to help. Hammer is currently seeking legal counsel out of the county to resolve the issue.