Kern’s Old Evidence Room Was Still Operating 202 Days After the New Building’s Announced Opening Date

An opening announcement and an operating transition were different events

Kern County announced a May 29, 2024 grand opening for its new Sheriff-Coroner building, naming the Property Room among the services to be centralized there. Yet the grand jury’s December 17, 2024 inspection still found the existing evidence facility operating at 1501 L Street. The gap between the announced ceremony date and that documented inspection is 202 days.

The sheriff’s current public directory now places the Property Room at 34970 McMurtrey Avenue, the new location. That current address is essential context: the older inspection cannot honestly be presented as proof that the unit remains at L Street today.

What’s the Scoop With Broach compared the county announcement, the grand jury’s dated site visits and the current agency directory to answer a narrower accountability question: did announcing the new building’s opening establish that the evidence move was complete? The records show it did not. They establish continued use of the old facility more than six months later, while leaving the eventual transfer-completion date unresolved.

The timeline hidden by the single word “opening”

The county’s May 10, 2024 release invited media to a May 29 ribbon cutting and tour at 34970 McMurtrey Avenue. It described a building that would bring together the Civil Section, Internal Affairs, Property Room, Coroner and Public Administrator. The release announced an event and intended consolidation; it did not provide an inventory-transfer completion certificate.

The grand jury subsequently visited the new property-room site on August 20, 2024 and toured the existing L Street facility on December 17. Its report, released May 8, 2025, discussed a future move involving nearly 200,000 items and called for relocation to begin by June 30, 2025 and finish no later than December 30, 2025. Those were the grand jury’s recommended dates, not dates that this publication has verified as completed.

Subtracting May 29 from December 17 gives 202 calendar days. That is a minimum documented interval between the announced grand-opening date and continued use of the old site. It is not the total duration of the project, a calculated contract delay or proof that the county promised every department would be fully operational on the ceremony date.

Why the period between the milestones mattered

The grand jury reported crowding, pests, ventilation problems and inadequate backup power at the old facility. Its concern was not merely whether staff had a newer office: the unit holds evidence needed for judicial proceedings, including biological material requiring controlled storage. These are the grand jury’s findings about the inspected facility, not observations made by Billy Roach or this publication.

The report also supplies counterevidence against an exaggerated claim of widespread lost evidence. It says evidence was rarely lost or misplaced, describes barcoding and audits, and reports learning of one mishandling incident involving pests and marijuana evidence. It does not establish that every stored item was damaged, that a particular conviction was invalid or that the same conditions exist at McMurtrey today.

The size of the inventory made relocation itself an accountability issue. The report described roughly 195,000 items in storage and a projected move approaching 200,000, with a written chain-of-custody plan. Preserving an item’s identity and handling record during a move is a separate task from completing a building tour. We did not inspect that transfer inventory or test the chain of custody in any case.

The official explanation included construction and occupancy obstacles

The grand jury’s comments attribute delays to ownership changes, construction supply-chain shortages and a passenger-elevator change order, based on its interviews with sheriff and General Services personnel. It also reports that sheriff staff said they were working to expedite the move and would begin transferring items after inspection and occupancy clearance. Those explanations are part of the record and should accompany the delay timeline.

The report described approximately $7 million in general funding for the evidence-and-property facility together with a lease-to-own arrangement for the multiuse building. That figure is not an independently reconciled total project cost, and the reviewed records do not isolate a dollar cost for the 202-day interval. We do not infer an overrun or wasted amount from the dates alone.

The grand jury expected the new facility to address limitations at L Street. That expectation and the current new address are meaningful developments; neither is a substitute for post-move verification of every recommendation.

What today’s directory confirms

The current Property Room Unit page lists 34970 McMurtrey Avenue, first floor, as its public contact address. It describes a sergeant supervising eight sheriff’s aides, receipt of about 400 to 600 items per week and holdings exceeding 180,000 items. The page says the unit manages evidence for multiple local law-enforcement and prosecution agencies.

Those figures should not be used to claim that about 15,000 items vanished between the grand-jury report and the directory. The counts are approximate, have different reference dates and can change through intake, authorized return or disposal. They are not a matched inventory reconciliation.

The current address supports a limited and useful correction to the old report’s status: the public-facing location has changed. It does not establish when the last item left L Street, whether the December 2025 recommendation was met, or what a final transfer audit found.

Method and limits

We read the county’s opening announcement and the full grand-jury report, checked the sheriff’s current unit page and calculated the 202-day interval using the dates in those records. The original contribution is the three-stage timeline separating announcement, documented continued operations at the old site and the current listed location.

No new interviews, site visits or contact attempts were conducted. We did not obtain a completion certificate, final transfer audit or current inspection of the new building. Accordingly, this report establishes the historical gap and the changed public address; it does not claim an ongoing unsafe facility, a missed final deadline or current evidence loss.