The New Orleans Police Department continues its probe into whether more evidence is missing from the department’s evidence warehouse, after the discovery by local defense attorney Rick Teissier that $18,000 of his client’s money was missing.

“There's apparently a substantial amount of money that is missing from some evidence from our property room,” said New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley in a news conference last Friday.

“If they would've kept the records the way they should have kept them and they would've only let people touch it who should've touched it, they could go back and do a proper investigation. But because of the fact that it was handled so haphazardly,” Teissier said.

Riley admitted that all the evidence stored by police has been moved at least once, back on September 1, 2008, from NOPD trailers off of Jeff Davis Parkway to a new warehouse on Magnolia Street.

“There were contactors that were involved. It was supervised by police. There were police that were involved. A number of people,” said Riley.

According to the NOPD, police recruits and other officers were used to move the evidence, but they say they didn't keep track of who handled what, including millions of dollars in seized cash.    

“I can understand that, immediately after Katrina, you know, that we'd have some of those concerns. But, you know, we're three years out. And I don't know how many cases are being looked at here,” said City Council Member Arnie Fielkow during the NOPD budget hearing Tuesday.

Riley admitted the so-called "chain of custody" of the evidence could be a big problem in court.

“Is it gonna be a nightmare for us? Absolutely. Are we gonna have some problems in court? Absolutely. Are some people gonna get away that should go to jail? Absolutely,” Riley testified.

But Riley also said that the investigation into what happened to the $18,000 is still not complete.

Weekly reports from the NOPD’s Central Evidence and Property staff that were obtained by Eyewitness News, show other problems with how evidence has been handled since the storm. 

In the documents, police staffers said, "The long-term storage of approximately two million dollars in evidence inside of trailers outside of the Evidence and Property Division Office trailer is a recipe for disaster."

The reports warn, "There is little to no security, except for padlocks, to protect this currency. Not only is this dangerous, but we surely will look foolish if anything happens to this money."

The reports contain the same warning eight times from October 31, 2007, through January 8, 2008.

“Are we gonna have problems? Absolutely we’re gonna have some problems with some cases. There's gonna be evidence that was not there. There's gonna be evidence that was destroyed. Clearly some evidence was stolen. By whom? That's what our investigation is going to determine,” Riley testified.

Riley said the department started a comprehensive inventory of their evidence a few months ago, but just how much is missing is still unknown.

Teissier said he plans to file a motion to hold the Riley in contempt of court Friday if the missing money is not returned by then.

Riley said he will work with the city to try and come up with the money if his investigators determine that it was stolen.

Teissier added that three other people have contacted him with concerns about missing cash evidence.