PERRY DEPUTY ACCUSED OF THEFT

Arrest Punctuates State Inquiry Into E. KY. Lawmen

The arrest of a Perry County sheriff's deputy yesterday is the latest
development in various investigations into law enforcement agencies in the
Eastern Kentucky county.

The sheriff's department, the Perry County jail and the Hazard police
department all are being investigated but the cases are not directly
related, said Jim Huggins, director of the state attorney general's public
corruption unit.

"If you are looking for a common bond to me it boils down to greed," said
Charlie Hammonds, an assistant to Hazard Mayor Bill Gorman.

"But I don't think these people know each other. People do these things and
sometimes they get caught."

Kentucky State Police and officers from other agencies yesterday arrested
Deputy Sheriff Frank Smith after a Letcher County grand jury accused him of
illegally taking payments for searches performed by the department's drug dog.

Following Smith's arrest, Sheriff Pat Wooton announced that Kentucky State
Police and the state attorney general's office told him they are
investigating the previous sheriff's administration. Smith was a deputy
under the previous sheriff, Les Burgett, and under Wooton until Wooton
placed him on administrative unpaid leave yesterday.

In a press release, Wooton said that when he took office in January, he was
contacted by state police and the attorney general's office "regarding
several ongoing investigations they were conducting."

Wooton would not elaborate on the ongoing investigations but said they
"involved personnel within the department who had worked under the former
administration."

He said he pledged his "full cooperation and the cooperation of the entire
department, to aid them in resolving their inquiries. I want to make it
perfectly clear that such conduct would never and will never be tolerated
within my sheriff's department."

Smith's arrest came less than two weeks after former Hazard police evidence
officer Calvin W. Sizemore was arrested on charges stemming from missing
evidence at the Hazard police department.

Scrutiny of the sheriff's and police departments is coming at the same time
that state police are investigating the county jail after Wooton and Perry
County Judge-Executive Ray Noble complained of prostitution, drug use and
inmate abuse at the facility.

Huggins of the state public corruption unit said that at this point the
attorney general's office is involved only with yesterday's arrest of Smith
and the Aug. 1 arrest of Sizemore.

The timing of the arrests was coincidental, he said. "It's just the way the
investigations came together," Huggins said.

State Police spokeswoman Lt. Lisa Rudzinski said she could not comment on
ongoing investigations.

Sheriff Wooton's press release said Deputy Smith is accused of wrongfully
charging the Letcher County School District for drug searches performed by
Perry County's drug dog during 2002.

According to Wooton, Smith told the school district that he personally
owned the drug dog, and Smith received several payments for the dog's
services. The dog was owned at the time by the Perry County Sheriff's
Department, Wooton said.

"Deputy Smith then took those checks and deposited them into his personal
bank account," Wooton's press release said. "Payroll records indicate that
Deputy Smith claimed to be at work with the Perry County Sheriff's
Department at the same time he was being paid to conduct drug searches in
Letcher County."

Smith was charged with four counts of theft by deception, one felony and
three misdemeanors.

Wooton said in an interview that Burgett, the former sheriff, had not given
Smith permission to put the payments in his personal account. Burgett could
not be reached for comment yesterday.

Smith was arrested at his home by state police detectives and
representatives of the sheriff's department and the attorney general's
office. He was taken to the Letcher County jail and later released. Wooton
said Smith will remain on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the case.

In the Hazard police case, Sizemore faces charges of one count each of
first-degree, second-degree and third-degree trafficking in a controlled
substance, and one count of trafficking in marijuana.

State police allege that the missing drugs were sold to or consumed by
Sizemore's friends.