CORBIN — Nov. 9, 2010.pdf

By Becky Killian / Managing Editor

Whitley County Sheriff Lawrence Hodge was arrested Monday, hours after a special grand jury handed down a 21-count indictment against him.

The special grand jury’s report was read about 11 a.m. by 34th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Paul Braden.

The report indicated that Hodge is also the target of investigations by other state and federal agencies and that a federal grand jury is expected to report on the results of those investigations later.

The special grand jury was empanelled June 25 to investigate “allegations of wrongdoing” by Hodge.

“The request to empanel the special grand jury was prompted by numerous citizens’ complaints and a series of newspaper articles which highlighted problems with the operation of the sheriff’s office,” the report stated.  

The indictment charges Hodge with 12 counts of abuse of public trust over $10,000, six counts of abuse of public trust less than $10,000 and three counts of tampering with evidence.

According to the indictment, as early as 2003, Hodge took money from his office’s drug and alcohol account—money typically used during undercover drug operations—for personal use. It also states he took fee and tax money.

Audits performed by the state were of “particular interest” to the special grand jury, the report states.

When looking at the audits for the years 2005 through 2007, the report states, “the grand jury found a shocking abuse of the tax collecting process and a criminal failure to account for tax receipts. These are taxes collected from our citizens who finance our county government, as well as schools, libraries and health department. For these three years, there was an accumulated deficit of over $158,000.”

A review of seven-and-a-half years of the sheriff’s drug and alcohol fund found that Hodge had written checks to himself totaling nearly $100,000, according to the report. The checks were labeled as “drug buy money” although the special grand jury noted the checks were written at a time when neither the sheriff nor his deputies were presenting felony drug cases to the grand jury.

Last fall, the Times-Tribune questioned Hodge’s alleged payments to informants. The Times-Tribune also discovered the sheriff’s office failed to present cases against any persons arrested by the department for felony drug violations. During the Nov. 30 interview, Hodge suggested the work of his informants would become obvious when his department conducted a drug roundup following the alleged undercover buys. Since telling that to Times-Tribune staff year ago, no such roundup of drug traffickers has occurred.

In January, the Times-Tribune reported that a survey of the felony cases handled by the Whitley sheriff’s office found a majority of those cases did not result in felony convictions, most often because charges were dismissed or pleaded as misdemeanors in district court or because deputies failed to seek indictments from the grand jury.

In one case, charges were dismissed against a Corbin man arrested for operating a methamphetamine lab near a school after sheriff’s deputies failed three times to appear before the grand jury.

The special grand jury’s report states, “A persistent failure of deputies to appear in District Court pursuant to subpoenas also hampered many prosecutions.”

Braden also spoke about the failure of Hodge’s department to send seized drugs to the crime lab for examination. This failure was also noted in the January Times-Tribune article following open records requests to state laboratories that noted the sheriff’s department only submitted drugs once during 2009.

The report refers to how evidence was handled in Hodge’s office, saying that evidence routinely wasn’t noted on an evidence log. Such records become important in establishing that evidence has been correctly handled during court proceedings.

“Various deputies testified that it would be impossible to show a valid chain of evidence due to the hap-hazard manner in which the evidence was held and maintained by the sheriff,” the report states.

Two of the indictments for tampering with physical evidence concern knives and guns seized by Hodge’s department from the home of Rick Benson. One indictment states that after seizing 17 guns from Benson, Hodge “disposed of said guns with the intent to impair the availability of said guns knowing that an official proceeding may be instituted.” The second indictment for evidence tampering concerns knives seized from Benson.

Three of the indictments for abuse of public trust also concern property seized from Benson.

The indictment states that Hodge “converted to his own use 12 guns that he obtained from Rick Benson” and that they were worth more than $10,000. Two other counts indicate Hodge sold three of Benson’s seized guns to Paul Croley and that he gave two guns to Timmy Shelley. Each of those counts indicate the guns were worth less than $10,000.

On Dec. 15, 2009, the Times-Tribune asked for documents related to the seizure of 18 weapons, including 17 seized from Benson’s home. Hodge initially told Times-Tribune reporters that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had seized the weapons instead of his department. Then, on Dec. 21, Hodge reported his office had been burglarized. A review of the serial numbers by the Times-Tribune indicated as many as 16 of the missing guns mentioned in the open records request were among those reported stolen.

The third count of evidence tampering concerns prescription drugs and weapons Hodge received from Deputy Ronnie Bowling. The indictment states Hodge failed to record the receipt of that evidence into a log.

The report concluded with a statement indicating the special grand jury’s findings were not to be interpreted as “a general indictment of every employee of the sheriff’s office,” noting that some of those employees assisted in the investigation.

When asked what happened to drugs seized by the sheriff’s department following the reading of the indictment, Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble said it isn’t known.

Trimble also said a federal grand jury is already reviewing evidence gathered during an investigation into Hodge and his department.

Hodge will remain sheriff through the end of the year as his court case is processed.