Pubdate: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 Source: Topeka Capital-Journal (KS) Copyright: 2000 The Topeka Capital-Journal Contact: 616 S.E. Jefferson, Topeka, Kansas 66607 Website: http://cjonline.com/ DRUG SCANDAL TOPS LOCAL STORIES FOR 1999 The revelation of a cocaine scandal within the Shawnee County Sheriff's Department that threatens to expel Sheriff Dave Meneley from office was the top local news story of 1999. When the year began, the sheriff was denying he knew anything about the cocaine abuse of Cpl. Timothy P. Oblander, a former sheriff's narcotics investigator, and Oblander had denied using cocaine, stealing cocaine or telling the sheriff he had used or stolen cocaine. But at year's end, Meneley was facing both a civil ouster proceeding filed by Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall and felony perjury charges, all linked to a drug scandal in the sheriff's department. Sheriff's Sgt. John Frank Good also faces felony perjury charges in the scandal. Also, former deputy Oblander has agreed to testify against Meneley and Good, the result of a plea agreement he made with prosecutors to avoid prosecution himself on six charges of felony perjury and one count of official misconduct. Headlines throughout the year chronicled the arrests of Meneley, Oblander and Good, the battle about whether defense attorney William Rork could represent both Meneley and Oblander in their criminal cases - he was disqualified and now represents neither - and the disqualification of District Judge Marla Luckert as a member of the three-judge panel which will hear the ouster action. Some of the more memorable sights of the year included: Meneley standing in a crowded courtroom before a district judge who firmly instructed him to hire another attorney following the disqualification of Rork. Deputies being called to the witness stand where they reveal cover-ups, tampering with drug evidence and corruption, and tell how they were reassigned to jobs below their skills after talking to Kansas Bureau of Investigation special agents. Deputies, who testified against Meneley, agreeing to take polygraph tests on the veracity of their testimony. Meneley, Oblander and Good declining to take polygraph tests. The attorney general alleging 13 counts of willful misconduct or violations of moral turpitude as grounds for the proposed ouster of Meneley from office. The 13 counts are linked to Meneley's knowledge of Oblander's drug use and the sheriff's related testimony; and the sheriff's use of a federal computer database, normally used to conduct criminal background checks, to examine two county employees and two organizers of an effort to recall the sheriff. District Judge Eric Rosen's ruling that sheriff's department drug evidence was tainted and that "crime and corruption" occurred in the sheriff's department "by the willful blindness" of some higher ranking department employees, "including the sheriff himself." Ten drug defendants who have pending cases dropped or past convictions reversed as the result of Rosen's finding of tainted evidence. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake