Pubdate: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (AR) Copyright: 2001 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Contact: http://www.ardemgaz.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/25 Author: Rodney Bowers, Jim Brooks 2 DEPUTIES IMPROVING Illness Cause Still Baffling Two Saline County deputies hospitalized after apparently coming into contact with an unknown substance during a Friday drug arrest were released from a hospital Tuesday afternoon but are still too sick to return to work. Sheriff Phil Mask said deputies Kevin Nason and Lee Lobbs would undergo further medical tests before being cleared to return to duty. "I told them to go home," Mask said. "They're still tired, but they felt well enough to be released from the hospital." The sheriff said chemical tests on a substance found in a plastic bag during a Friday night arrest revealed the presence of crystal methamphetamine and a substance that has not been identified. "The state Crime Lab has worked diligently on this, and they said it [the unknown substance] is not potassium chloride," the sheriff said. Lt. Jim Andrews, head of the sheriff's criminal investigation division, said experts, including those at the state Crime Laboratory and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, have yet to determine what caused the illness, which initially appeared to be a heart attack. Nason and Lobbs got sick while arresting Randolph Schilling, 50, after a traffic stop near Shannon Hills. Schilling, an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, was arrested on charges of refusing to take a sobriety test and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. He was released Monday after posting $2,500 bail. Jeff Yllander, agent in charge of the Little Rock office of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, said he has offered his department's assistance in the case, adding, "I've got a call in to the sheriff to see what we can do." Lobbs and Nason were taken to Southwest Regional Medical Center in Little Rock on Friday after they began throwing up and convulsing. They were released Saturday but were readmitted to the hospital Sunday afternoon when symptoms persisted. Mask said investigators searched Schilling's home and found nothing to help explain the officers' conditions. "I'm going to send them to the department's doctor before they are put back on duty," the sheriff said. "Right now, there's just no knowing what caused this." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth