Pubdate: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL) Copyright: 2001 St. Petersburg Times Contact: 490 First Ave. S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 Website: http://www.sptimes.com/ Forum: http://www.sptimes.com/Forums/ubb/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi Author: Brady Dennis SHERIFF'S EMPLOYEE RELEASED FROM JAIL Gloria Mays and two others were arrested Jan. 20 in Miami on charges of trafficking in cocaine and cocaine possession. DADE CITY -- Gloria Mays is back home, driving around Dade City in a blue Cadillac and guarding the answers to everyone's questions. Mays, 55, a 16-year employee of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, was arrested Jan. 20 after she paid two undercover detectives $19,000 for a kilogram, or about 2.2 pounds, of powder cocaine at a McDonald's restaurant at 2200 NW 36th St. in Miami, authorities said. She and two co-defendants -- Linda Fae Scott, 45, of 20706 Center St. in Dade City, and Joe Nathan Vaughn, 47, of 15245 Davis Loop No. 36 in Dade City -- also had $7,000 in cash on them when they were arrested. Mays was released on Wednesday after posting $50,000 bail, according to Miami jail officials. Scott and Vaughn remained in custody Monday, each awaiting $250,000 bail. Miami jail officials said a company listed only as A.M.C.C. posted the money for Mays' release. Contacted Monday afternoon, Mays wasn't giving any more details. She wore a white T-shirt and denim shorts as she left her friend Dorothy Davis' house off Sumner Lake Road. "I don't have any comment," she told a Times reporter as she left the driveway. "All I have to say right now is I'm asking people for their prayers." She drove away in her 1996 Cadillac Seville, leaving in the yard the 1995 Lexus also registered in her name. Mays was hired in 1985 as a school crossing guard. Before the arrest for trafficking in cocaine and cocaine possession, she served as a civil deputy responsible for serving summons, subpoenas and other notices. She earns about $35,000 a year. Mays is on unpaid administrative leave until a sheriff's investigation is complete. She is scheduled to appear in a Miami court Feb. 20. Pasco County sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said her job wouldn't hinge solely on what happens in court. "When it comes to civil service employees, any employee actually, the sheriff can fire them at his discretion at any time, for any reason," Doll said. "They have civil service rights, which they can take before a board. But the preponderance of evidence is less than (in) a court of law." Mays is at least the second employee in the civil process department to be arrested in the past two years. In March 1999, civil clerk Dana Brady was charged with using her job to steal $350,000 from the Sheriff's Office. Brady agreed to a plea bargain in December 1999 that gave her 20 years of probation. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens