Pubdate: Fri, 01 Jun 2001
Source: Tulsa World (OK)
Copyright: 2001 World Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.tulsaworld.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/463
Author: Jann Clark, World Correspondent

FORMER DISNEY POLICE CHIEF CLAIMS HIS FIRING WAS 'VERY UNJUSTIFIED'

The ex-chief says the controversy over his job began in February when
he confiscated 73 bottles of energy pills.

DISNEY -- Former Police Chief Marlin Rainwater says his dismissal from
his post was connected to his confiscation of "energy pills" that
contained a drug used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

Rainwater, 39, noted Thursday that he was fired from his position on
May 15, one day after he was released from the hospital after
undergoing heart bypass surgery.

"The firing was very unjustified," Rainwater said. "And there wasn't
anything on the agenda at the meeting about me being terminated. They
didn't call me into executive session. The councilors just came out
and fired me."

Mayor Jane Standeford said he was fired "for the good of the
service."

Rainwater said the controversy over his job began in February, when he
confiscated 73 bottles of Dr. Nichols Energy Pills from the Disney
Dandy, the only convenience store in town.

Rainwater said he seized the pills on the advice of a Mayes County
investigator because the main ingredient in each pill is 25 milligrams
of ephedrine, classified as a Schedule 4 narcotic in Oklahoma, an
illegal drug that is used to make methamphetamine.

"I'd had a lot of complaints that the store was selling the pills,"
Rainwater said. "I did what I thought was right. An agent with the
Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs came and took a
bottle of pills for testing."

The narcotics officer was unavailable for comment Thursday because
agents were attending a training class in Oklahoma City, officials
said.

However, an agency official did say that if each pill contained 25
milligrams of ephedrine, at 60 pills per bottle in 73 bottles, it
would be a violation of Oklahoma law.

Rainwater said that after the store's owner complained to the mayor
and threatened to sue the town, the mayor returned the bottles of
pills to the store.

"The store wasn't out any money on the pills," Rainwater said. "They
got the pills on consignment."

Standeford said she did return the pills to the store's owner the day
after Rainwater was fired. She said that when Rainwater handed her the
keys to the evidence room, the chief told her he had had the pills
analyzed and that they weren't narcotics.

"I was told by other law enforcement agencies that the pills were OK,"
Standeford said. "The store owner contacted the manufacturer, and they
said they were legal, and he contacted the DEA (Drug Enforcement
Administration) and the OSBI (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation),
and the DEA officer said there wasn't anything wrong with them."

Standeford said the pills contained a Chinese herb, a type of "upper,"
which is legal under Oklahoma law.

"Rainwater threatened the clerk that if she didn't hand them over,
then he was going to arrest her," the mayor said. "If I didn't do
something to rectify it, then the town was going to be sued, and we
don't need that. We have seven lawsuits pending against the town now."

Standeford said she can't discuss why Rainwater was fired because it
was handled in executive session. However, the mayor did say he wasn't
fired from his position as chief because he was sick.

"We have a job we have to do for the betterment of the town," she
said. "So we did it."

Mayes County sheriff's deputies, Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers and
state park rangers have been covering the Disney area until the town
can hire a new chief, a town official said. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake