Pubdate: Mon, 03 Feb 2003 Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) Copyright: 2003 Lexington Herald-Leader Contact: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240 Author: Lee Mueller, Eastern Kentucky Bureau Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) DRUG SUSPECT'S ARREST INVOLVES TRIO OF SHERIFF'S CANDIDATES PAINTSVILLE - Last May, a man accused of dealing drugs quickly bumped up against three candidates for sheriff -- one of whom was campaigning amid accused dealers in jail. The strange criminal case of John Keeton, who is charged with manufacturing and trafficking methamphetamine, shows that Eastern Kentucky's drug problem sometimes converges with its politics in unusual ways. First on Keeton's schedule was incumbent Sheriff Bill Witten, whose deputies were stationed outside his house at Sitka early on the morning of May 20, trying to serve a warrant. The second candidate was Joe Keeton, John Keeton's brother. Joe Keeton was summoned by Witten's deputies to talk his brother into surrendering quietly. "I was the man who went into the house and got my brother while these 16 officers stood around the gate," Joe Keeton, 38, said. "I don't want to see my brother dead." Police took John Keeton to the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center at Paintsville and put him in Cell 219 with 14 other inmates -- including 11 others who had been rounded up in the pre-election drug sweep. The prisoners were sitting there in their orange jail uniforms when another candidate for sheriff was escorted into the cell area. Inmates were ordered outside the cell, where they stood in line to meet candidate Ray Pennington, John Keeton said. "He said he'd do anything he could to help them out," John Keeton said. "I sort of looked at him and he looked at me, but I didn't shake his hand. "I've been in jail a few times, but I've never seen anything like that before." Pennington, a convenience store owner, acknowledged campaigning at the jail, but said none of the inmates refused to shake hands. He also said he didn't make any promises to any of the suspected drug dealers. "I have never courted drug dealers for votes," he said. He added: "I hate drugs." Johnson County Jailer B. Joe Hill, a political ally of Pennington, said he couldn't recall the candidate's exact words. But "the thing I remember is he said he was running for sheriff and would like to have their families' support," Hill said. It's not clear whether he got it, but he didn't win. Pennington finished second behind Witten in the Republican primary for sheriff. Joe Keeton came in third. John Keeton was released on bond and then indicted in December by a Johnson County grand jury on drug-trafficking and meth-manufacturing charges. He was considered a fugitive until his arrest last week. His case is pending. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake