Pubdate: Thu, 06 Feb 2003
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2003 Richmond Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesdispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365
Author: Calvin R. Trice

WARREN DEPUTY FACES FEDERAL DRUG CHARGES

Police arrested a Warren County sheriff's deputy this week on charges that 
he gave jail inmates illegal drugs and helped them evade police detection.

Kevin Glin Kinsey, 22, faces a six-count federal indictment on 
drug-distribution and drug-conspiracy charges, which could yield a prison 
term of 140 years.

Kinsey, of Front Royal, had been with the Warren sheriff's office part time 
for less than a year, Sheriff Lynn Armentrout said at a news conference at 
the U.S. attorney's office in Charlottesville.

A federal grand jury in Charlottesville indicted Kinsey on Tuesday. After 
his arrest, he tested positive for cocaine and marijuana, leading a judge 
to order him held without bail after a hearing yesterday, said Assistant 
U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Bondurant Jr.

Kinsey joined the sheriff's office in Warren, a county of 32,000 in the 
northern Shenandoah Valley, in April. During the summer, he was assigned to 
the county's Restitution and Inmate Development Program, Armentrout said.

Inmates in the program work during the day and sleep in a dormitory setting 
apart from the jail. Deputies supervised inmates alone. Kinsey worked the 4 
p.m.-to-midnight shift two to five days per week, the sheriff said.

In September, an informer told Warren investigators about Kinsey's alleged 
drug distribution. County authorities notified the FBI. The county aided 
federal investigators during a five-month probe that led to Kinsey's 
indictment, police said.

The indictment accuses Kinsey of conspiring to distribute crack cocaine, 
cocaine, marijuana and prescription pills to inmates. He also is accused of 
accepting drugs from inmates for personal use and falsifying drug and 
alcohol tests for them in return.

Kinsey arranged drug deals from a phone at the work-release building, 
according to court papers. The indictment alleges that he once tipped off 
an inmate to a search for drugs at the inmate's home.

He is charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute drugs and five 
counts of distributing crack cocaine. The sheriff's office has placed him 
on administrative leave.

No other members of the office are under suspicion in the case, federal 
investigators said.

The sheriff's office has instituted a system of checks on officers 
supervising the work-release program. The office has not tested employees 
for drugs but will consider it, Armentrout said.

"I'd hate to put a loyal, 35-year employee through something like that, but 
it's something we're looking at," he said.

Joining the sheriff at the news conference were John L. Brownlee, U.S. 
attorney for the Western District of Virginia, and other federal and local 
authorities who worked on the case.

Armentrout said he had never had to deal with such an investigation during 
28 years as sheriff and 38 in law enforcement.

"I feel like I let the community down by giving this guy a badge," he said.

Brownlee commended Armentrout and the sheriff's office for calling in 
federal authorities and helping investigate one of their own.

"This is a tough case. It always is whenever law enforcement is on this end 
of a criminal indictment," Brownlee said.
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