Pubdate: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 Source: Muskogee Daily Phoenix (OK) Copyright: 2005 Muskogee Daily Phoenix Contact: http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/customerservice/contactus.html Website: http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3319 Author: Donna Hales Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) OUTSIDE COPS TO HELP IN DEPUTY, JAILER'S MARIJUANA CASE Out-of-county investigators will probe whether a Cherokee County deputy and jailer on paid leave after marijuana and drug paraphernalia were seized from their home Thursday night will be charged with a crime, officials said Monday. Deputy Dusty Ryals and Jailer Lynn Trammel are under investigation for allegedly smuggling drugs into the Cherokee County Jail, as well as possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. District Attorney Richard Gray, chief prosecutor for Cherokee, Adair, Wagoner and Sequoyah counties, said he is bringing in one of his investigators from Wagoner County, Jim Jones, to investigate. "We're going to try to get to the bottom of it," Gray said. Cherokee County Sheriff Norman Fisher said he and Gray talked Monday and he believes the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation also will be asked to send in an investigator who does not normally work Cherokee County. "They (Ryals and Trammel) are denying taking drugs into the jail," Fisher said. The chief said Ryals also said the drugs found at the men's home were drugs he took into evidence and that because the lock on his locker at work was broken his supervisor had advised him to take them home in order not to break the chain of custody. Friday, Fisher said after talking to one of his investigators that he understood Ryals and Trammel "were using it - I don't think they were selling it." Gray said one question to be answered is why the drugs, if they were evidence, weren't left in the sheriff's evidence room. Gray said the initial investigation also showed a trace of methamphetamine on bongs - or water pipes - found in the home of Ryals and Trammel. Ryals has worked as a deputy since January. Fisher said Trammel has been employed four or five weeks. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom