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.
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