Pubdate: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 Source: Topeka Capital-Journal (KS) Copyright: 1999 The Topeka Capital-Journal Contact: http://cjonline.com/ Author: STEVE FRY The Capital-Journal AGENCY CORRUPT, DEPUTY TESTIFIES Shawnee County sheriff's Detective Daniel Jaramillo said "insight" was what he had gained by telling Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents that Sheriff Dave Meneley told him another deputy had a cocaine addiction and was stealing the drug from sheriff's cases. "I've gained a lot of insight from the matter," Jaramillo said. "It's showed me how corruption can occur in an agency. "We still have that problem." Jaramillo, who was named a narcotics investigator in 1985, then promoted to detective in 1994 because of his drug investigations and was a hand-picked member of the FBI Violent Crimes Strike Force, a multiagency task force targeting large-scale drug trafficking, was reassigned in April 1996 to the uniform division, a non-investigative post. That was the consequence of telling an assistant district attorney about potential drug problems in the sheriff's department, Jaramillo said. His remark about corruption came Monday during a full day of testimony in a hearing to determine whether drug charges against Carlos Hernandez, who has cited alleged misconduct by sheriff's narcotics officers in 1995 and a break in the chain of custody of marijuana, should be dismissed. Hernandez is charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession and felony failure to pay the Kansas drug tax. In November 1995, Meneley ordered Jaramillo and Deputy Philip Blume to return to the sheriff's department and leave the strike force where they were the lead officers on the "Juarez investigation," a probe into the shipping of kilograms of cocaine from Mexico and Dallas to Shawnee County by the Mexican Mafia, Blume said. "By far, it was the largest operation I had ever been involved with," Blume testified, adding that when he and Jaramillo were ordered back to the sheriff's narcotics unit they were ordered to spend as much federal Bureau of Justice Administration grant money as possible to make small drug cases. He said the order was relayed from Meneley to Jaramillo and Blume by their supervisor, Capt. Roger Lovelace. Jaramillo called the deputies' removal from the strike force investigation a "punitive action" by the sheriff. But Meneley testified Monday he pulled the two from the FBI force because he didn't think the sheriff's department was getting its money's worth from its investment in the strike force. Blume and Jaramillo testified that at a July 1995 meeting with Meneley, the sheriff told them Cpl. Timothy P. Oblander was using crack cocaine bought on the job and that he would open bags of drugs, remove the drugs and replace them with foreign substances, then reseal the bags. Blume testified the sheriff said Oblander tried marijuana and methamphetamine but primarily used cocaine. Blume said the sheriff said his opinion was that Sgt. Frank Good, Oblander's partner, was responsible for getting Oblander to use cocaine. Meneley also said Oblander was in debt to him for help the sheriff was giving Oblander, Blume testified. "At the time, I was incredibly shocked and did not discuss it with anyone," Blume said. "Oblander had confessed" the drug problem to Meneley, Jaramillo said Meneley told them. When Jaramillo, Blume and Detective Scott Holladay discussed Oblander, the three were concerned that court cases were being prosecuted with tampered drug evidence, Jaramillo said. Jaramillo said Meneley saw no problem with those cases and said they should be forwarded to the district attorney's office for prosecution. They apparently were, Jaramillo said. On Monday, Good denied ever telling Holladay that Oblander was using drugs, received treatment for drug abuse and that Oblander had opened drug evidence in a case Good investigated. "Basically there's a whole lot wrong here. It's my opinion that no drugs were ever missing from the evidence locker. It's a big whatever-you-want-to-call-it for Holladay to make him look better," Good said. Good said Holladay "mishandled" the drug evidence. Good also denied telling Detective Jack Metz that Oblander had a drug habit. Good said he was talking about a confidential informant who had a drug habit, and Metz thought Good was talking about Oblander. However, Metz testified his friendship with Good and Oblander "fell away" in 1995 after Good told him Oblander was using crack cocaine after first trying some cocaine that was part of a canine training aid. Metz said Good told him that Meneley was "going to take care of it, that he's going to cover it up." Metz said a trustworthy confidential informant, who was a relative of his, told him he had seen Oblander using crack. On one occasion, the informant said he had gone to the sheriff's office where he found Oblander lying with his head on a desk, and "the air was filled with the aroma of burning crack cocaine," Metz testified. "I didn't feel that what they were doing was right," Metz said. Hernandez is challenging the case against him in the wake of a Kansas Bureau of Investigation probe into the 1994 disappearance of about 0.75 ounce of cocaine from a sheriff's department evidence locker. The KBI's report of its investigation was made public in December on order by a district judge. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck