Dealers Use Low-Copay Drug Cards To Tap Supply Now serving a seven-year term for drug trafficking, Zola Starnes said she bought OxyContin from a Medicaid recipient who got them with his drug card for a minimal co-pay. She then resold them at a profit. PIKEVILLE - When Zola Starnes was dealing drugs in Pike County last year, she says, she had millions of silent partners helping to ensure her supply: taxpayers. Starnes knew a man who was entitled to a state Medicaid card, giving him access to the $3.8 billion public-health program that pays for doctor visits and prescription drugs for poor and disabled people. [continues 1755 words]
The question of whether drug dealers and other criminals can be kicked out of the Medicaid program may get fresh debate next year. The federal Centers on Medicare & Medicaid Services is researching the issue, said Mary Kahn, a spokeswoman for the agency. Kahn said the agency started the informal review after a Florida grand jury decided this month that taxpayers were losing tens of millions of dollars a year because of fraud in the state Medicaid program. The problems, according to news accounts, included recipients selling their medicine on the black market, the grand jury said. It recommended a number of measures, including denying benefits to people caught repeatedly abusing the program. [continues 220 words]
Denis Fleming's Dec. 5 Forum article on incoming Attorney General Greg Stumbo's plans for fighting drugs was anything but reassuring. Obviously, Stumbo and Fleming (the deputy attorney general-designate) are not well read in the criminal justice literature, or they are more concerned with their political images than with the health and welfare of Kentuckians. Their plan calls for expanding the tried and true failures of the past with a blind eye to what research shows us actually works. [continues 479 words]
Kentucky has a drug problem -- a huge drug problem. Eastern Kentucky suffers from an epidemic of prescription drug abuse. Methamphetamines have a hold on the western half of the. And old standbys of cocaine and heroin remain ever present. In his successful campaign to become the state's next attorney general, Greg Stumbo promised that fighting drug abuse would be his No. 1 priority. Given the seriousness of Kentucky's addiction to illicit drug use, we should expect no less from the state's top prosecutor. [continues 389 words]
Woman regains children, adds husband Debra and Walter Mitchell were embraced by Jefferson County Family Court Judge Eleanore Garber, who married them yesterday. Debra and Walter Mitchell's 6-year-old daughter, Inez, watched during the wedding ceremony. The Mitchells celebrated their wedding with refreshments of ginger ale and orange sherbet yesterday. Debra Mitchell will meet with a judge as the third stage of treatment in Family Drug Court, a Jefferson County program. Eight months ago, Debra Smith walked into Judge Eleanore Garber's courtroom an angry woman who was losing custody of her children because of her addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol. [continues 639 words]
I was very disappointed that the Herald-Leader articles portray David Perkins and his co-dealers as poor, down-and-out people who had to sell drugs to live. The picture of Perkins and his baby on his last night at home and the description of Perkins' long, sad drive to Manchester to do his seven years should never have been printed. I saw no remorse for what Perkins and the others have done. What I have seen is the hundreds of children put into foster care because their parents are doing drugs. I have seen babies addicted to cocaine and other drugs because their mothers took drugs while they were pregnant. I have seen the weekly court docket of crimes committed because of drugs. And what about the 6.8 percent of our children between the ages of 10 to 18 who have used or are using cocaine and an even higher percentage for other drugs? [continues 128 words]
FRANKFORT - A roadblock set up by Butler County sheriff's officers looking for drugs or other crime was unconstitutional because its search parameters were too general, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The 4-3 decision upheld a lower court ruling that evidence collected during the 1999 roadblock should be suppressed. The case involved David Buchanon, who was arrested on drug and alcohol charges. Buchanon pleaded guilty, then asked to have the evidence suppressed on grounds his Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure had been violated. [continues 220 words]
Federal Grant To Buy Containers For Chemicals LOUISVILLE - Kentucky is the first state to receive a federal grant that will improve the way police store confiscated chemicals used to make methamphetamine. The Drug Enforcement Administration will allocate $300,000 to the state starting next month for storage containers that hold up to 220 pounds of chemicals. The money will also go to help pay specially trained contractors who will empty the containers each week, disposing of the chemicals according to federal guidelines. [continues 452 words]
LONDON - A former Paintsville doctor convicted of illegally prescribing hundreds of thousands of pills that fed a tide of drug abuse in Eastern Kentucky will go to prison for 41 months. Yakov Drabovskiy has contested his guilt and filed yet another motion to toss out his conviction yesterday, but U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell denied the request. The judge did not mince words in sentencing Drabovskiy to the maximum term under the sentencing guidelines for his case. Before coming to Paintsville, Caldwell told him, "you were an unemployed physician of questionable medical competency who stumbled on a gold mine of addiction in Eastern Kentucky." [continues 309 words]
Readers Write If you read the Daviess Circuit Court news in the Messenger-Inquirer you would see that the same crimes go on and on each week: burglary and criminal possession of a forged instrument, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of controlled substance, possession of anhydrous ammonia with intent to manufacture methamphetamine and stolen property, and not to mention DUI, jumping bail, rape charges, etc. These crimes are being committed by people 17 to 50 years of age. They are people who this country is depending on to be productive, to help keep this country alive. And they are people who blame our president for their problems, which is wrong and untrue. With this country at war and our young men putting their lives on the line for our freedom, you would think that they would want to do something to contribute to our nation, rather than live the life of drugs and crime. Drugs, and crimes committed because of drugs, are squeezing the life out of this country. I think we should have a law that says "Get a Job or Go to Jail." Sgt. 1st Class Phillip Perry Beaver Dam [end]
If someone were to ask Kentuckians to provide legislators with a list of priorities for the coming year, it's unlikely that additional technicians at state crime labs would rank very high -- if at all. But you can bet that safer communities -- and efforts to combat a growing drug problem, in particular -- would be at or near the top of that list. What most people fail to realize, however, is just how closely the two issues are intertwined. Law enforcement throughout this region has made fighting methamphetamine a priority in recent years -- an effort the community has taken a role in as well. But that effort is being hindered by the backlog at state crime labs in processing evidence. [continues 446 words]
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Kentucky is the first state to receive a federal grant that will improve the way police store confiscated chemicals used to make methamphetamine. The Drug Enforcement Administration will allocate $300,000 to the state starting next month for storage containers that hold up to 220 pounds of chemicals. The money will also go to help pay specially trained contractors who will empty the containers each week, disposing of the chemicals according to federal guidelines. Kentucky State Police have had some containers since 1999, and the program will allow an expansion of that effort. [continues 434 words]
Kentucky's new attorney general will launch a crackdown on drugs to be headed by Officer David James, president of the union local representing Louisville Metro police. James, who has spent 14 of his 19 years on the force as a Louisville police narcotics officer, is retiring from the department to lead the new Office of the Kentucky Bureau of Investigations. The bureau, to be formed by Attorney General-elect Greg Stumbo after he takes office Jan. 5, will focus on combating illegal drug activity throughout the state. [continues 679 words]
Thanks so much for publishing the honest letter from Charles Byrnes. Our government's war on drugs is the ultimate hypocrisy. The war on drugs isn't about justice or protecting our children. We've spent over 30 years under that pretense, and what have been the results? Increased crime, death, disease, budget deficits and increased spending on prisons instead of education and other critical programs. Current and past presidents have used some of the very substances that have sent others straight to prison, so what message are we really sending our kids? [continues 132 words]
Clearly Kentucky has real drug problems: all those meth labs, especially in Western Kentucky; all that prescription drug abuse, mainly in Eastern Kentucky, and the all-too-familiar drug traffic in cities and suburbs. But government at all levels (including the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. attorneys, the Kentucky State Police and many local agencies) already has been mobilized. If something more is needed, it could be the work Lt. Gov. Steve Pence intends to do, pulling together enforcement, education and rehabilitation efforts statewide. [continues 258 words]
One Goal, He Says, Is To Reduce The Backlog At State's Crime Laboratories. When Steve Pence was inaugurated last week as lieutenant governor, he already had a second job - as secretary of the Justice Cabinet, overseeing prisons, state police and juvenile justice. Pence said he plans to run the Justice Cabinet the same way he did as U.S. attorney for Kentucky's western district from 2001 until April, when he quit that post to become Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher's running mate. [continues 1206 words]
Pence Says Drug Crimes Are Priority LOUISVILLE - Lt. Gov. Steve Pence said he plans to run the Justice Cabinet the same way he ran the U.S. attorney's office for Kentucky's western district. "You put good people in positions around you, and you give them authority, hold them accountable and don't interfere," Pence said. Pence left his position as U.S. attorney in April to become Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher's running mate. After the election, Fletcher appointed Pence as secretary of the Justice Cabinet, overseeing prisons, state police and juvenile justice. [continues 305 words]
The success that drug courts have had around Kentucky helping people turn their lives around has been well-documented. But anyone who needed further convincing should have visited Daviess Circuit Judge Tom Castlen's courtroom Monday. That's where 14 local residents -- who otherwise may have been in jail -- were instead recognized as the sixth graduating class of the Daviess County Drug Court. Fourteen residents -- who the odds say were likely headed for a life bouncing in and out of the criminal justice system -- are instead on a path to reclaiming their lives, substance free. All now are employed, and five are enrolled in college or technical school classes. One even received a college athletic scholarship. [continues 371 words]
Kentucky State Police Use Containers To Cut Costs, Improve Safety Kentucky State Police Sgt. Sherman Tebault showed some equipment used to recover evidence at suspected methamphetamine labs. Kentucky, which is seeing a steady increase in police seizures of illegal methamphetamine labs, is the first state to receive a federal grant that will give police a safer, quicker and cheaper way to store and dispose of the confiscated chemicals used to make the drug. Starting next month, the state will get Drug Enforcement Administration allocations totaling about $300,000 to purchase meth storage containers that hold up to 220 pounds of chemicals. The money will also go to help pay specially trained contractors who will empty the containers each week, disposing of the chemicals according to federal guidelines. [continues 896 words]
Meth Cases May Take Two Years to Resolve The intrusion of methamphetamine into western Kentucky began to skyrocket in 1999 and has since been fought with federal grants for police, increased public education and new state laws. But the time between an arrest and a conviction is seriously hampered by the wait -- sometimes up to two years -- for test results to return from the Kentucky State Police laboratories. Meanwhile, the number of indictments handled by the Daviess County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has reached an all-time high, which is mostly attributed to meth violations and the new laws that prohibit possessing precursors and tampering with or possessing anhydrous ammonia. [continues 957 words]
Drug Company, Mining Industry Should Help Invest In Treatment We search the latest dispatches from Kentucky's war on drugs for public policy lessons and points to be made in editorials, but come up with sadness. Sadness at the empty lives, shattered families and soul-sick communities. We come up with a sense of futility, too. No way can Kentucky police and imprison its way out of this epidemic of self-medication. Authorities shut down one drug pipeline and another opens up. They round up 50 people for selling pills in Lee County in December 2001 and round up 80 people for selling pills in Lee County two Decembers later. [continues 520 words]
When did our schools become prison camps? With each passing day, there are more school lock downs with commando-style raids on our children. Police do sweeps of the halls with their guns drawn and attack dogs at their side. How much longer will it be before one of our children is hurt, or worse killed, by the actions of our law enforcement agencies? Our kids are forced into mandatory drug tests but are not tested for alcohol. Why is this? [continues 58 words]
Proffers as such are not unusual He proudly calls himself an unreconstructed Roosevelt Democrat. He appears fearless in the face of reporters' questions. But he won't answer a single inquiry he, and the American Bar Association, might deem inappropriate. Montgomery County Commonwealth Attorney George Moore -- the man the Kentucky Attorney General's office recently appointed to investigate alleged wrongdoing by a Ludlow police detective -- clearly feels confident to handle an investigation which may lead to a probe of the office of fellow county prosecutor, Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Bill Crockett. [continues 1364 words]
I enjoyed the section, "Home Grown Drug Lords," in the Herald-Leader on Dec. 7. I thought the writing and photography were excellent, and the story that it told was one that impacts us all. Pine Knot is a beautiful place to live, but like every community out there, it is not without its social ills. It is sad that our government does nothing to look at the root causes of why communities are decaying from drug abuse. It is sad to watch people destroying their lives and the lives of all of the people around them. It is sad that economic factors play such a pivotal role in the whole market that has become the underworld of society's destruction. [continues 142 words]
The 14 graduates rewarded for their hard work and accomplishments Monday started their journey at least a year ago following a shared experience -- a drug-related arrest. The graduates represent the sixth class of Daviess County Drug Court, an alternative for nonviolent offenders whose addictions landed them in the court system. Monday's ceremony filled the fourth-floor courtroom of Daviess Circuit Judge Tom Castlen with a crowd of nearly 100 relatives, previous graduates and a small army of court employees, counselors and law enforcement representatives. [continues 439 words]
FOP Vote Still On Schedule With hundreds of police officers set to consider a vote of no confidence against Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Bill Crockett tonight, the much-rebuked prosecutor met for hours Tuesday with Covington's police leadership. The meeting was an attempt to address concerns officers have with Crockett's office. Sgt. Bryan Allen, president of Covington FOP Lodge No. 1, said he and Covington Police Chief Tom Schonecker spent nearly four hours with Crockett. Allen said the meeting evolved out of a conversation last weekend between Crockett and Schonecker about officers' growing lack of faith in the commonwealth attorney's performance. [continues 848 words]
In heading to Mexico, David Perkins and Dewayne Harris were taking part in a gold rush fueled by the popularity of OxyContin in Eastern Kentucky. As demand started to outstrip the availability of local prescriptions that could be diverted to the black market, law enforcement officials said, smugglers went south. (The drug's manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, said it stopped producing OxyContin in Mexico in 2001 after a large warehouse full of pills was robbed.) Originally intended as a time-release painkiller for terminally ill cancer patients, OxyContin quickly became known for the dramatic intoxication that resulted when a user ground up a pill and injected or snorted the powder. [continues 92 words]
The way federal investigators squeeze people for information after indictment sometimes leads to a gray shade of justice, said Gary Potter, a criminal-justice professor at Eastern Kentucky University. Here's how it works, Potter said: Federal prosecutors load up the charges on a defendant, then press him to give up a list of names -- usually four to six are required. In return, prosecutors shave off some charges, and the defendant pleads guilty. "We have people doing time ... who were only tangentially connected to drug networks who were 'dimed' by people who were running local networks," Potter said. [continues 266 words]
When bigger cities don't crack down, cash-strapped Kentucky counties are often left to try to stop the flow of drugs at the receiving end. For many counties, when state or federal help doesn't come, there's little deterrent to the drug trade. In McCreary County, David Perkins' home, there are no city police departments. The sheriff's office has a total of nine people. At the beginning of next year, a federal schools grant that's funding the salary of five of those officers will end, said Sheriff Clarence Perry. [continues 195 words]
Dealers Quizzed About Harlan Killing Federal investigators who busted a ring of McCreary County drug dealers last year have questioned some of them about the March 2002 murder of a Harlan County sheriff's candidate. Prosecutors declined to comment, but there are surprising links between the drug cases and the killing of Paul Browning, who was shot in the head and left burned beyond recognition in his pickup on a lonely Bell County road. One of the 13 drug defendants, Dewayne Harris, showed up with Browning on a videotape that surfaced in the week's following Browning's death. [continues 602 words]
'IT DIDN'T STOP THE COCAINE' In The End Sitting on his front porch, a few weeks after sentencing, David Perkins was barefoot and shirtless, wearing his University of Kentucky ball cap and an old pair of shorts. He was holding 6-month-old David, his son with his new wife, Ashley. The boy now and then looked at Perkins' wrist and the black home-incarceration bracelet he wore. Perkins was trying to think of the right way to answer a question. [continues 463 words]
In The Garden The cocaine dealer crouched in his vegetable garden, pulling weeds in the early afternoon sun. David Perkins was wearing his favorite ball cap, the one that proclaimed in blue letters that he was a No. 1 Dad. The summer heat was lingering. Like the rest of McCreary County, Pine Knot is a quiet place -- more forest than anything else. The woods are so thick in some spots you can't tell where the county ends and Tennessee begins. [continues 639 words]
Harlan County Sheriff Steve Duff has heard stories like those of John and David Perkins plenty of times: A coal miner gets hurt and turns to dealing for some extra cash. First it was bootlegging alcohol, Duff said. Then came marijuana. And the number of dealers -- former coal miners and a lot of other people -- has only increased during recent years with the rush of the painkiller OxyContin, Duff said. "They'll do it to supplement their income," he said. If a dealer gets his hands on a bottle of 60 OxyContin pills, 40 milligrams each, he can take in more than $3,000, Duff said. [continues 180 words]
Epilogue Ralph Grundy, the man who wore a wire when buying an ounce of David Perkins' cocaine, is due to report to prison in January on a five-year sentence that he's appealing. He pleaded guilty to being a felon with a firearm and to selling cocaine. Scott Sargent, the fiance of one of Perkins' sisters, served six months for delivering cocaine for Perkins. He now lives in Berea, works at the local Sonic drive-in, and talks about going to college. [continues 450 words]
'A NORMAL TRAFFIC STOP' The Highway It was close to 2:40 a.m., and Shelby County Sheriff's Deputy Charles Fudold was four hours into his shift. Having made his patrol rounds, Fudold was farther out in the county, running radar on Interstate 64. A black Pontiac Firebird whooshed by the pastures and cornfields, lighting up at 82 mph in a 65 zone. Fudold flicked on his lights and pulled the Firebird over about a mile down the road. "It was just a normal traffic stop," he said. [continues 582 words]
The Law David Perkins woke up on a misty, overcast morning with trouble at his door. The DEA was there, with a warrant. Perkins put on some clothes. The police put on the shackles. DEA Agent David Gray, Perkins would soon learn, knew a surprising amount of information about his business. Gray had recordings of Perkins discussing competition in the drug trade. He had recordings of Perkins talking about the amounts of drugs he'd bought. He even had recordings of other people talking about going to Chicago to buy cocaine for Perkins. [continues 696 words]
The Coal Mines Harlan Gas is a sliver of land, with railroad tracks running through, between a tall hill and a fork of the Cumberland River. Around Harlan, they call it a bottom. The houses in the former mining camp, named for the Harlan Gas Coal Co., are broken down. Mobile homes come and go with foreclosure and relocation. Harlan Gas is the sort of place where, on a gray day, it's hard to imagine that the sun ever comes out. It's also the sort of place where sons follow in their fathers' footsteps. [continues 696 words]
Justice "The Court will now state the sentence." David Perkins, who had pleaded guilty to selling more than 5 kilograms of cocaine, was hoping the judge would give him a light ride. Under the federal point system used to measure a defendant's criminal history, his score was zero. He'd cooperated with the U.S. attorney's office. His court records had no mention of any cocaine being found on him. The case was built largely on the word of criminals and the recordings they'd made. [continues 443 words]
In opening a new route from Chicago to McCreary County, David Perkins and company were following a national trend, said David Jacobson, a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman. Drug dealers in major metropolitan areas know that, to be successful in business, "you have to find new markets and new customers, and then you have to develop customer loyalty. And, in that respect, drug groups work exactly the same as Fortune 500 companies." For a lot of narcotics organizations, that translates into a move toward rural America, Jacobson said. [continues 235 words]
Guns And Wild Times David Valentin walked to the door to see who was there at 3:49 in the morning. There was a McCreary County sheriff's deputy and a state trooper. They'd been called to investigate a fight at an apartment Valentin shared on Pigskin Road. Valentin looked at the cops. The cops looked at Valentin. He had a 9mm pistol holstered on each hip. The sheriff's deputy would later note that he "appeared excited and was visibly sweating." Valentin explained that "he and David Perkins were just having a little argument." [continues 553 words]
The Chop Shop The little garage, sitting at the edge of some woods, didn't look like much. It had two bay doors, cinder-block walls and a plain metal roof. Scattered around the grass outside were vehicles in various states of undoing -- half a truck here, a bumper there. The garage was operated by Steve Gibson, who was well known for running a chop shop where parts were stripped off stolen vehicles. It was a spot where a man could drop by in the afternoon and plop down on an old bucket seat ripped out of a pickup. Those who did took their time sipping beer and talking about fishing and hunting. [continues 868 words]
Series: Home-Grown Drug Lords This story is based on hundreds of court documents, interviews with 11 of the 13 defendants or their lawyers and research from various state and federal law enforcement agencies. It was written and photographed by the following Herald-Leader staff members: Tom Lasseter, a graduate of the University of Georgia, joined the staff of the Herald-Leader in 1999. He is a general assignment reporter on the newspaper's state desk. David Stephenson, a graduate of Western Kentucky University, joined the Herald-Leader photography staff in 1997. He was named newspaper photographer of the year in 2000 and 2002 by the Kentucky News Photographers Association. [continues 189 words]
Starting in the late 1990s, a tidal wave of drugs came crashing down onto rural Kentucky. Newspaper headlines screamed, overdose numbers spiked and a parade of police and politicians called for tough new laws. All along, though, public dialogue overlooked key issues: how drug trafficking operations come to be, how they thrive and why removing one might not add up to much change. The life of one dealer, David Perkins, reveals a constellation of causes behind the rural drug epidemic -- factors that remain from year to year, no matter how many traffickers go to prison: [continues 356 words]
Crossing The Border By late 1999, David Perkins was moving thousands of dollars in painkiller pills from a sleazy Mexican border town to his corner of McCreary County. The question of how he started that route is something of a family dispute. Perkins said the scheme began in the fall of 1999 as he was watching the hours roll by at the University of Tennessee hospital. He was waiting for his brother to get out of surgery, and, as usual, worrying about money. He'd moved his family to Pine Knot, but things there weren't much better than in Harlan. [continues 636 words]
Though Not Gripping, A Solid Investigation Kentuckians seeking fresh insight into the stunning growth and abuse of the drug OxyContin will want to head right for chapter nine of New York Times reporter Barry Meier's book, Pain Killer. There, in 30 fast-turning pages, Meier at least partially fulfills his publicists' promise of a "journey of discovery." The chapter barely mentions OxyContin, its trail of addiction in Appalachia or allegations of corporate profiteering that swirl around the highly touted -- and vilified -- pain medication today. No need. Hundreds of other pages do that. [continues 863 words]
The state Attorney General's office has named a special prosecutor to review the state police investigation into the office of Kenton County prosecutor Bill Crockett. George Moore, the commonwealth attorney for four Eastern Kentucky counties, has been appointed to review the matter, said Brian Wright, spokesman for the Kentucky Attorney General's office. "He is looking into -- all aspects of the case to determine how to proceed," Wright said. "We do not want to make any comments that in any way would limit the scope of the review. -- We don't know what we're going to find when we get there or what it would be limited to." [continues 495 words]
The following is adapted from remarks delivered yesterday to the Kentucky Prosecutors Conference luncheon in Lexington. Mr. Fleming, an attorney who lives in Louisville, is the incoming deputy attorney general of Kentucky. Thank you for the opportunity to tell you a little bit about Greg Stumbo's plans for the Attorney General's office. One thing I can tell you for sure is that Greg Stumbo is excited about being Attorney General. You should quickly see that he'll be an active Attorney General who takes his responsibilities seriously and who will use his civil and criminal authority to creatively fight crime and correct injustices. I think you can look for the Attorney General in particular to be involved in fighting the illegal drug trade, and to be active in the areas of predatory lending, the environment, child and senior citizen protection and to streamline criminal investigations through the creation of the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation (KBI). [continues 1027 words]
Lt. Governor-Elect Tapped To Oversee Justice Cabinet FRANKFORT, Ky. - As Kentucky's next lieutenant governor and Justice Cabinet secretary, Steve Pence said he plans to focus on fighting the state's drug problems. Gov.-elect Ernie Fletcher capitalized on Pence's experience as a federal prosecutor by naming the future lieutenant governor yesterday to serve in a dual role in his administration. During their campaign, Pence had promised to be a "working lieutenant governor" and take an active role in the administration. [continues 445 words]
FRANKFORT -- As Kentucky's next lieutenant governor and Justice Cabinet secretary, Steve Pence said he plans to focus on fighting the state's drug problems. Gov.-elect Ernie Fletcher on Wednesday capitalized on Pence's experience as a federal prosecutor by naming the future lieutenant governor to serve in a dual role in his administration. During their campaign, Pence had promised to be a "working lieutenant governor," and take an active role in the administration. "This is the first delivery on that promise," Pence said at a news conference. "It's not the fulfillment of the promise entirely because now we must deliver in the area of justice." [continues 450 words]
Montgomery Countians Help Out After Officer's Dog Dies When Deputy Shannon Taylor's partner died, people in Montgomery County reached deep into their pockets so he could get a new one. As of Wednesday, they had raised $14,554, including contributions of $5,000 and $4,000. The owner of the local drive-in gave part of his gate receipts. And a donated Weatherby .270 rifle fetched $2,800 in a raffle at Court Days. The money will go toward a new police dog to replace Bojar, a black German shepherd that died Aug. 26 of an undetectable heart ailment. [continues 284 words]
Inside Kentucky
