By GEOFF DAVIDIAN While this phenomenal federally funded decrease in productivity has been "top secret," Mary Jo Denton reports, the underachievement has been "publicized and some efforts have recently earned special recognition," according to Abston, who is seeking re-election. A bulletin board discussing the administration of his office is here.
"That Task Force was able to secure federal funds to pay law officers and also to pay for the specialized hazardous materials cleanups required when meth labs are found," However, there has been no public accounting of this "top secret" effort. According to Abston and the Herald-Citizen , the counties just could not decrease productivity alone and it took teamwork to decrease the productivity of meth busts. "In this whole area during the past couple of years, we seized a total of 179 drug labs and arrested a total of 227 persons," Abston said, not defining the time period or what he considers the "whole area," which nonetheless is his back yard and also the biggest producer of methamphetamines in the state. "Many were arrested on meth charges and others on charges relating to other illegal drugs," the Herald-Citizen reported Abston saying. "Some cases were taken through the federal court system, and others were left to be prosecuted in state courts," the Herald-Citizen says Abston said. "We always hope these cases can go federal because our state laws, especially on meth, just do not have the teeth that the federal laws have," the sheriff told the Herald-Citizen, not mentioning that by decreasing productivity and simultaneously seeing cases go to federal court, it must be the feds who are doing the busts. In a deposition last October, 13th Judicial District Attorney Bill Gibson acknowledged meth was a problem here and that it affected children and the quality of life, but he mentioned neither the decrease in productivity nor the illegal use of money generated from auctioned property to pay overtime. Nor did he acknowledge Abston's revelation that what busts there are have to be tried federally because local efforts have declined in productivity. One way the funds may be used that would account for the decrease in busts is that someone in the Sheriff's Department or Drug Task Force had been tipping off meth producers, alerting them to imminent raids, according to testimony before the State Legislature about five years ago. By hiring more law enforcement officers to work overtime notifying producers of more imminent busts, the productivity rate may be diminished to zero, a complete success, according to the Herald Citizen's and Abston's way of evaluating performance. However, a complete reduction of meth busts would be harmful to Putnam County, which gets money from the state for housing inmates in the County Jail. The Abston campaign still has not addressed the apparent conflict facing the sheriff: How to increase underachievement in law enforcement further with federal funds, using the decline in arrests as evidence of the decrease in performance, while simultaneously maintaining state payment for housing prisoners in county jail -- something Court Clerk Lewis Coomer depends on for jailer's fees. Coomer may throw his support to another candidate if Abston cannot continue the flow of cases through the Justice Center, where Coomer was caught illegally charging prisoners a daily fee . Coomer implicated Abston in the scheme, but Abston denies any connection with the illegal charges, which were entered into an accounting system that allowed changes without a trace . It is unclear whether Coomer, who also is seeking re-election when he is not mowing hay for judges or using his staff to rent apartments, is still under investigation in the ticket fixing scandal involving Mike Gaw , although Coomer definitely had his own tickets fixed, according to documents obtained from Cookeville police. There apparently will be no investigation of altered indictments in the Justice Center, either, with Abston busy decreasing productivity in the meth war. Perhaps this is why Abston tells the Herald Citizen that Federal prosecution of local illegal drug cases is also "much to our advantage in other ways." "Our enforcement, without joining some task force like Stopgap, stops at the county line, and by joining in with others, we have more law officers out there working these cases," he said. More officers means that Abston can increase revenue by also decreasing law enforcement productivity in Putnam County, which is nearly as unproductive as possible considering this district is leading producer of meth in the state. Also, by joining with other counties, the unproductive law enforcement officials in other counties can all get together with a lump sum number of busts, without breaking down the amount of ongoing crime in their own jurisdictions. Thus, they can at the same time insist there is a serious problem that needs funding, while both not solving it and looking like they are. One recent case in this area which required law officers from several counties was that of the illegal drug activity uncovered and prosecuted in the Free Hill community of Clay County, Sheriff Abston told the Herald Citizen. "That was seen by the federal authorities as among the top investigations in the country," he told the Herald Citizen. "Several residents of that community were arrested and are serving time in federal prisons," he told the Herald Citizen . The Herald Citizen alleges that "The federal agencies which have worked with the county sheriff's departments on the cases include the U.S. Attorney's office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency, and the U.S. Marshal's office. The state's TBI has also been involved." "Operation Stopgap participants developed a strategy and shared information unselfishly," says a news statement from the U.S. Attorney's office. According to the story, Federal authorities came to Cookeville recently to commend the various local law enforcers for their work. Those who were singled out for exceptional contributions included FBI Special Agent Bart Brown of Cookeville; TBI Special Agent Dan Ogle, 13th Judicial District Drug Task Force Agent Danny Espinosa, Cumberland County Sheriff's Deputy David Gibson, and Sparta Police Detective Allen Selby. Also honored was Putnam Deputy Sam Lee, who previously headed the Drug Task Force here and who helped run the Free Hill investigation, the Herald Citizen reported.. "We are proud of all this recognition," Sheriff Abston said. And the investigations into illegal drug activity, especially meth lab activity, are still going, he said. "It's not that we don't still have the problem or that it won't continue -- but we have made some progress," Abston told the Herald Citizen. Meanwhile, the Putnam Pit did a search of electronic news sources going back five years, and the only Tennessee story that came up using the search terms "stopgap" and Tennessee was this: KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- A woman who claims
she was permanently scarred after a hot pickle from a McDonald's hamburger
fell on her chin is suing the restaurant for more than $ 100,000. Add your comment on the sheriff's race to our bulletin board |