Wade knew of drug use
August 19, 1988
By Mike Wheeler
Staff reporter
SHERMAN - A sheriff's department captain testified that he once warned suspended Orange County Sheriff James Wade about the suspected drug use of a deputy - but said Wade took no action on the matter.
"Sheriff Wade said he was aware of the rumors and said there was no problem, but took no action concerning the accusations against the deputy," Orange County Sheriff's Department Capt. Thomas Hennigan said during his second day of testimony Thursday in Wade's federal drug trial, currently in its first week in Grayson County.
Hennigan testified that he began hearing the rumors of drug use by former Orange County Sheriff's Department Deputy Don Duhon about two months after Duhon was hired by the sheriff in February 1987.
The captain did not say from where or from whom he had heard the rumors.
Duhon resigned from the sheriff's department earlier this year after being identified as a federal witness in the FBI probe into the alleged drug scheme.
The former deputy, who has said he was not directly involved in the drug scheme, has yet to testify in Wade's trial. Duhon has said he only witnessed certain incidents where Wade was present when drugs or drug laboratory equipment were delivered.
Hennigan also continued testimony Thursday on whether Wade had followed standard procedure when justifying money the sheriff spent from a county special investigation account.
But under cross-examination by Wade's attorney, Gary Richardson of Tulsa, Okla.., Hennigan said that Wade had done nothing wrong. The captain told the court other officers using the special account also sometimes failed to provide reasons for all their expenditures.
Hennigan did testify, though, that Wade's justifications rate concerning fund withdrawals - or the times the sheriff did give reasons why the money was spent - was lower than most other officers using the special account.
"What the sheriff did in justifying the withdrawal of funds from the account was not standard procedure," Hennigan said.
Federal prosecutors are contending that Wade used some of the money from the account to finance a drug trafficking scheme the sheriff allegedly operated in Orange County.
Before court recessed for lunch Thursday, Richardson asked Hennigan during the lunch hour to make a comparison of other officers' justification rates to that of Wade.
In his testimony Thursday afternoon, Hennigan said he had only enough time to compare the sheriff's rate with one other officer who had used money from the fund.
According to Hennigan, during a period from Oct. 9, 1986, to April 25, 1987, Wade made 12 withdrawals totaling $5,700 and returned only $1,774 in cash - failing to justify spending $3,336.
"Wade's justification rate in proving where the money was spent is 21.6 percent," Hennigan said.
Compared to Wade's withdrawals, former Orange County Sheriff's Department Deputy Billy Perminter withdrew $6,850 and returned $650 of the money in cash.
"Deputy Perminter justified all but $300 of the money he took from the narcotics fund, justifying 93 percent of the money the deputy spent," Hennigan said.
Hennigan said Wade justified only five of the 12 withdrawals the sheriff made from the account, while Perminter justified 36 of 39 withdrawals.
Also Thursday, a Louisiana sheriff's deputy testified that her department had received evidence for laboratory testing from an Orange County Sheriff Department deputy in early 1986.
Calcasieu Perish Sheriff's Department Deputy Shirley M. Green, Though, did not identify what evidence was received from then Orange County Sheriff's Department Deputy Bruce Simpson.
Simpson, currently a partrolman for the West Orange police Department, was at the Grison County Counthouse on Thursday, accompanied by former Orange County Sheriff's Department Capt. Debbie West.
West and then Chief Deputy Ron Pettit were fired by Wade in 1986 and later won a $150,000 lawsuit settlement against Orange County when a jury returned a verdict that the pair had been wrongfully dismissed.
It was possible Simpson or West could take the witness stand today.
Wade was indicted on May 2 by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, of obstructing justice and of theft of Orange County funds and was suspended from office on July 11.
The sheriff pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on the charges on May 13 and entered a formal plea of not guilty last Monday when his trial began in Sherman.
Prosecutors have said they will call between 55 and 60 witnesses and length of the trial has been estimated to between for and six weeks.
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