Captain backs Wade
Sheriff's funds not justified
August 19, 1988
By Mike Wheeler
Cox News Service
SHERMAN - A sheriff's department captain said Wednesday that suspended Orange County Sheriff James Wade had not 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., Orange County Sheriff's Department Capt. Thomas Hennigan said Wade had done nothing wrong.
Hennigan said, during testimony in Wade's federal drug trial, that other officers using the special investigation account also failed occasionally to give a reason for their expenditures.
Hennigan had testified Wednesday morning, though, that Wade's justification rate of fund withdrawals was at a lower rate than most other officers using the special account.
What the sheriff did in justifying the withdrawal of funds was not standard procedure, Hennigan said.
Federal prosecutors are contending that Wade used the money from the account to further a trafficking scheme the sheriff is alleged to have operated in Orange County.
Before court recessed for lunch Wednesday, Richardson asked Hennigan to make a comparison of other officers' justification rates and that of Wade.
In his testimony Wednesday 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 five of the 12 withdrawals the sheriff made from the account, while Perminter justified 36 of 39 withdrawals.
In further testimony Wednesday afternoon, Hennigan said he had expressed concern about the social life of an Orange County deputy, who Wade had hired in February 1987. Hennigan said he confronted Wade about two months after former Orange County Sheriff's Department Deputy Don Duhon was hired when the captain began hearing allegations that Duhon was using drugs.
Sheriff Wade's response was that the sheriff was aware of the rumors and that there was no problem, Hennigan said. The accusations of drug use made against Duhon.
Hennigan did not say where or from whom he had heard the rumors about the deputy.
Duhon resigned earlier this year shortly after he was publicly identified as a federal witness in an FBI probe into an alleged drug trafficking operation in Orange County involving Wade.
Duhon has said he was not involved directly in the operation, but had witnessed certain incidents where the sheriff was present when drugs or drug manufacturing equipment were delivered.
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