'Dirty sheriff' act part of Wade's defense
August 22, 1988
By Mike Wheeler
Staff Reporter
SHERMAN - Suspended Orange County Sheriff James Wade's federal drug trial resumed today at 1:30 p.m. as Wade's attorneys try to prove the sheriff posed as a "dirty sheriff" in order to get close to Orange County "drug lords."
Wade's attorneys, Gary Richardson of Tulsa Okla.., and Jeff Kearney of Fort Worth, say Wade used an accused drug dealer, Donnie Flowers, as an informant - but due to the sheriff's inexperience in working with such informants, "did not adequately protect himself."
Richardson and Kearney, though, claim to have evidence that Wade did tell a federal official of his intent to set himself up as a "dirty sheriff."
The attorneys, who refer to Orange County as a "hot bed for drugs," say Wade informed U. S. Attorney Bob Wortham in 1985 of the sheriff's scheme to trap the reputed "drug lords."
government prosecutors, U. S. assistant district attorneys Stewart Platt and Paul Naman, however, have set out to prove Wade's guilt in operating what they have said was a drug trafficking scheme to get the sheriff out of a personal financial bind.
Naman has said Wade was corrupt in operating the county sheriff's department.
The trial began Aug. 15 in the Grayson County Courthouse in Sherman. U. S. District Judge Howell Cobb, who is presiding over the trial, recessed at noon Friday and did not recall the jury until late today in order to review evidence to be presented later by the government and make sure the evidence is admissible in court, the judge said.
Wade was charged May 2 in a federal grand jury indictment on charges that include a conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, a conspiracy to obstruct justice and embezzlement of Orange County narcotics funds.
Wade pleaded innocent before the jury Aug. 15. The Sheriff has been jailed since his bond was revoked June 1 after violating bond conditions.
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