Demoted Officers Standing by Wade
By Rick Young
Staff Writer
Two Orange County Sheriff's deputies who have experienced demotions - one was eventually fired - under acting Sheriff Newton Johnson testified in support of suspended Sheriff James Wade in Sherman this week.
Lieutenant Larry Franklin, former captain of the Criminal Investigation Division under Wade, occupied the witness stand most of Tuesday and Wednesday. Franklin was originally subpoenaed as a prosecution witness, but was not called to testify for the government in the trial. The case is being heard in Sherman by U. S. District Judge Howell Cobb, of Beaumont, on a change of venue.
Franklin testified that the idea that Wade pose as a "dirty sheriff" had possibly originated with him and that he was present before April, 1987 at discussions of the plan between Wade and then-Chief Deputy Johnson. Johnson was appointed to serve as acting sheriff July 11, after Wade was suspended.
Gary Richardson, of Tulsa, Okla., and Jeff Kearney, of Fort Worth, Wade's attorneys, have said they would prove that their client had posed as a "dirty sheriff" in order to catch two major drug dealers in Orange County. Wade told two reporters days before news of an FBI investigation targeting him as a conspirator in the scheme to manufacture and distribute methamphetamines that he was "just a few weeks away from 'cuffing" the major drug dealers in the county. "You'll be amazed at the names of the people we're going to arrest," Wade said at the time.
After news of the investigation was leaked to the news media Jan. 29, Wade said those he had targeted for arrest had used influence in the business community and in political circles to insure he was not re-elected as sheriff and to possibly ruin him financially. Wade's wife, Neva, said she and her husband had expected such actions when Wade first went after several area businessmen as being involved in cocaine trafficking.
Franklin, before leaving for Sherman to testify, confirmed the names of Wade's targets, names that were given to reporters in 1987 on the condition that they not be revealed until charges could be brought. Narcotics officers involved in the investigation said later that the investigation into Wade's alleged activities had brought their own drug investigations to a halt. One officer left the department for a job with another police agency, another took three months of accrued compensatory time for a sabbatical in Europe and two others transfered from narcotics to other department duties.
Tuesday, Franklin spent the entire day as the defense's only witness. During that time, he told the jury that while he had discussed the "dirty cop concept" with Wade, he had not suggested the plan should include methamphetamines. His idea, he said had involved marijuana.
Franklin was accused by former narcotics Capt. Wayne Dial as a security leak who had compromised narcotics operations in the county. Dial testified that he had been reluctant to send his officers out on undercover operations because of leaks in the department. Dial resigned from the department after he returned from testifying in Sherman as a government witness.
Conley Wendt, 29, testified Wednesday that he had been brought into the orange county department from a position as a district attorney's investigator in Hardin County by Johnson to work "deep undercover" in Orange. Wendt told the jury that when he began work March 10, he was so deep undercover that only Johnson and Dial knew he was a member of the department. At the time, Wendt testified, he learned that Johnson did not trust Dial.
Johnson, Wendt said, "made it very clear that I was not to contact Sheriff Wade."
Wendt also testified that Johnson discussed "on numerous occasions" running as an independent candidate for sheriff in the November election. When he was appointed acting sheriff in July, Johnson had a custom badge made by a jeweler in Houston.
While acting as a deep undercover agent, Wendt established a large network of informants and was able, using his own money after the FBI investigation caused county narcotics buy money and cooperation with the county attorney's office to be curtailed, to effect the largest cocaine case in county history. Four men were arrested and 18 ounces of 87 percent pure cocaine was seized in the raid.
Wendt said he reported directly to Dial when he first began work in Orange County, but later switched to Johnson.
Although he was carried as a sergeant with Orange County, his employment here was his first as a police officer. Wendt originally attended the police academy in Beaumont as a Kountze officer. During his schooling, that certification was withdrawn and then picked up by the Hardin County District Attorney's office, where Wendt was eventually employed as a detective. Wendt was brought to Orange County by Johnson, Roberts was demoted from detective to head jailer at about the same time Wendt was demoted to jailer Aug. 10 Wendt said he was fired by Johnson about two weeks ago after the acting sheriff cited him for poor job performance.
"I filed a grievance," Wendt told The Vidorian last week. "I cited my record and asked for my job back or a letter of recommendation. My grievance was such that the committee bypassed the usual channels and took it straight to Newton Johnson. He apparently told Wilson Roberts to make some calls, because Rudy Trahan, at Hardin County D. A. 's office, got a call from Roberts recommending me for a job.
"I can't see how they can call the biggest cocaine bust in the county history poor job performance."
"I think I was fired for some other reason."
Wendt told the Vidorian he conducted internal investigations of former jail Captain Mike Rogers and Dial for alleged involvement with cocaine. Wendt said that evidence he uncovered during those investigations would normally have merited further investigation, but he was ordered to stop by Johnson. A short time later, Rogers resigned from the department and Dial voluntarily removed himself from narcotics and returned to patrol duties. Dial's resignation was effective Thursday.
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