Wade trial
Former deputy may take stand
By Mike Wheeler
Staff Reporter
SHERMAN - Former Orange County Deputy Sheriff Don Duhon could take the stand soon, after a closed conference Tuesday delayed the trial of suspended Orange County Sheriff James Wade.
Duhon has told Government investigators that he witnessed Wade providing equipment and drugs to the sheriff's alleged co-conspirators while a member of the sheriff's department.
Wade is currently on trial in Grayson County charged by the government with trafficking drugs, embezzlement and obstructing justice.
Testimony did not begin Tuesday until about 1:30 p.m. because of closed meetings between government and defense attorneys and Cobb.
Called individually into the closed meeting were Duhon, Sheriff's Deputy Wayne Dial, and Billy Permenter, a former narcotic s officer in the sheriff's department who now is a Bridge City patrolman.
But testimony from Dial, former narcotics captain in the department, elicited questions from Wade's attorney concerning rumors about both Duhon and Dial, bringing immediate heated objections from a U. S. attorney.
The objections and line of questioning resulted in U. S. District Judge Howell Cobb removing the jury from the courtroom.
Dial said he had repeatedly told Wade of Duhon's rumored drug abuse and "lifestyle unfit for a police officer," but said the sheriff completely ignored the warnings.
Wade's attorney, Gary Richardson of Tulsa, Okla., in cross examination, contended that similar rumors had been made about Dial, bringing on the government's objections.
Dial, now a patrol deputy in the sheriff's department, said he first heard rumors of Duhon's use of illegal drugs and a "lifestyle unfit for a police officer" about a week after Duhon was hired by Wade Jan. 27, 1987.
"Sheriff Wade said he had known Duhon since Duhon was about 15 years old, said Duhon had had problems, but had straightened out his life," Dial testified Tuesday.
Dial said he continued to hear similar rumors about Duhon and said he continued to report those rumors to the sheriff.
"But the sheriff got more hostile every time I told him of further rumors concerning Duhon," Dial said. "And, each time I went to the sheriff, I was less well received."
Dial testified that in 1987, he also became aware of internal security leaks about the department's narcotics division's planned drug raids, some of which failed, the deputy said, because of the leaks.
"When I first discovered that information was being leaked from inside the department we began counter-measures," Dial said. "We changed the radio frequencies, used citizen's band radios and put out false information over the radio about the raids."
Dial said he later learned that one of Wade's confidential informants had avoided arrest because of a warning given of an impending drug bust.
Donnie Flowers, a former Wade drug informant who was arrested in Hardin County drug raid in October 1987, has testified in Wade's trial that the sheriff was the "boss of a drug trafficking scheme in Orange County.
In testimony last week, Flowers said Wade furnished money, chemicals and equipment for two years and profited from the alleged drug operation.
The accused drug dealer also testified that Wade has denied being the "boss" of the operation and his attorneys contend that Wade posed as a "dirty sheriff" to get drug dealers, using Flowers.
However, when Richardson began cross examination of Dial Tuesday and questioned Dial about rumors of drug abuse circulating on the streets about the former captain, a government attorney heatedly objected.
U. S. district Judge Howell Cobb, presiding over Wade's trial, removed the jury from the courtroom as the attorneys began arguing over Richardson's line of questioning directed at Dial.
after the jury had been excused, Assistant U. S. Attorney Stewart Platt said Richardson was doing nothing more that "attempting to impeach the witness' character."
Richardson, though, said direct questioning by Platt about rumors concerning Duhon's reputed drug abuse and "unfit lifestyle" had left he jury with the "impression that Sheriff Wade should have done something."
Richardson said questioning Dial about rumors surrounding the witness during the same time of the rumors about Duhon would show that Wade "acted on facts, not on rumors" in administering the county sheriff's department.
"It's quite obvious that Deputy Dial is still employed at the sheriff's department," Richardson said. "He didn't take action on rumors about Duhon any more than he did on Dial."
Duhon resigned as deputy in January when he was identified as a government witness in the FBI's investigation of Flowers' allegations against Wade.
Duhon is in the Sherman, but has yet to testify. The former deputy has said he was not directly involved in the alleged drug operation, but has admitted to witnessing drug deliveries made to buyers while Wade was present.
Cobb was expected to decide this morning about whether to allow Richardson to continue questioning Dial about rumors concerning the witness.
In testimony before Dial's, Orange County's temporary sheriff, Newton Johnson Jr., appointed when Wade was suspended from office on July 11, said he was told by Flowers, when Flowers was arrested in 1987, that Dial had warned the drug dealer of the Orange motel raid.
But Johnson said he never believed Flowers' Allegations against the narcotics captain.
Dial said he later confronted Flowers about the drug dealer's statement and said Flowers' "admitted to lying to (then) Chief Johnson."
Testifying last Fiday, Orange County medical director Dr. Howard Williams said Wade had requested that the Physician pass Duhon without giving the deputy a drug screen test.
Williams said he passed Duhon after examining the deputy for physical signs of drug abuse because Wade had told Williams he "needed to hire Duhon immediately," Williams said.
Williams was recalled by government attorneys to testify Tuesday and said Neva Wade, the sheriff's wife, had never taken the physical examination required by all county employees, although Mrs. Wade did work as a reserve deputy for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
In a pre-trial hearing held in Beaumont last July, Mrs. Wade testified that she had been on active reserve deputy for Orange County until June 1.
Wade's trial began in Sherman on Aug. 15 and Monday entered its third week of testimony.
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