LEE COUNTY POLICE WORKER IS ARRESTED

Dispatcher 'From A Pretty Nice Family' Charged With Dealing In OxyContin

A Lee County police dispatcher was arrested Wednesday night on charges of
trafficking in OxyContin, Kentucky State Police said yesterday.

News of the arrest evoked a figurative groan at the Lee County Courthouse,
where several law-enforcement officers, including two sheriffs and a police
chief, have been convicted during the past decade on drug charges.

The main difference, said Lee Judge-Executive L.C. "Bub" Reese, is that
this time law-enforcement employees, not officials, were the objects of
indictments.

Yvonne Lucas Angel, 37, who has been a dispatcher for the Beattyville
Police Department for about a year, was indicted by a grand jury on four
counts of conspiracy to traffic in OxyContin and Tylox, said state police
Lt. Jerry Provence.

"I'm very surprised," said Reese, who suspended Angel without pay until the
charges are resolved. "She comes from a pretty nice family. Her brother
(Joe Lucas) is a Beattyville police sergeant and I'm sure he's hurt over this."

Beattyville Mayor Charles Beach III said Joe Lucas has been an outstanding
police officer for 10 years. Beach pledged the city's full cooperation in
any investigation.

"I've been around a long time. I remember our previous (problems)," Beach
said. "I'd be shocked and amazed if that occurred again."

In the 1990s, former Lee County sheriffs Johnny Mann and Douglas
Brandenburg and former Beattyville Police Chief Omer Noe were convicted on
federal charges of protecting drug traffickers.

Provence, a member of the state police drug enforcement special
investigations unit in Eastern Kentucky, said Angel also was indicted on
one count of complicity to receive stolen property.

Also indicted was Billy Joe Deaton, 29, of Beattyville, a former prison
guard at the Lee Adjustment Center, who was charged with receiving stolen
property. He allegedly exchanged a police radio stolen from the private
medium-security prison for drugs.

Deaton had worked at the prison since Jan. 2, but left the job July 31,
prison officials said yesterday. They declined to say whether he left
voluntarily.

A man identified as Angel's boyfriend, Timothy Michael Tirey, 29, of
Beattyville also was arrested and charged with the same crimes as Angel.
Provence said there is no evidence that the suspects were dealing drugs at
the prison or from the county dispatcher's office.

"If it wasn't who they were working for, this is not a big case for us," he
said. "But you've got public employees allegedly involved in this activity."

Angel was released from jail in Beattyville Wednesday night after a
relative posted a $20,000 cash bond. Deaton was released after posting a
$10,000 property bond, but Tirey was still in jail last night under a
$20,000 cash bond.