CLEBURNE COUNTY SEES RECORD MONTH FOR DRUG ARRESTS

HEFLIN -- Largely because of stepped-up activity by the Calhoun County Drug
Task Force, a Cleburne County grand jury last month returned more than 100
indictments - by far a record for this sparsely populated rural county.

The task force was responsible for the arrest of almost half of those
formally charged by the grand jury. With two of the team's seven
investigators now devoted to the area, the task force has adopted a more
aggressive investigative philosophy, said Jason Murray, a member of the
task force.

"We've always worked Cleburne County, but we didn't have the manpower to
concentrate there," Murray said. "We would respond to leads that came up
there, but as far as being proactive, there just wasn't the manpower."

More arrests, in addition to bringing to light the strong presence of drugs
in the area, could lead to subtle but telling changes in the way suspects
are prosecuted in the county.

"We may have to add more trial weeks or spend more time each week trying
cases," said Circuit Judge Joel Laird, who is handling Cleburne criminal
cases this year. There are now four grand jury sessions and four criminal
trial weeks each year.

While Laird is confident the judicial system's resources, including its
current pool of lawyers willing to represent indigent clients, is
sufficient, District Attorney Joe Hubbard said he is trying to obtain an
increase in state funding to hire another prosecutor to assist in handling
the swelling criminal docket.

The August grand jury yielded 136 indictments, 65 of which were Drug Task
Force cases. A glance at the performance of past grand juries puts into
perspective how dramatic a jump this is.

Including the recent one, Cleburne County grand juries this year have
averaged 56 indictments per session. In 2000, they averaged 31 a session.
In 1999, they averaged 34 a session. And in 1998, they averaged 46 a
session, but that figure was inflated by one atypically large session - in
October of that year, a grand jury indicted 91.

The increase is even more impressive if you go back a decade. For the whole
of 1991, including four sessions, grand juries indicted only 76.

As if the numbers weren't enough, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that
demonstrates how busy the criminal courts have become. Hubbard said he
remembers his days as an assistant district attorney when the case load was
a lot lighter.

"In 1978, you would go to Cleburne County and you'd have 10 cases on the
grand jury docket," he said. "You'd get it done by lunch on the first day."

Presiding over arraignments on Thursday, Judge Laird was struck by how much
longer than usual the process took.

"Normally, (the arraignment docket) takes less than an hour," he said.
"This time it took almost three hours."

Despite the new challenges presented by Cleburne as well as by cases from
Calhoun County, both Hubbard and Laird are confident that with the
necessary changes the system will be able to make do.

Said the judge, "We can accommodate it. We have to. We don't have a choice."

Drugs In A Rural County

Raids by the task force snared dealers and users of marijuana,
methamphetamine and cocaine as well as a smattering of those who trade in
pills, including OxyContin. The rural setting, Murray said, affords drug
offenders privacy needed to raise marijuana crops and assemble meth labs.

Marijuana is the most commonly seized drug in the county, followed by
methamphetamine and cocaine. Murray said that meth is a fast growing drug
with 32 labs being found in the two-county jurisdiction since October.

Meth is a highly addictive stimulant that can be made from over-the-
counter ingredients in makeshift labs. Labs often are found in remote areas
because the strong odors produced in the manufacture of the drug are a
giveaway.

Just as the hills and forests provide drug traffickers with a blanket of
concealment, the secluded way of life in the county's backwoods poses
problems for investigators.

"People are, for lack of a better word, more clannish," Murray said. "When
you get out into the rural areas, they don't talk as freely with you. There
aren't as many leads."

Murray stressed that these nooks are not endemic to Cleburne but exist in
the more isolated sections of Calhoun County as well. Moreover, Hubbard,
the district attorney, said there is interaction between dealers and buyers
on either side of the county line.

"There's a lot of bleed over going both ways," Hubbard says. "Both are on
I-20 and get drugs from Atlanta and Birmingham. Both counties are in the
same boat."

But what Cleburne has that Calhoun doesn't is vast swathes of the Talladega
National Forest, a perfect cover for marijuana growers.

"It's the ideal place to grow it," Murray said. "The weather's great, and
you've got easy access to the interstate."

It's a matter for speculation whether the gradual increase over the decades
and the recent spike in the past few months indicates greater criminal
activity or simply better policing by authorities. Officials, however,
believe the drugs have been out there for a long time and now the resources
to track them down are available.

Heflin police Chief Billy Lambert said he's noticed a recent upswing in the
amount of drug activity.

"There's more drugs out there, especially in the past three years," he
said. "We've made more cases."

The task force's Murray echoed this.

"I think citizens in Cleburne County are surprised by how much dope is out
there," he said.