SHERIFF'S DRUG FUND SPENDING REVEALED

Smith Used $615,000 in Federal Funds for Tuition, a Lease, Private
Lawyer and More

ST. MARYS - Camden County Sheriff Bill Smith stopped paying jail
inmates from seized drug assets when state investigators began
looking into the controversial practice last July, according to
copies of checks he released to avoid a lawsuit last month.

But Smith continued to use the federal forfeiture money for other
questionable expenditures such as college tuition for favored
deputies, a Kingsland boxing club's lease, and a retainer for a
private lawyer, the checks show. And he used the federally regulated
fund to pay routine expenses after county commissioners cut his
operating budget last year.

Federal guidelines say the asset money, returned to counties based on
drug arrests, is to be used only for law enforcement purposes such as
equipment, jails or training. They expressly say the funds are not to
be used for the department's general operational costs or in any way
that gives the appearance of extravagance, waste or impropriety.

But over the years , Smith has used the money to work inmates on
private property, establish college scholarships and donate to Camden
nonprofits. Questions over his use of the funds led County Commission
Chairman Preston Rhodes to refuse to sign an authorization form in
September to receive money from the federal government this year.

"While they're noble, they're not legal," Jim Stein, one of the
attorneys who sued Smith to open the 2007-08 records, said of many of
the sheriff's expenditures.

The records show Smith spent about $615,000 from the fund from July
2007 through May.

Smith, who is up for election July 15, wouldn't answer questions
himself but responded through his campaign consultant, Terry Brown.

"I'm sure there are things he did that if he had hindsight he
wouldn't have done, but by the same token, he's done a lot of good
with that money," Brown said. "He's made political enemies along the
way, too, and those are the ones that are trying to bring him down."

Inmates and Tuition

Smith's enemies have made the most hay the past year over his inmate
labor program.

Commissioners repeatedly criticized his use of federal drug money to
pay jail inmates to work on private property, including the
sheriff's, and not just in Camden County but also at his ex-wife's
house in South Carolina. According to previous years' audits, inmates
were paid $50 a week from the fund, a practice Smith always defended
as beneficial not only to the community, but to the inmates.

After the Times-Union spotted Camden jail inmates working on private
land on Cumberland Island in June 2007, the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation began probing Smith's use of inmate labor. That
investigation is in the hands of a federal grand jury in Savannah.

The checks released last month show Smith stopped using seized assets
to pay the inmates around the time the GBI investigation began last
July. Brown said the sheriff has completely stopped the practice
because of all the questions raised about it.

Smith's critics also questioned his use of the assets to send some of
his own employees to college. A review of the released checks shows
he spent about $33,800, roughly 5 percent of the federal drug money,
for tuition and related costs at colleges around the Southeast.

Brown said the deputies are being trained in criminal justice or
related fields and noted that Tommy Gregory, Smith's opponent in the
impending election, benefited from the program when he was a sheriff's deputy.

But Commissioner Steve Berry, Smith's most outspoken critic on the
board, said the tuition program is unfair to employees who aren't
picked and a misuse of the shared asset money. He questioned the
expenditure at a time when the sheriff has complained he needs new
patrol cars and a bigger jail.

"It's only available to the chosen, and there's no guarantee they're
going to stay working for us," Berry said.

Smith also spent about $14,400 on employee training and associated
travel, about 2 percent of the total. Brown said a $900 check in
August to Bally's Atlantic City Hotel and Casino was to send four
deputies to drug interdiction training.

Boats, Cars and Boxing

Smith's public feud with commissioners also forced him to use asset
money to pay fuel, utility and other general operational costs, Brown
said. The checks show he spent about $117,000 of seized asset money
on operational expenses, nearly a fifth of the total , despite the
federal restrictions.

Brown said the expenditures were a result of commissioners cutting
Smith's budget. He noted that gas has nearly doubled in price but the
Sheriff's Office got no more allowance for higher fuel costs. Fuel
expenditures made up most of the money spent on operational expenses.

"They are doing what they can to meet all their expenses by using the
assets," Brown said.

Smith started using the fund for fuel costs in November, the checks show.

But Berry said less than a third of the sheriff's monthly fuel costs
are for patrol vehicles. The majority pays for take-home vehicles for
23 nonpatrol Sheriff's Office employees, he said.

"The waste is not in the patrol deputy division," Berry said.
"Basically they need $4,000 a month to protect the public. The rest
is just waste, fraud and abuse."

Berry also criticized the sheriff's purchase of a 28-foot boat with
$79,000 in drug funds. At the time, Smith said the boat was for
"terrorist interdiction and drug enforcement," but Berry said it has
done little more than be Smith's personal ferry to Cumberland Island.

Court records show no felony drug arrests on Camden waterways since
the boat was purchased Aug. 1. But Brown said it has been used to
patrol the waterways, assist state and federal agencies, and most
recently, ferry firefighters to battle a wildfire on Cumberland.

Among other questionable expenditures, Smith paid:

. $100,000 for a scholarship at Georgia State University. An audit
from 2007 says such scholarship donations are "unallowable" under
federal guidelines.

. About $9,000 to help a boxing club owner pay her lease in
Kingsland. Brown said it is a youth outreach program similar to
others in Georgia, but Berry said "it certainly doesn't have anything
to do with drug interdiction or law enforcement."

. $4,000 in retainer fees for Brunswick lawyer James Benefield. Berry
questioned why Smith needs his own lawyer paid for by taxpayers.

"We have a county attorney to do that," Berry said.

But Brown said Benefield advises the sheriff on criminal matters and
is needed because the county attorney represents commissioners in
their lawsuit against Smith. Benefield isn't representing Smith in that case.