SHERIFF DAWSY SAYS DRUG ARREST HANDLED PROPERLY

The deputies involved did not have probable cause to arrest a commissioner's
wife who was with the man charged, the sheriff says.

Sheriff Jeff Dawsy on Wednesday said his agency followed proper procedures
when handling a drug case that involved Kimberly Wooten, the wife of County
Commission Chairman Josh Wooten.

Citrus County sheriff's deputies arrested Lonnie Thomas Arnold, 38, of
Floral City early Dec. 7 after they discovered 6 grams of methamphetamine,
an illegal drug, in his car, a court record showed.

The car was parked outside a Floral City residence, prompting a neighbor to
call authorities and report a suspicious vehicle, the court record showed.
Kimberly Wooten, 29, was sitting in the car when a deputy arrived to
investigate, the record showed.

Deputies did not arrest Kimberly Wooten, who has said she is fighting a
prescription drug addiction. However, deputies advised her of her rights and
questioned her.

Arnold has pleaded innocent to charges of possession of a controlled
substance without a prescription and possession of drug paraphernalia. He is
awaiting trial.

According to the court record, Kimberly Wooten told deputies Arnold picked
her up at her home about 1:30 a.m. Dec. 7. Josh Wooten said his
mother-in-law was watching their two children and he was in Orlando
attending a Democratic political convention.

Kimberly Wooten told authorities she and Arnold drove to Bushnell, where
Arnold was given drugs by a teenager. They eventually drove to Floral City.

Dawsy, replying in writing to questions posed by the Citrus Times, said it
is common practice for a deputy not to arrest someone who was in Kimberly
Wooten's position - "especially when, as in this case, the driver - Lonnie
Arnold - admitted that he had taken the drugs from a 15- year-old earlier."

The deputy arrested Arnold because there was probable cause, Dawsy said, but
the deputy didn't believe there was enough reason to arrest Wooten.

Stephen Matrofski, professor of administration of justice at George Mason
University in Washington, D.C., said that, generally, law officers use
evidence, legal knowledge and their discretion to decide how to treat cases
where drugs are found.

There isn't any law or procedure that would require them to search or test
everyone at a crime scene where drugs are discovered, the professor said. He
was talking about cases in general, not the specific facts of this case.

"It is possible that if the deputies searched one individual and didn't
search the other, there is a legal reason for that," Matrofski said.

Dawsy said he gave no orders regarding handling of the case. He said he was
advised of the situation at noon Dec. 7 by one of his district commanders.

It is standard protocol, he said, "for the sheriff to be advised of any
police action involving a political figure or person of prominence or his or
her family."

Dawsy said he has not spoken with Kimberly Wooten about the case since
Arnold's arrest.