EX-DEPUTY SAYS HIS BOSS KNEW ABOUT ADDICTION

Witness Doesn't Say How Sheriff Found Out

Topeka -- An ex-deputy testified Tuesday that former Shawnee County Sheriff
Dave Meneley knew about his drug problem, although he didn't elaborate
about how Meneley learned of it.

Meneley is on trial on two felony counts of perjury in Shawnee County
District Court. He is accused of lying in court testimony in 1999, when he
said he didn't know former deputy Timothy Oblander had a cocaine problem
until Oblander himself went public after resigning.

Two Shawnee County district judges removed Meneley from office in February,
and the former sheriff lost the Aug. 1 Republican primary to his appointed
successor, Dick Barta. The perjury trial is a separate court case.

After a jury of 12 members and one alternate was seated Monday, Oblander
was the first witness called by Dist. Atty. Joan Hamilton.

His testimony concluded Tuesday, when Oblander said he met with Meneley
before Meneley testified in court in an unrelated criminal case. Oblander
said he told Meneley that he didn't want Meneley to lie for him in court.

Oblander's testimony Tuesday centered on the meeting he had with Meneley,
which he said occurred between Jan. 20, 1999, and Feb. 22, 1999.

Oblander resigned on Feb. 26, 1999.

Asked by Hamilton why he thought Meneley might lie for him, Oblander
responded: "Because he had known about the drug abuse that I had been
involved in."

However, Oblander didn't elaborate, and he acknowledged that he didn't tell
Meneley during that meeting or any other time that he once had a cocaine
problem.

Also present at the meeting, Oblander said, was former Sheriff's Sgt. John
Frank Good. Good faced criminal perjury charges similar to those against
Meneley, but a jury acquitted Good in June.

"I just wanted to tell them that things were getting out of hand," Oblander
testified Tuesday.

On Monday, Oblander said Meneley visited him twice at the Valley Hope
Treatment Center in Atchison in 1995, but Meneley did not ask him why he
was there.

"All I was worried about was when the big question was going to come, and
it never came," Oblander said of Meneley's first visit. Oblander's drug
problem became an issue when questions arose about how the Sheriff's
Department had handled drug evidence.

In July, a three-member hearing panel of the Kansas Law Enforcement
Training Commission revoked Meneley's law enforcement certification. It
cited the judges' ruling in the ouster case as the basis for its decision.