EX-SHERIFF ADMITS WRONGDOING

Aug. 9, 2000 - Former Ouray County Sheriff Jerry Wakefield on Tuesday
pleaded guilty to eight felony counts of embezzlement and three misdemeanor
thefts, settling the last criminal charges that shocked the small community
and led to his resignation in disgrace.

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to recommend no prison time for
Wakefield, an ailing 62-year-old who last month was sentenced to probation
in federal court for possessing an illegal sawed-off shotgun.

Montrose County District Judge Richard Brown will sentence Wakefield on Oct.
6 on the latest charges, which include taking $121 from the satchel of
Wakefield a transient killed in a 1982 traffic accident, cashing a $280
sheriff's department check to buy military surplus gear for personal use and
taking nine weapons, a night scope and a police radio from the department.

The case unfolded as investigators broke up a widespread drug ring -
implicating two sheriff's deputies and Wakefield's two adult daughters - and
discovered that Wakefield and Undersheriff John Radcliff had been taking
weapons and valuables from the department's evidence cache since 1980.

Wakefield, who served nine years as sheriff and worked for the department
for 20 years, originally denied the charges but changed his pleas to guilty
as the evidence mounted against him.

"I don't feel I stole anything from anybody," Wakefield said last year. "I
just had that stuff at home where I could use it." In federal court last
month, he pleaded guilty to one of two charges of possessing sawed-off
shotguns - weapons that were confiscated from criminal suspects - and was
sentenced to five years probation and ordered to wear an ankle bracelet
while being confined to home detention for six months.

Wakefield, who in recent months has needed to use supplemental oxygen
containers to combat pulmonary illnesses, resigned last November,
attributing his decision to his health and his wish to spare the county any
embarrassment.

Meanwhile, Radcliff was imprisoned for his role in using the stolen weapons
to protect the methamphetamine ring, revealed in a sting operation by the
FBI and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The sting operation also
nabbed his wife, Lisa Radcliff, Deputy LeRoy Todd and Wakefield's daughters,
Laura Wakefield Huddleston and Neysa Wakefield Blansett, among 16 others on
the Western Slope.