TWO KIEFER OFFICERS ARE CHARGED

Police Chief, Aide Resign Amid Drug Allegations

SAPULPA -- The Kiefer police chief and his assistant have resigned
amid allegations that they snorted methamphetamine they had removed
from two police property rooms.

Creek County prosecutors on Thursday filed two counts of embezzlement
by a police officer against former Police Chief David B. Little, 30,
and one count of embezzlement by a police officer against his
ex-assistant chief, David Palmerchuk, 33.

Arrest warrants were issued for the pair Thursday, and their bail will
be set at $5,000 on each count, Chief Criminal Prosecutor Don Nelson
said.

Creek County Sheriff Larry Fugate said Little, who reportedly is in
Arkansas with his family, is scheduled to turn himself in Friday
afternoon. Palmerchuk has agreed to surrender to authorities at 9 a.m.
Friday, the sheriff said.

If convicted, each officer faces a maximum of two years in prison and
as much as a $1,000 fine on each count, Assistant District Attorney
Pamela Hammers said.

"It makes me sick," Fugate said. "These guys are elected to do the
opposite. They are supposed to be getting it off the street, yet here
they are using it."

Hammers, who said it was one of the "stranger" cases to come across
her desk, added, "I probably wouldn't believe it unless they had
admitted to it or partially admitted to it."

Between Jan. 1 and March 30, the charges claim, each of the two Kiefer
officers appropriated controlled drugs that came into his possession
by virtue of his employment and used them for "a purpose not in due
and lawful execution of his office."

A second count against Little alleges that he did the same from Oct. 1
through Nov. 30 while acing as a police officer in Mounds.

The Creek County Sheriff's Office has been taking all police calls
relating to Kiefer since Wednesday night, Fugate said.

Kiefer Mayor Donnie Ashford said the town's Board of Trustees decided
Wednesday night to suspend Little with pay pending further
investigation. "Little did we know that David Little had resigned," he
said.

The Creek County Sheriff's Office gave the mayor Little's letter of
resignation on Thursday morning, Ashford said. Palmerchuk had resigned
March 28, he said.

"We knew that we would be without police officers," Ashford said, "so
we brought in a reserve officer and made him acting officer over the
rest of the reserves."

The city may be able to hire a new officer in a month or so, he
said.

In the meantime, the Police Department's property room is sealed off
until the new officer is in place, Ashford said. "Anything that is
confiscated through stops or arrests will go to the Creek County
property room."

Ashford said Little and Palmerchuk had been "kind of at odds with each
other" during their employment. "There were some accusations made in a
conversation we had with them that one had made and then the other had
made that were blown out of proportion. We decided to let the Creek
County Sheriff's Department do an investigation of our Police Department.

"First we had an allegation toward the other officer (Palmerchuk), so
we decided to go ahead and let the Creek County Sheriff's Department
handle that," Ashford said. Then Sheriff Fugate decided to investigate
the whole department, and "I'm proud that he did that," Ashford said.

"When things are brought up about your Police Department, you want to
make sure everything's covered," he said. "You want to make sure
things are back to squeaky clean when something's been brought up."

Fugate said that "nothing surprises me anymore," adding that Little's
mother and brother are former Kiefer police officers. "When it comes
to meth, it is in all walks of life. Attorneys do it. Doctors do it.
You can't name a profession that it's not in."

According to an affidavit, Little initiated the investigation by the
Sheriff's Office himself when he called Creek County Chief Criminal
Deputy Ed Willingham on March 28 in reference to narcotics that were
missing from Kiefer's police property room. Little reportedly said he
had been contacted by part-time Kiefer dispatcher Gary King.

Palmerchuk had summoned King to the Police Department late one night
about a month ago, court documents allege. There, King said he saw
Palmerchuk standing over a desk on which were two lines of a white
powder substance "consistent with methamphetamine." Palmerchuk "sucked
the white powder through the straw and into his nose," the affidavit
claims.

When King started to leave the room, Palmerchuk allegedly told him to
"get over here and do a line."

King claims in the affidavit that he knew the substance was
methamphetamine because King had used the drug in the past.

Later, Palmerchuk obtained keys from Little's office, went into the
property-evidence room and removed about eight small bags of white
powder substance, records allege.

At Willingham's request, Little reportedly did an inventory of the
evidence room and told the deputy that a few bags of the drug and a
gun were missing.

King passed a polygraph test given to him by authorities, Fugate said.
Little failed his, but upon being re-interviewed on Wednesday, Little
admitted having snorted a bag of methamphetamine that he had taken
from the Kiefer property room around January, the affidavit shows.

On another occasion in February, Little went into the same property
room with the intention of getting more of the drug for his own use,
records indicate.

Little went on to tell authorities that while he was a police officer
in Mounds -- around October or November -- he took several small bags
of meth from individuals on vehicle stops and from the Mounds Police
Department property locker, the affidavit claims.