FUNDING FREEZE DISAPPOINTING, SHERIFF CONTENDS

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County Sheriff Andy Lee said Monday that his
office has not abandoned the 19th Judicial District Drug Task Force,
and anti-drug funding frozen by the state's drug council should be
released to the Rogers Police Department.

Lee called drug council Director Bill Hardin's decision to withhold
federal and local money from the Rogers-based task force damaging to
drug enforcement efforts in Benton County. More than $85,000 from a
federal grant and $28,000 in local matching funds will be held until
the drug council makes its final determination about the task force's
status.

"I'm disappointed with the state's decision, and I disagree
wholeheartedly," said Lee.

Task forces are required to be multi-jurisdictional, involving more
than one agency in regional efforts to combat illicit drugs.

During the past few months investigators from the Bentonville and
Siloam Springs police departments and the Benton County sheriff's
office have ended their participation in the 19th Judicial District
task force. The task force now is made up of three officers from the
Rogers Police Department.

Lee said his deputy was "withdrawn" from the task force in October to
assist in the investigation of a double homicide in Pea Ridge. Since
that time, the office has also started investigating a second homicide
in Benton County and is assisting with a third homicide investigation
in Washington County.

The sheriff said temporarily withdrawing task force members to meet
staffing needs is a common practice. He said he would have explained
his office's commitment to the task force if Hardin or a member of his
office had contacted him before freezing the funds.

"The drug czar of Arkansas dropped the ball," Lee said.

Hardin's office was closed Monday for the Washington's Birthday
holiday.

A message left at his home was not returned.

U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., said Monday that freezing the funds
for the 19th Judicial District task force will not endanger attempts
to designate Arkansas as part of a high-intensity drug-trafficking
area. The designation targets the area for special federal, state and
local funding to fight drugs.

"With the increase of methamphetamine laboratory seizures, with the
growth of the problem here, our case is overwhelming," said
Hutchinson, who represents Arkansas' 3rd Congressional District.

Hutchinson will preside over a congressional subcommittee field
hearing set for 2 p.m. Friday at the Jones Center in Springdale. The
hearing will be the first of two congressional hearings by the House
Crime Subcommittee to investigate the spread of methamphetamine
trafficking, production and addiction in the United States. It is open
to the public.

The other hearing will be on Capitol Hill, leading up to a vote by the
House Judiciary Committee on a meth anti-proliferation bill.