SHERIFF ABSENT AS TRIAL STARTS

Sheriff Dave Meneley, who has said all along he wants his day in
court, didn't show up Tuesday for the opening of his ouster trial.

Meneley wasn't present in Shawnee County District Court because he
contends the court lacks jurisdiction to hear his ouster trial,
defense attorney Margie Jean Phelps said.

A two-judge panel is presiding over the proceedings. Tuesday was
consumed by nearly a full day of testimony.

In asking the court to force Meneley from office, Attorney General
Carla Stovall has cited him with 13 counts of willful misconduct or
violations of moral turpitude.

The 13 counts include five alleged violations of non-law enforcement
use of a computer database reserved for criminal record histories;
allowing drug cases to be sent to prosecutors when he knew drug
evidence was missing; giving false testimony three times; concealing
evidence of former Cpl. Timothy P. Oblander's theft of drug evidence
or canine drug training aids; and knowing in June 1995 about
Oblander's use of illegal drugs from the sheriff's office or bought
with law enforcement money.

Addressing District Court Judges Matthew Dowd and Richard Anderson,
Phelps contended Shawnee County District Court doesn't have
jurisdiction for the ouster proceeding. At two separate points
Tuesday, Anderson said the Kansas Court of Appeals had denied a
Meneley request to delay the trial, and Phelps answered the appeals
court hadn't.

"You don't have this case, your honor," Phelps said.

"We have jurisdiction in this case, and we will proceed," Dowd said,
who soon read a fax from the Kansas Court of Appeals that stated the
emergency stay requested by Meneley had been denied.

Anderson said if he and Dowd are split on whether to oust Meneley, the
tie would go to Meneley, who would remain in office. During the trial,
the two judges, clad in their black robes, are seated side by side on
the bench, a rarity in a Kansas courtroom.

In testimony Tuesday, sheriff's Detective Daniel Jaramillo and Deputy
Phil Blume said Meneley told them in July 1995 that Oblander had a
cocaine addiction, that he was in a rehabilitation center to treat the
addiction, that he used drugs purchased while a narcotics officer,
that he tampered with evidence and that tampered cases would be
forwarded to the district attorney for prosecution.

Jaramillo said Maj. Ken Pierce and Capt. Roger Lovelace had questioned
him about whether he leaked information to The Topeka Capital-Journal
for a Feb. 23, 1996, news story and whether he leaked the information
to a law enforcement or prosecutorial agency. The newspaper article
said the attorney general's office had been asked by District Attorney
Joan Hamilton to investigate whether contraband had disappeared from
the sheriff's department.

Jaramillo said he told Pierce and Lovelace what Meneley allegedly had
told him about Oblander.

"There wasn't any reaction by either one," Jaramillo
said.

Lovelace testified Meneley "was very angry" and wanted to find out who
leaked the information to the newspaper and the FBI Violent Crimes
Strike Force, of which Jaramillo and Blume were members. Lovelace
testified he didn't question two other people about the leak because
"I just didn't feel it was a good idea, that it was interfering with
an ongoing investigation." Lovelace was referring to the KBI probe of
the missing cocaine.

Assistant Attorney General Laurie Kahrs asked Jaramillo whether he
made up his testimony.

"Absolutely not," Jaramillo answered.

Phelps asked Jaramillo whether he had a memo supporting what he said
he told Pierce and Lovelace.

"I've testified to the truth," Jaramillo responded.

Blume also testified he hadn't fabricated his testimony.

Blume also said that in early November 1995, he confided to Dave
Burkett, now a sheriff's corporal, what the sheriff allegedly had told
him. Blume and Burkett were riding to a Kansas State-University of
Oklahoma football game in Manhattan at the time. Blume denied in
February 1999 telling anyone what Meneley said because he thought the
question referred to telling anyone in the district attorney's office
or the U.S. attorney's office.

Outside the courtroom, a priest, his hands on the shoulders of Blume
and his wife, prayed briefly with the couple.

Before the trial started, the hallway outside the courtroom was busy
with 30 witnesses, including four of the six top-ranking sheriff's
administrators. Absent witnesses were Stovall, who was issued a
subpoena on behalf of Meneley on Sunday, and several unspecified
district judges. A prosecution motion to nullify the subpoena for
Stovall will be dealt with Thursday.

Testimony resumes today.