DEAD MAN INDICTED ON DRUG CHARGE

Oversight Not So Unusual, Official Says

LEBANON — More than six weeks after a Franklin Township man committed
suicide in his barn, a Warren County grand jury indicted him on a drug
charge.

Warren County authorities said they did not know Carl Jones was dead
when they presented his case to a grand jury on Dec. 27 in a hearing
that resulted in an indictment on cocaine possession.

They didn't find out until a relative of Mr. Jones, who had read about
the indictment in a local newspaper, called the prosecutor's office to
question the court action. Mr. Jones, 44, died Nov. 8.

"This isn't as unusual as you think," Warren County Prosecutor Tim
Oliver said Thursday. He filed a motion to drop the charge on Tuesday.

"It has happened before and as long as the system is the way it is and
there is no particular tracking system, it's likely to happen again. I
don't see any way in which it could not hap pen again," Mr. Oliver
said.

Mr. Jones was arrested outside the New York-New York Cabaret in
Franklin Oct. 20 for disorderly conduct. At the time, a police officer
found a straw with possible cocaine residue in Mr. Jones' shirt pocket.

No drug charge was filed at the time, but the straw was sent to a
testing lab to determine if the substance was cocaine. If the test was
positive, authorities planned to take the case directly to a grand
jury.

Meanwhile, Mr. Jones' disorderly conduct charge was resolved two days
after his arrest, court records show. After Mr. Jones failed to appear
for a hearing in Franklin Municipal Court Oct. 22, a judge forfeited
the $200 bond he had posted and applied it as a fine and court costs.
The case was closed.

Police received the lab results from the cocaine residue just before
the grand jury session, Mr. Oliver said. Because defendants generally
are not permitted to take part in grand jury proceedings, there would
have been no reason to contact Mr. Jones.

"So, there was no reason to know anything happened," Mr. Oliver said.