DRUG SCANDAL TOPS LOCAL STORIES FOR 1999

The revelation of a cocaine scandal within the Shawnee County Sheriff's
Department that threatens to expel Sheriff Dave Meneley from office was the
top local news story of 1999.

When the year began, the sheriff was denying he knew anything about the
cocaine abuse of Cpl. Timothy P. Oblander, a former sheriff's narcotics
investigator, and Oblander had denied using cocaine, stealing cocaine or
telling the sheriff he had used or stolen cocaine.

But at year's end, Meneley was facing both a civil ouster proceeding filed
by Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall and felony perjury charges, all
linked to a drug scandal in the sheriff's department. Sheriff's Sgt. John
Frank Good also faces felony perjury charges in the scandal. Also, former
deputy Oblander has agreed to testify against Meneley and Good, the result
of a plea agreement he made with prosecutors to avoid prosecution himself
on six charges of felony perjury and one count of official misconduct.

Headlines throughout the year chronicled the arrests of Meneley, Oblander
and Good, the battle about whether defense attorney William Rork could
represent both Meneley and Oblander in their criminal cases - he was
disqualified and now represents neither - and the disqualification of
District Judge Marla Luckert as a member of the three-judge panel which
will hear the ouster action.

Some of the more memorable sights of the year included:

Meneley standing in a crowded courtroom before a district judge who firmly
instructed him to hire another attorney following the disqualification of Rork.

Deputies being called to the witness stand where they reveal cover-ups,
tampering with drug evidence and corruption, and tell how they were
reassigned to jobs below their skills after talking to Kansas Bureau of
Investigation special agents.

Deputies, who testified against Meneley, agreeing to take polygraph tests
on the veracity of their testimony. Meneley, Oblander and Good declining to
take polygraph tests.

The attorney general alleging 13 counts of willful misconduct or violations
of moral turpitude as grounds for the proposed ouster of Meneley from
office. The 13 counts are linked to Meneley's knowledge of Oblander's drug
use and the sheriff's related testimony; and the sheriff's use of a federal
computer database, normally used to conduct criminal background checks, to
examine two county employees and two organizers of an effort to recall the
sheriff.

District Judge Eric Rosen's ruling that sheriff's department drug evidence
was tainted and that "crime and corruption" occurred in the sheriff's
department "by the willful blindness" of some higher ranking department
employees, "including the sheriff himself."

Ten drug defendants who have pending cases dropped or past convictions
reversed as the result of Rosen's finding of tainted evidence.