JUDGE ASKS SHERIFF FOR DRUG CASE LIST

A Shawnee County district judge Friday ordered Sheriff Dave Meneley to
compile and hand over a list of drug cases investigated by five of his
deputies assigned to narcotics work in a two-year time frame.

The court order came as part of a challenge by Carlos Hernandez, who is
seeking dismissal of two drug charges in a 1995 case. Hernandez is charged
with felony failure to pay the Kansas drug tax and misdemeanor marijuana
possession.

Kris Savage, a public defender representing Hernandez, has cited alleged
misconduct by sheriff's narcotics officers in 1995 and a break in the chain
of custody of marijuana as reasons to dismiss the case.

The Hernandez challenge surfaced after a district judge in December made
public a Kansas Bureau of Investigation probe into the 1994 disappearance
of about 0.75 ounce of cocaine from a sheriff's department evidence locker.

At Shawnee County District Attorney Joan Hamilton's request, the Kansas
attorney general's office ordered the KBI in 1996 to investigate reports of
the missing cocaine. However, the attorney general's office concluded there
wasn't enough evidence to prosecute anyone. In that report, the name of
deputy Tim Oblander, a former narcotics officer, surfaced as a target of
the investigation.

Oblander has denied stealing cocaine from the evidence locker, using
cocaine or telling Meneley he stole the cocaine or was a cocaine user.

Savage on Friday was gathering records in preparation for a Thursday
hearing to seek dismissal of Hernandez' case.

Witnesses scheduled to be called during Thursday's hearing are Cpl. Tim
Oblander, Sgt. Frank Good, Detective Scott Holladay, Deputy Phillip Blume
and Detective Daniel Jaramillo, all deputies, and a chemist at the KBI. The
chemist is to answer questions about the drop in weight of marijuana
because of drying. Another possible witness at the daylong hearing will be
Meneley.

Shawnee County District Judge Eric Rosen on Friday ordered the sheriff to
compile a computer list of all arrests in drug cases linked to Oblander,
Good, Holladay, Blume and Jaramillo, officers who conducted drug
investigations from 1994 to 1996.

Rosen also ordered the district attorney's office to hand over copies of
recent memos between prosecutors and the sheriff's office in which Hamilton
has requested explanations from Meneley for the decreased weight of the
marijuana seized during the Hernandez case.

In a Jan. 28 letter to Meneley, Holladay and Oblander, Hamilton asked
Meneley to give her a "reasonable and detailed explanation" why marijuana
that weighed 4.3 ounces when it was seized in January 1995 weighed almost
0.5 ounce less during a Jan. 20 preliminary hearing. Hamilton said she was
"extremely concerned" about the discrepancy in weight.

Meneley, Oblander and Holladay answered the first set of questions. The
drying of marijuana could account for the loss in drug weight, Meneley said
in his first response to Hamilton.

Holladay wrote in a Feb. 1 memo the marijuana could have shrunk because of
the removal of three small samples of the drug for testing, the use of
noncertified electronic scales to weigh the marijuana in court and the
drying of the marijuana.

Hamilton on Feb. 8 hand-delivered a letter to Meneley asking the average
amount of marijuana used by the sheriff's department property room to test
whether a substance was marijuana; the expected percentage of weight loss
by marijuana due to drying; and whether the sheriff's department could
weigh the marijuana in the Hernandez case on the certified scales used in
1995 and indicate the difference between the current weight and the 1995
weight.

Hamilton was out of the office Friday and couldn't answer whether she had
received responses to the second set of questions.

Assistant District Attorney Tony Rues said he would comply with Rosen's
order but added, "I don't know if there is anything else floating out there
unbeknownst to us."