SEBREE POLICE CHIEF INDICTED ON METH CHARGES

A western Kentucky police chief credited by his mayor with helping combat
methamphetamine in their town was indicted this week on two meth-related
charges. Authorities said the indictment reflects the illegal drug's
pervasiveness.

Bobby Sauls, police chief of Sebree, a town of about 1,700 in Webster
County, faces five to 10 years in prison on each felony charge if
convicted. Sauls was indicted Wednesday and is to make an initial
appearance May 6 in Webster County Circuit Court.

Reached for comment at his home on Friday, Sauls said, "Everybody's
innocent until they're proven guilty. This will come, I'm sure, one of
these days -- everybody will know the real truth." He declined further comment.

The charges stem from an investigation since 2003 by a Kentucky State
Police special drug enforcement unit. KSP spokeswoman Capt. Lisa Rudzinski
said Friday she could not recall any Kentucky law enforcement officer
previously being indicted on meth charges.

"It underscores the seriousness of the meth problem that's spreading
throughout Kentucky," Rudzinski said of Sauls' indictment.

Sauls, 65, was not arrested but was served a criminal summons Friday to
appear in court, she said. The specific charges are criminal conspiracy to
tamper with anhydrous ammonia equipment with intent to manufacture
methamphetamine, and criminal conspiracy to possess anhydrous ammonia in an
unapproved container with intent to manufacture methamphetamine.

Anhydrous ammonia is a key ingredient in making the drug, which comes as a
powder or a pill and can be smoked, inhaled, swallowed or injected.

Rudzinski said Sauls was not suspected of making meth.

"Criminal conspiracy means that someone else was actually tampering with
the anhydrous ammonia, and he was allegedly advancing that cause," she said.

In Sebree, roughly 100 miles southwest of Louisville, the response at city
hall was disbelief, Mayor Jerry Hobgood said.

"I don't believe any of it's true," Hobgood said. "That's how I feel about it."

Sauls was on the job Friday as head of a police department that includes
one other officer, the mayor said. "He's still on the payroll," Hobgood
said of Sauls.

The mayor said he expected the city council to meet soon to discuss a
personnel matter, but would not say whether the special meeting would deal
with Sauls' job status.

Sauls has been police chief for eight to 10 years and has effectively
combatted meth, Hobgood said. "Our chief had cleaned up a lot of this meth
problem," the mayor said.

Jay Wethington, Daviess County commonwealth's attorney, was appointed
special prosecutor in the case by the state attorney general's office.

Wethington declined to discuss specifics of the case Friday.

Bill Greenwell, commonwealth's attorney for Webster, Union and Crittenden
counties, also declined to discuss the case, but said the indictment of a
police officer on meth charges was "deflating for prosecution."

"Way over half of our time is spent on drug-related cases, and a lot of
them being meth-related," Greenwell said.