K-9 FUND SPENT ON GUNS, CASH, OTHER PURPOSES

TYLER, Texas Over the past decade, Smith County Sheriff's Department
officials have raised more than $500,000 for search-and-rescue animals but
spent much of the money for other purposes, including guns and cash for
undercover drug deals, according to a published report.

The biggest contributor to the fund was a private company that runs the
commissary in the Smith County Jail a contract worth about $500,000 a
year; the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported in Sunday's editions.

Mid-States Services, based in Hurst, gave $46,900 to the fund, beginning in
1996. Sheriff J. B. Smith picked Mid-States to provide meals and supplies
to county jail inmates, the newspaper said.

Jack Madera, the founder and former head of Mid-States, was indicted in
January by a Dallas County grand jury for falsifying government documents
to get a jail contract in Kaufman County.

The K-9 and Livestock Fund was set up to pay for horses and bloodhounds
used in search and rescue operations, but donations were used for other
purposes including $37,260 to buy 340 shotguns from the Texas Adjunct
General's Office.

Some of the guns were later resold to individuals. Federal officials told
the sheriff's department that it would need a firearms license to continue
selling weapons, but no penalties were imposed on the original sales
because the statute of limitations had expired.

Some people with authority over the account wrote checks to themselves for
thousands of dollars without indicating the purpose, the newspaper reported.

Sheriff Smith said most of the checks for cash went for "flash money" used
in undercover drug stings.

Smith said the funds were later returned to the account. Examination of the
records couldn't confirm or disprove his assertion, the newspaper reported.

The Morning Telegraph obtained the fund's records after filing a request
under the Texas Open Records Act. The sheriff's department initially
refused to provide the information but relented after the Texas Attorney
General's Office ruled that the records were public documents.

Some of the funds deposited into the account came from a drug forfeiture
account and other unaudited county funds. By law, drug forfeiture funds
must be kept in a separate account.