POLICE OFFICER MAY PLEAD GUILTY

Woman kept drug money during probe, federal charge says

A Charleston police officer is expected to plead guilty to a federal charge
he let the wife of a drug ringleader keep drug money during an
investigation, according to U.S. District Court records.

A special federal prosecutor filed an April 11 information and a motion to
schedule a plea hearing for Cpl. William Hart. U.S. District Judge Charles
H. Haden II is assigned the case but has not set a hearing date.

Charleston Police Chief Jerry Pauley said he understands that Cpl. George
Henderson III has also been talking with federal prosecutors. No charges
have been filed against Henderson.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in the Northern District of
West Virginia would not confirm or deny any investigation or potential
charges against Henderson.

Hart and Henderson have been on paid administrative leave since August.
Their status will not change until the federal charges are resolved, Pauley
said. Charleston Police will conduct an internal investigation into both
officers' conduct after prosecutors complete their case, he said.

Hart and Henderson were lead detectives in one of West Virginia's largest
drug-trafficking cases.

Prosecutors presented evidence that placed Calvin Dyess, 28, at the top of
an area ring that delivered more than 100 pounds of marijuana and 200 pounds
of crack into the Kanawha Valley. He was sentenced in 1999 to life in
prison.

After the case, federal authorities disclosed that Hart began a sexual
relationship with Dyess' then-wife, Rachel Ursula Rader, two months before
Dyess and several other defendants pleaded guilty.

Rader and Hart married in July 2001. Their marriage broke up three months
later.

Hart later confirmed that he let Rader keep about $20,000 in drug money
before February 1999, according to court records. Rader said she kept the
money buried in her backyard.

The information filed against Hart, however, charges he "willfully and
knowingly, without authority, conveyed to another person money of the United
States, not in excess of $1,000."

Rader had pleaded guilty to money laundering in the case, cooperated with
the government and turned over about $300,000 in drug proceeds. She was
placed on five years' probation. She and Dyess soon divorced.

Rader later alleged that Hart had encouraged her to lie in court.

She also told prosecutors she failed a polygraph test in early February 1999
that indicated she kept some drug proceeds from police. Hart allegedly
concealed the test results from the U.S. Attorney's office.

An investigation later confirmed that Rader had been given a polygraph. An
examiner concluded that her answers indicated deception. Hart never
requested a report about the test.

In December, Haden disqualified prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's office
in Charleston from hearing a sentencing appeal filed by Dyess and other
convicted members of his drug ring.

Haden found that federal prosecutors in Southern West Virginia might have
had direct knowledge of Hart and Henderson's conduct. He found potential
conflicts of interest would be unavoidable.

Federal prosecutors from the Eastern District of Virginia will handle the
sentencing appeal.

Special U.S. Attorney Randolph Bernard of the Northern District of West
Virginia is handling Hart's prosecution following a federal probe that has
lasted several months.