THE SHERIFF SAYS HE INHALED, BUT HIS CHIEF DEPUTY SAYS HE DID NOT

Sheriff Frank Canarecci admits to trying marijuana when he was in college
back in the 1960s. It's hard to find anyone from that era who didn't try it
(including me).

One who says he didn't is David A. Nufer, chief of the county police
department.

The issue came up because of a persistent whispering campaign about Nufer
and the reason he left the county police department in 1980.

At the time of his resignation, Nufer had been the subject of an internal
affairs probe for possible misconduct, reportedly involving the sale of
drugs. He was 27 years old at the time and had been a county cop for four
years.

Nufer has insisted all along that he was innocent.

"I never smoked marijuana, period,'' he said. "I never sold marijuana.''

Then-Prosecutor Michael P. Barnes said he had insufficient evidence to
pursue legal charges against the officer. Ralph DeMeyer, who was sheriff at
the time, said recently that Nufer left for personal reasons unrelated to
the allegations.

In a 1980 Tribune account of the incident, Nufer said he decided to resign
rather than "trying to prove myself to a merit board appointed by the
sheriff.'' If he hadn't resigned, Nufer said then, the sheriff probably
would have asked for his resignation.

He turned in his resignation in order to devote more time to his family's
coin-operated laundry business.

Rumors have persisted over the years about what really had happened. Ever
since Canarecci named Nufer the county's police chief, I have been getting
phone calls, letters, e-mails and other correspondence from people
suggesting I look into Nufer's background.

One of the undercover officers who had been involved in the Nufer
investigation said recently that it started when a young woman approached
another undercover officer and told him that Nufer was involved in the
selling of marijuana.

The now-retired officer said the drug enforcement team put a wire on the
young woman, then had her visit Nufer. She jogged over to Nufer's home and
bought about an ounce of marijuana from him, the former officer said.

He said he doesn't know why the evidence was not considered strong enough
for prosecution. He lives in another state now and said he just recently
learned Nufer had been named the chief.

"When I heard it the other day, I flipped," he said.

Here is Nufer's explanation of what happened:

He was a K-9 officer during a time when dogs were being trained to sniff out
drugs in the schools. He said he had a small quantity of marijuana at his
home that he was using to train his dog.

Nufer was unmarried and said he had been seeing a woman who also had dated
other officers. She came to his home one morning while he was still asleep
and told him she was going to a party that night and wanted to take along
some marijuana. He said he told her he didn't have any.

He left the room briefly to use the restroom, he said. When he returned, the
woman was gone. A short time later, a police officer knocked on his door and
told him that he was suspected of selling marijuana.

Nufer said he denied it. The investigating officer said the woman had told
him that she had placed money in a drawer and had taken the marijuana from
it. When the officer opened the drawer, the money was there and the
marijuana was gone.

"I did nothing wrong 23 years ago,'' Nufer said. "The prosecutor said I did
nothing wrong 23 years ago.''

Canarecci said he was aware of the marijuana story when it happened,
although he wasn't involved in the investigation of it. Last year, he said,
he checked out Nufer's story, even contacting the woman who allegedly bought
the marijuana from Nufer.

The woman, who is an attorney now in New York, assured Canarecci that the
incident had been blown out of proportion.

"She told me he (Nufer) was railroaded,'' Canarecci said.

"I would not take a chance and hire somebody if I thought there was a
criminal background,'' the sheriff added.

When the incident happened, Nufer said, he told his investigators, "If I
violated the law, then charge me and arrest me and I'll have my day in
court.'' That never happened, causing Nufer to feel vindicated.

Canarecci and Nufer speculated that the story is being repeated now by
people who don't like the changes being made in the department. They may be
right. The marijuana story made the rounds at the beginning of the year,
then died down. It reached a crescendo again within the past couple of
weeks, after Canarecci announced several officers would be losing their
take-home cars.

Nufer said he has been cracking down on officers to make sure everyone is
putting in an honest day's work. That is making some of them unhappy, he
said. He handed one-day suspensions last week to three officers who
allegedly were not doing their jobs.

"I am not going to make everybody feel comfortable and happy,'' Nufer said.

He is not pleased that the marijuana story won't go away.