DRUG SUSPECT'S ARREST INVOLVES TRIO OF SHERIFF'S CANDIDATES

PAINTSVILLE - Last May, a man accused of dealing drugs quickly bumped
up against three candidates for sheriff -- one of whom was campaigning
amid accused dealers in jail.

The strange criminal case of John Keeton, who is charged with
manufacturing and trafficking methamphetamine, shows that Eastern
Kentucky's drug problem sometimes converges with its politics in
unusual ways.

First on Keeton's schedule was incumbent Sheriff Bill Witten, whose
deputies were stationed outside his house at Sitka early on the
morning of May 20, trying to serve a warrant.

The second candidate was Joe Keeton, John Keeton's brother. Joe Keeton
was summoned by Witten's deputies to talk his brother into
surrendering quietly.

"I was the man who went into the house and got my brother while these
16 officers stood around the gate," Joe Keeton, 38, said. "I don't
want to see my brother dead."

Police took John Keeton to the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center at
Paintsville and put him in Cell 219 with 14 other inmates -- including
11 others who had been rounded up in the pre-election drug sweep. The
prisoners were sitting there in their orange jail uniforms when
another candidate for sheriff was escorted into the cell area.

Inmates were ordered outside the cell, where they stood in line to
meet candidate Ray Pennington, John Keeton said.

"He said he'd do anything he could to help them out," John Keeton
said. "I sort of looked at him and he looked at me, but I didn't shake
his hand.

"I've been in jail a few times, but I've never seen anything like that
before."

Pennington, a convenience store owner, acknowledged campaigning at the
jail, but said none of the inmates refused to shake hands.

He also said he didn't make any promises to any of the suspected drug
dealers.

"I have never courted drug dealers for votes," he said. He added: "I
hate drugs."

Johnson County Jailer B. Joe Hill, a political ally of Pennington,
said he couldn't recall the candidate's exact words. But "the thing I
remember is he said he was running for sheriff and would like to have
their families' support," Hill said.

It's not clear whether he got it, but he didn't win. Pennington
finished second behind Witten in the Republican primary for sheriff.
Joe Keeton came in third.

John Keeton was released on bond and then indicted in December by a
Johnson County grand jury on drug-trafficking and meth-manufacturing
charges. He was considered a fugitive until his arrest last week. His
case is pending.