Perry County

JUDGE, PROSECUTOR BLAME EACH OTHER FOR SETTLEMENTS

HAZARD - In Perry County, where a high-profile OxyContin roundup got
national attention in 2001, the local prosecutor says there's a reason he
didn't throw the book at the dealers.

He says the circuit judge won't let him get tough.

"I would like to take all the trafficking cases to trial," said
Commonwealth's Attorney John Hansen. "But I've been given a strong
suggestion by the court to settle them."

Circuit Judge Doug Combs, who has accused Hansen of indicting people
without good evidence, denies forcing any deals.

It's unclear where the truth lies. But this much is clear: Justice has gone
so far awry in Perry County that the county has become notorious.

In Operation OxyFest, the state and local sweep through Eastern Kentucky in
February 2001, Hansen's office handled 53 felony cases. Only 11 defendants
were sentenced to time behind bars. (Five other Perry County cases were
prosecuted by the Fayette Commonwealth's Attorney's office. All five got
probation.)

Ten of Hansen's defendants received pretrial diversion, which deletes the
offenses from their records if they meet certain conditions. The prosecutor
said the judge was pushing him to offer many of the diversions.

"He's never given a reason," Hansen said. "He just kind of shouts at me."

Hansen said the judge sometimes lobbies for plea deals to control caseload.
But in 2001, more than half the state's judicial circuits had heavier
caseloads than Perry.

Combs says Hansen is just looking for a scapegoat.

"If he doesn't want to take responsibility for his plea agreements and
wants to blame them on me, I don't think that's the right way to do
things," Combs said.

The pair's relations reached rock bottom in August, when Hansen filed an
emergency motion with the state Court of Appeals to keep Combs from
obtaining a grand-jury tape. The court ruled in Combs' favor, but not
before receiving allegations of impropriety from both sides.

Among other things, Combs said Hansen was using his office to harass
members of the local political establishment who didn't support him; and
that "people are being indicted without evidence of probable cause."

Hansen denied wrongdoing and asked that most of Combs' accusations be
stricken because they were based on "gossip or divulgences of apparent
grand juror contact."

Perry County's situation has gotten attention in higher legal circles.
During a 2001 federal sentencing hearing in a drug case, U.S. District
Judge Joseph M. Hood went out of his way to note the state of affairs there.

"A lot of these people ... coming before me right now have numbers, charge
after charge, charge after charge, pending in Perry Circuit Court, and
they're not being prosecuted," Hood said. "Now, I don't know whose fault
that is, but that's like putting it into limbo."