Harlan County

DRUG KINGPIN DID LITTLE TIME DESPITE PREVIOUS ARRESTS

HARLAN - When he was released from jail in 1993, five years early, Michael
Barker was told to do 1,200 hours of community service.

Among the options Harlan Circuit Judge Ron Johnson ordered: "He can make
public speeches on what can happen to someone who deals in drugs."

Court records don't say whether Barker made any speeches. If he did, Barker
might have said, "I became a kingpin."

For years, according to a federal indictment, Barker got away with building
a million-dollar drug-trafficking business based in Harlan County.

Barker pleaded guilty last week to four counts of the indictment, including
a violation of the so-called "kingpin statute." The indictment said he
masterminded an OxyContin and cocaine ring that operated in four states and
Mexico.

Barker's plea made an unintentional point: When local courts fail at
enforcement, they help the illegal drug trade grow.

While news releases announced Barker's arrest last fall, none of them
mentioned that before the federal court got its hands on Barker, he escaped
serious punishment in Harlan Circuit Court twice.

Barker was incarcerated after pleading guilty in 1993 to selling more than
20 pounds of marijuana, but records show he was soon released on
court-ordered probation.

One condition of the probation was that he commit no other offenses for
five years.

A little more than four years later, Barker was back in court, charged with
planning a theft and receiving stolen property, an $1,800 circuit breaker.

He entered an Alford plea to a merged charge, meaning that he denied his
guilt but admitted there was enough evidence to convict him. In a pretrial
diversion order, the court said he'd committed a crime, but Barker didn't
go to jail -- and he wasn't punished for violating his probation.

Instead, he continued to build a drug empire, according to this year's
federal indictment.

Barker's attorney, Robert Cato, said neither he nor Barker had any comment.

Harlan County officials weren't eager to discuss Barker's history either.

Ron Johnson, the circuit judge, released a statement through his secretary
noting that the local prosecutor and probation office are responsible for
saying when probation should be revoked. "It's their job to keep the court
informed," the statement said.

Harlan Commonwealth's Attorney Henry Johnson said the evidence in the 1997
theft case was too weak for him to seek to revoke Barker's probation
because the case hinged on others' testimony, not on evidence. (Henry
Johnson is not related to the circuit judge.)

Barker was indicted in the federal case in September, after an
investigation by the Harlan sheriff's office, the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

But damage had already been done, Sheriff Steve Duff said.

"When you see certain people that the drug society condones as the big drug
dealer, and they're not held accountable by the court, it encourages the
small dealers," Duff said.