EASTERN KENTUCKY 'S RECENT PAST SUPPORTS CONCLUSION

Government corruption widespread, studies say

In the late 1980s, two professors compiled a list of criminal rings in
Eastern Kentucky, then hung around game rooms, roadhouses and restaurants,
played a little poker and did a lot of listening.

The goal was to make contact with people in crime rings and find out whether
drug dealers, gamblers, prostitutes and others used bribes or relationships
with local public officials to protect illegal activity.

Turns out they did.

Gary W. Potter and Larry K. Gaines, then criminal-justice professors at
Eastern Kentucky University, reported that of 28 criminal organizations they
studied in five counties, 25 benefited from some corrupt or compromising
relation with government and law-enforcement officials.

The study reported payoffs; family ties between people paid to enforce the
law and people breaking it; and cases of "official acquiescence," or cops
looking the other way.

"It is inconceivable that in these rural counties, illicit gambling,
prostitution, alcohol and drugs could be delivered on a regular and
continual basis without the knowledge of government officials, law enforcers
and 'legitimate' businessmen in the community," said the study, published in
February 1992 in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, an academic
journal.

Potter and Gaines used news accounts to identify criminal organizations.
They later interviewed 16 people involved in the rings, promising them
anonymity.

The professors did not identify the five counties in the study.

Not much had changed by the late '90s, according to a 1999 report from the
Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, based in London.

The assessment said the marijuana problem in Appalachia, compounded by the
rural nature of the area and "increasing law enforcement and government
corruption, is beginning to overwhelm the limited capacity of state and
local officials."

Lawmen broke the law

Since the professors compiled their information, the courts have been busy
dealing with corrupt cops.

In August 1990, six Eastern Kentucky law-enforcement officers, including the
sheriffs of Lee, Wolfe, Owsley and Breathitt counties, were arrested in an
FBI drug sting described as the largest of its kind in Kentucky history.

A 42-count indictment charged them with conspiracy to extort money,
distribute drugs and protect drug dealers. Five of the six were convicted.

Two years later, Terrence Cundiff, a former honorary deputy in Breathitt
County who was running for sheriff, was arrested in Texas en route to
Kentucky with 400 pounds of marijuana. Cundiff later pleaded guilty to being
involved in a multistate marijuana conspiracy.

In 1994, Douglas Brandenburg became the second Lee County sheriff charged
with drug crimes since 1990. Brandenburg, charged with conspiring to
distribute marijuana and obstruction of justice, later pleaded guilty to
obstructing justice. He was sentenced to nine months in prison.

Other arrests of cops followed in Bell, Breathitt and Perry counties over
the years.

Potter said this month he doubts the incidence of police and government
corruption has declined in Eastern Kentucky since he wrote about it a decade
ago.

"I think that it's pretty ingrained," he said.