AGREEMENT MADE ON DRUG MONEY

Sheriff To Deposit It With County

After several years of resisting it, the Knox County Sheriff's Office
announced Monday it has agreed to deposit federal drug seizure money with
the county's finance department.

Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison and Knox County Executive Mike Ragsdale
worked out the agreement.

"The county executive has given Sheriff Hutchison assurances that someone
will be available at all times to dispense the funds as an investigation
warrants," a sheriff's office release said.

The drug funds have been a bone of contention between the sheriff's office
and accounting firms that have audited the county for several years. The
matter arose in the most recent audit for the fiscal year that ended in
June 2002.

The issue has also been part of County Commissioner Wanda Moody's ongoing
lawsuits against Hutchison over his use of the funds for building projects
and for maintaining things like helicopters and horses.

A Public Records Act request by Moody earlier this year produced records
indicating that sheriff's employees have written about $500,000 in checks,
made payable to "cash," since 1997 as part of narcotics investigations. The
checks were written on at least five department accounts involving
forfeited monies.

Hutchison has noted, however, that the sheriff's office is audited each
year. All the money has been accounted for, he said.

There has never been a finding, or even an allegation, of missing funds.
But auditors have questioned the sheriff's office's handling of both state
and federal drug forfeiture funds and have stated that, under state law,
the funds should be administered from a centralized accounting office.

"We recommend further that the narcotics unit only maintain sufficient cash
to fund its undercover investigations," the county's 2000 fiscal year audit
by the Knoxville firm of Coulter & Justus P.C. stated.

Each year the sheriff's office has responded that the auditors were wrong
and that its maintenance of the federal drug seizure money complies with
state law.

Herbert S. Moncier, Moody's attorney, said Monday night that the
department's move is a good one, though somewhat long in coming.

"It's a terrible shame what Commissioner Moody has had to go through now
two years to get to this point, " he said. "However, this is a step in the
right direction and we applaud it."

Ragsdale said that his office is pleased to work with the sheriff's
department and maintain the account.

"For county government to be completely successful, we need to cooperate
with each other," he said. "This agreement is evidence of moving in that
direction."