INDICTMENTS PUT DEPARTMENT AT SQUARE ONE

For Chilton County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Shane Mayfield every
grand jury is a bittersweet experience. On one hand he gets the chance to
see criminals he and his staff built cases on face their indictments - on
the other - he has to explain to the criminals how they were caught in the
first place.

"We have to change everything after each grand jury," Mayfield said. "We
have to change our techniques, our undercover agents, our cars - everything."

During the grand jury proceedings, the department is forced to divulge each
part of their case on the suspect, in the process giving up trade secrets.

"It is like starting from square one after each grand jury," Mayfield said.
"Each grand jury we are educating the criminals on how we catch them."

During the recent grand jury, Mayfield, and the rest of the department saw
in excess of 300 cases go before the grand jury, with more than 100
continued to the next grand jury.

A total of 71 suspects received indictments during the grand jury that
completed on March 8. Those suspects now must be served their indictments
and taken into custody.

Last Friday, authorities with the Sheriff's Department, ABC Enforcement
Division and Central Alabama Drug Task Force combined in a "round up" of
these suspects. According to Mayfield nearly 40 suspects were taken into
custody or had turned themselves in by Monday afternoon.

"We have a good idea of where the rest are hiding," Mayfield said. "I am
sure we will be able to get the rest of them served in the coming days."

Mayfield said the 100 cases that were held over until the next grand jury,
which will likely be held in September or October, was due to delays on
getting test results back from the state forensics lab in Montgomery.

"They are extremely backed up and we are just waiting on analysis to come
back from them to make our cases," Mayfield said. "This has happened in the
past couple of grand juries."

Recently the state allowed counties to use another forensics lab in
Birmingham which has eased the log jam and reduced the waiting time on test
results to an average of one month.

See Friday's issue of The Advertiser for a complete list of indictments
served and a report on the impact law enforcement agencies are having on
the drug trade in Chilton County.