Pubdate: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 Source: Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC) Copyright: 2002 The Herald-Sun Contact: http://www.herald-sun.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1428 Author: Hunter Lewis, The Herald-Sun Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) DRUG BUST MADE IN JAIL SEX SCANDAL ROXBORO -- Person County authorities say they have the man in custody responsible for smuggling marijuana into the Person County Jail. Person County Sheriff's deputies arrested Eugene Lee Skipworth, 19, of South Boston, Va., on Saturday morning after he failed to show up for his weekend sentence at the jail Friday night. Skipworth was arrested at an undisclosed location and charged with felony possession of a controlled substance on jail premises and a probation violation, said Sheriff Dennis Oakley. Skipworth had been serving a 42-day jail sentence for a felony breaking and entering conviction in July. The sentence was to be served on 21 consecutive weekends. Instead, "he's a permanent customer right now," Oakley said, with a bond set at $7,000. Since early September, the sheriff's department has investigated the presence of pot at the jail. The investigation stems from a four-night romp between male and female inmates who broke into a canteen area. The female inmates allegedly stripped for the men after their first encounter, and then four male and four female inmates allegedly had sex two nights later. Authorities believe the men used marijuana to barter for sex and that Skipworth is the man allegedly responsible for supplying the drug. Skipworth was not one of the 13 inmates charged last month with offenses ranging from prostitution to breaking and entering in the sex scandal. On Thursday, Oakley told The Herald-Sun no more charges would arise from the investigation after an inmate "failed miserably" in a lie detector test. But a Friday encounter with a Person County official changed Oakley's mind, he said. Leigh Woodall, a onetime commissioner and current head of the county's Republican Party, showed the sheriff a letter Friday that he'd written to the Roxboro Courier-Times. In the letter, titled "Fire the sheriff," Woodall asked, "The big question still to be answered is where did the marijuana come from? "Does the investigative report conclude that [the pot] fell into the jail from above just like manna from heaven?" Republican Dempsey Dunn is running against Oakley in the Nov. 5 election. Oakley said his deputies and jail officers were conducting an undercover drug investigation of Skipworth since September. A future arrest was likely, he said, but Woodall's letter "forced my hand on that deal," Oakley said. "We were trying to catch [Skipworth] coming into the jail smuggling more drugs," Oakley said. Although Skipworth was charged with possession of drugs on jail premises, Oakley said no drugs had ever been found on him. "I was hoping we would take another drug dealer off the street with a little meat to the arrest," he said. Asked how a letter to the editor could have forced his hand on the arrest, Oakley said, "it's coming at a time when I'm seeking reelection. "It's like (the public) thinks I'm not doing anything about it. I was trying to keep (Skipworth) as confidential as I could for the investigation's sake." Oakley said Skipworth was allegedly swallowing a small, deflated balloon filled with pot before coming to the jail on Friday nights. Once he got through the strip search and into his holding pod, Skipworth would then drink a concoction of shampoo and water to force himself to throw up the balloon. Then, he would use the paper packaging of an unused roll of toilet paper to roll joints and sell them to fellow inmates, Oakley said. In a telephone interview Monday, Woodall asked, "Does anyone in their right mind think that a simple letter to the editor can force the sheriff's hand?" Woodall said the State Bureau of Investigation, which administered the polygraph test on one inmate, should be called in to perform an independent investigation of the jail incidents. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D