Pubdate: Thu, 21 Aug 2003
Source: Charleston Gazette (WV)
Copyright: 2003 Charleston Gazette
Contact:  http://www.wvgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/77
Author: Charles Shumaker
Note: Staff writer Mandy Rorrer contributed to this report.

RESIDENTS DEFEND CAMPBELLS CREEK

Opinions abound along Campbells Creek Drive about the recent fatal shooting 
outside a neighborhood convenience store.

Police investigating two shootings seem to be leaning heavily on the 
suspicions of area residents who blame drugs for the killings.

But the family of Jeanie Patton, who was killed about 10 p.m. Thursday 
after pumping gas into her car at the Campbells Creek Speedway, doubts the 
drug theory.

"I'm not knocking the police department, but they're telling people what 
they want to hear," said Larry Patton, Jeanie Patton's father. "I never saw 
Jeanie use drugs, and I never saw her boyfriend [Marty Walker] use drugs. 
But I'm not saying that they didn't."

Longtime residents of Campbells Creek, a narrow mountain hollow in Eastern 
Kanawha County, were worried Wednesday that their community is being 
portrayed as a bad place.

"I don't know if it's worse in this area than in any others. There's good 
people here," said one resident and business owner who asked not to be 
identified. "I don't deal in drugs. You've got to deal in drugs to know 
drug people."

Down the road at Peggy's Dairy Treat, Kelli Schoolcraft said she's not sure 
there is as much of a drug problem as has been reported.

"If there is [a problem], I don't see it," she said. "I think a lot of 
stuff gets blown out of proportion."

Although no suspects have been identified in the deaths of Patton and Okey 
Meadows Jr., Kanawha County sheriff's investigators said Wednesday they 
have talked with at least one person allegedly linking the shootings to 
cocaine use.

"You hear a lot of stuff," Schoolcraft said. "I really don't like to hear 
it because it's only hearsay. They're making Campbells Creek sound worse 
than it is."

"Everybody up there is torn up, scared about this," Patton said of the 
Campbells Creek area. "But where isn't a place in this country that isn't a 
'drug area'? If I moved to Campbells Creek, and something happened to my 
family, they're going to say it's drug-related."

Carl Terry, a 58-year resident of Campbells Creek, said he, too, was 
surprised that residents are alleging a serious drug problem. He said he 
guessed that there are several users and some dealers in the area, but "I 
don't see it."
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