Pubdate: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) Copyright: 2003 Lexington Herald-Leader Contact: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240 Author: Tom Lasseter Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) Series Index: Article 1:: Article 2: Article 3: Article 4: Article 5: Article 6: Article 7: Article 8: Article 9: Article 10: Article 11: Article 12: Article 13: Article 14: Article 15: Article 16: ONE DRUG DEFENDANT GAVE CANDIDATE CASH ON TAPE Dealers Quizzed About Harlan Killing Federal investigators who busted a ring of McCreary County drug dealers last year have questioned some of them about the March 2002 murder of a Harlan County sheriff's candidate. Prosecutors declined to comment, but there are surprising links between the drug cases and the killing of Paul Browning, who was shot in the head and left burned beyond recognition in his pickup on a lonely Bell County road. One of the 13 drug defendants, Dewayne Harris, showed up with Browning on a videotape that surfaced in the week's following Browning's death. The videotape, which apparently was made in February 2002, showed Harris and Browning sitting in Harris' Harlan County home. The tape shows Harris giving Browning a stack of cash. Harris is the brother-in-law of David Perkins, another dealer rounded up with the McCreary County group. That group's rise and fall was chronicled yesterday in a Herald-Leader special report, "Home-grown Drug Lords." Perkins said that when he was questioned in November 2002 by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, one of the first things he was asked about was the Browning murder. "They got me in the car and asked if I knew anything about a murder over the mountain," he said. About a month later, an informant told the DEA that Perkins had told her "Harris had something to do with a sheriff getting killed," according to a DEA affidavit for a March 2003 search of Harris' house. Perkins confirmed that he later told federal prosecutors and the DEA that Harris had information about Browning's murder. Harris, speaking at the Laurel County Detention Center, said he didn't have anything to do with Browning's death. He said he couldn't say more because he's trying to work out a deal with the U.S. attorney's office. According to a plea agreement Harris signed in August, in which he pleaded to weapons charges and conspiring to sell cocaine and OxyContin, he faces 10 years to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 18. His wife, Edna, said she has audiotapes implicating those responsible for Browning's death and revealing public corruption in Harlan County. Edna Harris, who also pleaded guilty to OxyContin and cocaine charges, said she is trying to broker a deal in which prosecutors would recommend lesser sentences for her and her husband in return for the tapes. (So far, she said, she's given two tapes to a federal prosecutor.) Dewayne Harris, who says he worked as a police informant in the past, acknowledged that there are some 12 tapes in all. Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger West would not say whether he had recently met with Edna Harris. He said only that the investigation is ongoing. Asked what the investigation was about, he said, "That's all I can say." After Harris' plea hearing in August, West said in an interview that the McCreary case was about drugs, and would not speculate whether it could lead to more information about Browning's death. Browning's life was almost as strange as his death. While serving as Harlan sheriff in the early 1980s, he was convicted of conspiring to kill two local public officials. When he came back to Harlan years later, he moved in next door to Circuit Court Judge Ron Johnson, who had prosecuted him in the conspiracy case. At the time of his death, Browning was running ads in the local newspaper accusing the current sheriff of being soft on crime. In the February 2002 videotape, Browning promised Harris that if elected he would protect some drug dealers and crack down on others. Browning assured Harris that the cash he gave was "the best money you ever spent in your life." A third man who appears in the video, Johnny Epperson, pleaded guilty in August to charges of dealing cocaine and OxyContin. Although Epperson declined to comment, his attorney, Thomas Hunter Payne of London, said West has mentioned the Browning murder while discussing his client's case. "I told him like I'll tell you, there've been no charges filed," Payne said.Browning. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman