Pubdate: Sat, 5 Jul 2008
Source: Florida Times-Union (FL)
Copyright: 2008 The Florida Times-Union
Contact: http://www.jacksonville.com/aboutus/letters_to_editor.shtml
Website: http://www.times-union.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/155
Author: Paul Pinkham
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?246 (Policing - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

SHERIFF'S DRUG FUND SPENDING REVEALED

Smith Used $615,000 in Federal Funds for Tuition, a Lease, Private 
Lawyer and More

ST. MARYS - Camden County Sheriff Bill Smith stopped paying jail 
inmates from seized drug assets when state investigators began 
looking into the controversial practice last July, according to 
copies of checks he released to avoid a lawsuit last month.

But Smith continued to use the federal forfeiture money for other 
questionable expenditures such as college tuition for favored 
deputies, a Kingsland boxing club's lease, and a retainer for a 
private lawyer, the checks show. And he used the federally regulated 
fund to pay routine expenses after county commissioners cut his 
operating budget last year.

Federal guidelines say the asset money, returned to counties based on 
drug arrests, is to be used only for law enforcement purposes such as 
equipment, jails or training. They expressly say the funds are not to 
be used for the department's general operational costs or in any way 
that gives the appearance of extravagance, waste or impropriety.

But over the years , Smith has used the money to work inmates on 
private property, establish college scholarships and donate to Camden 
nonprofits. Questions over his use of the funds led County Commission 
Chairman Preston Rhodes to refuse to sign an authorization form in 
September to receive money from the federal government this year.

"While they're noble, they're not legal," Jim Stein, one of the 
attorneys who sued Smith to open the 2007-08 records, said of many of 
the sheriff's expenditures.

The records show Smith spent about $615,000 from the fund from July 
2007 through May.

Smith, who is up for election July 15, wouldn't answer questions 
himself but responded through his campaign consultant, Terry Brown.

"I'm sure there are things he did that if he had hindsight he 
wouldn't have done, but by the same token, he's done a lot of good 
with that money," Brown said. "He's made political enemies along the 
way, too, and those are the ones that are trying to bring him down."

Inmates and Tuition

Smith's enemies have made the most hay the past year over his inmate 
labor program.

Commissioners repeatedly criticized his use of federal drug money to 
pay jail inmates to work on private property, including the 
sheriff's, and not just in Camden County but also at his ex-wife's 
house in South Carolina. According to previous years' audits, inmates 
were paid $50 a week from the fund, a practice Smith always defended 
as beneficial not only to the community, but to the inmates.

After the Times-Union spotted Camden jail inmates working on private 
land on Cumberland Island in June 2007, the Georgia Bureau of 
Investigation began probing Smith's use of inmate labor. That 
investigation is in the hands of a federal grand jury in Savannah.

The checks released last month show Smith stopped using seized assets 
to pay the inmates around the time the GBI investigation began last 
July. Brown said the sheriff has completely stopped the practice 
because of all the questions raised about it.

Smith's critics also questioned his use of the assets to send some of 
his own employees to college. A review of the released checks shows 
he spent about $33,800, roughly 5 percent of the federal drug money, 
for tuition and related costs at colleges around the Southeast.

Brown said the deputies are being trained in criminal justice or 
related fields and noted that Tommy Gregory, Smith's opponent in the 
impending election, benefited from the program when he was a sheriff's deputy.

But Commissioner Steve Berry, Smith's most outspoken critic on the 
board, said the tuition program is unfair to employees who aren't 
picked and a misuse of the shared asset money. He questioned the 
expenditure at a time when the sheriff has complained he needs new 
patrol cars and a bigger jail.

"It's only available to the chosen, and there's no guarantee they're 
going to stay working for us," Berry said.

Smith also spent about $14,400 on employee training and associated 
travel, about 2 percent of the total. Brown said a $900 check in 
August to Bally's Atlantic City Hotel and Casino was to send four 
deputies to drug interdiction training.

Boats, Cars and Boxing

Smith's public feud with commissioners also forced him to use asset 
money to pay fuel, utility and other general operational costs, Brown 
said. The checks show he spent about $117,000 of seized asset money 
on operational expenses, nearly a fifth of the total , despite the 
federal restrictions.

Brown said the expenditures were a result of commissioners cutting 
Smith's budget. He noted that gas has nearly doubled in price but the 
Sheriff's Office got no more allowance for higher fuel costs. Fuel 
expenditures made up most of the money spent on operational expenses.

"They are doing what they can to meet all their expenses by using the 
assets," Brown said.

Smith started using the fund for fuel costs in November, the checks show.

But Berry said less than a third of the sheriff's monthly fuel costs 
are for patrol vehicles. The majority pays for take-home vehicles for 
23 nonpatrol Sheriff's Office employees, he said.

"The waste is not in the patrol deputy division," Berry said. 
"Basically they need $4,000 a month to protect the public. The rest 
is just waste, fraud and abuse."

Berry also criticized the sheriff's purchase of a 28-foot boat with 
$79,000 in drug funds. At the time, Smith said the boat was for 
"terrorist interdiction and drug enforcement," but Berry said it has 
done little more than be Smith's personal ferry to Cumberland Island.

Court records show no felony drug arrests on Camden waterways since 
the boat was purchased Aug. 1. But Brown said it has been used to 
patrol the waterways, assist state and federal agencies, and most 
recently, ferry firefighters to battle a wildfire on Cumberland.

Among other questionable expenditures, Smith paid:

. $100,000 for a scholarship at Georgia State University. An audit 
from 2007 says such scholarship donations are "unallowable" under 
federal guidelines.

. About $9,000 to help a boxing club owner pay her lease in 
Kingsland. Brown said it is a youth outreach program similar to 
others in Georgia, but Berry said "it certainly doesn't have anything 
to do with drug interdiction or law enforcement."

. $4,000 in retainer fees for Brunswick lawyer James Benefield. Berry 
questioned why Smith needs his own lawyer paid for by taxpayers.

"We have a county attorney to do that," Berry said.

But Brown said Benefield advises the sheriff on criminal matters and 
is needed because the county attorney represents commissioners in 
their lawsuit against Smith. Benefield isn't representing Smith in that case. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake