Measure Intended To Fight Meth Labs The next time Carol League has an allergy attack, she'll have to show an ID and sign a log at her pharmacy if she wants to buy some relief. But League said she's happy to be inconvenienced if it means Kentucky's new restrictions on cold and allergy pills will make it harder for people to use them to make methamphetamine. "Anything to help Kentucky deal with its drug problems," said League, 57, who assists her husband, George, the pastor of Living Waters Christian Church in Shelby County. [continues 1029 words]
CROTHERSVILLE, Ind. -- Well before Katlyn "Katie" Collman died, there were signs of trouble in Crothersville. The Rev. Mark Wooten recognized them immediately in this once-thriving Jackson County community when he moved his family back here in November. Instead of a homecoming to the friendly neighbors, perfect lawns and freshly painted houses of his youth, he said he barely recognized the place. "I remember manicured little homes up and down the streets," Wooten, the pastor at Nazarene Church, said. "But look at the houses here now. It's a disgrace." [continues 2818 words]
Community Joins The Battle Retailers, Guard Help Fight Meth OWENSBORO, Ky. - When meth began surging into Daviess County, the community joined to battle it together. Now its innovative methods may be a model for other communities faced with a rising meth problem, officials in and out of the county say. This year, Daviess County logged 159 indictments for manufacturing and dealing methamphetamine, up from 58 in 1999. Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Jones conceded that meth has not been stopped. [continues 866 words]
Beleaguered Embattled Justice System MURRAY, Ky. - The shotgun resting in the rack next to Gale Cook's desk is loaded. And each night when Cook, the commonwealth's attorney for Marshall and Calloway counties, leaves the office, she takes a pistol from her purse and carries it until she's in her car. It is just another cost of prosecuting meth dealers, said Cook, 50. "The death threats I had received had become more specific, and I just didn't want to take any more chances," she said. [continues 845 words]
MURRAY, Ky. - Hours after her wedding in 1996, Cindy Kilgore found herself on the phone calling everyone she knew - looking for meth. The drug had been circulating for about a year in Calloway County, and the 25-year-old wanted some for her wedding night. Then her father gave her a present. "He pulled the meth out of his shirt pocket and said, 'All you had to do is ask,'" Kilgore recalled. By that date, her father, Gary Kilgore, and a partner had been importing methamphetamine for a year from California at $40 a gram, according to Cindy Kilgore's affidavit taken by Calloway County prosecutor Victor Cook, who met with her in jail earlier this year. [continues 1254 words]
Impact On Family Scourge Grows And Rescues Rise Taylor Kratzer and Kendall Powers thought their parents were acting crazy. But when a judge placed the girls, ages 7 and 4, with relatives in 2000 because of their mother's arrest, they learned the reason for their parents' behavior. Stephanie and Allan Powers were drug addicts - hooked on meth. "It's like something that takes them over, like the devil in a human body, because they didn't get along," recalled Taylor, who turned 12 this month. "They were arguing all the time." [continues 1685 words]
A Shattered Life Jail Stalls Plan To Practice Law MURRAY, Ky. - When Catherine Noe left home in Western Kentucky for law school in 1999, she took with her a dream of practicing law, a criminal record and a new recipe for making meth. All three would come together to bring her to where she is now. Noe earned a law degree in August 2002, but she lost her job as a law clerk for a Paducah judge in March because of her methamphetamine use and is serving six months in the Marshall County Jail for meth and other drug convictions. [continues 1372 words]
A Shelby County grand juror accused of tipping off suspects in a drug investigation will remain in jail at least until Friday, a judge said yesterday. Karen A. Beach, 39, allegedly alerted suspects just days before they were to be arrested, authorities said. Shelby County Sheriff Mike Armstrong said some suspects named in sealed indictments began surrendering, leading authorities to suspect a leak. "We became concerned when they began turning themselves in because there was no way for any of them to know whose names were on that list," Armstrong said. [continues 431 words]
Hardin Defendant Taped Encounter, Her Lawyer Says ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. - A Hardin County prosecutor was suspended yesterday and is under investigation by the state attorney general's office over allegations that he had sex with a defendant who had agreed to testify in a drug case. Erica L. French's lawyer, Kenneth Daniels, said they had a camera installed in her bedroom closet last week and taped her having sex with Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Robert W. Stevens. Daniels said they decided to record her encounter because French, 29, had complained that Stevens had made inappropriate advances toward her during talks involving her cooperation with the prosecution of other defendants. According to Daniels, French said that Stevens told her that if she would have sex with him he would use his influence to withdraw her guilty plea and drop charges prior to her sentencing. [continues 992 words]
