Published: April 09, 2008 10:15 am      

Whitley jail sees influx following drug roundup

By Brad Hicks / Staff Writer

With last Tuesday’s massive drug roundup, referred to by officials as Operation Take Back, the Whitley County Detention Center saw a sudden influx of prisoners when more than 40 suspected drug traffickers were apprehended.

However, Jailer Ken Mobley said the jail was prepared for the increase. Representatives with the detention center were given advanced notice of when the roundup was to be executed and said some of the detention center employees doubled up shifts. More people were placed at the booking computers and more were ready with property bags upon the arrival of those apprehended.

“We brought in some extra help that day,” Mobley said.

With police officials set to leave the Williamsburg Civic Center at 5 a.m. the day of the roundup, the detention center had vans at the civic center at 4:30 a.m. to haul the prisoners to jail as they were brought back to the civic center for processing.

“We wanted to make it easier on everybody else,” Mobley said.

Like the roundup itself, the process of booking prisoners was efficient. Mobley said by the time a load of prisoners was brought into the detention center for booking, the group brought in prior to them was already booked.

“It went pretty smoothly,” he said.

As to be expected, the roundup created a temporary overcrowding situation at the detention center, which has 174 beds. However, Mobley said this was short-lived, as most of those caught during the roundup bonded out within anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days.

“There for a day or two, we were overcrowded, but now we’re back down to normal,” he said.

The legal process for those caught does not end with the jail. Next, the cases of the alleged traffickers will be reviewed by a grand jury, who will determine if there is enough evidence to indict the suspects.

“Nothing can be done before the grand jury indictments are returned,” said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Ben Davis. “For the commonwealth, the indictment of the grand jury is the key.”

Davis said most of the cases would likely be reviewed by a Whitley County grand jury around a month after the initial arrest. If the suspects are indicted, they will then be arraigned before the court. Here, the judge will decide how much bond should be set for the suspects. They may then be assigned a pretrial or trial date, but this may not always be necessary as some suspects will enter into plea agreements before ever going to trial.

“Sometimes, these cases work themselves out,” Davis said.

Unlike the detention center, Davis said the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office wasn’t notified of the roundup prior to it taking place and must wait for indictments to be returned before making any step in the process.

“Personally, I didn’t know for a fact they were having the roundup,” he said.

With so many arrests occurring at one time, the attorneys for both and Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office and the will likely have larger caseloads. However, Davis said any extra work coming as a result of the roundup is welcome.

“On things like this, we’re happy to have the cases,” he said. “On any drug bust, we are pleased to see law enforcement doing this.”