Bristol Palin's Future Mother-In-Law's Drug Arrest: Trooper Says Election Delayed Case

WASILLA, Alaska -- The mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend sent text messages discussing drug transactions less than a month after the young woman's mother, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate, according to court documents filed this week.

An affidavit from an Alaska state trooper, filed Monday, states that Sherry L. Johnston referred in her messages to two police informants to "coffee" as a code for the drug OxyContin.

Johnston, 42, was arrested on felony drug charges last week after state troopers served a search warrant at her Wasilla home. She allegedly sold OxyContin tablets to the informants on three occasions this fall, the affidavit states. Police said two of the meetings were recorded by a hidden camera and a microphone.

Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, 18. Sarah Palin announced in September that her daughter Bristol, also 18, was pregnant and that Johnston was the father. Their child was due to be born Dec. 18, her grandfather Chuck Heath told the Anchorage Daily News recently.

Authorities say the case against Sherry Johnston began in the second week of September, when drug investigators intercepted a package containing 179 OxyContin pills. That led to the arrest of the suspects, who agreed to be informants.

According to the affidavit, Johnston sent a text message to one informant Oct. 1, writing: "Hey, my phones are tapped and reporters and god knows who else is always following me and the family so no privacy. I will let u no when I can go for cof."

The trooper's affidavit indicates that Sarah Palin's candidacy factored into the investigation, with state officials delaying execution of a search warrant until this month, when Johnston was "no longer under the protection or surveillance of the Secret Service."

Comments

[band4libs]

This case would not have been mentioned in the press, except for Sarah Palin. It continues to demonstrate the slant of the press. Obama associations with crimminals were not mentioned or as a side note, disregarding and importance of the relationship. Obama has admitted to doing drugs, yet the media wants to tag a woman Sarah has little or no influence with as "tight"? If this woman broke the law and is convicted, so be it, but do not act like Palin is responsible for every adult she knows (that is a liberal thing, controlling lives).

[TomH7259]

When someone accuses someone else of "Palling Around With Terrorists" because they knew someone decades before, then turnabout is fair play. By those exact same standards that she applied, it seems to me that ole "Hockey Mom" Sarah pals around with drug dealers.

[Syncoptic1]

Let's not forget her alleged (and her husband's official) association to the radical, white supremist Alaskan Independence Party.

[ebanks84]

Oh, well let me get this straight. Sarah is NOT responsible for every adult she knows but Obama is. Am I correct in that assumption. If you're going to call Obama on who he "pals" around with then why can't we call Sarah on who she "pals" around with?

What's up with this prejudicial "palling" thing?

[lunchlady]

Grrrrr.... Double standards don't work, sorry. Everytime Dems let Reps get away with being nasty and let an opportunity go by to give Reps a hard time the Reps profit from Dems trying to be nice, and then the Reps also laugh at Dems for being namby pamby, , PC, wimpy, "girly men" or some other insult. Grrrrr......
So I say that all talk about "associations" and "palling around" and past indiscretions is fair game. The Republicans set the tone by dropping the integrity level of play, now they can enjoy it too, especially Palin who was much worse than McCain. Wonder what else would have come out of her mouth if she'd been giver freer rein, as she how says she deserved.
Of course Palin lovers are going to object to any attention whatsoever to Palin's personal life. Its pretty embarrassing and tacky.

[BaseballMicky]

Please,.....just go back to your igloo.

[dc2nm]

Your comments don't change reality. Maybe you were asleep when that nonsense was covered and investigated by the MSM. A huge majority of the American people made their conclusions based on FACTS and elected the best candidate for the job.

The reason this is news is because Palin is a public figure and she appears to be abusing her power for political gain.

[newzworthy]

I am no fan of Sarah Palin, she represents so many things I can't stand, but I have to say, unless they can tie her to this drug trade, it shouldn't reflect poorly on her. You can't ensure that your kid will marry into the perfect family.

[C65]

newzworthy,
HERE'S A NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,No you can't ensure they will marry into a perfect family,
but you can spend time LOVING and MONITORING them and the company they keep,then
you can be exonerated for their behavior.
As a widowed grandparent rearing 2 lil grandsons,(9 & 11 now after my husband and I reared
their older brothers,28 & 20)I find it a full time job no room for personal ambitions.
The older grandsons work 8-12 hrs.daily and attend school nightly,they have no live ins or
children,they too,put their ambitions on hold to help me rear their young brothers,so SARAH
"AMBITIOUS" PALIN doesn't get my sympathy,but my advice.Choose what is a priority,don't
be fooled by others that you can be both-look at how it that has turned out.

[hortonhearsawho2]

Your Governor of a state and drug dealers are this close to the family. Damn right it reflects on you...

[VOTER]

Wasilla is the Meth Capital of Alaska.

Hmmmmm

[trisha08]

That's true. BUT, Ms. P screamed rants about Obama's associations and how they reflected on him. Guilt by association, remember? Well, if our our character is determined by people we know........then P. is guilty too.

See the faulty logic here?

[ebanks84]

Yes. But Palin can't see this logic because it ends up in her back yard. Bo hoo hoo!

[AnnfromCA]

Not really. Guilt by association involves choice on the part of the candidate. Sarah had nothing to do with this woman.

[Leo12Pack]

PILLS, BABY, PILLS!!!!

[Syncoptic1]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! ohhhhh, god....that's right on the nose, there, Leo..

[MCMetal1]

Nice to see law-enforcement delaying the indescretion(s) and i l l e g a l act(s) committed , for the sake of the GOP ................The more things change ..........................

[swo68]

...the more they stay the same. It's just how the MSM wouldn't do investigative reporting on Obama during the primaries. And now we have the potential for a major coverup in the works.

There's corruption all the way around on both sides.

Do we know who was ultimately responsible for any delay in the investigation?

[trisha08]

Major coverup? Where? No evidence.

[americanalien]

Imagine the circus if Palin had become our VP-elect.

Whew, have avoided a disaster!

[swo68]

Ya, thankfully there's been no circus surrounding Obama. Oh wait a minute...

[ebanks84]

Still waiting....

[Carsy]

The only circus around Obama is the one the MSM is desperately trying to create. Same with this story about Bristol's mother in law. It doesn't have to be a story, it really isn't very interesting now when I think about it a bit more.

[sansego2000]

Careful what you hate, that is what seems to come up most in your life.

[jazzycafe]

Aren't the republicans always saying that they are tough on crime? They accuse democrats of being soft on crime. I guess it just didn't suit their needs in this case. They didn't want to hurt the McCain/Palin ticket. They didn't want Palin to look bad, wanting to preserve this good, hard working, white, God fearing, perfect family image. Palin did enough on her own, without the help of Johnston, to make this fairy tale image come crashing down.

[pattio66]

wow, she could guest on Rush Limbaugh's show, sounds like they have much in common!

[Dwight5]

Palin' around with drug dealers, you betcha. However, all the text message said was her life was temporarily not her own, she had no privacy, reporters followed her everywhere, and she'd let the person know when they could go out for coffee. Now the drug police are going to go into court and say that, "Going out for coffee" meant buying drugs, and it probably did, but my wife meets her friends for coffee all the time, and she's probably said that hundreds of times on the phone, when all it meant WAS going out for coffee. When are you people going to wake up to the fact that the drug police can take any innocent conversation and say it referred to drugs and a prosecutor, judge, and jury will believe it, and next thing you know you're in prison for a very, very long time, and you did nothing. Wake up America. The drug war is a waste of money that has the exact opposite effect of what it was intended to do. This is a story about hippocracy, not drugs.

[generationyes]

Listen, you've got an anti-drug war ax to grind, and more power to you. But don't gloss over the facts in the article. They have more than one recording of her on the subject of "coffee" and the informant(s) were wearing both a camera and a wire. Do you really think they're constructing a case based on this one quote?

[PoliticalAmazon]

"...The trooper's affidavit indicates that Sarah Palin's candidacy factored into the investigation, with state officials delaying execution of a search warrant until this month, when Johnston was "no longer under the protection or surveillance of the Secret Service."

------

WTF!? The Secret Service were providing protection for this drug user and pusher? Surely the SS knew what was going on, and they let it continue WHILE PROVIDING HER PROTECTION?

Man, and I thought the Mexican drug cartels had a sweet security set-up.

[AnalyzeIT]

I agree PoliticalAmazon. What a shame. I guess they did not want the voters to see the connection.... would have been embarrassing for sister sarah.

[lvogt]

Headline should have been... Investigation buried to protect Palin.

[Chaimirija]

Don't the State Troopers have an ax to grind with S Palin?

[DesertKayaker]

Yeah they do but they would have been CRUCIFIED with allegations of anti-Palin political shenanigans. No matter what, the troopers would be in the wrong. Add this to the Palin file so when she raises her empty-head again to jump into presidential politics, it can be brought out.

[JayMagoo]

Is it standard operating procedure in Alaska to delay an arrest for a felony because a relative of the accused is running for political office on the Republican ticket? I demand a complete investigation to find out who authorized that delay.

That is so typical of the Republicans, tinkering with the criminal justice system, on whatever level, to bring advantage to Republican politicians.

Heads should roll.

[JumpDownTurnAround]

They sure should Roll! If this isn't more Abuse of Power in the Governor's office, then I don't know what is.

[mitsie]

I agree and I want to know why, our tax dollars were paying secret service to protect Johnston, a drug dealer. Who made the decisions to delay the serving of the felony warrent and to assign secret service to them? Sounds like our federal police agency, whose primary duty is to protect the President and VP, were getting in the way of drug deals.

Who should we complain to, to get an investigation going?

[beartrack]

Don't jump on this line about "under the protection" of the Secret Service. The Secret Service knows about, and monitors the activities of all sorts of people that may have anything to do with a national candidate. There is no evidence that the Service did anything here. Maybe it's just a line being used by the Troopers to justify why they didn't act sooner.

[VOTER]

Talk to John McCain.

He and his group were running the show in Alaska.

[Higherground]

I think the troopers didn't want their investigation dimissed as a political witch hunt. If they had busted her during the election, all of their work would've been flushed down the toilet by political operatives. I think it was a smart move, given the way the former head of public safety was savaged.

[alfo]

higherground; you can't be serious,since when does political objectives trump a legit drug investigation.oh that's right when bush politics & politicizing of the justice dept.is in full affect. the only thing savaged in Alaska is it's credibility / integrity,the former head of public safety was savaged with the help of corp.msm. this is just another example of the depth in which the repbs will stoop.

[DesertKayaker]

agree 100%

[lblondon]

In addition, I think we are all owed an explanation as to why Johnton was " ... under the protection or surveillance of the Secret Service." Are they saying that taxpayers were paying for Secret Service Protection for the Johnstons? WTF?! That seems ridiculous to me.

[realitychecks]

Smells like elitism?

[poliscibabe]

I grew up in NYC so someone from a small town please correct me if I am wrong. My understanding is that the charm of small towns is that everyone knows everyone else. It is also my understanding that the more you are involved in your small town community the more you know. Is this correct?

[mitsie]

Yes you are right. I was a selectman in a small town in Vermont and for the most part, everyone knew everyone else. This can cause the police to look the other way. However, in this case it sounds like the State Police were ready to serve the warrent. Remember, Palin and the former head of the state police were in legal rangling over his not firing her former brother-in-law, so perhaps there was no love loss between the State Police and Palin. IMO whomever took the order to put a hold on the warrent, should have reported that info to the press. Also if the secret service knew about it, they should have informed their supervisors. I have alot of questions.

[KarenT]

Well, Palin sure described it that way.

[puffthedragon]

I grew up in a town of about 1800 people and it is not all as charming as one would think.. You get to know the people TOO WELL . It becomes gossipy, nosey, hippocritical and very vandictive at times. I moved to a neighboring town 25 years ago and I have no desire to communicate with anyone I grew up with..

[ilovevegas]

Palin was so out of her league anyway. I'm glad that lady got busted for dealing but it should not have been delayed because of all the publicity but I know why they did it. Honestly Palin and McCain didn't have a chance in well.....to win the Presidency. McCain didn't have as much money as Bush,he bought his second term LOL