Sheriff Indicted For Selling Marijuana On Duty Won't Lose Job Unless Convicted

ST. LOUIS — A southern Illinois sheriff charged with trafficking marijuana, including while on duty, will not lose his job unless he's convicted or resigns, county officials said Wednesday.

Federal agents arrested Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin, 46, last month at his office on three counts of marijuana distribution and two counts of carrying a firearm _ his service weapon _ while trafficking drugs. A grand jury in Benton, Ill., indicted Martin on the charges Tuesday.

County Board Chairman Randy Drone said that, as an elected official, Martin was legally entitled to keep his job and collect his $40,440-a-year salary "until he resigns or is convicted." Martin, whose seat is up for election next year, also got his $6,500 annual stipend from the state last month.

"Obviously, it's an embarrassment to the county," Drone said of Martin's legal troubles. But "we're just going on and dealing with it."

A message left Wednesday with Martin's public defender was not immediately returned.

Shortly after Martin's arrest, one of his three deputies, Shannon Bradley, was named interim sheriff.

Martin had been the law for nearly 20 years in the county by the time investigators hauled him last month from his small office in Shawneetown, a burg with little more than a courthouse, a couple of convenience stores and a barbecue restaurant.

The Democrat won re-election four times since he took office in 1990.

But federal prosecutors claim he supplied a drug dealer and then threatened to kill him when the man said he wanted out, and allegedly pledged to use his authority to shut down rival drug traffickers.

An affidavit by a Drug Enforcement Administration investigator alleges Martin and the dealer hatched the marijuana-dealing scheme last November.

When the unidentified dealer grew unsettled and wanted out, Martin at least twice pulled his service revolver and insisted that making him "disappear" would be "that easy," according to the affidavit.

After the dealer went to investigators, authorities recorded Martin's conversations with the dealer and tracked the sheriff's county-issued Ford Expedition. Investigators later found more than $100,000 in a safe in Martin's home, as well as cash and drugs missing from evidence bags in Martin's office.

Comments

[JahLove63]

See even those who "serve & protect" us see the benefits of the good herb. What a waste of time and money on yet another sad story of a pot bust. It's time to legalize it! I know some states could use the tax revenue from the purchase of this fine herb...beginning in my home state of Cal-i-forn-i-a. Are you listening Ahrnold and legislature?!

[James Redmond]

"Investigators later found more than $100,000 in a safe in Martin's home, as well as cash and drugs missing from evidence bags in Martin's office."

And we're paying this man $40,000 a year (!?!) on top of all the money he's made from illegally stealing and reselling trial evidence, when potentially he's been at this for a significant part of his 20 years as sheriff? Sounds like he was his own best customer with that kind of bravado, with due respect for the actual good he imparted unto the community over the course of his many years there, aside from taking drugs off the street only to put them right back onto them in his name, naturally.