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EXTRA CONTENT: Three more arrested this week in connection with Nighbert drug case
Posted On 12 Nov 2010
Read court documents related to these cases by clicking here.
Federal authorities have arrested three Whitley County men, all with connections to the prosecution of former Williamsburg Police Officer Bradley Nighbert.
Williamsburg tow truck operator Jerry Bunch, former Whitley Sheriff’s Department jail transport officer Gregory Keith Smith and Clarence King have been arrested by federal authorities for numerous drug trafficking charges, according to court documents and sources close to the News Journal.
Bunch is facing 10 counts of possession and distribution of cocaine, Oxycontin and Hydrocodone. He was lodged in the Laurel County Detention Center Wednesday and is currently being held on no bond.
Smith was also arrested Wednesday and was indicted by a federal grand jury in late October on four counts of distributing Oxycodone pills. He was scheduled for an arraignment hearing in U.S. District Court in London Friday afternoon.
King was indicted for conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, distributing oxycodone, possession of oxycodone and distribution of hydrocodone. He was scheduled for an arraignment hearing in U.S. District Court Friday morning.
The grand jury accused King of committing all offenses between Feb. 2008 and June 2010. All of Smith’s charges took place during May and June of 2009.
Authorities are also seeking the forefeiture of a 2006 Ford pickup truck from Smith and a tract of land in Whitley County from King.
All three men appeared for arraignment hearings Friday in U.S. District Court in London before Magistrate Judge Hanley Ingram. A trial day for all three was set for Jan. 10, 2011.
Bunch and King are scheduled to appear next Tuesday for detention hearings. A detention hearing for Smith is scheduled for next Thursday.
Bunch was one of 27 witnesses that testified to a special Whitley County Grand Jury, empanelled in June, to investigate wrongdoing by Hodge. The jury returned a 21-count indictment Monday accusing Hodge of abuse of public trust and tampering with physical evidence.
A Smith worked as a prisoner transport officer for the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department. Sources tell the News Journal he resigned from duty about six weeks ago.
Nighbert pleaded guilty in July for conspiring to burglarize a Williamsburg pharmacy in early 2006 and for being part of an elaborate drug trafficking ring, dealing mostly in distribution of Oxycodone pills. Six others were indicted with him and have entered guilty please for various charges. Nighbert has always been a central figure in the case. He is scheduled to be formally sentenced on the charges Dec. 16. He could receive up to 30 years in jail and over $1 million in fines.
Nighbert resigned from the Williamsburg Police Department in Sept. 2006 following an investigation into a on-duty accident in which he hit another motorist head-on, at high speed. He was found to have cocaine and Oxycodone in his system at the time of the crash. He received a probated sentence for the incident pursuant to a plea agreement.
The city of Williamsburg settled a civil lawsuit related to the accident.
Federal prosecutors noted that the arrests of Bunch, Smith and King are directly related to Nighbert’s case.
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The reason the charges stem from so far back is because the dea and atf work long and hard at getting rats and setting bait…. but most are dirty in Williamsburg. They’re still no getting them all.
Jerry bunch may be a good person an be honest but EVERYBODY knows that he is a drug dealer an im glad to hear that hes finally off the streets an as for dalton brewer im glad to hear what he got he deserves every bit of it
I don’t beleive anything I hear and only half of what I see, and Jerry is nothting but good to people. He’s been honest with me with 3 cars I have bought in the past. I visit him and I know him he doesn’t do pills. All because he complained to the Sherriff Dept. about one of the officers only calling his brother to pick up cars that have to be towed and leaving Jerry out of the order of calls, they are suppose to rotate. So without a doubt the Sherriff is trying to get him in trouble because he has stood up to them. Thats how it works, you complain and they will find a way to take you down to so be careful. You might be next.
white will get prewitt lined out.
Corruption in Whitley County doesn’t stop at either the Sheriff’s department or the Williamsburg City Police. How can anything get done, if every time the drug offenders get arrested Cathy Prewitt gives them a slap on the wrist or releases them altogether?
wasn’t Brewer arrested a while back at a house where police found a dog-fighting ring? He’s too sick to work or anything else but not too sick to be involved in criminal activity. Really?
To the Williamsburg poster above this.
Too bad the Federal Jury that returned the verdict in favor of a drug dealer last week didn’t heed your words. That’s right, the jury gave Dalton Brewer 6 mil because he says he can’t work because he got hit in the head one time. The jury didn’t get to hear testimony that he is a drug dealer.
Oh well, time will tell.
I am glad they are finally doing something about all these drug dealers. They have over ran the hole county.
i am pretty sure this all goes back to lying Lawrence our crooked sheriff. just wait and see.
I don’t see how you all get this information so fast. There is much more here than what I read in the Corbin Times. I went to school with Don way back. Keep up the good work.
Why are charges being brought from things that were done in 2008 and 2009? This makes no sense to me.What about things that have been done the rest of 2009 and 2010? We all know what Bunch has been doing.
I imagine this will go pretty far down the rabbit hole. Where there is one corrupt cop, there is many more. You have Williamsburg police police chief Denny Shelley, Officer Bradley A. Boyd, Officer Kenneth Bradley Nighbert, and now Whitley County Sheriff’s Department jail-transport officer Gregory Keith Smith. The corruption goes all the way up to the police chief of Williamsburg, and has spilled over into the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department. I wonder how many other police officers are involved?
Glad to finally hear that Jerry Bunch is in jail,expecially with NO BOND! Maybe his friends will go next.
how far down the rabbit hole will this all go?