EXTRA CONTENT: Drug ring suspect claims former W’burg officer bought drugs; Hodge defends subsequent hiring of Shelley

Read the plea agreement in this case by clicking here.

One of seven people accused of being part of a local prescription painkiller trafficking ring is claiming he witnessed a former Williamsburg Police Chief and officer purchase drugs illegally in 2007.

Branden Ray Sutton, 32, is set to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in London Sept. 2 after striking a deal with prosecutors May 19. Sutton is accused, along with six others, of conspiring to distribute oxycodone pills between Dec. 2005 through May 18, 2007.

In a plea agreement, Sutton admits that he was approached by one of the central figures in the case, former Williamsburg

Police Officer Kenneth Bradley Nighbert, and asked if he would "assist him in the distribution of oxycodone pills." He then agreed to sell pills for Nighbert. He claims to have sold approximately 10 to 20 Oxycontin 80 mg pills every other day for Nighbert for a period of about three weeks. Nighbert was supposedly getting his pills from a source in Detroit, Mich. And then "fronting" them to Sutton for about $60 per pill. Sutton sold them for about $80 each.

The arrangement ended when Nighbert was arrested by the Laurel County Sheriff’s Department May 17, 2007.

During the time when he sold pills for Nighbert, Sutton claims he watched Nighbert sells pills from his residence to then Williamsburg Police Chief Denny Shelley and Williamsburg Police Officer Bradley Boyd.

Shelley resigned under pressure in August 2007 after failing a random drug test the previous April. He tested positive for methadone.

He was later hired to serve as a deputy for the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department. Whitley County Sheriff Lawrence Hodge defended his decision to hire Shelley, saying he is a good, experienced officer who has been an asset to his department.

"He got his life straightened out. He knew he made a mistake and he faced up to it," Hodge said. "He said he was clean and I believe him. I always found him to be a man of his word. I believe everybody is entitled to a second chance."

Hodge said Shelley underwent numerous drug tests, at his own expense, and was subject to periodic random testing within the department.

"He paid a bad price for what happened. He got divorced and lost his house. How much can you kick a man? I hate this for him."

Shelley could not be reached for comment.

Boyd served as an officer with the Williamsburg Police Department from April 1999 until Aug. 2009. Prior to resigning from the department, he was placed on suspension in late July 2009 after failing a drug test. He tested positive for opiates. In 2008, he was suspended for four days without pay for getting drunk in a Corbin bar.

In late November 2009, Boyd, the other officer named by Sutton, was arrested and accused of "doctor shopping" in order to obtain prescription painkillers illegally. The case against Boyd was dropped May 13 after a grand jury refused to return an indictment in the case.

Bell County Commonwealth’s Attorney Karen Blondell, the special prosecutor in the case, said she doubts evidence against Boyd will be presented to the grand jury again unless some new evidence came to light.

"The grand jury heard the evidence and has made a decision on it. I respect the decision of the grand jury," Blondell said. "Barring some circumstance that would merit it, they have made their decision."

Sutton claims that after losing Nighbert as a source of pills, he began selling for another co-defendant in the case, Michael Scott Ball and even made trips to Detroit himself to purchase the drugs, including a failed trip during which he was robbed of $22,000 at a gas station. In all, he said he helped Nighbert and Ball sell about 2,543 Oxycontin 80 mg pills.

Along with Nighbert and Sutton and Ball; Larry Harville, 30; Michael Scott Ball, 35; Branden Ray Sutton, 32; Shannon Lee Taylor, 28; Tina Elizabeth Davis, 31; and Joritta Nicole Petrey have also been indicted.

Nighbert, Ball and Sutton have been ordered to be detained prior to trial. Harville and Taylor are in jail currently for other offenses. Petrey and Davis have been released pending trial.

A jury trial for all the other defendants has been set for June 28.