Former Whitley Road Dept. supervisor pleads guilty to selling marijuana; gets probated sentence

A former Whitley County Road Department supervisor received a probated jail sentence recently for selling marijuana to an undercover police officer in late 2009.

Jerry Lee Davis, 45, of 421 Deep Branch Road, pleaded guilty on Nov. 16 to two counts of trafficking in marijuana less than eight ounces.

In exchange for his guilty plea, District Judge Cathy Prewitt sentenced Davis to a pair of 90-day jail sentences on each charge, but she agreed to conditionally discharge or probate his jail time for two years provided he has no further violations of the law.
He allegedly sold $600 worth of marijuana to an undercover Kentucky State Police officer on Dec. 2, 2009, according to the indictment.

Davis and Joe B. Croley, 62, of 7196 Highway 92E, allegedly sold nearly one-half pound of marijuana to an undercover Kentucky State Police officer for $1,200 on Dec. 8, 2009, according to their indictment.

At the time of his arrest, Davis was Whitley County Road Department Supervisor, and Croley was employed there.

Kentucky State Police Detective David Lassiter, the investigating officer in the case, said that both drug buys were allegedly made at the county garage, which is located at Goldbug near Exit 15.

Croley still faces a trafficking in marijuana less than eight ounces charge in Whitley District Court, and has a court appearance scheduled for Jan. 4.

Davis and Croley were initially charged with felony marijuana trafficking, but the charges were later reduced to misdemeanors.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble said that in order for trafficking in marijuana to be considered a felony, you have to traffic eight ounces or more, and the defendants shorted the buyer several grams, which resulted in one of the charges being reduced to a misdemeanor.

"The intention was to buy eight ounces, but when we sent it to the lab and measured it, it came out just under eight ounces. This was the official Kentucky State Police Lab measurement," Trimble said. "We didn’t have any choice."