Whitley Sheriff says office break-in may have been ‘politically motivated’

Kentucky State Police have no suspects so far in the break-in of the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department at the courthouse early Monday morning, but guns and pills appear to have been taken.

KSP Detective Billy Correll, the lead investigating officer, said police believe that the office was broken into somewhere between shortly after midnight Sunday and 8 a.m. Monday.

"We are going through doing an inventory to determine exactly what has been taken," Correll said. "We haven’t completed that list yet and that is what we are doing right now, trying to get that inventory together.

"It appears that there have been quite a bit of items taken from the sheriff’s office. I don’t know if it is solely from the sheriff’s room itself, or elsewhere in the office."

He said that the break-in appears to have been limited to the sheriff’s department and not the entire courthouse.

Thieves appeared to be looking for fast cash kind of items like money, guns and drugs, Correll said.

Sheriff Lawrence Hodge said Monday afternoon that it appears drugs and weapons were taken from an evidence locker. He estimates that over 100 assorted pills were taken.

Hodge said that his office staff discovered what appeared to be pry marks on the office door when they arrived for work Monday.

The office workers called Hodge and Chief Deputy Tim Shelley, and waited for them to arrive before going inside.

Hodge said when they saw his office in disarray, they backed out of the room and called Kentucky State Police to investigate.

"Obviously there are some signs of forced entry and we are looking into that as well," Correll said. "We are also going to check around the neighboring area to see if there is any video or anything that can help us out."

The outside doorway leading into the courthouse near Hodge’s office didn’t appear to have been pried open or damaged.
The hallway door leading into Hodge’s office had scratches and pry marks to the outside of it, as did the door inside Hodge’s office that led to the room where Hodge and the chief deputies personal office was and where evidence was stored.

Inside that room, a locker where some firearms were apparently kept could be seen pried open as well as at least one filing cabinet drawer that was severely damaged.

Deputies said that ironically, the filing cabinet drawer that was most damaged was actually unlocked, and only contained some paperwork related to training that officers received.

Hodge said that he is offering a "cash" reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible, but declined to say how much at this time.

"If anybody has any information contact us, the state police or any police agency," Hodge said.

Anyone with information on the case can call Kentucky State Police toll free at 1-800-222-5555 or the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department at 549-6006.

The sheriff’s department re-opened for business about 2:30 p.m. Monday, but officials were still going through inventorying evidence that might be missing Tuesday morning.

Monday afternoon courthouse maintenance workers changed locks on the doors in Hodge’s office.

Hodge said that he plans to meet with the judge-executive to see what kind of additional security measures could be taken to further secure his office.

This is the second break-in that the sheriff’s department has had in recent years.

In April 2004, thieves broke into a satellite office where the sheriff’s detective worked, and took a computer, office equipment and evidence.

Hodge said that he thinks the break-in may be politically motivated to damage him in next year’s election. He doesn’t think his opponent or opponents are responsible, but possibly some political enemies.

"If you had something to grind against someone, this would be a good way of doing it," he said.

Hodge said that he suspects the recent publication about where and how his evidence is stored could have played a role.

"When they put in the paper that you keep your evidence and your guns in a cracker box or however they worded that, I want to think they did us some damage there," Hodge said. "Every thief within 100 miles that read that, the flag is going to go up."
ATF agents are assisting with the investigation.