Lawrence Hodge stands alongside London attorney Gary Crabtree during Monday’s arraignment hearing.
Whitley County Sheriff Lawrence Hodge pleaded not guilty Monday morning to 21 felony offenses that a special grand jury charged him with last month.
Hodge, 51, appeared in court with three well known attorneys for the hearing, including Gary Crabtree, Tom Jenson and Jason Williams.
The attorneys entered a not guilty plea on Hodge’s behalf to all charges, and reserved Hodge’s right to make all pre-trial motions in the case.
Judge Paul Braden granted a motion by Hodge’s attorneys to recuse himself from hearing the case.
Braden noted that he thought the request was appropriate since he was the judge, who empanelled the special grand jury, and had additional knowledge about the case other than what is currently known in court.
Braden scheduled a tentative Jan. 18 hearing date in the case, but noted this could change once a special judge is appointed.
Following a five-month investigation, the special called grand jury indicted Hodge on 18 counts of abuse of public trust and three counts of tampering with physical evidence.
All 21 counts in the indictment are either class ‘C’ or class ‘D’ felonies. A class ‘C’ felony carries a possible penalty of five to 10 years in prison. A class ‘D’ felony carries a possible penalty of one to five years in prison.
Hodge spent a little over two hours in the Whitley County Detention Center that day before posting a $150,000 fully secured bond.
The indictments alleged that Hodge allegedly wrote himself checks totaling nearly $100,000 listed as drug buy money, but kept no records of what the funds were used for, and in the vast majority of cases presented no drug cases to the Whitley County Grand Jury.
The indictment also alleged that Hodge intentionally dealt with tax and fee money as his own and failed to make required disposition of it.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble estimated that about $350,000 is either unaccounted for or were checks written to Hodge from the sheriff’s department’s drug and alcohol account for "drug buy money."
The indictment further alleged that Hodge converted seized guns for his own use, including three that he sold to a local attorney, and two that he gave to his chief deputy.
On Nov. 15, 2009, Hodge also allegedly tampered with physical evidence when he, in the course of his duties as sheriff, received prescription drugs and weapons from Deputy Ronnie Bowling, according to his indictment.
Hodge failed to account for the evidence or to log it into the official evidence log knowing that it was potential evidence in legal proceedings, according to the indictment.
"The sheriff is both a tax collector and a chief of a law enforcement agency," the special grand jury’s five-page report stated. "As the criminal charges returned along with this report show, we believe he has committed criminal acts regarding both of these assigned duties.
"We are aware as a grand jury that our review has been somewhat narrow in that we have not gone into possible violations of law, which are being investigated by other state and federal agencies. A federal grand jury will report on the results of those active investigations at a later date."
Federal officers also executed a search warrant at Hodge’s office and residence on Nov. 8. A federal grand jury has been empanelled to investigate other allegations against Hodge.
So far though, the federal grand jury has issued no indictment or report in the case.
Hodge can continue serving as sheriff until his case is resolved in circuit court, or until his term in office ends on Jan. 1, 2011.
