Drug Investigations In Secretary Of State Sherrod Brown’s Office
In August, 1983 – eight months after Brown first took office as Secretary of State – the State Highway Patrol conducted an investigation into reports that employees in Brown’s office were selling illegal drugs. The investigation was closed in October 1983 without arrests after surveillance of the two suspects failed to uncover sufficient evidence.
“The State Highway Patrol confirmed yesterday that it conducted two more drug investigations or Secretary of State Sherrod Brown’s employees, in addition to a nine month investigation in 1985. No charges were filed in either investigation. The first investigation began in August 1983, Brown’s eighth month in office. It involved reports that two of Brown’s employees were selling marijuana from the office mailroom. The investigation was closed in October 1983 after surveillance of the two suspects failed to uncover sufficient evidence.” (Columbus Dispatch, June 27, 1990)
A second investigation ran for nine months in 1985, with undercover agents, including Vicki Almay, placed into Brown’s office with his knowledge and that of his senior staff. The agents successfully conducted four different drug buys – three of marijuana and one of a substance purported to be cocaine. After the buys were made and documented, nothing happened.
“A second investigation was conducted for nine months of 1985, leading to three marijuana buys and one buy of fake cocaine from two employees. The cases were never prosecuted. The cases died either in the patrol of Franklin County Prosecutor Michael Miller’s office.” (Columbus Dispatch, June 27, 1990)
When this failure to take action on the drug buys surfaced in 1990, an investigation was launched by Franklin County Prosecutor Michael Miller into whether a cover-up had been conducted. While Miller could find no direct evidence of cover-up, he did find that Highway Patrol officers failed to turn over their findings to prosecutors, and that a felony case existed that was not prosecuted. Earlier reports by the Plain Dealer and Dispatch quoted Highway Patrol investigators as saying that Brown wanted the investigation dropped because it might hurt his chances for re-election.
“Franklin County Prosecutor Michael Miller said yesterday he planned to interview ‘five to seven people’ about a 1985 drug investigation into Secretary of State Sherrod Brown’s office. Miller said he was acting because of minor inconsistencies in statements by people he has talked to. He said his investigation would focus on why an Aug. 9, 1985, drug buy by an undercover agent for the Ohio Bureau of Identification and Investigation was not reported to him.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 21, 1990)
“Franklin County Prosecutor S. Michael Miller Friday said he could find no evidence of wrongdoing in the handling of the investigation… Miller said the patrol’s failure to tell his office that an undercover agent for the Ohio Bureau of Identification and Investigation (BCI) bought marijuana from one of Brown’s employees in August 1985 was an oversight.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 2, 1990)
“There was a reluctance to pursue charges that would have identified the informant, but Miller said he knows of no reason felony charges should not have been filed for the sale to the bureau’s agent. It is too late now to pursue that case, he said… The patrol accepted fault for not telling prosecutors about the mid-August 1985 drug buy by the bureau agent, Miller said.” (Columbus Dispatch, September 1, 1990)
“Brown wanted a drug investigation in his office dropped because he feared it could hurt his re-election chances.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 5, 1990)
“Investigator thinks politics halted case: The chief investigator in a 1985 drug probe of employees in Secretary of State Sherrod Brown’s office believes politics blocked prosecution of the case.” (Columbus Dispatch, July 4, 1990)
Highway Patrol records show that investigators spoke with Brown’s senior staffer, Assistant Secretary of State Don Kindt, and learned that Brown wants to drop the investigation because of its proximity to his 1986 re-election campaign. Inquiries made by newspapers at the time also uncovered the fact that reports filed by Joseph Hopkins, the lead Highway Patrol investigator, were altered after he filed them to lessen the severity of the drug crimes committed. Further newspaper reports indicate that the actions taken by Brown’s office and investigators left lingering questions of whether politics played a role in the probe’s conclusion.
“The 29-year patrol veteran believes the investigation was dropped for fear that it could hurt Brown’s re-election chances, though he said Tuesday he has no direct proof. A Jan. 2, 1986 patrol report written by Hopkins says ‘I called (then-Assistant Secretary of State) Don Kindt… and learned that Brown wants to drop the investigation… Brown feels it should be dropped as it is going into the next year (1986).’” (Dayton Daily News, July 4, 1990)
“Hopkins also said Tuesday that one of his reports was altered to improperly identify the drug activity in Brown’s office as subject to misdemeanor charges rather than felony charges. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 5, 1990)
“Miller said the changes were inconsequential and Wilcox could not recall why he had them made but insisted there was no political pressure or motive. Miller said the secretary who typed the reports told him Wilcox commonly made minor wording changes.” (Columbus Dispatch, September 1, 1990)
“Kind’s call triggered a patrol investigation that ended in January 1986 with no arrests, but left lingering questions of whether politics played a role in the probe’s conclusion.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 2, 1990)
Despite knowing that a drug investigation involving undercover agents had occurred in his office, that it was common knowledge that one or more Brown employees were drug dealers and that no arrests had been made for an extended period of time, Brown appears to have made no effort whatsoever to weed out the criminals on his staff after the 1985 investigation.
“The patrol was setting up undercover buys as early as April 1985. One of Brown’s employees told the patrol it was common knowledge that one of her co-workers was a drug dealer. She said she had seen sealed brown enveloped she believed to contain marijuana lying on desks… James Montgomery, a former Brown employee who pleaded guilty in 1989 to two counts of drug trafficking after he had left Brown’s office, said he and others knew a co-worker was a patrol informer.” (Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 2, 1990)
“Hopkins, now retired, told the Dispatch that Donald Kindt, a top Brown aid, was briefed on the investigation and given the names of the employees involved. Brown told the newspaper he could not remember whether he was ever told the name of the employee who sold the marijuana to the agent, who worked for the Bureau of Identification and Investigation… Hopkins contends that he and BCI Superintendent Paul Ferrara briefed Kindt about the employee’s involvement. Kindt did not dispute that he was aware of the targets of the drug investigation, but said he did not know why the drug sale was not prosecuted. No disciplinary action could be taken, Brown said. ‘We really did not want to interfere with the police investigation.’” (Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 9, 1990)
