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From top to bottom: Ralph Michael Miller, Tony Richardson, Melissa L. Rickman, Dwayne Sheffield and Nancy Sheffield.

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Ex-police chiefs, others face charges

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN and DAN KEGLEY/Staff

The news just keeps getting worse for two former police chiefs.

Tony Richardson, the former chief in Damascus, and former Chilhowie Chief Dwayne Sheffield, along with Sheffield’s 30-year-old wife, Nancy, and Ralph Michael Miller, 39, of Glade Spring were arrested Thursday on drug, weapons, conspiracy and child neglect violations.

Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman said the drug charges were mostly related to methamphetamines.

Richardson, 40, faces three charges of conspiracy to distribute Schedule II drugs, two obstruction of justice charges, two charges of distributing imitation Schedule II drugs, two possession of Schedule II drugs charges, a charge of grand larceny of a firearm and one charge of possession of a firearm with Schedule I or II drugs.

He was arrested at his family’s home in Marion, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. He was released on his $20,000 previous bond.

The 37-year-old Dwayne Sheffield faces two charges of distribution of Schedule II drugs, two charges of child abuse/neglect and one charge of conspiracy to distribute a Schedule II drug. According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Sheffield was arrested at his home in Chilhowie, where he has been under court-ordered house arrest.

State Police Sgt. M.T. Conroy said at the time of Sheffield’s arrest he complained of illness.

“[Sheffield] was taken to the hospital because he was complaining of some breathing problems and treated,” Conroy said Later that afternoon he was taken to the Abingdon Regional Jail, where he was held on a $20,000 secured bond.

A federal search warrant was executed at his residence.

Nancy Sheffield, who also taken into custody at her Chilhowie home, was being held on a $10,000 bond at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail.

She faces three distribution of Schedule II drugs charges, two conspiracy to distribute Schedule II drug charges and two charges of child abuse/neglect.

Newman said the child neglect charges stem from that fact that children were said to be present during drug transactions.

Miller faces four previous indictments, including two charges of distribution of a Schedule II drug and two charges of conspiracy to distribute Schedule II drugs. An additional charge, possession of a sawed-off shotgun, was announced today.

Miller was arrested at his home in Glade Spring. A state search warrant there turned up the sawed-off shotgun, according to police.

Newman said he did not believe that Miller had ever been in law enforcement; however, all those arrested were acquaintances. The sheriff said “multiple” informants were used and more charges against Miller are pending.

Melissa Rickman, 38, of Meadowview was arrested at Miller’s residence. She was charged with possession of a Schedule II drug and possession of a firearm while in possession of Schedule II drugs. She was being held in Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon on a $5,000 secured bond.

Dwayne Sheffield first ran into legal troubles on May 23, when he was charged, along with former Sgt. Brian Doss, in connection with a reported sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl at a Halloween haunted house last October.

The former chief was charged with rape and object sexual penetration while Doss was charged with forcible sodomy. Both men were charged with felony child endangerment, sexual battery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. All the charges are felonies except for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, which is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

According to the indictments, Sheffield and Doss had sex with the girl “by force, threat or intimidation” and “against her will… while having the custody of a child.“

Wythe County’s Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Lee Harrell, appointed special prosecutor in March, wouldn’t say much on the case.

“These are serious allegations,“ he said. “The grand jury found probable cause for the indictments, and the case now proceeds to trial. Because the victim is a minor, I will not comment further on the case to protect the victim and the integrity of the investigation.“

Almost a month earlier, on May 3, Sheffield had resigned his post. Doss was terminated a short time after. Chilhowie Town Manager Bill Boswell said council voted unanimously to terminate the chief and Doss in a special called meeting the night before.

On the day he resigned, Sheffield loaded personal effects into his pickup.

“I resigned this morning,” he said. “Doss was terminated, and there will probably be two more this evening. Maybe the whole department.”

Sheffield served 18 years in the department, three years as chief.

A third Chilhowie officer, 29-year-old James E. Runyon, was charged May 22 with selling the painkiller hydrocodone, cutting the town’s police force of six in half.

Richardson was suspended from his job on June 23, the day he was arrested on drug and weapons charges at the Damascus Police Department. An investigation had been ongoing for several months and involved drug buys by a confidential informant, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The seven charges against Richardson include three charges of distribution of a Schedule I or Schedule II controlled substance, one charge of possession with intent to sell a Schedule I or Schedule II controlled substance, two charges of selling and distribution of a Schedule III controlled substance and one charge of possession of a Schedule I or Schedule II controlled substance while in possession of a firearm.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, Schedule I and II drugs have a high potential for abuse with no currently accepted medical use in the United States. Abuse of Schedule II drugs may lead to severe dependence, according to the agency. Schedule I drugs include heroin, LSD and marijuana.

Schedule II drugs include morphine, PCP, cocaine, methadone and methamphetamine. Schedule III drugs, according to the agency, have less potential for abuse and have a currently accepted medical use in the United States. They may lead to moderate or low dependence, the agency said. Examples of Schedule III drugs include steroids, codeine and hyrdocodone.

Richardson was terminated from the six-officer Damascus force at a July 2 meeting.

Richardson had served as an officer in Chilhowie before moving to Glade Spring and then on to Damascus. The former chief served with the Marion Police Department from February 1990 to November 1991, and was an officer with the Chilhowie Police Department from February 1994 until he resigned in March 2003. Then-Glade Spring Police Chief Scott Sexton hired Richardson on the Glade force in the spring of 2003.

Richardson had served with Sexton on the Chilhowie Police Department. Richardson became chief in Glade in January 2005 and remained in that position until he resigned to take the helm in Damascus later that year.

Smyth County court records show that Richardson was charged with petty larceny and obstruction of justice just after he left the Chilhowie force.

Sgt. M.T. Conroy of the Virginia State Police said Richardson was accused on June 4, 2003, of removing CDs from the Chilhowie Police Department. He was convicted on the obstruction of justice charge and fined $2,500, but the conviction was overturned on appeal in 2005.

Thursday’s arrest came after a Washington County grand jury handed down 27 indictments. Law enforcement officers from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Abingdon Police Department, Glade Spring Police Department, Virginia State Police, Department of Justice – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshal Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation executed the search warrants and made the arrests.

“I hope this sends a message that nobody is above the law,” Newman said.

“Law enforcement is one of the bedrocks of our society,” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Clifford C. Holly said. “Those people chose to be corrupt should be on the look out….”

Don Simmons Jr. contributed to this story.