Former police chief gets jail time on drug charge

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Former Chilhowie Police Chief Dwayne Sheffield was sentenced May 1 in Washington County Circuit Court to one year in jail on a charge of distributing methamphetamine.
Under a plea agreement, a second distribution charge, two charges of child abuse or neglect, and a charge of conspiracy to distribute were not prosecuted, court papers showed.
Judge Birg E. Sergent suspended 11 years and six months of the sentence, leaving one year to run concurrent with a sentence imposed in Smyth County Circuit Court, documents showed.
Upon release Sheffield will serve five years of supervised probation on the charge. “As a special condition of probation, the defendant shall pick up trash and litter in a designated area of Washington County as assigned by his/her probation officer and/or the litter control officer,” court papers said.
In early November in Smyth County, Sheffield took an Alford plea to a charge of object sexual penetration in a deal to avoid prosecution on four other related charges that stemmed from a haunted house sponsored by the Chilhowie Police Department.
Under an Alford plea, a defendant maintains he is innocent while admitting the prosecution has evidence sufficient for a conviction.
Judge William N. Alexander II sentenced Sheffield to 10 years’ imprisonment with six years and 10 months suspended. That left three years and two months with credit for time served since his arrest in May 2007, including house arrest.
After his sentence is complete, Sheffield is also to have no contact with the victim or her family and is required to register as a sex offender.
The plea allowed Sheffield to avoid prosecution on charges of rape, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sexual battery and child endangerment.