UPDATED: Search warrants link deputies to drug case; two deputies fired

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Smyth County Sheriff David Bradley confirmed Wednesday an internal investigation in his office resulted in the termination of two unnamed deputies.
Bradley would not comment on the probe because of “the ongoing investigation by the federal authorities,” he said in a prepared statement. Bradley said federal authorities assured him “no other employee” is under investigation.
Bradley said his goal has been and remains “to operate a professional sheriff’s office with the main priority to protect and serve the citizens of Smyth County with dignity and honor.”
Bradley launched an internal probe last week as sworn affidavits for search warrants, issued in an ongoing drug investigation, linked two deputies with the subject of those warrants.
Asked Tuesday if he expected charges to be brought against the deputies, Bradley said, “I’d rather leave it up to [the federal agency.]”
The search warrants, evidence logs and supporting affidavits, filed Friday in Smyth County Circuit Court, showed Brian Snedeker, a special agent with the Bristol office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, requested the search warrants. Smyth County General District Court Judge Sage B. Johnson issued the search warrants Aug. 5.
The affidavit written by Snedeker for search warrants executed on Robert Allen Chestnut’s Saltville residence and car said it set forth facts “known to me as a result of my personal participation, information provided to be my other law enforcement personnel involved in this investigation, and three reliable Virginia State Police confidential sources of information (hereinafter referred to as CS1, CS2, and CS3) and a source of information.”
The confidential sources are cited early in the affidavit, ahead of Chestnut’s implication of the deputies last October when, Snedeker wrote, Chestnut told him and special agent Jennifer Clarke of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he has known a Smyth County Sheriff’s Deputy, called “Deputy A” in the affidavit, for “approximately 27 years. Deputy A is a school resource officer.”
Snedeker said he was aware that the deputy was transferred from that position to another in August or early September 2007.
“Deputy A uses methamphetamine, cocaine, and prescription pills but his drug of choice is methamphetamine,” said the affidavit. “Deputy A obtains/obtained his methamphetamine from Anthony Richardson, Chestnut, Michael Miller and possibly Melissa Rickman.”
Richardson, the former chief of the Damascus Police Department, “is currently facing multiple methamphetaime conspiracy and distribution charges in Washington County Circuit Court,” the affidavit said.
Deputy A, Deputy B, identified as a Smyth County Sheriff’s narcotics investigator, and former Saltville Police Investigator Gary Call “used to steal drugs and give them to Chestnut to sell,” Snedeker wrote in the affidavit. “They would then take their share of the money from the sales and use it for their families. At some point, they started using the drugs they were selling and became addicted.”
The affidavit said Chestnut sold Deputy A methamphetamine “(5) or (6) time over the last (10) years,” most recently “around February 2007. “Chestnut’s primary customer was Gary Call and that’s who he “really took care of,” the document said.
During Saltville’s 2007 Labor Day celebration, Snedeker wrote, “Chestnut gave Deputy A a [glass] pipe loaded with methamphetamine. Deputy A said, ‘I love you, man.’ Deputy A was in uniform in a marked Sheriff’s Department vehicle on the road behind BB&T Bank. This transaction occurred during daylight hours.”
Snedeker wrote that he was “aware that that Deputy B was assigned to the narcotics unit until sometime in late August/early 2007 at which time he was transferred to a different position within the Sheriff’s office.”
Two of Snedeker’s “three reliable Virginia State Police confidential sources of information (hereinafter referred to as CS1, CS2, and CS3),” gave the agent information that led last year to the arrest and later conviction of Saltville Police Investigator Gary Call, according to affidavit.
Call was arrested in the Allison Gap section of Smyth County near Saltville around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2007, Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman said in a press conference in Abingdon.
Snedeker’s affidavit said Call was convicted of possession of meth with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
State Police Sgt. Michael Conroy said at the 2007 press conference that Call “allegedly showed up to the drug transaction driving the Town of Saltville’s police vehicle and was armed, but not in uniform when the transaction occurred.”
CS1, Snedeker wrote in the affidavit, admitted to selling “a total of approximately (20) grams of methamphetamine to the Robert Chestnut during the course of multiple transactions between February and March of 2007.” According to Snedeker, the admission came during a May 8, 2008 interview with Clarke, FBI special agent Tom Snapp, and Washington County Sheriff’s Office Detective Chris Hazelwood.
According to the search warrant affidavit, CS1 “claimed that Chestnut advised CS1 that he was taking the methamphetamine to Saltville Police Investigator Gary Call and that the money used to purchase the methamphetamine came from Gary Call. CS1 observed Chestnut use his cellular phone to call Gary Call and coordinate some of the methamphetamine transactions.”
CS2 told Snedeker that Chestnut “asked CS2 to give him methamphetamine that he could take to Gary Call…,” Snedeker’s affidavit said. “CS2 gave him approximately (2) grams of methamphetamine to give to Call. Chestnut took the methamphetamine and returned later and paid CS2 $240 for the methamphetamine.”
Last week, Snedeker and Smyth County sheriff’s investigators seized drug-related evidence from Chestnut’s Saltville-area home and car, according to the documents.
The federal agent and Smyth County investigators Billy Eller, Johnny Joannou, and Scott Prater executed the warrants on the night of Aug. 6 and 7 on the residence of Robert Allen Chestnut on Blue Grass Trail.
Between 10:10 and 11:58 p.m. Aug. 6 on the driveway/parking area of Buck’s Drive-In in Saltville, the officers searched a red 1995 Ford Escort registered to Chestnut’s father, Wallace Kenneth Chestnut, the warrant for that search showed.
“Walley” Chestnut is an inmate supervisor for the Saltville Police Department. Chief Steve Surber said he is in a civilian position on the department’s payroll. “He’s not a sworn officer at all,” Surber said. The department has three supervisors for inmate work crews, and Chestnut is assigned to the trail mowing crew, Surber said.
An evidence log prepared by Snedeker and filed with the search warrant lists “(1/2) oxycodone/acetaminophen tablet” seized from “Robert Chestnut’s front left pants pocket,” two small, plastic bags, one with white residue, one with green residue, seized from a “Minor female’s wallet.”
The minor female is identified in the affidavit as Chestnut’s daughter.
From the “front zipper pouch of black and blue backpack found on floor in front of minor female in Red Ford Escort,” was seized a “blue prescription bottle” without a label “containing a piece of white straw with white residue,” a “Small mirror with white residue,” a “red pill crusher with white residue” and a “Piece of cellophane with white residue,” the log said.
A “glass smoking device with burnt residue,” a “Plastic bag with broken glass smoking device with burnt residue,” and a “plastic sandwich bag with residue” were seized from another pouch on the backpack, the record showed.
“Four empty prescription pill bottles (2 without labels)” and a “metal smoking device” were seized from the vehicle’s glove box, the log said.
At 12:40 a.m. Aug. 7, the search moved to Chestnut’s residence where in his bedroom the evidence log showed Snedeker and Eller discovered and seized six “empty prescription pill bottles in Robert Chestnut’s and other persons’ names (one bottle has no label).”
Two prescription pill bottles were seized, one with eight oxycodone/acetaminophen tablets and one with eight tablets imprinted with “cor 171,” the record said.
One empty pill bottle seized was labeled for a prescription of 240 oxycodone/acetaminophen pills dated 7/31/2008 “with instructions: Take 2 tablets every 6 hours,” the evidence log said.
Officers seized other empty prescription bottles, a “piece of straw with residue,” a plastic bag with one capsule, two tablets and white powder, the log said.
They also seized a “photocopied search warrant for Jason Mullinax’s residence,” the document said.
That warrant, filed July 3 in Washington County Circuit Court and also issued by Johnson, permitted a search at Mullinax’s Crescent Road residence that took place from 1:40 to 3:44 a.m. July 3.
The evidence log showed the seizure of a prescription pill bottle with seven “orange tablets” from Mullinax’s pants pocket and a bottle with a “variety of tables and pieces,” from Daisy Blevins’ purse on the bathroom floor.
From a shelf in a bathroom closet was seized a “Marble-type plate” with “white powder in a line and straw” and a “Clear plate with residue,” the record showed.
Elsewhere in the home, according to the log, three empty prescription pill bottles, four prescription bottles with pills, five tablets and a cellophane wrapper with a tablet, and miscellaneous pills and capsules were seized.
Snedeker’s affidavit said Chestnut “frequents” the Mullinax residence, and was there as recently as late June. “Mullinax told this affiant that Chestnut sells ‘Percocets’ (oxycodone tablets),” Snedeker wrote.
Mullinax was charged in 2004 in Wythe County for felony possession of a Schedule I or II Controlled Substance, and in 2005 with possession of meth and felony contributing to the delinquency of a 17-year-old minor, according to Snedeker’s affidavit.
A fourth source of information designated in the affidavit for search warrant as SOI is identified as the “former spouse of Robert Chestnut and the mother of Chestnut’s minor daughter mentioned in this affidavit.”
In a May interview, according to the affidavit SOI told Snedeker and Clarke that six days prior, “at approximately 10:00 p.m., the minor daughter called the SOI and stated that she was with Chestnut in Glade Spring, VA while Chestnut was selling ‘pain pills’ and she wanted the SOI to come and pick her up because she was tired. The SOI did not go and pick up the minor daughter because the SOI is physically afraid of Chestnut.
“The custody of the minor child,” Snedeker wrote, “is supposed to be joint physical custody between the SOI and Chestnut and decisions regarding the minor daughter’s care are supposed to be agreed upon. The SOI lets Chestnut do what he wants with their minor daughter because the SOI is afraid of Chestnut. Chestnut has threatened to physically harm the SOI and as a result, the SOI has not sought help through the courts. When the SOI and Chestnut were married and living in Smyth County, VA, there were numerous calls to and responses from law enforcement regarding domestic violence/abuse. Gary Call was one of the officers who would respond to the calls. Chestnut was never arrested.”
According to Snedeker’s affidavit, a minor friend of the daughter called the SOI “a couple of nights ago,” and “expressed his/her concern about the minor daughter because the minor daughter was using methamphetamine, cocaine, Xanex [sic] Klonopin (clonazepam, Schedule IV Controlled Substance), and ‘pain pills.’ The friend advised the SOI that Chestnut got the minor daughter started on these drugs. The friend also told the SOI that the minor daughter obtains some drugs for illegal use from individuals living in the North Fork Manor Apartments in Saltville, Va.”
Chestnut, Snedeker’s affidavit said, “received a monthly prescription for (240) Percocet tablets from Doctor [Karen] Elmore in Saltville, Va. Chestnut has friends who can give him pills in case he’s ever called into the doctor’s office for a pill count.”
The affidavit said Michael Miller “was sentenced to ten years incarceration for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, and assorted firearms/explosives/stolen property related charged. Melissa Rickman admitted to this affiant on 08-06-2007 that she provided methamphetamine to Gary Call. When asked if she provided methamphetamine to Deputy A or saw Deputy A at Michael Miller’s residence using/buying methamphetamine, Rickman said that she did not want to answer anymore [sic] questions until consulting with Miller. Rickman was sentenced on 03-20-2008 in Washington County Circuit Court to two years incarceration pursuant to her conviction for possessing methamphetamine and a firearm.”
Snedeker refused Monday to discuss the searches or what legal action might be next for Chestnut, saying he was not permitted to answer any questions from the media.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Roy Evans declined to comment except to refute a rumor that said a called session of the grand jury was set for Tuesday to consider indictments.
The grand jury that handed down indictments in June “is still impaneled,” Evans said, “but no new dates have been set.”
The deputy alleged to have been suspended declined to comment Monday, deferring to the sheriff who, he said, is the proper source of information. “He’s the boss,” the deputy said.
Efforts Monday and Tuesday to contact the deputy reported by community sources to have been fired were unsuccessful.