SBI Returns to LCSO

From Frank Taylor at the LTN:

Chief Deputy Barry Taylor, who is accused of interfering in the arrest of a friend, Dr. Daniel Senft, who was detained on suspicion of drunk driving in 2007. The SBI is looking at Sheriff Tim Daugherty’s knowledge of and possible involvement in the case at a much earlier stage than he has previously admitted.

[ADA] Radeker told the Times-News this week that as he reviewed the SBI’s “massive” report on the case in preparation for bringing Taylor to trial next month, he became “very curious” about the significant gap in time between when the incident occurred and when the sheriff first authorized an investigation.

Radeker contacted Denver-based journalist Ken Fortenberry about an interview he had conducted with Daugherty last year. Fortenberry had heard about the DUI case and wanted to know what the sheriff had done about it, he has previously stated. Daugherty told him that he’d brought in an outside investigation, done by an officer from Forsyth County.

Radeker said he in turn obtained the file from Forsyth County, which raised additional concerns. The date at which the investigator was brought in appeared to be around the time Fortenberry contacted the sheriff or after, not earlier, and certainly not at the time the incident became a topic of common knowledge within the Sheriff’s Office…

In an April interview with WBTV reporter Kristin Hampton, Daugherty was recorded stating that he hadn’t heard about the DUI incident, despite having told Fortenberry months earlier that he’d authorized an investigation of it.

And there’s good news for the Gabbards:

Former Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy Jennifer Gabbard has won the right to appeal her district court conviction on a charge of misdemeanor possession of stolen goods.

Gabbard has maintained her innocence and accused high-ranking members of the Sheriff’s Office of railroading her after a camera from a death scene investigation was found on the backseat of her unlocked squad car a few days later.

She has said she placed the camera in the car after finding it on the ground outside the scene and not recognizing it as the same camera she had earlier handled inside the residence.

As usual, don’t miss the comments at LNB.