Opinion ID: 699248
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The RUFF Drug Task Force and Eversole's Arrest

Text: 6 In 1988, law enforcement officials from four Indiana counties, including Rush, Union, Fayette and Franklin Counties, and several municipalities within those counties, formed a task force to combat the ever increasing drug trafficking and use of illegal narcotics. Detective Lieutenant Ted McQuinley of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department and Detective Captain Dennis Sherck of the Connersville Police Department served as co-directors of the RUFF Drug Task Force, which also received support from the police departments in Connersville and Rushville. 7 In 1989, the RUFF Drug Task Force began a comprehensive investigation of violations of Indiana Code Sec. 35-48-4-7(b), which prohibits the purchase of more than four ounces of schedule V controlled substances containing codeine used in cough syrup within any given forty-eight hour period. See supra n. 1. As part of this investigation, RUFF's investigating officers inspected copies of schedule V controlled substances sales records from drug stores and pharmacies in the four-county area, including the records of Thielking Drug Store and Hooks Drugs. 8 Detective McQuinley, along with other members of RUFF, reviewed the sales records, and transcribed the date of each purchase as well as the purchaser's name on a blank calendar. As noted above, the entry of the date recorded on the log of Eversole's purchase of codeine-laden cough syrup from Thielking Drug Store was unclear, and McQuinley mistakenly interpreted her April 5, 1988 purchase from Thielking Drug Store as having occurred on April 8, 1988, the same date as her purchase of cough syrup containing codeine from Hooks Drugs. 9 Based on the dates and purchases he transcribed from the pharmacy records to his calendar, McQuinley concluded that Eversole had purchased more than four ounces of a schedule V controlled substance containing codeine within a forty-eight hour period in violation of Indiana Code Sec. 35-48-4-7(b). On June 3, 1989, the Deputy Prosecutor of Fayette County, Indiana, filed an Information charging Eversole with Possession of a Controlled Substance, which stated: 10 Affiant herein, being duly sworn upon oath, says on information and belief that Ruth Eversole, on or about 4/8/88 and 4/8/88 at the County of Fayette in the State of Indiana, without a valid prescription or order of a practitioner acting in the course of his professional practice, knowingly or intentionally obtained more than 4 ounces of Schedule V controlled substances containing Codeine in a (48) hour period, all of which is contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, to-wit Indiana Code 35-48-4-7(b), and against the peace and dignity of the State of Indiana. 11 The material witnesses for the State are: Detective Capt. Dennis Sherck, CPD and Det. Lt. Ted McQuinley, FCSD. 12 Detective Sherck executed and presented an Affidavit of Probable Cause charging Eversole with the illegal purchases of schedule V controlled substances to Fayette County Superior Court Judge Louis Heeb who, after reviewing the same, issued a bench warrant for Eversole's arrest on June 13, 1989. 13 On June 13, 1989, Deputy Joe Jarman of the Rush County Sheriff's Department, along with four other officers, 2 served Eversole with the bench warrant at her home in Connersville, Indiana. After Deputy Jarman read the bench warrant to Eversole, who was suffering from a heart malady, she informed him that she felt ill and needed a heart patch. The arresting officers allowed Eversole to put on a heart patch and drink a glass of lemonade while she rested on her porch. After composing herself, Eversole was escorted, without handcuffs, by the police to the Connersville Police Station where she was fingerprinted, photographed, and booked on the charge of unlawful possession of schedule V controlled substances containing codeine. Shortly thereafter she was transferred to the County Jail, and released by the police on a $200 bond. 14 Eversole entered a plea of not guilty at her initial appearance. Thereafter she contacted the pharmacist at Thielking Drug Store concerning her arrest and he explained that the handwritten entry on Thielking's records which appeared to be April 8, 1988 was actually April 5, 1988. When the prosecutor learned of this information, he moved the court and the court granted the motion to dismiss the criminal charge against Eversole.