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| NEWS > 17 January 2008 |
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Sheriff says character-based t
ST. GEORGE — What is “character,” and why is Dorchester County Sheriff Ray Nash so intent on instilling exemplary character traits in his officers and staff?
Character is defined in Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary as “the complex mental and ethical traits marking and often individualizing a person, group or nation.”
Meeting monthly with his officers and staff for in-service training, Nash promotes character in his department by using 49 character qualities as outlined by the Character Training Institute, a non-profit organization based in Oklahoma City, Okla.
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Kentucky.com - Lexington,KY,US
17 January 2008
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Kentucky State Police
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Former Kentucky state trooper
She knew almost immediately that something was amiss with Kentucky State Police Trooper Jason O'Bannon. He called her frequently, even trying to track her down at her parents' home. The first time she agreed to work as an undercover informant -- making drug buys for him -- he asked her to pull up her bra so he could fondle her breast. And then he exposed himself to her, she said.
The woman told U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman Thursday in federal court in Lexington that although O'Bannon had pleaded guilty only to a charge related to forcing her to kiss him, his conduct went far beyond that. He was a police officer who preyed on her, she said. Federal prosecutors said the woman's identity should remain confidential because of her work as an informant.
Coffman sentenced O'Bannon on Thursday to 10 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay a $3,000 fine and restitution to the victim. Coffman also asked that O'Bannon receive a sex-offender risk assessment and mental health counseling. O'Bannon will be on probation for two years. He is to report to prison by March 3.
Before being sentenced, O'Bannon told Coffman that the past 18 months have been some of the darkest moments of his life, and that he had apologized to the victim and his own family.
Coffman told O'Bannon that she thought his apology was sincere but that she had to impose a sentence that was appropriate.
"Mr. O'Bannon, you were a law enforcement officer; you were to uphold the law," Coffman said.
O'Bannon, who had been a state trooper since 1996, resigned shortly after agreeing to plead guilty in August to two counts -- tampering with a witness and deprivation of rights under the color of law. According to court documents, O'Bannon, 33, persuaded a fellow police officer to lie to investigators about his involvement with the woman. O'Bannon originally told federal investigators that the woman had come to his home and had offered sexual favors in return for a reduced sentence.
In fact, he had asked the woman, who was charged with a drug crime and then agreed to become an undercover informant, to come to his home to discuss her work. He then forced her to kiss him, court documents say. O'Bannon later changed his story, and so did the police officer who lied on O'Bannon's behalf. The name of that police officer was not disclosed in court documents.
Court documents and testimony indicated that the woman who testified Thursday was not the only woman who had had problems with O'Bannon.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Dicken told Coffman that there were other sexual allegations against O'Bannon, but those allegations took place too long ago -- and exceeded the statute of limitations -- or the allegations could not be proved.
Court documents show that the state police and the FBI began investigating O'Bannon in the summer and fall of 2006 after they learned of allegations "by females who claimed that (O'Bannon) used his authority as a police officer to coerce them, or attempt to coerce them, into performing sexual acts with O'Bannon in exchange for O'Bannon reducing or dismissing drug charges against them," according to a plea agreement entered in August.
O'Bannon worked out of Clay County, but Dicken declined to say after Thursday's hearing whether O'Bannon was involved in an investigation of public corruption in Manchester that eventually netted former Manchester Mayor Daugh White as well as several other city leaders.
O'Bannon, through his attorney, declined to comment after Thursday's hearing.
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