Fayette County's share of federal drug money and property confiscated

from drug dealers will continue to be submitted to the Fayette County Sheriff's

Department, according to an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.

County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn had asked the DOJ to begin submitting

those funds and property through the county's finance department. Currently

the funds are distributed directly to the sheriff's department because

of a guideline that the funds be spent only on law enforcement equipment

and/or training.

Sheriff Randall Johnson requested that the funds and equipment continue

to be forwarded to the sheriff's department under the direction of Lt.

Col. Bruce Jordan, the department's director of investigations.

The sheriff's department's drug task force, a group of undercover

agents, often works federal drug busts with the federal Drug Enforcement

Agency and for its efforts the department receives a take of the funds and

equipment seized.

In the past three years, the sheriff's department has been awarded

$792,000 in such money and equipment, according to records obtained from

the department.

The department has used the drug funds to augment its equipment, significantly

through the purchase of a helicopter that is used for crime suppression techniques,

often in support of drug task force missions.

In a letter to assistant county attorney Dennis Davenport, DOJ senior trial

attorney Steven H. Schlesinger said the funds and equipment from the feds

will continue to go to the sheriff's department "unless there is

a change in the attorney general's sharing authority under federal law,

or Georgia law is amended to prohibit county sheriffs from receiving sharing

distributions."

Schlesinger also noted that the federal guidelines "do not preclude

information on federal equitable sharing monies and revenue accounts from

being included in any financial report or audit required by the State of

Georgia or requested by the Fayette County Board of Commissioners.

"It is our hope that the Fayette County Board of Commissioners and

the Sheriff's Office will be able to work together to resolve whatever

differences they may have regarding the receipt, accounting for, and use

of federal equitable sharing monies, so that law enforcement and the citizens

of Fayette County may continue to benefit from the equitable sharing program," Schlesinger

wrote.

Sheriff's officials contend they made their drug seizure fund purchases

available for inspection by the county auditor earlier this year.