Published: July 07, 2009 08:24 pm      

Information charges former Mercer sheriff with possession of hydrocodone

BLUEFIELD — An information filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bluefield charges former Mercer County Sheriff Danny Wills with the possession of hydrocodone.

The information filed by Assistant United States Attorney Monica K. Schwartz alleges that on or about October 2007 and continuing until May 5, 2009, at or near Princeton and within the Southern District of West Virginia and elsewhere, Wills “knowingly and intentionally acquired and obtained possession of quantities of hydrocodone, a schedule III controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, deception and subterfuge” in violation of Title 21 of the United States Code, Section 843 (a) (3).

An initial appearance for Wills in U.S. District Court hadn’t been set as of Tuesday afternoon, Tracy Dorsey Chapman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Charleston, said.

Wills resigned as sheriff of Mercer County on June 15 in what he called a bid “to remove the cloud hanging over my department.” Former sheriff Don Meadows was appointed by the Mercer County Commission on June 16 to the sheriff’s post.

Wills, who is a physician and previously worked as a West Virginia State Police trooper, was first elected sheriff in 2004 and re-elected in 2008. Federal investigators searched his office in May.

Chapman said the case will be prosecuted by Schwartz. It was unclear Tuesday if the proceedings would be held in Bluefield, Beckley or Charleston.

When asked to explain the difference between an information and an indictment, Chapman said typically charges are filed either by an information or an indictment. Chapman said an information is filed by the U.S. Attorney whereas an indictment is returned by a grand jury.

The former sheriff’s spokesman, attorney Mark Wills, didn’t immediately return a message left by the Daily Telegraph Tuesday seeking comment on the information.

Wills faces a maximum sentence of up to four years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and one year of supervised release if convicted on the information charge.

Federal prosecutors searched Wills office at the Mercer County Courthouse in May.

According to documents released by U.S. Federal District Court, Drug Enforcement Administration officers were authorized to search the sheriff’s offices in the Mercer County Courthouse for controlled substance inventories, dispensing records, ordering invoices and theft/loss forms.

In his letter to the Mercer County Commission, Wills addressed the findings.

“I have tried to be both a sheriff and a physician, running a free clinic out of my sheriff’s office. I made legally indefensible mistakes in how I maintained records in regards to the treatment, plus ordering and use of medications for the free clinic,” Wills wrote in the resignation letter. “I have made many improvements to the quality of law enforcement in this county with the help you, the Commissioners, and the many deputy sheriffs serving here have given me. I am proud of these accomplishments, and I hope that the progress continues under the next sheriff. I am ashamed that my personal actions may be seen by some as reflecting poorly on the men and women who serve in my department. That would be unjust. Brave men and women serve the public’s interest every day in this county at great personal risk.”

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com