Ex-deputy was found in stolen auto, police say

The retired deputy's badge and identification were confiscated.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LIBERTY -- The Mahoning County Sheriff's Department is investigating a retired deputy, who township police say was in a stolen car containing drug paraphernalia.
Major Michael Budd, chief deputy sheriff, said today the probe centers on Willie Ray Dishman, who gave an address of Indianola Road in Boardman.
Dishman, Budd said, retired on disability in 2000. He had on him when stopped a sheriff's badge and identification that are unauthorized, he added.
The driver of the car stopped by police Thursday night, Billie Harris Gray Jr., 37, of Center Street, New Galilee, Pa., is charged by township police with receiving stolen property, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving under suspension.
Gray was also arrested on warrants from Mahoning County charging him with failure to appear in court on a charge of receiving stolen property and in Pennsylvania for failing to appear for a parole violation hearing.
Stolen car
Police reported Gray and Dishman were in a car that Gray was driving through the parking lot of the Holiday Inn-MetroPlex along Belmont Avenue. A registration check showed the car was stolen. The car then backed into a parking space at the nearby Speedway.
According to the report, Dishman identified himself as a deputy sheriff. The badge and ID were found in a pants pocket.
When the car was inventoried, police discovered three crack pipes, four pieces of torn plastic bags with cocaine residue, two filters used to smoke crack and four suspected OxyContin pills.
The report said that Dishman told police that he didn't know the car was stolen. After police talked with the Mahoning sheriff's department, the badge and ID were confiscated and Dishman was released without charge.
Although Dishman gave police a Boardman address and telephone number, a woman who answered the phone today said Dishman doesn't live there. She said he lives at a Liberty motel.
Police said Gray was to appear today in Girard Municipal Court.
yovich@vindy.com