Tuesday, February 21, 2012
ATHENS, Ohio (AP) — The police chief of a southeast Ohio town has been charged with felony permitting drug abuse.
Buchtel Chief Kelsie Lanning is free on $50,000 bond awaiting a Friday municipal court hearing in Athens County. A prosecutor tells The Athens Messenger Lanning is accused of giving his girlfriend money he knew was being used to illegally buy prescription medication.
The county sheriff had said Lanning was charged after the purchase of pills last Wednesday at his Nelsonville home by a person working with a narcotics team. The sheriff said marijuana, snort tubes and crushed pills also were found.
The 33-year-old Lanning is suspended without pay as police chief in Buchtel and also from a part-time position with the New Straitsville police.