By TRICIA NEAL, CJ Staff Writer
Commonwealth Journal
Somerset —
Lake Cumberland Area Drug Task Force Director David Gilbert and two task force agents walked into Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler's office at 3 p.m. yesterday— and walked out a few seconds later. It was obvious things hadn't gone as planned. The men had been advised by local attorney Joe Travis to go to City Hall at 3 p.m. to have their police powers reinstated. According to Travis and Gilbert, several individuals had been notified of a temporary injunction signed earlier that day by Pulaski Circuit Judge Jeffrey Burdette requiring Girdler to immediately issue orders to have the LCADTF agents sworn in as officers through the City of Somerset's police department. The three individuals had their police powers removed July 26 under the orders of Acting Police Chief Doug Nelson. Gilbert claims he didn't know the powers had been stripped until about two weeks after the deed had been done. He says when he found out they could be stripped of their powers, he approached the City of Monticello about swearing them in there — however, the LCADTF board opted to wait to see if Somerset officials would change their minds. Nelson and City Attorney Carrie Wiese say the agents powers weren't necessarily removed — that they were transferred, because they assumed arrangements had been made for those individuals to be sworn in in Monticello. Whatever the case may be, Travis and Burdette felt the need to file the injuction requiring Girdler to reinstate the agents' police powers. Notice of the injuction was provided to Wiese, Nelson, and Mayor Girdler's secretary around 1:30 p.m. yesterday, but, at 3 p.m., the agents still had not been sworn in. "Three of us went (to City Hall) to meet with someone to swear us in — and no one was there to swear us in," Gilbert said shortly after 3 p.m. yesterday. Girdler's secretary said the mayor had been out of the office since morning. When a CJ reporter asked the secretary shortly before 3 p.m. whether she knew if anyone was supposed to be meeting at City Hall at that time, she said no. Nelson told Gilbert he had talked to the mayor about the injunction, that the mayor was out of town and wasn't expected to be in his office, and that he had sent a copy of the injunction to Charles Cole, an attorney representing the City of Somerset. Other than that, the injuction had presumably been ignored by city officials as of yesterday afternoon. An e-mail Gilbert sent to Travis Thursday may have prompted the injunction. In it, Gilbert explained that his agents were unable to do their jobs efficiently while their powers were removed. "We cannot function like this," the e-mail read. "We must have immediate remedy to our police powers. ... This is a very dangerous situation for all of us, both physically and liability." "I'm in fear that one of the agents will get hurt or be involved with another officer trying to assist without police powers, and it would be questionable how legal their actions would be," Gilbert said yesterday. Travis declined to speculate about what would happen if Mayor Girdler refused to comply with the injunction. Gilbert said he assumed a hearing would be held "to get the facts of why the court order was not obeyed." Meanwhile, on the heels of Doug Nelson's departure from the LCADTF board, chairwoman Lisa Rudzinski, representing the Kentucky State Police, announced she is relocating and will no longer be serving on the board. Carrie Wiese, who had been filling Nelson's spot, has informed the board she will no longer be attending the meetings. And, most recently, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Jeremy Bartley sent a letter to Gilbert informing him he would no longer serve on the board. Bartley has been replaced by a representative of the Commonwealth's Attorney's office in McCreary County.