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NSBNews.net photo illustration by Sera Frederick OAK HILL -- Talk about the pot calling the kettle black: In a shocking turn of events, NSBNews.net has learned that embattled Police Chief Diane Young -- whose past use of cocaine and marijuana is well chronicled -- was the driving force behind Sheriff's narcotics investigators showing up at 84-year-old Mary Lee Cook's house last month to confront her about marijuana plants on her property.
Young had denied any involvement in the episode in media interviews, including NSBNews.net, which broke the story Monday night. The mayor was not charged and the marijuana plants were destroyed, but what remains a mystery is how they got there in the first place.
Two days later, a similar story was published in the Daytona Beach News-Journal and picked up by the Associated Press. By the end of the day Wednesday, the story had been carried by at least 180 media outlets nationwide and even in Great Britain.
A Sheriff's report released Thursday by the Sheriff's Office show it was Young herself, along with a reserve officer, who took photos of marijuana plants on the mayor's property from an adjoining lot with the use of a ladder after on June 3 after the police chief received an anonymous tip.
The Sheriff's Office documents further show narcotics investigators were contacted by Oak Hill police and not directly by an anonymous neighbor as first reported to the media by a sheriff's spokesman.
A Sheriff's investigator noted in his June 6 report that Oak Hill reserve officer Thad Smith "stated that he received this information (about the location of pot plants) from Chief Young. He further stated that Chief Young received information from a citizen who lives next door to 222 West Ariel Road. The citizen observed two suspected cannabis plants on the west side of the property (222 West Ariel Road) by a wooden privacy fence."
Sheriff's investigators drove out to Mayor Cook's residence and her son, David Brown, agreed to have them walk the 5-acre property with them. Brown and Cook denied any connection to the plants and told investigators they may have been put there by Brown's nephew, Brendan Cook. The mayor said he had stolen from her in the past, but neither she nor her son had seen him for some time.
The pot plants -- 10 in all -- were confiscated and transported to the Sheriff's Office as evidence. Sheriff's investigators have been unable to contact Brown. No mention or reason as to why Oak Hill involved the Sheriff's in this case to begin with was documented.
That was until Thursday when the Sheriff's Office released a "supplemental report" written by Lt. Robert Goggin, who is head of the narcotics division, and addressed to Chief Deputy Bill Lee, stating that he and another investigator interviewed Young in her office earlier in the day.
Goggin said in the supplemental report that Young stated she received a tip from a friend of one of the mayor's neighbors about possible pot plants there while they were trimming trees along the adjoining property line. He also noted that Young told him that the neighbors were afraid of reprisal from the mayor's son, David Brown.
The Sheriff's narcotics commander wrote in his report that Young drove out to the neighboring property with the reserve officer, Thad Smith, and that they were allowed to stand on a ladder to get a better view of the plants. "The chief advised she photographed the plants, but did not complete a report or document the incident," Goggin wrote in his report."
Young was asked to turn over the photos, which she did, the commander stated. He also noted that the police chief stated she didn't believe the mayor had anything to do with the plants. Paraphrasing why Young turned the case over to the Sheriff's Office, Goggin wrote that "due to the plants being on the mayor's property, she felt it would become a political issue."
Goggin said the chief instructed her reserve officer to contact the Sheriff's narcotics division by phone while they were there and then they left.
NSBNews.net called Young about the earlier Sheriff's report that identified her as giving the order to her reserve office to contact the Sheriff's Office, when she said she had to take another call and would call back. She did not and couldn't be reached for comment.
Goggin noted in his supplental report that Sheriff's narcotics investigators spoke with the mayor and her son on June 6. They made no arrests and a Sheriff's spokesman has said they don't believe the mayor had any knowledge of the pot plants.
The Sheriff's narcotics commander also statyed he interviewed the reserve officer Thursday and took a sworn statement from him, during which he stated that he advised Young to contact the Sheriff's Office because of past political issues wiith the mayor.
Goggin did not indicate in his report whether the police chief gave a sworn statement as well. If so, it wasn't included in the reports provided to NSBNews.net by the Sheriff's Office.
The mayor said Thursday night she was not surprised Young was involved and suspected that was the case all along.
"I never came out and said it was her," Cook said, adding she feels bad for the citizens of Oak Hill that the adverse publicity from all of this has cast a pall on the city.
Cook said she found it laughable when told of Young's statement to Sheriff's investigators that she never thought the mayor had any involvement in the pot plants from the onset.
Cook reitteratd she felt the marijuana plants were placed on her property to embarrass her and maybe even result in her being arrested.
"She's the one with the drugs," Cook said of the police chief, whose appouintment as police chief more than a year ago she openly opposed because of Young's admiited past drug use, including snorting cocaine 100 times, smiking marijuana and using Quaaludes during the mid 1980s before she became a cop.