Chief, officer charged for putting inmate on one-way bus
CARROLLTON, Ky. -- A northern Kentucky grand jury indicted a police chief and police officer Monday in connection with a mentally disabled inmate who was sent to Florida on a bus instead of being taken to a mental hospital for evaluation last spring.
Carrollton Police Chief Michael S. Willhoite, 48, and Officer Ronald W. Dickow, 50, were indicted on charges of complicity to commit kidnapping, complicity to commit custodial interference and complicity to commit official misconduct, Attorney General Jack Conway's office said.
The indictment accuses them of unlawfully restraining Carroll County Detention Center inmate Adam Horine and violating a court order to transport him to Eastern State Hospital, a mental institution.
The men were arraigned Monday in Carroll County Circuit Court. WFPL's Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting in Louisville said the men pleaded not guilty. Conway's office said they are not in custody.
Their trial is scheduled for December, CBS affiliate WKLY reports.
A working phone number could not be located for Dickow. A phone listed in Willhoite's name rang unanswered Monday. The Police Department said they were not in Monday afternoon.
The Center for Investigative Reporting reported earlier that the court ordered a psychiatric evaluation after Horine appeared on misdemeanor charges April 22. He was rambling, weeping and saying he suffered from mental illness. A preliminary assessment at the Carroll County jail found that Horine was hearing voices and felt suicidal.
Instead of being taken to Eastern State for a more thorough evaluation, the center reported Dickow drove Horine to a Louisville bus station the next morning and bought him a ticket to the west coast of Florida.
Carroll County Attorney Nick Marsh said in a letter in April requesting the attorney general's investigation that Dickow was acting under Willhoite's direction.
Horine was brought back to Kentucky in May after it was discovered he was no longer in custody and was taken for mental health treatment.
The case was investigated by the attorney general's Department of Criminal Investigations and will be prosecuted by its Special Prosecutions Unit.