Deputy sheriff arrested during drug sting
Published 12:00 am Thursday, September 14, 2006
A Butler County Sheriff's deputy was arrested on Monday night for allegedly purchasing illegal prescription drugs through an undercover informant.
Deputies arrested Tyson Bennett, 30, after monitoring him buying 10 Lortab tablets for $40.
Bennett was then stopped on the Greenville Bypass, arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Butler County Sheriff Diane Harris said Bennett was arrested at approximately 6 p.m. on Monday night and removed to the Butler County Courthouse where he was read his rights.
Bennett was on duty at the time of his arrest, said Harris. He has since been terminated.
“He was very cooperative and very apologetic,” said Harris.
Bennett was transported to the Butler County Jail and was scheduled to go before District Judge Mack Russell on Tuesday afternoon.
“It seems like it's a never ending thing,” said Harris. “You hire people and you put your trust in them and this happens. Just because you where a badge does not give you the right to do something like this.”
In the past year, several former Butler County Sheriff's deputies have become entangled in legal troubles.
In November 2005 Keith Everette Hall was arrested for DUI after driving a sheriff's patrol car into a fence behind the Greenville Boys & Girls Club.
That same month, former sheriff's investigator Michael Joseph Holmes was charged with felony theft of property, 2nd degree.
In September 2005, current Chief Deputy Kenneth Hadley was indicted by a Butler County Grand Jury with a felony count of intimidating a witness and a misdemeanor count of obstructing governmental operations.
Hadley was acquitted in December.
In June of this year, Bennett was involved in an accident on Walnut St. and S. Park St., when his patrol car struck the brick barrier in front of the First United Methodist Church in Greenville.
Bennett was found not to be under the influence of any drugs or alcohol by Greenville police at the scene of the accident.
Bennett was a policeman for Greenville before going to work for the county earlier this year.