Despite testimony about his quick temper, tendency to pull loaded guns on people and suspected abuse of drugs, the director of Mississippi County's landfill was released from federal custody Friday on orders to stay away from the county judge, county property and his employees until his anticipated trial on federal fraud charges.
A day earlier, the FBI arrested William Chester Allen, 44, of Dyess, and his friend, Joe Harlon Hamlett, who works for a nearby Missouri trucking company, on charges of honest services fraud and conspiracy. The men are accused in a federal criminal complaint of conspiring to keep the trucking company from paying about $20,000 in fees for at least 70 loads of waste dumped at the landfill since March, and in the process thwarting the ability of state environmental officials to monitor the landfill.
A federal grand jury will review the allegations before deciding whether to indict the men, but a criminal complaint allows defendants to be arrested and held until the next grand jury meets. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors asked that Allen remain in federal custody out of concerns that he might harm people who have cooperated in an ongoing FBI investigation concerning him and the landfill, including the interim county judge, Terri Brassfield.
They didn't object to Hamlett going free.
Ed Jernigan, a Jonesboro-based FBI agent, testified Friday that he has been investigating Allen since late 2015 in connection with "multiple fraud schemes," including one in which the county paid about $900,000 for dirt hauled to the landfill. He said Allen is also being investigated by the state police, and has appeared to be on edge for months as a result of officers poking around.
When he was arrested Thursday, "he made a number of strange statements," Jernigan said, recalling that Allen said something to the effect of, "If I've been charged, then a number of lives are in danger."
Defense attorney Chris Tarver of the federal public defender's office, who was appointed to represent Allen, asked if Allen wasn't expressing concern about his wife and son. Jernigan replied that Allen "wouldn't tell us anything else about it."
The agent indicated that he wasn't finished with his investigation and hadn't planned to arrest Allen yet, but did so anyway because of concerns about the welfare of other people and possible environmental hazards.
He said Brassfield, who took over the administrative position after the death of the previous county judge, who had hired Allen, has described the landfill operator as having "high-tempered outbursts as a matter of routine." He said she relayed that about a year ago, Allen told her that "if problems ever arise for me, I know where everything is [at the landfill] and I can shut it down and make lives miserable."
The agent noted that the landfill is a "highly regulated area," and that the county has dealt with consistent runoff problems that, if not properly addressed, could lead to a $500,000 fine in the event of environmental damage to nearby land and crops.
He and officer Bobby Ephlin of the Blytheville Police Department testified that Allen is known for carrying loaded guns in his truck, pulling them on people over suspected infractions and even threatening to "blow [a woman's] head off" at his son's school in May, though Allen contends the comment, captured on tape, was made in jest.
Ephlin testified that according to Allen's employees, who have been too afraid of him to report him or stand up to him, he has wildly fluctuating mood swings and is easily agitated. The officer testified that on Thursday, Allen leveled a handgun at surveyors who were at the landfill as a matter of routine, demanding to know who they were and why they were there.
The officer said he has learned that Allen once pointed at a handgun at an employee who had missed a day of work, telling him not to miss another. He testified that another employee reported that Allen once sent him text messages "offering to pay him $5,000 to kill another employee."
Jernigan indicated that Allen isn't a fan of Brassfield's because, "when she came on, she put an immediate stop to what I would call bleeding of the landfill."
The FBI agent testified that a day earlier, after Allen had been arrested, Brassfield had a meeting with employees of the landfill and then told him, "They're concerned that Mr. Allen could just come out there and shoot up the whole landfill."
On Friday morning, Jernigan said, the county judge notified Allen that he was suspended without pay as a result of the charges, and banned him from county property.
He said at least three people have reported that Allen gulps down Klonopin, a tranquilizer, "like candy," in addition to ingesting Xanax -- an anti-anxiety medication -- and methamphetamine.
"When I first met with Allen yesterday, he expressed a desire to take pills in his pocket," Jernigan testified. He said Allen showed him a prescription bottle for Clonazepam, the generic form of Klonopin, and said it was his "heart medicine."
Jernigan said Allen repeatedly asked to take some of the pills, but the agent had a paramedic examine him before allowing him to have one.
After the officers testified, Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin O'Leary argued, "If Mr. Allen is driving around with a firearm while eating Clonazepam like candy, we've got a problem."
She asked the judge to detain Allen "so law enforcement can fully complete their investigation."
She noted that Allen has claimed to be bipolar and suffer from schizophrenia, and has been hospitalized for suicidal thoughts.
Tarver said the government's arguments were focused on what Allen "might do," but that the judge could impose conditions that would minimize the fears of the community.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Kearney agreed with Tarver, noting that Allen has no criminal history and no prior arrests, as far as anyone can tell. He also said the conditions of Allen's release forbid any contact with his employees or witnesses against him.
The judge ordered Allen to remain on home detention with electronic monitoring, and to undergo a mental health assessment, give up his guns and stay away from county property, including the landfill and the office where Brassfield works. He also required Allen to submit to regular drug screening and cautioned him that any violations of court-imposed conditions could later be used by prison officials, if he is convicted and sent to prison, to determine the type of facility in which he will be housed.
"I'll do whatever you tell me," Allen replied.
Metro on 09/01/2018