Editor's Note: Since the time of the story below, Jesse Sheckler was acquitted of all charges and a Charlottesville jury awarded him $10 million in compensation in a defamation suit against WVIR, which also ran stories on the indictment. The article below was originally posted on this website on May 29, 2003.

For an earlier story on the subject by Allen Browning, see County Businessman Caught in Federal Drug Investigation.

For more, see Index for Defamation Suit Against WVIR as Covered on Loper Website.

"While the story of the arrest of local businessman Jesse R. Sheckler by federal [agents] turned out to be true, the murmurings that told of the arrests of Greene County Sheriff William Morris and several other prominent county residents are false.

'People have always spread rumors about me,' said Morris. 'I've always sort of taken it in stride. However, it's taking a toll on my deputies, my dispatchers and my department and that I can't have.'

In that spirit, Morris went on the offensive dispatching an angry letter to both the Greene County Record and the Daily Progress in Charlottesville.

'Well, I hope this clears the record,' he wrote. 'The rumors are not true. They never happened.'

He further lashed out at those spreading gossip calling them 'sick individuals.'

As Morris pointed out, there are always rumors, but none have persisted to such a degree. Some have been heard from sources as far away as Charlottesville.

Greene County Sheriff's Capt. Scott Haas, who is Morris' second in command, responded to the allegations even before the sheriff did.

'I've heard the rumors, too,' he replied. 'Do you even have to ask? I can look you dead in the eye and say they are false.'

Although Morris was the main figure of most of the stories, to a lesser degree the figures of Greene County Administrator Julius Morris, Greene County Supervisor Steve Catalano and local lawyer and former Commonwealth's Attorney David Dickey were alleged by the rumors to have been participants in a 'drug ring' with Sheckler.

'I won't even comment on something so absurd,' said Dickey.

'Of course, it's false,' Supervisor Steve Catalano said almost laughing.

'The gossip on this (Sheckler) thing has been non-stop,' Catalano said with a more series voice.

'It's sad when people spread rumors. It ruins peoples' lives and the lives of their families.'

That's the first I've heard of it,' said the county administrator, who laughed out loud at the accusation.

What is known about the Sheckler case has been confirmed by details released from Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. District Court, Western District of Virginia Bruce Pagel and details gleaned from federal and state court documents.

Sheckler, 49, of Pea Ridge Road in Stanardsville, was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 6 for violating Title 21 of the United States Code Section 846, which is 'being a co-conspirator in a drug conspiracy,' according to federal grand jury documents and the U.S. attorney.

A federal warrant was issued for his arrest on March 9. Somewhere between that date and his March 20 not-guilty plea in U.S. District Court Judge Waugh Crigler's courtroom, Sheckler was arrested.

He was reportedly taken into custody by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in conjunction with agents from the Charlottesville Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement (JADE) task force at the site of his Greene County business and home. Four other men have since been arrested in conjunction with conspiracy.

Charlottesville-based DEA agent Stan Burrows, who would not say whether or not he participated in the operation, referred all comments to Pagel, as did the U.S. District Court Cler and officials from the office of Crigler.

While the federal indictments against the other men have been sealed, documents filed in Greene County Circuit Court for the seizure of Sheckler's 2.1 acre home property and business worth an estimated $188,600, revealed the names of the four other defendants in the case. They are Samuel Edward Rose, Rodney Lamont Bolden, Ladu Rahiem Bolden and John Shue, all of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

Filed the very same day of Sheckler's not-guilty plea, the Notice of Lis Pendens is a document that must be filed within the state judicial circuit where the defendant resides.

Due to the fact that the transaction is a land transfer, it becomes a matter of public record.

Circuit court records also indicate that Sheckler purchased a 28.1-acre tract of land from Thomas and Virginia Winkler on July 6, 2000, for $227,000 which was not named in the documents seizeing Sheckler's business.

Four days later, Sheckler secured a 15-year loan from the Bank of America in Stanardsville for $101,000. Loan documents on file in the court clerk's office did not indicate the source of the remaining $121,000.

Pagel said recently that the investigation had been going on for the past 120 days for crimes that occurred not before the spring of 1999.

Although Sheckler was originally scheduled to appear in court March 28, the addition of the defendants in the case has pushed back that date until June 21 in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville.

On March 30, Sheckler posted a bond in the form of a $45,100 condominium he owns located at 27 Solomon Court in Albemarle County.

If found guilty, Sheckler could face life in prison, a $4 million fine and the forfeiture of all of his property" (Allen Browning, The Green County Record, April 19, 2001).