CULLEN — An employee of the Webster Parish Sheriff’s Office responsible for transporting work-release prisoners has been charged with two counts involving illegal drugs after an investigation by the North Webster Narcotic Task Force.
Springhill Chief of Police Will Lynd said 57-year-old Francis Keith Wess was picked up last week at his residence in the 200 block of Williams Street in Cullen by task force agents armed with three arrest warrants.
Lynd said Wess is charged with two counts of distribution of CDS Sch. II (methamphetamine) and one count of malfeasance in office. He is being held at Bayou Dorcheat Correctional Center on bonds totaling $110,000.
“We obtained the arrest warrants after making several undercover buys from Wess during recent months,” Lynd said.
Webster Parish Sheriff Gary Sexton said Wess was a non-commissioned, part-time employee of the corrections division of the department.
“His responsibility was to take work-release inmates to and from jobs. He did not wear a uniform, did not carry a badge and did not have arrest authority,” Sexton said.