Believe it or not this guy has a cult-like following in many parts of Athens County. Kind of like Bill Clinton, at the height of the sex-with-an-intern scandal, there are those that think he is above criticism and will blame the messenger and the legal system rather then the perp.

I have known Kelly for a long time. When he took office he did finally go after the small time meth and heroin idiots out here as well as the bigger dealers. I know he made a dent in New Marshfield at least (a small village in Athens County). I also know many Athens police. Partway into Kelly's tenure he had a big disagreement with the Athens Police. I won't go into details but there was no love lost between the departments. When I mentioned to one of my Athens police friends that "at least Kelly is nailing the druggies" I was told, look at the conviction rates. Poor paperwork and rules of evidence being disregarded. Whether this is true or not, I do not know, just that that was the feelings of a fellow law enforcement officer. As far as being the most corrupt in America? Not even close. In the 70's in a certain county in SE Ohio I knew two guys who grew herbal substances. That fall a marked deputies car pulled up in their driveway. They about s**t their pants as they had just harvested and everything was in the kitchen. Upon opening the door they were told that they should have a $10000 "campaign" contribution in cash ready in two days. They did and never were bothered by the police in that county. By the way, it was not Athens County. I could write a book on some of the tales of SE Ohio back then....lol

borna, I know that sheriff's in Ohio do not have nearly the power that they have in West Virginia, which sounds much like what your describe in Indiana. Here we do not have a state police, but a highway patrol, which again does not have the power of the state police in many states. I once was in a small discussion group with the head of the State Highway Patrol, and he went to great lengths to describe the limits on the authority of his department compared to states that had state police departments. He specifically cited West Virginia as a state with a very powerful state police department. I've never traced the history of this, but for some reason Ohio has been much more reluctant than many other states to centralize authority in any one institution or individual. That being said, it's clear that Kelly misused the authority he did have, which was not insignificant.