Roger Doyle Frizzell was arrested by the Chattooga County Sheriff's Office last week on four counts of possession of narcotics and one count of criminal attempt to distribute. Frizzell has served as a Hays State Prison lieutenant.A Hays State Prison lieutenant was arrested last week on charges of trying to sell prescription drugs.
Chattooga County Narcotics Detective Brian Tucker said he and another investigator received a tip that they should monitor a parking lot on Georgia State Route 27 in Summerville, just south of Trion. They ran surveillance on the area on Feb. 7 and saw a white SUV drive up and park. They then saw a woman get in the vehicle.
The investigators approached the vehicle, Tucker said, and found Roger Doyle Frizzell inside with a woman. They also found 10 hydrocodone pills wrapped in clear cigarette paper. After conducting an interview, the investigators concluded they had stopped a drug sale.
"Mr. Frizzell was attempting to distribute those pills," Tucker said.
The detectives later served a search warrant on Frizzell's apartment, according to an arrest affidavit, finding three prescription pill bottles in other people's names, with eight Xanax pills, 24 diazepam pills (Valium) and 12 Tramadol pain relief pills. The Chattooga County Sheriff's Office charged Frizzell with four counts of narcotics possession and one count of criminal attempt to distribute.
Frizzell is a lieutenant at Hays State Prison in Trion. A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections said Tuesday the agency suspended Frizzell without pay.
Frizzell bonded out of the Chattooga County Jail on Thursday.
Tucker said he was not particularly surprised that Frizzell was distributing pills. The prison lieutenant was on drug investigators' radar, though the arrest last week was not the result of an undercover agent trying to draw him out with a purchase. The detectives simply had a tip that somebody would sell some drugs in that parking lot.
"We actually have had numerous information come in in the last several months about Mr. Frizzell," Tucker said. "But we didn't know it was him [Feb. 7] until we approached him in the parking lot."
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.