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Hamilton County’s top cop recently made multiple attempts to pull strings for a convicted felon and former deputy who was sent to prison in 1998 for managing a jailhouse drug ring.
Sheriff Jim Hammond immediately began making calls on behalf of Lonnie R. Hood just after his arrest on Dec. 31, 2011, for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after a traffic incident on Hamilton Place Boulevard.
Hood worked as a deputy under Hammond until a 1997 federal investigation led him to plead guilty for conspiring to deal drugs in the jail.
First, Hammond called the county jail, which he oversees, to leave a message asking Hood to call him, police reports show. Then Hammond said he called Magistrate Sharetta Smith, who was in charge of setting Hood’s bond, asking that she allow him to go on his own recognizance.