U.S. Department of Justice

United States Attorney
Western District of Virginia

Western District of Virginia

www.justice.gov/usao/vaw

For Immediate Release

November 29, 2012

Pennington Gap Police Officer Charged with Distribution of Lortabs and Percocets

ABINGDON, VIRGINIA – John Charles Kelly, an officer with the Pennington Gap, Va., Police Department, was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury sitting in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Abingdon.

The grand jury has charged Kelly, 38, of Pennington Gap, Va., with one count of distributing percocet between March and June 2012 and one count of distributing lortabs between July and September 2012.

The investigation of the case was conducted by the Lee County Sheriff‘s Office, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, United States Marshals Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Virginia State Police, Southwest Virginia Drug Task Force, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Assistant United States Attorney Zachary Lee is prosecuting the case for the United States.

A Grand Jury indictment is only a charge and not evidence of guilt. The defendant is entitled to a fair trial with the burden on the government to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.