Sheriff misleading in Leonard case

I would like to point out a few of the misleading comments in your recent report on Darcee Leonard ("Bloomington mother extradited to Colorado," Thurs., May 10).\nFirst, the IDS quotes Sheriff Sharp as saying "Leonard is obviously a young woman with a drug problem." Because she is being charged with a crime that was allegedly committed three years ago, and she was at no time given a drug test while in Monroe County, I find it hard to believe that Sharp had any basis for making this accusation. In fact, it sounds a lot like slander to me. And speaking of slander, don't most media use the term "allegedly" when someone has been charged with a crime but has not yet had the opportunity to stand trial? Pam Russell is quoted as saying "Because she was selling drugs at the school, we were going to make it all one big case." There is no evidence that she was involved in selling drugs to children. Actually, the only "evidence" that the prosecution has that she was dealing is that the drugs (that were supposedly hers) were in two separate baggies. In the furor of the drug war, this is considered "evidence" that a person deals drugs. What if someone bought drugs in a baggie and didn't move them to another container? Wouldn't he or she automatically be charged as a dealer if these drugs were confiscated? This means that the system is not actually finding the dealers, just saying that it did. Let's clarify further: She was not "selling drugs at the school."\nDrugs were allegedly found at her apartment and, because her apartment was located within a certain distance from a school, the charges were automatically bumped up to a felony charge, regardless of whether the children had any access to drugs through her or not. Finally, your article says that "her supporters have turned their focus to the treatment of people in local jails who are not hardened criminals." This may be true of some of her supporters.\nOthers, like me, are even more concerned with prisoners being considered innocent until proven guilty. If they are proven guilty, I believe that they should still be treated with respect; if not, we are guilty of the same human rights abuses that we criticize other countries for perpetrating.