HAMILTON — Alan Laney, the Democratic candidate for Butler County sheriff, criticized his Republican opponent Tuesday for endorsing Robin Piper for county prosecutor.

        Mr. Laney said Sheriff Harold Don Gabbard's endorsement of a past drug user for public office contradicts his law enforcement duties and sends the wrong message to children. Mr. Piper has admitted to using drugs when he was in his 20s. He's 47.

        “We don't reward that kind of conduct by putting him into office,” Mr. Laney said. “I think Mr. Gabbard jeopardized the position of the sheriff's department and his own standards by endorsing this particular candidate.”

        Sheriff Gabbard called Mr. Laney's comments “political garbage.”

        “The man is out there reaching for straws,” Sheriff Gabbard said. “He's trying to make a splash and he has absolutely nothing to offer people.”

        Last March, it was revealed that Mr. Piper was arrested in 1981 for having a marijuana cigarette at a park in northern Ohio. Mr. Piper soon called a press conference and admitted that he experimented with many different drugs as a young man.

        Mr. Piper, who was assistant county prosecutor for 14 years, said that he stopped using illegal drugs within two years of his 1981 arrest. Mr. Piper is running against Democratic incumbent Dan Gattermeyer.

        Mr. Laney said Sheriff Gabbard's endorsement looks hypocritical coming less than two weeks after his deputies arrested two Miami University students from prominent Butler County families on drug charges.

        “These Miami students were doing the same things that Robin Piper admitted doing,” he said.

        But Sheriff Gabbard said there's no comparison between Mr. Piper's drug activities and the crimes for which the two Miami students are accused.

        Deputies found a half-kilo of cocaine with an estimated street value of $50,000 in one student's BMW.

        “How can you compare that to what Mr. Piper did years ago when he was in law school?” Sheriff Gabbard said.

        In a written response, Mr. Piper said Mr. Laney's comments were a “desperate, pathetic attempt to smear Sheriff Gabbard.”

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