A former Crothersville School Board member and Republican Precinct committeeman was sentenced to 13 years in prison for dealing drugs in Jackson Circuit Court last Wednesday
Roger D. McIntosh
Roger D. McIntosh, 56, of South Armstrong Street in Crothersville agreed to plead guilty as a part of a please agreement to a single felony count of dealing in controlled substance after he was arrested in June 2015 on five counts of dealing drugs, theft, and illegal possession of ginseng.
At the time of his arrest authorities found 10 prescription bottles and bundled packets of hydrocodone, oxymorphine, Alprazolan, Oxycontin, and Suboxone not in prescription containers labeled as prescribed to McIntosh.
At the time of his arrest, McIntosh was out of jail on bond from his arrest in March 2014 on an earlier five-count charge of dealing drugs.
As a result of the plea agreement, the additional charges were dismissed by Senior Judge William Vance.
At the sentencing last Wednesday, his daughter, Morgan McIntosh, 25, of East Crothersville Road in rural Austin, said, “My dad is a good guy, He’s always been there for me. He just got wrapped up in some drug stuff,” she told the court.
She said that her father was active in the Crothersville community serving on the school board, Lions Club, and was a Republican Precinct committeeman for 20 years.
“In 2003 he was named the Austin High School Outstanding Alumnus,” she said.
Under questioning by Deputy Prosecutor Herbert “Pete” Walker, she admitted having a drug problem in the past, obtaining drugs from her father.
Roger McIntosh’s daughter, Sara, died of a drug overdose in 2010, her sister said in court.
In asking the judge for leniency in sentencing, she told the judge, ”He won’t do it again. I think it (his facing time in prison) scared him enough.”
Walker called Christopher Ryan Taylor, 31, of Scottsburg to testify at the sentencing. Taylor is currently incarcerated in Scott County Jail on other drug charges.
He told the judge that he sold drugs for McIntosh in Scott County and Eastern Kentucky in 2013. He said his dealing in pills such as Xanax and Roxicodone brought from $800-$1,500 a day.
In addition to selling drugs for McIntosh, Taylor told the judge that he “acted sort of like security for Roger keeping people who wanted to buy drugs away from his home,” he said. “Roger didn’t want to deal from his home because he didn’t want to draw attention.”
McIntosh acknowledged his wrongdoing to the judge. “I’ve done some bad things. But I’ve done some good things, good things for my community. I hope they are taken into consideration,” he said. “I’m just sorry it has come to this.”
McIntosh’s attorney Bart Betteau, reminded the judge of McIntosh’s lack of a criminal record. “What he did was absolutely reprehensible. But for 50 years he was a good man doing good things in his community: served on the school board, 15 years in the Lions Club, 20 years as a Republican precinct committeeman.
“A lengthy prison sentence doesn’t benefit Roger, doesn’t benefit the community,” Betteau told the judge.
Walker reminded Vance that McIntosh “was dealing drugs while out on bond (on other drug charges). He had a very developed operation.”
Before handing down the sentence, Vance said that he engaged in smoking as a youth and that others in his circle did as well. “Today, it seems, if one person uses drugs others in his circle (are likely to) use drugs,” he said.
“But when you engage in the culture and business of selling drugs that is a different consideration,” said Vance. “I am disturbed by him (McIntosh) supplying drugs to his own daughter.”
Vance sentenced McIntosh to 13 years to the Indiana Department of Corrections and suspended three of those years. He was ordered to serve eight years and the final two years on house arrest.