Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Council of governments director faces drug charge

Dana L. Bowley El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

DBOWLEY The director of the South Central Council of Governments and another state employee have been charged with cocaine possession and tampering with evidence after allegations they were seen snorting cocaine in a state-owned vehicle.

The council is a regional organization that lobbys and administers state and grant funds for government entities in Socorro, Sierra and Doña Ana counties. It is funded by the state and the counties it serves.

According to the incident report from the Doña Ana County-Las Cruces Metro Narcotics Bureau, Elizabeth Bernal, 50, the director, and Jerry Kloeppel, 54, who is listed on the incident report as being a bureau chief for the Department of Labor but has also been identified as the assistant director of the council, were seen snorting lines of cocaine in a state car in the parking lot of a Las Cruces shopping center Aug. 26.

How charges came about is unclear — they were not arrested then or since — but the charges were filed Oct. 22 by the District Attorney's Office in Las Cruces.

Bernal and Kloeppel are scheduled for arraignment Oct. 14.

According to the report, the amount of cocaine involved was small, about .01 gram. The drug charge is a fourth-degree felony.

(Rene Romo, of The Albuquerque Journal Las Cruces Bureau, contributed to this report.)

dbowley@dchieftain.com

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