Former clerk in Boone County pleads guilty to leaking information

A former clerk in Boone County has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to her leaking information about a drug-trafficking investigation.

Christin Sledd pleaded guilty to using a telephone to facilitate a drug-trafficking conspiracy. Ryan Kee, the father of Sledd’s child, pleaded guilty today to the same charge.

According to prosecutors, while Sledd worked in the county clerk’s office in the summer of 2014, she had access to confidential information, including details about search warrants. On August 1, Sledd learned a judge had signed a search warrant for a home on Coats Street, at which point Sledd told Kee about it. Kee then passed the information on to others.

Law enforcement authorities say that same day, another defendant in the case – Malcolm “Harp” Redmon – was warned in advance about the search. Redmon said he would warn yet another defendant – Rodney “Rodney O” Arnold – about the search, believed to be for cocaine at the house. The person calling with the warning told Redmon the information came from a source at the clerk’s office.

Once police learned their search warrant had been compromised, the search was canceled out of concern for the safety of law enforcement officers.

Four others recently pleaded guilty to their roles in the same conspiracy. Those people include Michael “Mike Deuce” Hunt from Columbia, Courtney Thornton from Columbia, Ronald Brown from Sturgeon, and Kenneth Scott, Jr. from Columbia.

Scott admitted he knew his father, Kenneth Scott, Sr. was in the business of selling cocaine. Apparently, Scott Sr. would get the drugs to customers by leaving a key in a vehicle. Once a customer had paid for the cocaine, they would be told where the key was located, and could use it to get the cocaine.

Scott Jr. admitted to getting a call from his father instructing him to get a key and hide it in a truck so a customer could later find and use it.

Sledd, Kee, and Scott could get up to four years in federal prison without parole. Brown could get up to 40 years without parole, and Hunt and Thornton could get up to 20 years in prison with no parole.

All but one of the defendants charged in this case have now pleaded guilty. The remaining defendant, Marlon Smith from Murphysboro, Illinois is currently a fugitive.