Published July 16 in the Henry County Local

Dunavent to face grand jury

By MELISSA BLANKENSHIP
Henry County Local

NEW CASTLE — A Henry County grand jury will determine whether or not to indict Chris Dunavent, the former Henry County EMT charged with selling prescription medication to an informant of the Eminence Police Department.

In a preliminary hearing Monday, Henry County District Court Judge Jerry Crosby found sufficient evidence to show probable cause that a felony was committed.

According to testimony provided by EPD Detective Kevin Kemper, an acquaintance of Dunavent’s approached the department with drug information about the county employee and offered to work with the police to set up a buy. Kemper said the informant’s first attempt to get drugs from Dunavent failed.

“He called him and Dunavent said, ‘No, I don’t do that,’” Kemper said of an initial phone call between the suspect and the informant. Then after about one month, Kemper said, the informant was approached by Dunavent at his workplace and reprimanded for contacting him by phone.

“He said, ‘Don’t call me for dope. Come to my house. I don’t trust phones.’”

After this contact, Kemper arranged a controlled buy with the informant. He and the informant met and Kemper searched him, gave him a microphone and $20 and told him, “Go buy pills.”

Kemper said the buy occurred on May 19 at Dunavent’s home on Penn Avenue. According to Kemper, the informant complained of back pain and Dunavent gave him some pills and said, “This is what I take for my back, and I can get some more if you need it.” The detective watched and listened to the entire transaction, then received the evidence—five tablets of generic Vicodin.

When questioned by Dunavent’s public defender, Kemper said the informant “volunteered” to conduct the buy and that he was only interested in being an informant against Dunavent.

“He said that he knew somebody that was doing something they shouldn’t be doing with his job,” Kemper said.

Dunavent, who had been suspended from his job as a Henry County EMT and from his services as a volunteer with New Castle EMS, resigned in late May.

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