Lyall’s trial set Jan. 9

The federal court trial of former Alleghany County Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky James Lyall was continued until Jan. 9, 2006, according to documents on file at the U.S. District Court Office for the Western District of North Carolina in Statesville. The order was dated Nov. 2 and signed by U.S. District Court Judge Richard L. Vorhees.

Lyall was indicted on 15 federal charges on Aug. 24 by a grand jury in Charlotte. Lyall, 33, who lives in Laurel Springs, has been suspended from duty at the sheriff’s department since April 23, 2004.

The indictment filed in August alleges that Lyall is charged with recruiting two persons to sell illegal drugs that had been seized in criminal investigations and then stored in the Alleghany Sheriff’s Office’s evidence room. The two people who allegedly were recruited by Lyall were not named in the court documents.

The indictment also alleges that Lyall protected these two persons from arrest or prosecution for their own criminal conduct by impeding criminal investigations; refusing to charge or arrest them; failing to write or falsifying police reports; and failing to share with other law enforcement officers information and evidence related to their criminal activities.

In exchange for Lyall’s nonperformance of his duties and his protection of the two people selling drugs for him, he extorted these two persons by obtaining things of value under color of official right for which he was not entitled.

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