FALLS CITY –   Richardson County Sheriff Rick Hardesty says that the eight property searches and four warrants over a span of two days  that led to five arrests at a Falls City apartment building were the result of regular police work and normal follow ups to combat a drug that is becoming less commonplace in his jurisdiction.

Hardesty: “Making the arrest, that is just part of the investigation --  it’s communicating, talking with people. Without disclosing, we do further investigations too. I mean, we’re greedy, we want ‘em all.”

The narrative around the drug busts at the apartment building this spring included drug runs to Kansas and Missouri and suppliers searching for people with enough money to finance the next trip. Deputies allege that the effort was supplying users at the apartment building with 3.5 grams per month.

For Sheriff Hardesty the amount is significant.

In December of 2019, sheriff’s deputies found 304 grams of methamphetamine inside a purple Cadillac that pulled into a Falls City parking lot where a controlled buy had been set up. In 2021, a Falls City couple was arrested for conspiracy to distribute more than 500 grams. The arrest of a Kansas man in 2022 was linked to 1.4 pounds of meth.

Hardesty said his deputies are not seeing those large quantities anymore.

Hardesty: “Our focus is and has been and will continue to be on narcotics. To see what that’s going to do, I think it’s going to be four, five, six maybe even 10 years down the road to see what impact we have on the community.”

 

Clare Bachman of Titan Diner in Humboldt said the impact is already evident.

Bachman: “There’s a lot of place in town, new businesses that have opened up. Yards that have been cleaned up. People are moving out of town because they know, if they are bringing the drugs here, they are going to get caught.”

Hardesty: “Because we’re not going to change somebody’s mind that’s in their mid-30s about using narcotics. We eliminate as much as we can the opportunity for drugs in our community, then that helps reduce the opportunity for people to use it, whether it’s a first time or to continue on.”

Bob Witt, a Falls City businessman for over 20 years, helped form the citizen’s group Take Back Our Community in 2017 saying people were fed up with crime. He said the addiction problem leads to crime at people’s doorstep.

Witt: “It was getting so you couldn’t leave a can of a gasoline in your garage without someone stealing it.”

 

Witt and Bachman say the work of the sheriff’s office and the addition of a drug court for southeast Nebraska has made a difference.

Bachman: “They have drug busts left and right. You read about it in the paper. It’s not here in town per se, it’s out in the country where I live. They go above and beyond. They are stopping people on Highway 75, getting the drugs before they get to the dealers. They are wonderful.”

 

Hardesty did not give specifics, but court records indicate that the apartment building cases -- which resulted in allegations of drug trafficking against a Kansas man --  started with an arrest on a Lancaster County warrant.
It could have stopped there, but Hardesty says he is finding the law enforcement officers all over the region are eager to see where a case can take them. He says while not everyone can be an investigator by title, every deputy he hires has an investigative impulse.

He said the willingness to investigate and the leadership of Richardson County Attorney Samatha Scheitel has made the sheriff’s office what it is today.

Hardesty: “We want to send a message to the people, you can’t come to Richardson County and do this stuff. Because, if you do, we’re going to work out tails off to try and get you … hold you accountable for it.”