Sex, Booze, Pills, & More Sex: The Life of Chip Dillard

He came from a good Florence family; he worked hard; he became a JAG (member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps) in the military--that’s one side of Edward Ray “Chip” Dillard. The other side? While still in college, he was named as a co-respondent in a high profile divorce; his alcohol abuse tanked his military career; he was in and out of rehab more often than some people are the supermarket; he had numerous DUIs; he called himself a member of the “wolf pack” and was suspected of slipping drugs into the Lauderdale Detention Center. Now he’s behind bars, and some are saying he will never again see freedom.

Illicit drugs have long been a problem in both the Lauderdale Detention Center and the Lauderdale Community Corrections Center. Inmates serving time in community corrections obviously have access to drugs on the outside and smuggle them into the center in various ways, but the detention center itself? That requires help from outside sources, and Chip Dillard has been suspected for at least the past month of introducing the contraband into the jail.

Yet any new state drug charges would be the least of Dillard’s worries. His indictment on human trafficking charges mentions at least one girl under the age of 16 whom he allegedly abused sexually. Then there’s witness intimidation and terrorist threats thrown in for good measure.

We asked a friend how dumb was it for Dillard to slip drugs to inmates. His reply was: No dumber than Dillard doing a girl no older than 15. That pretty well sums up the whole sordid debacle.

More: Chip Dillard Arrest

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It would seem in the local rumor mills, anyone who ever passed Chip Dillard on a public street is a confederate in the human trafficking scandal. We can say that we expect at least one more arrest in the immediate future, and the arrestee won’t be an attorney…