Warrant served at wrong house

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (AP) -- Law enforcement officers on a drug search had three teen-agers at a Bartlesville home in handcuffs before they realized they had the wrong house. <br><br>The Washington County

Friday, March 10th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (AP) -- Law enforcement officers on a drug search had three teen-agers at a Bartlesville home in handcuffs before they realized they had the wrong house.

The Washington County District Attorney's Office Drug Task Force is now conducting an internal investigation to figure out what went wrong and if policies should be changed.

The task force, with help from the Bartlesville Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff's Office, arrived about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at a home in northwest Bartlesville, sheriff's spokesman Todd Mathes said.

The four teens in the home allowed the officers inside. Three of the occupants had been handcuffed before a sheriff's deputy realized that the officers had the wrong house, Mathes said.

"While they were handcuffing them, a deputy noticed the address on the house was not the address on the search warrant," he said. "He went back inside and told them to uncuff them and then we explained the situation to them and went on our way."

No one was injured and no property was damaged, he said.

Task force officers later raided the correct address, where they found marijuana, Mathes said.

The occupant of the correct home, 21-year-old Kenneth Earl Dixon, surrendered to county authorities Thursday and was jailed on a complaint of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, Mathes said.