Circumstantial evidence is all the prosecution has against an Athens County Sheriff's deputy accused of theft, Special Prosecutor Gregg Marx told a jury yesterday.

No one saw who committed the crime, Marx said, so circumstantial evidence will have to be used to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Deputy Investigator David Warren committed theft while in office by stealing money during a Southeast Counties of Ohio Narcotics Task Force search.

Misty Hatfield, 20, testified that Dec. 17, 1996, in Nelsonville, SECO agents wearing black jackets, black hats and black hoods with mesh eye covers, searched two of her family's trailers for drugs.

Agents found her grandfather Robert E. Hatfield's wallet with about eight $100 bills in an inside pocket. When agents picked up the wallet again less than an hour later, the money was gone. Marx will try to prove Warren stole the money.

Although agents never counted the money, Misty Hatfield said she knew $800 was in the wallet because her grandfather had withdrawn $1,000 from their mutual bank account and she had stolen $200.

Warren's attorney, William Grim, said the court could not know if the amount was correct because Misty Hatfield already had lied to her grandfather and investigators about taking the money. He also said no one can say the missing money ever was taken from her grandfather's trailer because SECO did not search long or hard enough.

Grim emphasized that SECO might have left the Hatfields alone in the trailer at one point, kept no records of when the evidence was found or discovered missing, never counted the seized money and did not search agents who had access to the wallet. Grim said SECO gave the wallet, the most important physical evidence in the case, back to Robert Hatfield after the search was finished.

Agent Gary Crabtree said after finding the money he left the wallet and other evidence on a bedroom shelf where anyone walking down the hallway could have seen it.

Grim questioned if Misty Hatfield or another agent might have seen it and taken it when no one was watching.

Misty Hatfield testified yesterday that no agent walked her down the hallway to her bedroom, but according to transcripts of earlier interviews, she said an agent had.

Marx said his circumstantial evidence is based mostly on Warren's suspicious behavior.

A few days after the search, Warren had a $100 bill at the sheriff's department and offered to buy everyone lunch, both attorneys said. However, Grim said Warren got the money for his birthday.

Crabtree and Agent Brian Porter testified they saw Warren go out into the middle of a field behind the trailers to use the restroom. The other agents only went as far as the edge of the field. After they discovered the money was missing, Crabtree and another agent looked in the field but found nothing.

Marx said Warren left the property without permission soon after the money was found to be missing. However, Crabtree testified, after saying twice that he was going to leave because the department needed him, Warren left about an hour after the money disappeared. Dispatch records do not show if the sheriff's department called Warren or that he called the department.

Warren also was the only agent who had been in the trailer and did not offer to be searched, Marx said.