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Former Candidate Perry Named 'Special Sheriff'

A former state representative who launched a failed bid for Congress last year will become the No. 2 ranking official with the Barnstable County Sheriff.

Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings appointed Jeff Perry to the role of "special sheriff." Perry ran as the Republican nominee for the 10th Congressional District's open seat.

Cummings says he first made sure to clear up allegations that Perry, a former Wareham police sergeant, did nothing to stop illegal strip searches of teenage girls back in the early 1990s.

"To me the smartest thing to do is hire an independent investigator to go out there and re-investigate it and get someone else's take on it, and again the conclusion came up the same as it did almost 20 years ago now," Cummings said.

"He investigated, came to the same findings that the state police and the district attorney's office made back in the early '90s when these allegations took place, and that was that Jeff Perry wasn't involved in any wrongdoing or any cover-up."

The allegations were widely publicized during Perry's campaign, which he lost to Rep. William Keating.

The "special sheriff" job pays $110,000 a year.

This program aired on January 24, 2011. The audio for this program is not available.

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