LEONARD SANDIFER Two experienced Texas Highway Patrol troopers transferred across the Trinity River from Palestine to start work out of Fairfield this week.

Joining the Fairfield office are Freestone county native Leonard Sandifer and Rickey Jones.

Jones, 38, is a native of Jacksonville, graduating high school there in 1990 and worked for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for 15 years, advancing to the rank of lieutenant, before joining the highway patrol.

He graduated the patrol academy in Austin in Sept. 2006 and has been stationed in Palestine until transferring to Fairfield.

“My aspiration is to be a Texas Ranger,” Jones says.

The trooper has received special training in drug interdiction and says a reason for transferring was to work drug interdiction on I-45 in Freestone county.

Jones and his wife, Comeekia, are parents of two children, 14-year-old Nyreshia and six year old Rickey, Jr.

RICKEY JONES Sandifer, 37-year-old son of Alice and Leonard Sandifer, Sr., was reared in the Butler area and graduated Fairfield high school, where he played football and ran track, in 1991.

He also worked for TDCJ, achieving the rank of lieutenant and serving 15 years before joining the highway patrol.

The Freestone county native graduated the academy in 2005 and has been stationed in Palestine since then.

“It’s where I grew up,” he says of his return to Freestone county.

Sandifer points out his pet peeves are motorists not wearing seat belts and expired vehicle registration stickers.

The trooper plans on getting special training to work drug interdiction cases.

Sandifer and his wife, Nicole, are parents of four children; Raven Henry, 19, a student at Tyler Junior College; Sierra Henry, 17, a student at Palestine Westwood high school and Trinity Valley College; Paris Sandifer, 7; and Leonard Sandifer III, 2.