Wearing a uniform and even sporting a badge, the 10-year-old son of a southern Kentucky sheriff joined his father on the job as deputies served an arrest warrant.

WKYT Investigates uncovered the boy’s signature on the warrant as the arresting officer.

"I witnessed his son sign it," Ladonna Kempton said after she was arrested March 5 on drug charges. "They laughed. They thought it was all funny. Like it was a big trick for this kid to be doing this."

Kempton said Clinton County Sheriff Jim Guffey’s son was with him the whole time and even played with her children. But when they got to the jail, Kempton says the sheriff's son took over by signing the paperwork that is used to process inmates.

"Oh, he was dressed just like a deputy. [He] had a taser. [He] had a badge," Kempton said from the Russell County Detention Center awaiting trial for the charges out of Clinton County.

She is facing at least five years for charges of marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of methamphetamine.

As she reflected on the day of her arrest, Kempton, 47, said she felt humiliated by the experience.

While multiple copies of the jail intake form for Kempton's arrest show only 10-year-old Derek Guffey’s signature as the arresting officer, a copy from jail officials has the sheriff’s signature written in next to his son’s.

"That's my son," said Sheriff Guffey when WKYT questioned whose signature was on the form. "I haven't done anything criminal. I have not put my child in harm's way."

Clinton County Jailer Johnny Thrasher said he was not aware of Guffey's son signing official paperwork. When asked whether someone wrote "transported by Jim Guffey" next to the boy’s signature, he said he didn't know who would change it.

Thrasher said he wasn't there the day Guffey's son came in to the jail with Kempton. "If I'd been here, it probably wouldn't have happened. But I wasn't here," Thrasher said.

After WKYT’s initial calls, Guffey said he checked with the county judge and other county officials who told him there's nothing wrong with what he did.

"A lot of times, they don't get signed by officers," Guffey said of the arresting documents.

Clinton County Attorney Michael Rains told WKYT's Miranda Combs that Guffey's son should not have been signing papers. Rains said Guffey told him it wouldn't happen again and that he would monitor the situation.

"Procedurally, that shouldn't have happened," Rains said.