MOONSHINER GETS 41-MONTH TERM BY

Sentence Instills Sobering Message

ROANOKE - A federal judge yesterday sentenced legendary Rocky Mount
moonshiner William "Dee" Stanley to 41 months in prison.

Stanley, 56, who helped Franklin County establish a reputation as the
center of Virginia's illicit bootlegging industry, was also fined $7,500 in
U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

The moonshiner was sentenced with five others involved in the area's
untaxed liquor trade. He had faced a maximum sentence of more than seven
years in prison and a fine of $2 million.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson lessened the penalty considerably,
however, at the recommendation of federal prosecutors. They said Stanley
had cooperated with their investigation, breaking the notorious code of
silence among moonshiners that has stymied alcohol agents for decades.

Stanley was swept up for prosecution as part of Operation Lightning Strike,
a joint federal-state investigation that resulted in the conviction of 26
people from Franklin and Pittsylvania counties, North Carolina and
Pennsylvania.

Most of them pleaded guilty after prosecutors disclosed that they had
videotaped defendants, lifted fingerprints from moonshine jugs, deciphered
coded ledgers and persuaded other defendants to testify for the prosecution.

Had the cases gone to trial, Stanley "more than likely would have been the
government's most substantive, factual witness," Assistant U.S. Attorney
Jake Jacobson said. "Mr. Stanley was able to provide a unique perspective."

So far, 19 have received sentences ranging from probation and fines to
short prison stays.

The remaining seven defendants are to be sentenced tomorrow. Prosecutors
said the various moonshining operations broken up by Operation Lightning
Strike had produced more than 1.4 million gallons of untaxed liquor since 1992.

Stanley and his son pleaded guilty to various moonshine-related charges in
March. Authorities said they had enough evidence from the Lightning Strike
investigation to prove Stanley and a partner produced 118,440 gallons of
untaxed liquor between 1992 and 1999, costing the government $2.7 million
in lost revenue.

Moonshining is largely a family business in Franklin, and the Stanley
family's involvement stretches back several decades.

Stanley served time in federal prison for moonshining in the early 1970s.
He has been charged with various moonshine-related offenses four times
since 1990, but was convicted only once, when he was sentenced to a year of
probation after pleading guilty to hauling more than 350 gallons of untaxed
liquor to North Carolina.

The others sentenced yesterday are Delmon Lee, 61, and Larry F. Clarke, 71,
both of Spring Lake, N.C.; both received probation. Lee was fined $2,000
and Clarke was fined $1,000. Steven A. Motley, 44, of Glade Hill, was also
sentenced to probation.

William K. Cobler, 60, of Rocky Mount, who helped Stanley run his
clandestine distillery, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Stanley's son, Jason Stanley, 27, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in
prison and fined $3,000. Like the other five defendants sentenced
yesterday, Jason Stanley cooperated with prosecutors, and he asked Judge
Wilson to spare him prison time. As his father has done before, he told the
judge his moonshining days are over.

"I like my job really much, and I'd hate to have to lose it, because jobs
are hard to find in my area," the Rocky Mount resident said. "As for
liquor, I'm through with it, your honor."

"I hope to never see you in this courtroom again," Wilson responded.