EX-OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY TO CHARGES

Lightning Enters Plea To Conspiracy, Extortion In Drug Bust; Faces Up
To 40 Years

Larry Lightning, the former Columbus Police officer accused of
colluding with drug dealers, pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy
and extortion charges in a case related to what authorities call the
largest drug bust in Muscogee County history.

Lightning, 48, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Clay
Land to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine
base and to extortion by a public official. He faces five to 40 years
on the felony counts, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mel Hyde.

Lightning was taken into custody after his plea.

Hyde asserted in a superceding information, which took the place of
Lightning's indictment, that Lightning sold information such as the
names of police informants and locations of drug operations to drug
dealers over several years. In return, he received $8,000 from at
least eight different people.

"Due to his status as a police officer, the defendant was in a
position to provide information to the drug dealers," Hyde said.

Lightning received a $1,000 wire transfer May 2, 2005, while in
Greensboro, Ala., from someone to whom he sold information, Hyde
said. Two days later, Lightning tried to call a drug dealer about
eight times on his cell phone when he found out police were serving a
search warrant on a suspected drug house in the Beaver Run area.

On Jan. 11, Lightning extorted money from an undercover Georgia
Bureau of Investigation agent at a shopping mall in Columbus, Hyde
said. While working off-duty at the mall, Lightning approached two
undercover agents who were staging an argument. The female accused
the man of being a drug dealer before she left the area. The male
agent then told Lightning he was a convicted felon and had come from
Savannah, Ga., to sell drugs.

The defendant asked "what would it be worth to him" to avoid being
taken to jail, Hyde said.

Lightning got money from the agent and gave him his cell phone
number, in case the man he believed to be a drug dealer ever needed
assistance again.

Lightning replied to Land's questions in short, clear answers. When
asked by the judge if the allegations read by Hyde were true,
Lightning replied they were.

Lightning initially faced charges of conspiracy to possess with the
intent to distribute cocaine base, possession of a firearm in
furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime and extortion by a public
official. Charges in that indictment were dismissed in the
superceding information to which Lightning pleaded.

Defense attorney William Mason said his client would have faced
around 20 years if convicted on the prior charges, which involved
allegations Lightning was armed during the extortion and had more
cocaine base, or crack cocaine, than Lightning admitted to at his
plea.

"Both of those are relevant for sentencing," Mason
said.

In his indictment, Lightning was linked to Eric Virden, 39, who
pleaded guilty in October to federal drug charges.

Authorities said Virden was part of the largest drug bust in Columbus
history, which involved 12 Columbus locations and an estimated $37
million. Further investigation led to an additional $5.5 million of
cocaine to be seized in Harris County.