EX-POLICEMAN GETS 18 YEARS IN PRISON

A former Fayetteville police officer who admitted to breaking into
homes and stealing drugs, money and property was sentenced Tuesday to
225 months in prison.

Jared Benjamin Parsek pleaded guilty in March to using his position as
a police officer to help him and eight other men break into at least
six homes in 2003 and 2004. The break-ins happened in Fayetteville,
Beech Mountain and Raleigh.

An indictment says Parsek learned through his police duties when homes
would be vacant and had the other men commit the break-ins. Parsek set
up two break-ins while residents were in jail and another when the
wife of a deployed soldier was in the hospital, the indictment says.

Among the stolen items were guns, marijuana, video games, televisions,
DVDs, ski equipment, a telescope, liquor and money, according to the
indictment.

Parsek began working as a Fayetteville police officer in 2003. He was
a leader on the Terry Sanford High School varsity football team during
his senior year in 1998.

U.S. District Court Judge James C. Fox also ordered Parsek to pay
$54,352 in restitution.

Two other Fayetteville men - Justin Barron McCarty and Scotty Jowayne
Cornwell - also were sentenced Tuesday. McCarty received a 254-month
prison sentence and was ordered to pay $54,352 in restitution.
Cornwell was sentenced to 36months in prison and ordered to pay
$37,700 in restitution.

In December, Fox sentenced Christopher Paul Edge to 57 months in
prison and ordered him to pay $3,240 in restitution. Fox sentenced
William Franklin Stausing to 112 months in prison and $12,852 in
restitution. He sentenced Michael Anthony Timal to 27 months in prison
and fined him $725.

Sentencing for three more men - Michael Ulysses Poole Jr., Patrick
Gregory Smith and James Patrick Richling - is scheduled for March. All
of the men but Smith and Richling are from Fayetteville.

Parsek pleaded guilty March 8 to conspiracy to commit civil rights
violations, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, using and
carrying a firearm during a drug-trafficking crime, making false
statements to an FBI agent, obstruction of justice and two counts of
possession of stolen firearms.

"Illegal conduct of sworn law enforcement officers for private
financial gain jeopardizes not only our public safety but undermines
our democracy. and they must be held accountable," U.S. Attorney
George E.B. Holding said in a statement. "This prosecution was the
result of a focused commitment by federal, state and local government
to ensure the integrity of those charged with upholding our law."