DRUG DEALER DOLLARS FIGHTING CRIME

The Money Will Fund A New Prosecutor In The Johnston District Attorney's Office

SMITHFIELD- Drug dealers will be footing the bill for the new Johnston
County prosecutor hired to put them behind bars.

Johnston Sheriff Steve Bizzell funnelled $60,806 in seized drug money to
District Attorney Tom Lock's office Monday for a prosecutor to help handle
drug cases.

"The illegal drug trade continues to be the root of all crimes in our
county," Bizzell said at a news conference.

Over the past four years, the Johnston County Sheriff's Department seized
about $1.7 million in cash and property tied to drug trafficking. Already,
state and federal authorities funnelled almost $700,000 of that back to the
sheriff's department, said Bizzell. His department has used portions of the
money to buy computer equipment for cruisers and gear such as bulletproof
vests for deputies.

The new prosecutor will help Ann Kirby, the lone drug prosecutor for
Johnston County, tackle a growing load of drug cases. Forty percent of
Johnston County's 350 felony cases last year were drug-related.

Delays in prosecuting drug cases in Johnston County are due in part to a
backlog of drug cases being processed at the State Bureau of Investigation
Crime Lab. The new prosecutor won't eliminate those delays, but Lock said
he hopes the extra help will change the way his office handles drug cases.

"We hope to be able to bring more of these cases to trial," said Lock,
noting that many of these cases are settled through negotiated pleas for
the sake of time and efficiency. "We'll get to deal with them on our own
terms and press for active jail time."

The new drug prosecutor, Patrick Roberts, started Monday. Roberts, a 2000
graduate of Duke University School of Law, was most recently an assistant
district attorney in Wilmington. The $60,806 will cover his salary and
benefits for one year. Lock hopes to find resources to hire Roberts
full-time after the first year.

Local prosecutors are paid through the North Carolina Administrative Office
of the Courts, which receives money from the General Assembly each year.
The Administrative Office of the Courts has asked for 75 new assistant
district attorney positions across the state next year, but the state
legislature is expected to approve only four, Lock said.

"We are just dying out here in the trenches," he said.