DRUG STING PUTS JAILER BEHIND BARS

Johnston County's sheriff arrested one of his own jailers Friday on charges
that the jailer ran a drug trade out of his house in Smithfield and
employed his 16-year-old daughter to sell marijuana. Jerry Lynn Pierce, 41,
was arrested about 3 p.m. at his home on Brogden Road. Sheriff Steve
Bizzell and narcotics officers seized 500 grams of marijuana, $300 cash,
scales and other drug paraphernalia there, according to a news release. The
marijuana had a street value of about $3,000, the release said. Bizzell,
who arrested Pierce and fired him on the spot, said investigators acted on
tips from accused drug offenders.

Pierce had been a detention officer for the Johnston County jail since
November 2001. He was charged with felony possession with intent to sell
and deliver marijuana, conspiracy to sell and deliver marijuana,
maintaining a dwelling for the storage and sale of a controlled substance
and employing a minor for the sale of a controlled substance.

"I advised him how disappointed I was in him and how embarrassed I was
employing a person in the jail where we house people like him," Bizzell
said in an interview.

When officers entered the single-wide mobile home, they found Pierce's
daughter, Kristen, bagging marijuana in plain view, Bizzell said. Kristen,
a student at Princeton School, was charged with felony possession with
intent to sell and deliver marijuana and conspiracy to sell and deliver
marijuana, Bizzell said. She is being held at a county jail outside
Johnston in lieu of $50,250 bail.

"I could tell they were very surprised to see us," Bizzell said. "They
didn't have much to say."

Pierce, who is being held in lieu of $100,500 bail at a county jail outside
Johnston, was not available for comment. Bizzell said Pierce had not hired
an attorney as of late Friday.

The sheriff said he suspected Pierce's drug activity 90 days ago when he
received phone tips from people who have been arrested on past drug
charges. The sheriff's office began an internal investigation, he said.

A jail administrator confronted Pierce on the allegations several weeks
ago, and he denied them, Bizzell said. But the sheriff said he has driven
past Pierce's home several times in recent weeks and witnessed drug
activity since the warning.

"He ceased operation for several weeks, and when the heat was turned down,
he went back into the business," Bizzell said.

Bizzell said he is still investigating whether Pierce sold drugs to inmates
at the county jail in Smithfield. But he said the tips that led to Pierce
came from outside the jail and not from other jail employees. He doesn't
suspect any other jailers of criminal drug activity, he said. Pierce had
passed a criminal background check and a drug test in the hiring process,
Bizzell said. He was a punctual employee, satisfied the requirements of the
job and did not have previous disciplinary problems, Bizzell said.

The sheriff said he does not suspect that Pierce is a drug user, and he
said all employees of the county jail are subject to random drug testing.
But Bizzell said that since he was elected to office in 1998, he has called
for random testing once.

Officers who searched Pierce's home also recovered information on drug
transactions that could lead to other arrests, he said.