RHOAD QUITS CITADEL BOARD AFTER DRUG ARREST

Prominent Charleston lawyer Dennis Rhoad resigned from The Citadel's
governing board Tuesday following his arrest on cocaine charges at a
Wentworth Street fraternity house.

College of Charleston public safety officers arrested Rhoad and five others
early Saturday after they were reportedly seen dividing and snorting lines
of cocaine around a pool table at the Sigma Chi fraternity, police said.

Rhoad, 41, is charged with cocaine possession. At a bail hearing Saturday
morning, Magistrate Priscilla Baldwin released him on a $5,000 personal
recognizance bond.

It was unclear why Rhoad or the other suspects, ages 21 to 35, were in the
fraternity house shortly after 3 a.m. They are not students at the college,
said Virginia Friedman, a College of Charleston spokeswoman.

"The people who were in the fraternity and who were there for the summer
were upstairs asleep," she said. "They weren't charged with anything."

Billy Jenkinson, chairman of the military college's Board of Visitors, said
he was absolutely stunned when Rhoad called him Monday and told him of the
arrest. Rhoad said "he had to do the right thing" and step down, effective
Tuesday, while the charge against him is pending, Jenkinson said.

"We, of course, are deeply saddened by the circumstances surrounding his
resignation from the Board of Visitors." he said. "We support Dennis and
his family as he takes the necessary steps to resolve the situation."

Rhoad, a 1984 Citadel graduate, had served on the governing board since
1995. Jenkinson said Rhoad was a hard-working, dependable board member who
had been an invaluable asset. State legislators will have to select a
replacement for Rhoad, whose term expires in 2007, he said.

Rhoad also has been a part-time assistant county attorney for the
Charleston County Planning Commission since 1991, said county spokeswoman
Jamie Thomas. She declined to comment on whether the arrest would affect
his work with the county.

Rhoad worked as town attorney for Kiawah Island from 1988 until December
2002, when he stepped down, said Allison B. Harvey, Kiawah town
administrator. He still works on several projects for the town, she said.

He also represented a family that won a $19 million negligence verdict
against the U.S. Coast Guard in 2001 in connection with the shipwreck of
the Morning Dew. Four died when a 34-foot sailboat crashed into
Charleston's jetties in late 1997.

Rhoad, who earned his law degree from the University of South Carolina
School of Law in 1988, was not in his Broad Street office Tuesday, and no
one answered the door at his Charlotte Street home. Calls to his home and
office were not returned.

According to a police report, a public safety officer saw a group of people
leaning over a pool table at 107 Wentworth St. with "tubular objects" in
their noses. The officer was making routine checks of vacant homes and saw
the group through an open window while standing on a nearby porch, police said.

The officer looked closer and saw a white powder substance on top of a
framed picture laying on the pool table. He saw the suspects cutting up
lines of the powder and inhaling it through rolled $5 and $20 bills, a
police report stated.

Worried that the evidence would be destroyed, officers went in through an
open and ajar front door, arrested Rhoad and the others and seized 0.1
grams of the powder, which tested positive for cocaine, police said.

Also charged with cocaine possession are James Peter Robinson, 35, of
Charleston; Bryan Heath Brown, 24, of Longs; Jennifer Maja Harmon, 24, of
Charleston; Bradley Andrew Patterson, 21, of Asheville, N.C.; and Michael
Peter Dever, 22, of Charleston. Baldwin set bail for each at $5,000.