POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS

For several seconds Friday, no one in the courtroom spoke a word as Circuit
Judge John Few stared at the convicted man before him, Greenville Police
Cpl. Timothy R. Irvin.

The judge then abruptly said, "Your sentence is 10 years. Good luck to you
sir."

It was the maximum sentence for the charge of official misconduct while in
office. Irvin was acquitted of a second charge, criminal conspiracy, after a
jury deliberated for more than five hours Thursday night and Friday morning.

Irvin did not react as uniformed deputies led him on his first few steps to
prison, just as he didn't react a few minutes earlier when a court clerk
read the verdict.

Few dismissed the jury after thanking them for their service and then
adjourned court as Irvin's wife of three years, Delores, sobbed on a
friend's shoulder.

It was the end of a four-day trial in which several convicted drug dealers,
most of whom were Irvin's former in-laws, testified that they paid him to
identify informants and tip them off to drug raids.

Greenville Police Chief Willie Johnson, who testified during the trial that
Irvin "did a good job" as a patrol officer, said the police department will
move on.

"We went through the process like we're supposed to," he said. "I accept
what the jury has returned."

Irvin's attorney, Fletcher Smith, Jr., had asked the judge to sentence Irvin
to probation, saying the good he has done outweighs the bad.

Afterward, Smith said he will appeal both the sentence and the verdict. "I
think it's a harsh sentence for a man who devoted his life to law
enforcement and has five children," he said.

Smith said he was shocked by the verdict because it sends a message to
officers that drug dealers are now in control.

"They can point their fingers at the police officers and the police officers
can be indicted and convicted without any corroboration whatsoever from any
law enforcement officer or anyone with credibility," he said.

Prosecutors played a tape for the jury in which Irvin called 911 dispatchers
asking them to run the tags of an unmarked narcotics van. James Edward
"Duck" Smith, the uncle of Irvin's former wife, testified that he had asked
Irvin to find out whose vehicle it was after it was driven past the drug
dealer's house several times.

Smith said he was present when Irvin made the phone call and later paid a
man to fix Irvin's motorcycle engine for him. Smith also told jurors that
Irvin told him the identify of a man in the drug ring who had become an
informant.

Mike Bridges, who was Greenville police chief during the time the alleged
offenses took place, told The Greenville News, "I think justice was served."

Bridges was chief when it was discovered that Irvin signed his
brother-in-law out of jail on four different occasions and then drove him to
his girlfriend's house. He said he didn't punish Irvin because, by then, a
federal investigation into the drug ring and Irvin's involvement was already
under way.

The department worked "hand-in-glove" with federal investigators, Bridges
said. Irvin's in-laws were later indicted by federal prosecutors but Irvin
was not indicted until 2001, when the state Attorney General's office took
it to the state grand jury.

Tracey Green, an assistant attorney general who tried the case, said he
thought the state had enough evidence to prove both charges.

"We're pleased the jury considered the evidence and considered the case, and
obviously did so very seriously by the fact that they acquitted on the one
charge but convicted on the misconduct charge," Green said.