SHERIFF'S OFFICES SEARCHED IN COFFEE

DOUGLAS, Ga. -- FBI and Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents pored
over documents yesterday at the Coffee County Sheriff's Department as
they executed a search warrant to view files involving drug cases.

Bill Butler, special agent in charge of the GBI's Douglas office, said
only, "We're executing a warrant."

Coffee County Sheriff Carlton Evans said his officers are cooperating
with the agents as they continue operations.

Evans said the search warrant may be a continuation of an
investigation in neighboring Irwin County that resulted in the arrest
of three high-ranking Coffee County deputies on charges of growing
marijuana.

Maj. Benjamin Hodge, 36, former chief deputy, was arrested Oct. 20,
and Capt. Wayne Harper, who supervised the uniformed division, was
arrested Nov. 1. Lt. John Lee, a patrol supervisor, was arrested Nov.
24. All three are free on bond and are on unpaid administrative leave.

Five civilians were also arrested, authorities said.

Butler was among more than a dozen state and federal agents who were
searching the administrative offices at the law enforcement complex.
Glass panels in office doors were marked with yellow and black police
tape warning that the area was a crime scene.

Although Butler said he could say nothing more about the activity
behind that tape, Evans said the search was under way when he arrived
for work at 8 a.m.

The agents were examining documents in files and on computers and were
looking for information on confidential informants and their pay,
Evans said. The agents also were searching for information on a
particular marijuana investigation, the department's policy and
procedures for operating a drug investigation office at the airport
and documents on the destruction of marijuana taken as evidence, he
said.

"That's what the search warrant said, and that's what we're doing our
best to provide them with," Evans said. "I told them they didn't need
a search warrant. Anything that's here, they're entitled to it."

All administrative offices have been marked with crime scene tape and
numbered for evidentiary purposes, Evans said.

As Kathy Wilkerson sat at a desk at the entrance to the offices
yesterday, an agent from the FBI's Atlanta office, who was wearing
latex surgical gloves, leafed through a stenographer's pad.

Word got out around Douglas of the search, and many people rode by
slowly to check out the action. About all there was to see were agents
bringing in bags of fast food.

One deputy approached Evans in the courtroom and asked if she would be
allowed to go to a restroom near the back of the building.

Although the sealed-off offices and controlled movements have been an
inconvenience, Evans said he has no problem with the way the agents
are conducting the search.

"They've got a job to do, and they're more than courteous," he
said.

Evans, who already faced a three-way race to retain his office in the
Democratic primary in July, said the investigation will make it more
difficult.

"It's not going to help me. When your top people get arrested, it
looks bad on you," he said.

Coffee County Administrator Tom Couch said the county attorney is
monitoring the situation at the Sheriff's Department. So far, the
office has not been hampered in carrying out its law enforcement duties.