ROBESON SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT UNDER SCRUTINY FOR YEARS

The Robeson County Sheriff's Office has been battered by accusations of
corruption for years, long before Glenn Maynor took over as sheriff in
1994. But Maynor was running the department when the rumors turned into
charges. The department came under some of its closest scrutiny during the
administration of Maynor's predecessor -- Sheriff Hubert Stone. In 1986,
the sheriff's son, Kevin Stone, shot and killed Jimmy Earl Cummings,
touching off a storm of controversy in the Lumbee Indian community when the
death was ruled either accidental or self-defense. In 1988, the county made
national headlines when Eddie Hatcher and Timothy Jacobs held 20 people
hostage at The Robesonian newspaper. Hatcher and Jacobs, both Indians, said
they wanted to draw attention to corruption and drug trafficking in the
Sheriff's Office.

The State Bureau of Investigation determined the allegations to be
unfounded. Stone retired in 1994, after 16 years as sheriff and 41 years in
law enforcement.

His replacement was Maynor, who had little law enforcement experience
besides about four years as a Lumberton police officer. Maynor had spent
the last 18 years as a Lumberton City Council member and 17 years as
director of the Lumberton Housing Authority.

Maynor, a Lumbee, made up for the lack of experience with a healthy dose of
charisma. He ran for sheriff saying the office needed a strong
administrator, a leader responsive to residents. He beat James Sanderson, a
former St. Pauls police chief, by a wide margin.

About two years later, former Deputy Ray Strickland said, he received a
cryptic call from Stone regarding his nephew, C.T. Strickland. "He said,
'Listen, you tell C.T. to be careful and document everything because he's
going to need it working for Glenn.'" Strickland remembers.

Stone does not deny making the call.

He said he had started receiving many calls himself from people concerned
about how deputies were conducting themselves. Stone said the wife of one
of the deputies accused in the Operation Tarnished Badge investigation even
called him seeking advice.

Stone declined to reveal the wife's name. Eight former deputies have now
been charged since the investigation began 3 years ago. Three of those
deputies have pleaded guilty since July.

When Maynor took office, he at first kept Mark Locklear on as chief of
detectives.

Locklear said he trained Strickland, Steven Lovin and Roger Taylor the
three officers named in a federal indictment at the center of the Sheriff's
Office probe.

"All three of them had excellent work ethics, they really and truly did.
They went over and aboveboard," Locklear said. "I don't know what happened
after my departure in 1998." Locklear said he was fired because of a
falling out with Maynor over politics. Locklear, who lost a bid for the
sheriff's seat this year, declined to elaborate.

Maynor -- who resigned as sheriff in 2004, citing health problems -- has
not returned repeated telephone calls since the former deputies were
indicted. He beat Stone by a landslide in the 1998 sheriff's election.
Under Maynor, Strickland became supervisor of the Drug Enforcement
Division. He was forced to leave the department in 2003 after a judge ruled
that he falsified an application for a search warrant.

That same year, Taylor was charged in state court with conspiracy and
obstruction of justice. He was accused of allowing a convicted felon to
carry a weapon during a sting operation and then trying to impede an SBI
investigation into the incident. After he was charged, Taylor now 36 --
went to Iraq to work for a military contractor.

Those two cases led to Operation Tarnished Badge and the charges against
the eight former deputies.

One of the eight, Kevin Meares, pleaded guilty this month to stealing about
$25,000 in federal drug forfeiture money.

In a federal hearing on Aug. 4, Meares acknowledged that he forged vouchers
when he received public money to pay confidential informants. Other times,
Meares said, he made out the vouchers for more than he gave to the
informants and pocketed the rest. Meares told investigators that Strickland
taught him how to do it.