FORMER DEPUTY PLEADS GUILTY

RALEIGH -- A former Robeson County deputy pleaded guilty Friday in
U.S. District Court to stealing about $25,000 in federal drug
forfeiture money. Kevin Meares, 37, admitted that he forged the names
of confidential informants on vouchers used to get the federal money
from the Robeson County Sheriff's Office.

Drug investigators routinely give informants money to make drug buys.
But Meares admitted that he filed fraudulent vouchers -- used as an
accounting measure -- either by forging an informant's signature and
pocketing all of the money or by making out the vouchers for more
than he gave his informants.

Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Frank Bradsher said Meares acknowledged
that C.T. Strickland, his former supervisor in the sheriff's Drug
Enforcement Division, taught him how to file the fraudulent vouchers.
Strickland and former drug deputies Steven Lovin and Roger Taylor
were charged June 9 in a 10-count indictment alleging that the men
burned two homes and a business, assaulted people, paid informants
with drugs and stole and laundered public money.

The four are among seven former deputies charged in a three-year
state and federal investigation called Operation Tarnished Badge. The
investigation continues. Meares and James Hunt were charged by a bill
of criminal information and have agreed to testify against other
former deputies in exchange for their guilty pleas. Hunt pleaded
guilty last week in U.S. District Court in Wilmington.

Meares and Hunt face up to 20 years in prison. Hunt, who is accused
of stealing about $160,000 during six drugs stops along Interstate
95, was ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution. Meares faces fines of
up to $500,000, as well as three years probation on top of the
maximum 20-year prison sentence.

Bradshaw said Meares worked as a Fairmont task force officer and had
a mutual agreement with the Sheriff's Office as a drug investigator.
He came to work full time with the Sheriff's Office in January 2005
and resigned in August 2005, after the State Bureau of Investigation
and the federal Internal Revenue Service seized computers and
documents from the Sheriff's Office. Meares is accused of stealing
the federal forfeiture money between 1998 and 2002. His lawyer,
Rosemary Godwin of Raleigh, said Meares would not comment. After the
hearing, Meares and family members followed Godwin out of the
courtroom and into a nearby office.

Drug money seized by the Robeson County Sheriff's Office becomes part
of a federal forfeiture program. Once the federal government
determines that the money can be forfeited, 80 percent is returned to
the Sheriff's Office, which must follow strict spending guidelines.
Paying informants is allowed under the program.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Evenson declined again Friday to discuss
details of Operation Tarnished Badge or who else might be charged.
Johnson Britt, the Robeson County district attorney, confirmed this
week that the investigation uncovered that some on-duty deputies
helped former Sheriff Glenn Maynor move into a home and landscape his
yard about three years ago. County taxpayers paid for the move, Britt
said. Jim Brown, the assistant Robeson County manager, said no
determination has been made on whether to require the deputies
involved to return the money. "We're waiting for all the details to
come in," Brown said. Another former deputy, Joey Smith, has received
a target letter saying he is the subject of the investigation and
asking for his cooperation. Federal court documents show that Smith
was appointed a lawyer last month. He has not been charged.

Two other former deputies -- J.W. Jacobs and Billy Hunt -- also have
not been charged, but Britt said he has had to throw out any cases in
which they served as lead investigators because they would have no
credibility with jurors. Jacobs was charged in 2003 with conspiracy
and obstruction charges for his role in allowing a convicted felon to
carry a gun during a sting operation. He pleaded guilty to a
misdemeanor and surrendered his law enforcement badge, Britt said.

Billy Hunt was among five deputies who resigned after the state and
federal investigators seized the computers and documents from the
Sheriff's Office.