SBI PROBE OF DETECTIVE CAUSES 3 CASE DISMISSALS

Charges Of Drug Trafficking Dropped In Forsyth

Police officials would say little yesterday about the allegations against a
High Point police detective under state investigation, but court papers say
that the case in which he is accused of lying involved three Forsyth County
residents charged with cocaine trafficking.

District Attorney Tom Keith of Forsyth County dropped felony charges
against the defendants Wednesday and ordered them released from jail.

Detective Scott M. Gordon of the High Point Police Department was put on
leave while the State Bureau of Investigation looks into allegations that
he gave false information to a judicial official in a court document.

High Point police are also doing an internal investigation, the department
said in a statement Wednesday.

Police Chief Jim Fealy said he could not discuss details of the case until
the investigations are complete. The police statement said that a police
supervisor and other officers found possible inconsistencies in the
officer's report, and took the information to Fealy. "We had a bad incident
happen, and folks did the right things with it," Fealy said.

The case began as a drug investigation in which High Point police gave
information to detectives with the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office, said
sheriff's Lt. Brad Stanley.

Three people were arrested on May 11 as part of the investigation. Gordon
and a Forsyth detective searched the house of one of them, Christie Lynn
Moncus, 29, of 2452 Wickham Road, outside Kernersville.

The search warrant was issued by a judge in Guilford County at the request
of Gordon, who typed up a sworn statement giving reasons why he said he
needed to search Moncus' house.

According to the warrant, a confidential police source told Gordon that a
woman named Christie had a large amount of cocaine at the house. The source
said that cocaine had been displayed for sale.

"The confidentiality of the source is necessary in that the source fears
physical reprisal should his/her identity become known," the warrant said.
"This would negate any future use of the source by the High Point Police
Department."

In the warrant, Gordon said he was familiar with Moncus from a previous
investigation. She was charged with trafficking in cocaine in January 2004
in Guilford County.

Gordon and a Forsyth sheriff's detective searched the house May 10.
According to the warrant, they confiscated a white rocklike substance,
pills, bags with white powder residue, straws, scales, and $8,110 in cash,
among other items.

Moncus was charged on May 11 with trafficking in cocaine, possession with
intent to manufacture, sell or deliver cocaine and maintaining a house for
drug purposes. Karen E. Jankowski, 29, who lives at the same address, was
charged with trafficking in cocaine, possession with intent to manufacture,
sell or deliver cocaine, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Moncus' boyfriend, Ashley J. Fitzgerald, 23, of Thomasville was charged
with trafficking in cocaine and possession with intent to manufacture, sell
or deliver cocaine.

All three were released from the Forsyth County Jail on Wednesday after
Keith decided to drop the charges. Keith is out of town and was not
available for comment.

Frank Brown, the agent in charge of the SBI's Northern Piedmont District in
Greensboro, declined to comment on the investigation. An SBI investigation
is common when a police officer is accused of breaking the law, because
police departments often want an independent agency to investigate.

Gordon has been a police officer since 1993, according to the search
warrant. He is the police-dog handler in the High Point vice unit, has
assisted with at least 40 search warrants involving drug houses and
executed 13 search warrants, according to the warrant. "The applicant has
either made or assisted with over 300 drug arrests during his tenure in
this specialized unit," the warrant said.