SANFORD POLICE OFFICER INDICTED ON DRUG CHARGE

CARTHAGE - A Sanford police officer was arrested Wednesday in Moore
County on a charge of misusing prescription pain medicine.

The Moore County Sheriff's Office charged Richard Brian Cockman, 34,
with obtaining controlled substances by fraud. He is accused of
getting prescriptions for the same medication from more than one doctor.

Reached at his Robbins home Monday evening, Cockman said he did not
know taking prescription drugs from two doctors was illegal.

Cockman has been an officer in the Sanford Police Department for four
years. He was suspended without pay in July, said Sanford police Capt.
David Smith.

"That's the status now," Smith said.

Cockman said he has been nursing a 12-year-old shotgun wound. The
blast, inflicted by a jealous friend, took half of his left arm, sent
him to Duke University Medical Center for more than a month and
required six operations, he said.

The arm had not caused him pain for several years, he said, but when
it flared up about a year and a half ago, his family doctor referred
him to a Moore County pain clinic. He said both doctors prescribed him
hydrocodone.

"I was getting pills from both doctors and I didn't know it was
against the law," he said. He said he didn't want to tell his wife or
two children that his arm was hurting so he tried to hide it.

"I made the mistake of - it's called self-medicating - to try and get
rid of the pain," he said.

Cockman said that this summer, one of his doctors discovered he was
getting medicine from two sources and told him it was illegal. Cockman
said he stopped immediately, and the doctor referred him to Duke for
an evaluation.

"I've only seen one doctor since July," Cockman said. He said he is on
new medication.

By the time he stopped taking the hydrocodone from two doctors,
however, the State Bureau of Investigation had already started his
case, he said. The Sanford Police Department suspended him because of
the investigation.

Cockman said that at one point he sat down and talked with SBI
investigators and they told him they did not plan to arrest him. But
Wednesday the Moore County Sheriff's Office called to say he had been
indicted. He said he was shocked.

"I guess they left it up to the District Attorney's Office," he said.
"And I guess somebody pushed it."