WITNESS: OFFICER WANTED EVIDENCE PLANTED

WILMINGTON - Scott LaClaire testified Monday that police Lt. Leon Oxendine
told him to plant a computer disk in a house at 11 Albion St. in Lumberton
on Sept. 6, 2001.

Oxendine Oxendine, a 26-year veteran of the Lumberton Police Department, is
on trial in U.S. District Court.

He is charged with tampering with a witness; making false statements to the
FBI; and five counts of making false declarations to a grand jury.
Oxendine, 51, was placed on administrative leave without pay in April.

LaClaire, a police informant with an extensive criminal background, was the
first witness called by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Evenson in Oxendine's
trial. LaClaire testified that he spent two years in prison for possession
of a firearm by a felon. He was released in May 2000, but later learned
that other pending charges could send him back to prison. LaClaire went to
the Lumberton police looking for a deal that might help him stay out of prison.

LaClaire testified that he told Oxendine that he could help him catch a
drug dealer who sold drugs out of the house on Albion Street. A computer
disk at the drug dealer's house, LaClaire said, contained an image of a
$100 bill. LaClaire testified that Oxendine told him to get the disk from
the dealer's house.

LaClaire testified that he lied about the disk being at the drug dealer's
house. It actually was at his own house, he said. LaClaire went home,
retrieved the disk and brought it to Oxendine at the police station.
Oxendine told him to go to the house on Albion Street and plant the disk,
LaClaire said.

"It was his intention to arrest (the drug dealer) for the disk and get him
on federal (counterfeiting) charges," LaClaire said.

LaClaire testified that he returned to the house and left the disk on a
shelf in the bathroom. He also had been instructed by police to buy drugs
at the house. LaClaire said there were no drugs in the house, so he bought
drugs from another man in the neighborhood who lived a few streets away.
LaClaire returned to the police station and told Oxendine that he had
planted the disk but had bought drugs elsewhere.

Woodberry Bowen, who is Oxendine's lawyer, noted during cross-examination
that LaClaire had spent about 10 years in prison in his life for various
offenses. In his questioning, Bowen showed that LaClaire lied to
investigators about getting the disk from the drug dealer's house. He only
told them the truth about the disk when he was charged with obstruction of
justice for his role in the Oxendine investigation.

Testimony deals

Bowen also brought out that LaClaire received deals from federal and state
authorities to testify against Oxendine. According to testimony, LaClaire
will not be charged with federal offenses. He pleaded no contest to the
state's obstruction of justice charge and will be sentenced after
Oxendine's trial. Other state charges against LaClaire were dismissed.

"I've only been instructed to get up here and tell the truth," LaClaire
said to one of Bowen's questions. "That's the only way I can save my butt
from going back to the penitentiary."

Jurors on Monday listened to taped conversations between LaClaire and
former Lumberton police officer James Jordan. Jordan was among the officers
who searched the Albion Street house in 2001.

He resigned from the department in April 2003. He was charged with giving
state and federal agents fictitious information during an investigation. In
January, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor resisting a public officer and
agreed to testify against Oxendine.

On the tapes, Jordan can be heard giving LaClaire the go-ahead to plant
drugs on another drug dealer. Jordan is also heard saying he would plant
drugs on his brother to get back at him for an affair he had with his wife.

LaClaire testified that at one point Jordan asked him to kill his brother.
Such a request was not heard on the tapes.

Testimony continues at 9 this morning.