GRAHAM UNDERCOVER COP PLAYS COOL IN HIGH SCHOOL

Youthful Recruit, 21, Attends For 5 Months; Dozens Face Charges

GRAHAM - As dozens of Alamance County high school students -- some dressed
in orange jail jumpsuits -- filtered into courtrooms for their first
appearance on drug charges, one classmate kept a low profile.

The smooth-faced 21-year-old recounted how he regularly bought drugs during
his five months at Graham High School -- as an undercover police officer
posing as a 17-year-old student.

"In his first class, the guy leans over across the aisle and says 'Hey, you
smoke dope? If you do, I can hook you up,' " Graham police Chief Milford
Miller said.

Miller and the young officer -- identified at his request by only his first
name, Bobby -- described the investigation Thursday as some of the 49
students charged in the countywide sting made their first court appearances
in Burlington.

Students from six of Alamance County's seven high schools were arrested
Wednesday on charges of selling drugs including marijuana, cocaine and the
prescription painkiller OxyContin.

District Court Judge Brad Allen asked the defendants if they had lawyers or
needed one appointed, and advised them of the charges and potential
penalties they faced.

Another judge handled the hearing for [NAME DELETED], the state's all-time
leading high school basketball scorer, because [NAME DELETED]'s defense
lawyer is Allen's wife, Dawn D. Allen. [NAME DELETED] faces charges related
to selling marijuana.

Miller said he recruited Bobby to pose as a high school student after Bobby
applied for a job with the police department.

The hiring was kept a secret from many of Bobby's co-workers. Only Miller,
the Graham High School resource officer and a couple of drug investigators
at the department, who debriefed Bobby daily, knew his identity or even
that the department had an undercover officer in the school.

"We swore him in in the back seat of the car, away from the police
department," Miller said.

Bobby posed as a transfer from Green Hope High School in Morrisville. He
tried to endear himself to fellow students, but had to follow strict rules
- -- no dating, and he had to turn down invitations to join the football and
wrestling teams.

"Some people really took a liking to me," Bobby said. "I was one of them. I
just hung out and played practical jokes and had a good time."

Fortunately, Bobby's job didn't depend on his grades. He admitted that,
while he liked his shop and physical education classes, he didn't do too
well in others.

"When I got his report card at the end of the semester, I grounded him,"
Miller joked.

Bobby couldn't tell his family, not even his fiancee, what he was doing. He
told them he was training and doing paperwork, then working a 7 a.m. to 4
p.m. patrol shift, then on the warrant squad.

After five months, "the lies and the stories were starting to run out."

The grandmother of one student charged with selling drugs to Bobby was
angry that police arrested so many students but not the adult dealers who
supplied them.

[NAME DELETED] said she suspected her 17-year-old grandson was using drugs.
She said he took Bobby to someone's house to pick up drugs.

"Why didn't they go out with the people (the students) were getting the
drugs from?" [NAME DELETED] said. "Why didn't they go after the adults?"