IMPRISONED EX-DEPUTY APPARENTLY AIDED INVESTIGATORS DURING THEIR PROBE OF HEGE

Greensboro

In September 2000, Darick Lynn Owens was arrested on felony drug
charges after marijuana and ecstasy were found under the driver's seat
of his car.

The charges were dropped last year after one of his accusers, Deputy
David Scott Woodall of the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, was
himself charged with drug crimes as part of a federal investigation
into cocaine, marijuana and steroid distribution in the area.

During the fallout over Sheriff Gerald Hege's arrest last week, Owens
filed a $100,000 civil lawsuit in federal court in Greensboro against
Woodall and his former boss accusing Woodall of planting the evidence
and Hege of failing to adequately train and supervise his employee.

Woodall, considered by federal prosecutors to be the ringleader of the
drug-distribution ring, is serving a 27-year sentence, the longest of
any of the five law-enforcement officers charged in the scheme.
Woodall filed paperwork in August asking that his sentence be thrown
out or reduced in part because he has cooperated with
investigators.

One of the investigations mentioned in court documents filed by
Woodall was an investigation of Hege.

According to Owens' lawsuit, Woodall gave marijuana and ecstasy to an
unidentified person to plant in Owens' car Sept. 16, 2000. Woodall
then told another deputy that he had received a CrimeStopper's tip
that there was a large quantity of drugs in Owens' car.

The deputy searched the car and found nothing. The next day, Woodall
told the deputy he got another CrimeStoppers tip with the same
information. He and the deputy went to Owens' address and asked him if
they could search his car again. Owens agreed to the search but told
the deputies that if there were drugs there they were 'planted,' or
placed there by someone else, according to the lawsuit.

The drugs were found and Owens was arrested and spent 50 days in jail.
In March of 2002, his case was dismissed at the request of Garry
Frank, the district attorney for Davidson County, in the wake of the
arrest of Woodall and fellow deputies Douglas Edward Westmoreland and
William Rankin on drug and conspiracy charges.

According to the lawsuit, Woodall violated Owens' right to due process
of the law.

The lawsuit also criticizes Hege - who was suspended last week in the
wake of 15 felony charges - for not taking any action against Woodall
even though he knew or should have known of Woodall's 'illegal
propensities' before Owens' arrest.

Owens' attorney, David B. Smith of Greensboro, declined to
comment.

Woodall filed a motion last month asking that his sentence be either
set aside, reduced or recalculated because of what he now considers to
be bad legal advice.

According to court documents, Woodall argues that he would not have
pleaded guilty had he known that in doing so he would not be given
credit for his 'substantial assistance' with investigators. Among his
arguments, Woodall contends that Lisa Costner - his attorney at the
time - failed to ensure that Woodall would be granted consideration by
the court 'in the event that (Woodall) continued to cooperate in the
investigation of Gerald Keith Hege Sr., as it was proposed that if the
government was successful in obtaining an indictment against 'Hege'
that (Woodall's) testimony would be needed in the event that 'Mr.
Hege' exercised his right to trial,' according to court documents.

In affidavits in support of Hege's removal from office, three deputies
testified that Hege believed the former deputies were talking to
investigators about him.

Woodall's court filings appear to be the first court documents to show
that Hege was correct about that.

Costner said she disagreed with the allegation that she did not
properly represent Woodall, but said she was not surprised that he
filed such a motion given that they are commonly filed by people in
federal custody. Woodall's attorney, Eugene Metcalf, declined to
comment on either the lawsuit or the motion regarding his prison sentence.