AFFIDAVITS SAY HEGE TOOK MORE THAN $6,200

Indictments against suspended Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege paint a
picture of a man who, on a few occasions, improperly used a total of $6,200
in vice funds to pay for election celebration dinners in 1998 and 2002 and
for his own travels in recent years.

But affidavits released this week describe a much darker reality. According
to some of Hege's top deputies, the sheriff had regularly embezzled or
attempted to embezzle vice funds since at least 1998, taking possibly tens
of thousands of dollars over a five-year period and ordering subordinates
such as Major Brad Glisson and former vice officers Scott Woodall and Doug
Westmoreland, both of whom are now serving time in federal prison, to cover
for him.

District Attorney Garry Frank declined this morning to comment on the
nature of the additional allegations in the affidavits not covered under
the indictments. He said the affidavits, which he personally filed with the
court, speak for themselves.

Frank said there were reasons behind indicting Hege on some of the
allegations and including others only in the removal petition, but he
declined to discuss those reasons.

"It's two completely different proceedings with two completely different
purposes," he said. "For that reason, there were some things that were
appropriate for one and not the other."

Hege was indicted Monday on 15 felony counts, including five charges each
of embezzlement and obtaining property by false pretenses. The indictments
accuse Hege of instructing a subordinate sometime between May 1 and Dec.
31, 1998, to take $2,100 in vice funds to replace seized money that had
disappeared from safekeeping.

He is also charged with using $1,100 in vice funds between 1998 and 2002 to
pay for two election celebration dinners at Staley's Charcoal Steakhouse in
Winston-Salem. Hege was also indicted on charges he stole $1,000 in vice
funds on June 28, 2002, and $2,000 in vice funds on Feb. 19, 2003.

Not mentioned in Monday's indictments are allegations that Hege stole vice
funds on many other occasions and instructed his deputies to cover for him
by fabricating receipts. The special vice funds, allocated to the sheriff's
office by the county finance department, came in the form of checks that
were usually for $4,000 and issued every few months. Hege often took half
of that amount, some current and former department employees said.

Sabrina Hopkins, a former administrative assistant for Hege, said on
"numerous occasions Woodall or Glisson would come back to my office after
receiving vice money from the sheriff and tell me that they had only got
one half of the money. I estimate that that occurred approximately 12 times."

Hopkins also said she personally witnessed Hege keep $2,000 in vice funds
sometime prior to her leaving the office in 2001. She also notes that
Glisson told her Hege always requested funds before he went on a trip.

"I then noticed that Sheriff Hege requested some vice funds just before
taking a trip to South Dakota," she wrote. "... Glisson had told me that
Hege had kept one-half of the vice funds that were requested just before
the South Dakota trip."

Hopkins said she noticed that Hege always kept his left shirt pocket full
of at least eight to 10 $100 bills.

Officer Todd Kates said that while working as a vice officer in 2000, the
sheriff gave him $2,000 in vice money and asked him to write a receipt for
$4,000. "I told Sheriff Hege that I was not going to sign for $4,000 unless
I received $4,000," Kates said.

"... At the time, Sheriff Hege tried to explain he used the money to try
and pay his own informants," Kates' affidavit continues. "I have never
interviewed any of Sheriff Hege's informants about any information on drugs
or anything else. Our departmental policy requires us to have pay-out
sheets to document where we spend vice money and I assume the sheriff would
have the same rules."

Glisson, formerly a captain over administration, also said Hege asked him
to fabricate receipts. In late 2000, Hege asked him to write receipts to
the effect that Glisson had received all the special vice funds
appropriated by the finance department for fiscal year 1999-2000, Glisson said.

Although he admits elsewhere in his statement to fabricating some receipts,
Glisson said he refused to comply with that request. "The sheriff
instructed me to write off the expenditures to 'informants or whatever,'"
Glisson said.

"I could not comply because I had no knowledge of how the special funds
money received for that year was spent," he said. "I believe that what
Sheriff Hege was asking me to do was 'wrong and illegal.'"

From that point on, Glisson said, Hege dealt directly with Woodall
concerning the special vice funds.

Several officers say Woodall and Westmoreland were frustrated with the
sheriff taking vice funds. Lt. Steve Jones said that in the summer of 1999,
Westmoreland came to him and appeared to be upset. "I asked Deputy
Westmoreland what was wrong and he advised that 'Sheriff Hege wanted him to
falsify some documents and that the sheriff was a thief,'" Jones said.

Jones also said that around November 2001, an intoxicated Westmoreland told
him that Hege was "driving him crazy" and that the sheriff was riding his
motorcycle to the Sturgis bike rally in South Dakota. "Mr. Westmoreland
went on to say that the 'sheriff was using sheriff's department funds to
pay for the trip and Mr. Westmoreland was to cover it up,'" Jones said.

Former vice officer Kevin Black said one of the reasons he resigned in
February 2001 was because he had heard Woodall and Westmoreland talk about
missing buy money. "Woodall stated to me that he was worried that the SBI
would find out the buy money was missing," Black said. "He stated that
Sheriff Hege wanted him to come up with receipts for the money in the event
the SBI wanted to check the money."

Black continued: "Lt. Woodall told me at the time that the narcotics unit
was not getting all the buy money it was supposed to. He stated that if the
finance office wrote a check to the narcotics unit for $5,000 the unit
would get half the money. The check would go through Sheriff Hege first."

After Woodall and Westmoreland were arrested in December 2001, Glisson said
that Hege told him "if there were ever a question about the funds
expenditures or the misappropriating or diversion of special funds he
(Sheriff Hege) would use Woodall and Westmoreland as 'scapegoats.'"

Other top officers also make references to Hege stealing or attempting to
steal vice money in their affidavits. Lt. Monty Myers, head of the
department's vice unit, said that in the fall of 2002 Hege's secretary told
him Hege needed $2,000 of the $4,000 she was giving the unit. "I was not
told what the sheriff needed the money for and in fact the sheriff ended up
never getting the money," Myers said.

Major Danny Owens, formerly Hege's chief deputy, noted in his affidavit
that Hege had taken portions of the vice money on several occasions.

"I have noticed over the years that when Sheriff Hege obtains special
funds, it is usually just before Sheriff Hege would take a trip," he said.
"Sheriff Hege has informed us that he has been to New Orleans, Oklahoma,
California and Florida allegedly giving speeches and for other purposes."

None of the indictments against Hege mention accusations by Woodall or
Westmoreland.

The district attorney's office and SBI agents say the investigation is
ongoing. Hege's removal hearing is scheduled for Oct. 27, but no trial date
has been set on the criminal charges.