STRICKLAND QUITS SHERIFF'S OFFICE

District Attorney Considering Perjury Charges

LUMBERTON -- A Robeson County sheriff's drug enforcement supervisor who
faces possible perjury charges has resigned.

Sheriff Glenn Maynor had already placed C.T. Strickland, a 13-year veteran
of the Sheriff's Office, on paid administrative. That came after an
investigation by the state Sheriff's Education and Training Standards
Commission that began after a judge found that Strickland falsified a
search warrant.

John Bason, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, declined to give
details on the investigation. "It's an ongoing investigation," he said.

Bason said the Sheriff's Education and Training Standards Commission is a
state body that sets the standards for people to be certified as a law
enforcement officer in North Carolina. He said a possible outcome of such
an investigation is the revocation of certification.

District Attorney Johnson Britt said he is still considering whether or not
to pursue a criminal indictment against Strickland on charges of perjury.

Maynor confirmed Monday that Strickland resigned June 27, about two weeks
after he was put on leave for an undetermined amount of time. Maynor said
he placed Strickland on paid adminstrative lead because of concerns about
"credibility."

There had been a possibility that Strickland might be reassigned within the
Sheriff's Office. He had worked the past eight years as the drug
enforcement supervisor. Maynor said he has not yet decided on a replacement
for Strickland.

Strickland would not answer a reporter's telephone call.

Strickland's resignation comes nearly a year after Superior Court Judge
Gregory Weeks ruled that Strickland made false statements to obtain a
search warrant. Britt said that was the reason he dismissed drug charges
against two men.

According to Britt, it was the application for a search warrant that was in
question.

The warrant application Strickland completed said that information came
from single information whom the Sheriff's Office had used before and found
reliable.

Two informants were actually used, neither of whom had ever been used
before, Britt said. He also said Strickland consolidated information from
the two informants into a single reference.

Judge Weeks found the application for the warrant contained material
misrepresentations of fact, which made any evidence seized in the case unusable.