EX-DEPUTY'S COURT DATE SET

A former Robeson County deputy accused of stealing tens of thousands
of dollars during interstate drug-interdiction stops is scheduled to
be arraigned Friday in U.S. District Court in Raleigh.

Steven Lovin is the only one of 16 county deputies charged in
Operation Tarnished Badge who has not pleaded guilty. However, More
arrests are expected in the four-year state and federal investigation
of the Sheriff's Office. Lovin was charged in June along with former
deputies C.T. Strickland and Roger Taylor in what became a 12-count
indictment accusing them of racketeering, arson, money laundering,
theft of federal drug-sharing money and other offenses.

The three men were arrested early June 9. A few hours later, state
Attorney General Roy Cooper and U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney announced
the investigation, which has since besieged the county with charge
after charge against former deputies.

Federal prosecutors accuse Lovin, Strickland and Taylor of being
ringleaders in criminal wrongdoing in the Sheriff's Office from 1996
through 2004. Strickland pleaded guilty in February to stealing drug
seizure money. Taylor pleaded guilty May 3 to stealing drug seizure
money and satellite TV piracy. Both men now face a maximum of 20
years in prison and fines of up to $500,000. They have agreed to
cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for lesser sentences. They
could have faced life in prison. Taylor and Lovin had been set to go
to trial in July. Before he entered his guilty plea, a Web site for
the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts listed Taylor as having
a plea hearing set for May 3. That terminology differs from the Web
site's announcement of an arraignment hearing for Lovin.

Robin Zier, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh,
said prosecutors would not comment about the case. It remained
unclear whether Lovin would enter a plea or face trial.

Lovin has been held in jail since April, when U.S. District Judge
Terrence Boyle found that he had talked to potential witnesses and
revoked his pre-trial release.

One of Lovin's alleged accomplices, former deputy James O. Hunt,
pleaded guilty in July to stealing about $160,000 in money seized
during six drug interdiction stops along Interstate 95.

During Hunt's plea hearing, prosecutor Eric Evenson said Hunt and
Lovin skimmed some of the money seized in drug stops between 2001 and
2004 and turned the rest in.

Information from Hunt led investigators to a secret hydraulic
compartment under a staircase in Lovin's home, Evenson said during
Hunt's hearing. Nobody has ever said what was found there.

All 15 former deputies who pleaded guilty in Operation Tarnished
Badge await sentencing.

Glenn Maynor, the Robeson County sheriff from 1994 through December
2004, has not been charged. The investigation continues.