DRUG WAS PLANTED, FORMER DEPUTY SAYS

Ex-Davidson Officer Says in Affidavit Man Was Framed, Threatened

Greensboro

More than 30 drug defendants have had charges dismissed or convictions
overturned since the officers investigating their cases were charged
in December with distributing drugs.

But a request by Terrence Maurice Barriet breaks new ground in the
case of the former Davidson County narcotics officers. Included with
the motion is an affidavit from one of the officers, admitting that
the crack cocaine used as evidence against Barriet was planted.

"Terrence Maurice Barriet did not have drugs on his person or property
on May 22, 1999," former officer David Scott Woodall said in the affidavit.

"The crack cocaine was provided ... in order to facilitate an arrest
... that would result in prison sentence for Terrence Maurice Barriet."

Woodall also said in the affidavit that Barriet was threatened "to not
give trouble to the case, or his wife would be victimized also."

Woodall said he was giving the statement without any favors being
offered. He also offered to testify in court.

U.S. Attorney Anna Mills Wagoner's office has requested and received
two 30-day extensions to respond to Barriet's motion. Lynn Klauer, a
spokeswoman for the office, declined to comment on the matter.

Barriet is serving a 10-year term at the Federal Correctional
Institution in Manchester, Ky. It is the same prison where Woodall - a
former lieutenant with the Davidson County sheriff's department - is
serving a 27-year sentence.

Woodall was one of four law-enforcement officers and two others
sentenced in July in federal court on charges of extortion and
conspiring to distribute cocaine, marijuana, Ecstasy and anabolic steroids.

Three of the four were officers with the Davidson County sheriff's
department.

In May, two months after Woodall pleaded guilty to the conspiracy
charges, Barriet filed a motion to vacate his sentence. Barriet is
serving as his own attorney. He renewed the motion in August after
running into procedural delays.

Barriet, 32, has had 10 years of trouble with the law. He worked as a
jailer for about eight months in 1992, but resigned after being
falsely accused of selling drugs, according to a court document.

In the 10 years since, he has been charged with several offenses,
including possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, carrying a
concealed weapon and assault on a female.

In May 1999, narcotics officers from the sheriff's office came to
Barriet's home with a search warrant.

According to court papers, Barriet said that Woodall and three other
officers entered his apartment and said they had found 7 grams of
cocaine in his 1992 Lexus. Two of those officers - Lt. Douglas Edward
Westmoreland and Sgt. William Monroe Rankin, both of the Davidson
County sheriff's department - were sentenced along with Woodall in
July.