EVIDENCE PLANTED, OFFICER SAYS

A former police officer involved in a Davidson County drug ring has
admitted to planting drugs on a suspect.

More than 30 drug defendants have had charges dismissed or convictions
overturned since the officers investigating their cases were charged last
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 former officer David Scott Woodall, admitting that the
crack used as evidence against Barriet was planted.

"Terrence Maurice Barriet did not have drugs on his person or property on
May 22, 1999," 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 the 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 office.

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 lawyer. He renewed the motion in August after running into procedural
delays.

Barriet, 32, has had a decade 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
office -- were sentenced along with Woodall in July.

The officers found a plastic bag in his house containing 28.2 grams of
cocaine, according to court papers.

The officers filed state charges against Barriet for trafficking and
conspiracy to traffick in cocaine, two counts of maintaining places -- his
house and his car -- to keep illegal drugs, and manufacturing cocaine.

In November 1999, a federal grand jury indicted Barriet on charges of
possessing 25.1 grams of crack and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.

Although Barriet maintains in court papers that he told his public defender
the drugs were planted, he pleaded guilty to the charges in the indictment
and received a 10-year sentence in June 2000.