TAYLOR IN COURT MONDAY

RALEIGH - A former sheriff's deputy who faces a 12-count racketeering
indictment is scheduled for a "change of plea" hearing next week in
federal court, according to court documents.

Roger Hugh Taylor, 37, pled not guilty in February to allegations that
included arson, assault, money laundering, stealing money seized
during drug busts and satellite piracy.

Taylor's hearing is schedule for May 3, when he is expected to appear
before U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle at the Terry Sanford
Federal Building in Raleigh.

Taylor was among the first of 16 former deputies charged as part of a
federal investigation into corruption at the Robeson County Sheriff's
Office dubbed Operation Tarnished Badge.

Taylor and two other former deputies, Steve Lovin and C.T. Strickland,
were arrested in June 2006 by state and federal agents.

Fourteen former deputies, including Strickland, have pled guilty to
felony crimes including conspiracy to commit money laundering,
kidnapping, drug distribution, firearms violations and conspiracy to
commit satellite piracy. Lovin is expected to be tried in federal
court in July. Taylor, a former drug task force lieutenant and
supervisor of the communications division, faces a racketeering
indictment that dates back to crimes committed from 1996 until 2004.
Taylor and Lovin used their employment at the Robeson County Sheriff's
Office as an enterprise to commit crimes for financial benefit, the
indictment says.

The indictment includes allegations of setting fire to two residences
and one business. The indictments accuse Taylor and Lovin of providing
marijuana and cocaine to confidential informants working for the
sheriff's Drug Enforcement Division and providing someone marijuana as
payment for arson. Taylor began working for the Sheriff's Office in
1991. He was suspended after state authorities charged him with two
felony counts of obstruction of justice in September 2003.

Lovin alone faces accusations that he stole in excess of $10,000
during each of six traffic stop drug seizures along Interstate 95 from
October 2001 to April 2004. Lovin also is accused of arson and using
stolen money to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle and a Ford F-250 pickup.