FORMER ROBESON COUNTY DEPUTY TO CHANGE PLEA

Former Robeson County deputy Roger Taylor is expected to change his
not-guilty plea when he goes before a judge next week as part of the
Operation Tarnished Badge investigation.

Taylor was among three high-ranking former deputies indicted in June
on charges ranging from arson to supplying informants with drugs to
stealing drug money between 1994 and 2005.

One of the three, C.T. Strickland, pleaded guilty in February to
participating in the theft of federal drug seizure money. Strickland
agreed to cooperate with investigators in exchange for a reduced
sentence. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, a $500,000 fine
and three years' supervised probation. Sentencing will happen later.

Taylor and Steven Lovin remain the only former deputies out of at
least 14 charged who have not pleaded guilty. The investigation
continues and more arrests are expected.

In February, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle revoked Lovin's
pretrial release for contacting potential witnesses and ordered him
held in jail. Lovin and Taylor were scheduled to go to trial together
in July. Instead, a change of plea hearing for Taylor has been set for
2 p.m. Thursday in U.S. District Court in Raleigh. Taylor's lawyer,
James Parish of Fayetteville, was unavailable for comment.

Prosecutors say Taylor conspired with others in 1997 to burn Lewis
Vernon's home and pawnshop. They say he paid someone $1,600 for
helping to burn the home and used about 25 pounds of marijuana as
payment for burning the pawnshop. The same year, prosecutors say,
Taylor, Strickland and Lovin went to drug dealer Hubert Ray Locklear's
home, beat up some of the people there and burned the house to the
ground.

Taylor also is accused of giving marijuana and cocaine as payment to
confidential informants. In 1998, the indictment says, he took about
15 pounds of marijuana from the sheriff's evidence room and gave it to
a snitch.