3 SENTENCED IN CHATHAM MARIJUANA CASE

GREENSBORO -- Two men face jail sentences and another man received a
probationary sentence Tuesday after they pleaded guilty earlier this year
to conspiracy to dig up seized marijuana from the Chatham County landfill.

Federal Judge William Osteen sentenced the men, Jody Mitchell Brafford,
Gary Leslie Causey and James Benjamin Harris, in U.S. Middle District Court
in Greensboro.

Brafford, who could have received a 14-month prison sentence, received a
probation of three years and the condition that, over the next six months,
he must spend 12 successive weekends, from 7 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Monday,
in jail. While Osteen initially said that the jail time would be served in
Fayetteville, after Brafford's attorney, Benjamin D. Porter, requested it
be in Lee County, the judge said he would take that under consideration.

The judge also required Brafford, 31, to complete 120 hours of community
service as part of his probation conditions and pay a $2,500 fine and $100
special assessment fee.

Brafford, a Chatham County employee, operated the backhoe when the Chatham
County Sheriff's deputies buried the marijuana in the landfill. In the
trial of another conspirator, David Wayne Stout, Brafford admitted digging
up marijuana three times from the landfill and he also gave Stout a map
showing where the marijuana was buried.

He also said he had made $12,000 from the sale of marijuana he had dug up,
but that he gave the $12,000 to the FBI after he was caught.

Stout allegedly called his friends, Cary Causey and James Harris, and they
devised a plan to go to the landfill and dig up the dope. In Stout's trial,
Harris said that he, Cary Causey, Causey's father, Ted Causey, another man
and Stout met at Gary Causey's racing shop on the night they planned to dig
up the marijuana.

Ted Causey, who has since died, drove them in a pickup truck to the
landfill and dropped them off. The men then walked into the landfill at
about midnight in October 2000 and spent 2½ hours digging up the marijuana,
which they put into about 10 seed sacks and took back to the road where Ted
Causey picked them up and drove them back to Causey's race shop.

The fourth man remains unidentified and has not been charged.

A jury found Stout guilty on Aug. 21; he is being held without bond until
his sentencing hearing on Nov 15.

Osteen said, in sentencing the three men Tuesday, that he took into
consideration their testimonies at Stout's trial and their other
cooperation with the FBI, including wearing wires to obtain information for
the investigation.

Harris, who could have received a prison sentence of 44 months, was
sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised
release that is to include participation in a substance abuse treatment
program.

The judge did not impose a fine but did require Harris to pay a $100 fee.

Causey, who could have received a prison sentence of 33 months, was
sentenced to 17 months in prison, followed by supervised release of three
years; he was required to pay a $100 fee, but no fine.

"He is unable to pay the fine and therefore the court declines to do a
useless act," Osteen said.

The judge said that Harris, 41, and Causey, 39, were to report to prison at
noon on Oct. 15.

Before sentencing, the three men apologized.

"I'd just like to apologize for the trouble I've caused," Brafford said.

During the hearing, Brafford's attorney, Benjamin Porter, said that
Brafford was extremely embarrassed and remorseful and that, according to
his family, he had always been a hard worker as a painter and a turkey
farmer. Porter also said that Brafford's wife was expecting another child;
she wiped away tears when the judge sentenced her husband.

"I would like to tell the court that I do regret having anything to do with
this," Harris said. "I did it largely because of financial difficulty . I
hope in my cooperation, I've done right."

"I apologize to the people of Chatham County, my family. This is very out
of character for me ... I've hurt two years because of it and I'll probably
hurt for the rest of my life," Causey said.

When Judge Osteen asked Causey why he did it, Causey wiped away tears and
couldn't speak at first; the judge told him to sit down and had someone
bring him water. When Causey stood up to continue, he apologized for
crying, but the judge said he did not need to apologize for that.

"There is no harm and no penalty for crying," Osteen said.

Then, Causey spoke.

"My mom and dad are disabled, and I've worked hard all my life to try to
help them. My dad was going on this dig and he couldn't dig so I went to
help him. He has since died from cancer," Causey said.

Causey said that financially he couldn't help his parents anymore and that
he had participated in the dig to help them; their total income was $800 a
month.

Earlier, Causey's attorney, Mike Grace, told the judge that Causey had not
kept any of the marijuana and had not benefited from any sale of it.

"My client's one-fifth was never sold. Mr. Harris sold a portion of the
drug to an informant, and that's how it came to light," Grace said.

When the judge asked him why it was necessary to assist his disabled father
to do a criminal act, Causey said: "I made a very bad decision."

During the hearing, Harris' attorney, Tom Cochran, and Grace referred to
the bigger picture as the context for this case. Since the judge had not
tried Stout and had no knowledge of the story as to how the marijuana came
to be buried in the landfill in the first place, the attorneys filled him in.

So, Cochran told the story of how it had all started when law enforcement
had seized about 5,000 pounds of marijuana.

Grace spoke of what he had been hearing from people in Chatham County.

"They are incensed that out of 5,000 pounds, [Harris, Stout, Brafford,
Causey] are sentenced for a small part of it ... And, everybody in Chatham
County thinks it was law enforcement," Grace said, of who is responsible
for the missing marijuana.

Unanswered questions include who stole about 4,000 pounds of marijuana from
the old army truck behind the Chatham County Sheriff's Office; why has no
one been charged with that theft; and why didn't the sheriff's office burn
the marijuana instead of burying it in the landfill.

During the hearing Tuesday, Osteen chastised a man in the audience who
mouthed "read the newspaper" at him during the hearing and said he would
not base any decision on what was in the newspaper.

After sentencing, Osteen called on people to help the U.S. Attorney's
Office solve the case of the missing marijuana.

"I don't know what happened in Chatham County ... If you know, it may be in
your best interest and Chatham County's to come forward with what you have
... I hope you will help to rid whatever you do believe the blight is in
Chatham County, if this is the case," Osteen said.

U.S. Attorney Cliff Barrett said, during the sentencing hearing, that his
office is certainly interested in finding out what happened to the missing
marijuana and continues to investigate.

"There are 4,000 or so other pounds of marijuana missing. That is of utmost
importance to the Attorney's Office," Barrett said.

In comments after the sentencing, Brafford's mother, Janice Loy, also
referred to how the sheriff's office had mishandled the marijuana.

"If the drugs hadn't been [in the landfill], it never would have happened.
I don't think any of the guys would have been involved if it had been
disposed of properly. I would hope they would continue to investigate," Loy
said.

"I told the FBI, my son may have done a criminal act, but he is not a
criminal," Loy said.

Loy said she was thankful for the sentence her son received.

"A lot of prayers have been answered for him," Loy said.