OFFICER GETS PRISON TERM

A former Thomasville police officer whose arrest uncovered a drug ring
operated by law enforcement officers was sentenced to more than two years
in federal prison Friday.

Former Thomasville Police Officer Russell Earl McHenry had pleaded guilty
in the Middle District of U.S. Court to conspiracy to distribute cocaine,
marijuana and Ecstasy in January. McHenry's cooperation in an investigation
that led to the arrest of nine others, including three Davidson County
sheriff's deputies and an Archdale police officer, earned him a lighter
sentence.

Dressed in khaki pants and a white shirt and tie, McHenry spoke haltingly
and fought back tears as he spoke in court Friday.

"I want to apologize to the citizens, and to law enforcement for the black
eye they have received because of my actions," he said.

McHenry could have faced a sentence of 57 to 71 months. Judge Carlton N.
Tilley Jr. gave McHenry a mid-range sentence of 64 months because of his
cooperation with State Bureau of Investigation and FBI officials.

McHenry was also granted a 60 percent reduction in that sentence. He was
ordered to spend 25 months in prison.

In his argument in favor of a lighter sentence for McHenry, attorney Joe
Bruner said his client began cooperating with authorities immediately after
he was arrested last November.

Evidence McHenry helped collect led to the arrest of four other officers:
Sgt. William Rankin Jr., 32, Lt. David Scott Woodall, 34, and Lt. Douglas
Edward Westmoreland, 49, all Davidson County deputies assigned to the
vice-narcotics division.

Also charged was Chris Shetley, an Archdale police patrol sergeant and
former vice officer. Five others, who were not law enforcement officers,
also were charged, including Wyatt Nathan Keple, Marco Aurelio Acosta-Soza,
Elizabeth Ann Harward, Jonathan Eric Apt and Chad Douglas Wilson. Keple and
Acosta-Soza are scheduled to be sentenced this month. Harward, Apt and
Wilson pleaded guilty in May and will be sentenced in August.

According to court documents, McHenry and the other four law enforcement
officers shared a common bond of anabolic steroid abuse. They also
routinely robbed drug dealers for cash and drugs they could sell, sometimes
by breaking in and other times by serving false search warrants.

Bruner countered that McHenry put himself in danger to further the
investigation against the other men. Two of them, Woodall and Westmoreland,
were said to have talked about killing Rankin because they feared he was a
security risk.

Bruner said when the other officers were arrested, McHenry received
threatening letters and e-mails from people in the community who assumed he
had been an informant against the other officers.

McHenry turned down an offer to go into the Witness Protection Program
because he didn't want to give up the right to see his children, who are in
the custody of his former wife, Bruner said.

U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston agreed that McHenry was cooperative.

"He did everything the agents asked him to do," she said. "His cooperation
exceeded what we normally receive."

In addition to his active sentence, McHenry is to have a three-year
supervised release period and do 50 hours of community service for each of
those three years.

Tilley said McHenry's crimes were especially significant because they were
committed by a law enforcement officer.

"Only if people respect law and the authorities of the law can we really
live without civil disobedience," he said.

And when law enforcement officers break the law, he added, the public loses
respect for legal authority.

McHenry's attorneys asked Tilley to request the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to
house him at its facility in Butner, so that he can be close to his family.

McHenry's other attorney, Charles Lloyd, said he and Bruner were pleased
with the sentence.

A tip from an unidentified source began the investigation into McHenry's
activities, Thomasville Police Department Chief Larry Murdock said shortly
after McHenry's arrest.

McHenry had been with the department since 1990.

He resigned after his arrest.