DAVIDSON MOVES ON, GRUDGINGLY

LEXINGTON -- Plea bargains that dropped some of the charges against three
Davidson County deputies and three other men didn't play well along the
county seat's Main Street.

"I don't see why not telling the truth the first time should get you a
lighter (prison) sentence," said Frankie Nance, owner of the Army-Navy Store.

But things were business as usual for Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege
and his department. Hege, who is taking heat in this election year because
of the charges against his former deputies, declined to comment on the
court proceedings Thursday.

"We're done with that," Hege said in a message delivered by an assistant.
Deputies asked about the plea deals also refused to comment.

The three former deputies -- William Monroe Rankin, 32, David Scott
Woodall, 34, and Douglas Edward Westmoreland, 49 -- along with former
Archdale police officer Chris Shetley, 35, and Lexington residents Wyatt
Kepley, 26, and Marco Aurelio Acosta Soza, 23, entered guilty pleas
Thursday to drug charges in federal court.

All six men originally had pleaded not guilty after their arrrests Dec. 12.
The guilty pleas allow some related charges against the men to be dropped.
That means the six men could face lighter prison terms when they are
sentenced in June.

That didn't sit well with residents of the city, who want to see
lawbreakers pay a price.

"I'm appalled by rampant drug abuse in our country. I think they should
serve their time. We've gone too far with plea-bargaining," computer tech
company owner Steve Harvey said. "I was saying hooray for the good guys
when these guys got arrested because they had caught some. Now, it's like
we just got them off the street for only a little while."

But Eloise Lorick of Southmont, owner of New Style Beauty Salon No. 2,
said, "I believe in giving a person a second chance. What's done can't be
undone."

No lawmen in Lexington or Archdale appeared to take interest in the
Greensboro court hearings. It was work as usual at the Archdale Police
Department, said Chief Gary Lewallen. "I don't think anybody even mentioned
(the court hearings)," he said.

Roy Holman of Lexington, a former state highway patrolman who ran
unsuccessfully against Hege in the last election, said, "It's a sad day for
Davidson County and all of North Carolina. The real victims are the
citizens (when) they put these people back on the street."

Holman, among eight candidates running for Hege's job, gives some of the
blame for the deputies' actions to Hege.

"He's not been tending to the store," Holman said. "He's been busy doing
all of this promotional stuff that has nothing to do with being sheriff."

Others resigned their personal views to the workings of the judicial system.

"You may not agree with it, but you can't go against the court system,"
said Jake Byerly of Lexington, a retired political science teacher and
coach who is also Hege's uncle.