PLEA OF DEPUTY IS NOT GUILTY

A former sheriff's deputy accused of conspiracy and drug charges pleaded
innocent Friday in U.S. District Court.

Joseph Ellick, 34, was arraigned on charges of conspiracy to possess crack
cocaine with the intent to distribute, attempt to possess cocaine, and
misprision of a felony offense.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge W. Leon Barfield, who presided over
Friday's hearing, had set a $25,000 bond for Mr. Ellick on Feb. 20. But
arrangements to secure the bond and obtain the proper paperwork have not
been completed.

"Logistically this case is a nightmare," Mr. Ellick's defense attorney,
Michael H. Bloom of Coconut Grove, Fla., told the judge Friday. Mr. Ellick
moved to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with his family last year after leaving his
job as a member of the Richmond County Sheriff's Department crime
suppression unit.

The charges Mr. Ellick faces - punishable by a minimum 10-year prison
sentence - allegedly occurred in Richmond County while he served as a deputy.

Mr. Ellick is accused of conspiring with former narcotics investigator
Ralph Tyrone Williams, 36, from 1997 through August 2000 to possess and
distribute crack cocaine.

Mr. Ellick faces additional accusations that he took steps to set up a drug
dealer to seize illegal drugs that were to be given to another man to sell,
and that he once failed to make an arrest or report finding a person with
cocaine in exchange for "being broken off a piece," according to the
indictment.

Mr. Williams, fired from the department after his indictment, also has
pleaded innocent. He faces five criminal charges in the federal indictment.
Mr. Williams is free on a $25,000 bond.