MISSING POT ADDED TO SUIT OVER FIRING

PITTSBORO -- Former Chatham County deputy Dan Phillips, who claims he was
unjustly fired because he tried to reveal racism in the Chatham County
Schools, won a pretrial victory Monday when a judge said he would allow
Phillips to amend his lawsuit to claim he also was fired because he helped
instigate an FBI investigation into 5,000 pounds of missing marijuana.

Phillips is suing Chatham County Sheriff Ike Gray, and during Monday's
hearing in Chatham County Civil Superior Court Judge Wade Barber ruled that
Phillips could add Chief Deputy Randy Keck's name to the lawsuit. Barber,
however, said Keck could not be sued as an individual.

The ruling means that Gray and Keck will be required to answer questions
during their depositions about 5,000 pounds of marijuana that was seized
during a drug raid on Feb 8, 2000, in Siler City. The Chatham County
Sheriff's Office seized the marijuana as evidence, but eight months later,
it turned up missing. Some of the marijuana apparently was stolen from a
truck parked behind the sheriff's office, and the rest was stolen from the
Chatham County Landfill, where it was buried.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been conducting an investigation
into the missing marijuana, but has not released its report yet.

During previous depositions in Phillips' civil suit, Keck and Gray did not
answer questions about the marijuana at the advice of their attorneys.
During those depositions, Phillips' attorney, Alan McSurely, asked
questions about when they knew marijuana was gone, did they report it to
the FBI and what did they do when they learned Phillips had taken an
informant to another law enforcement agency?

Phillips' case is growing more complex as it nears trial, which is
tentatively scheduled for July 8. His first claim was that he was fired
because he tried to tell people that some school administrators tolerated
racist acts by students at Chatham Central High School and that the school
principal used the word "nigger" when referring to black students.

He claims Gray fired him because he tried to bring charges of racism to the
attention of county and federal officials.

In a motion to amend his complaint, Phillips claims he now believes a
contributing factor to his firing was because he took the informant to
another law enforcement agency to give information about 5,000 pounds of
missing marijuana. The marijuana had been seized during a
multijurisdictional drug raid involving the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Randolph County Sheriff's Office, the Siler City Police
Department and the Chatham County Sheriff's Office.

The Chatham County Sheriff's Office took 5,000 pounds of marijuana as
evidence, but later the office discovered that 3,000 pounds of the
marijuana had been stolen from a truck parked behind the sheriff's office.

Keck then allegedly buried the rest of the marijuana in a shallow grave
without burning it at the Chatham County Landfill. Someone then stole that
marijuana by digging it up.

At the time the marijuana was discovered missing, Don Whitt was the
sheriff, Gray was the chief deputy and Keck was head of the narcotics unit.
When Whitt retired because of health problems, the Chatham County
Commissioners named Gray sheriff, and Keck became chief deputy. Phillips'
termination, however, occurred after Gray became sheriff.

McSurely, Phillips' attorney, appears to be lining up some law enforcement
officers from other jurisdictions who tell a different story about the
missing marijuana.

In a signed affidavit from James P. Bowden, who worked with the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration as a task force agent from the Siler City
Police Department and was directly involved in the raid in which the
marijuana was seized, he said he called the State Bureau of Investigation
to ask how to handle such a large amount of marijuana immediately after the
marijuana was seized on Feb. 8, 2000.

"I received a telephone call from Ann Hamlin, who stated that we needed to
take a sample from each bundle, mark the sample with a number consistent
with the number on the bundle, submit the samples only to be analyzed, and
if there was nowhere to store the large amount of marijuana we had seized,
we could possibly obtain a destruction order from a judge to destroy the
remainder of the marijuana," Bowden said in the affidavit.

Bowden said he called Keck to give him that information and also told Keck
that BFI Corporation in Burlington destroys illegal confiscated narcotics
for free for law enforcement and provides certification that the drugs had
been destroyed.

It wasn't until December 2000 that Bowden learned from an N.C. state
trooper that the 5,000 pounds of marijuana had been stolen in September.
Bowden also said he learned from other law enforcement officers that Keck
did not put any diesel fuel on the marijuana at the landfill to burn it and
did not count the number of bales before burying it.

Gray's attorney, Todd Sullivan, had little to say about Barber's ruling,
but he expects he will file several motions before the trial including a
motion for a summary judgment, which could end the case before it gets started.

McSurely on the other hand said Barber's ruling was a great victory for the
people.

"Judge Barber said let's move this case along," McSurely said. "We've got a
judge from Chatham County. He knows Chatham County like the back of his
hand. He understands the case and says let's get on with it."