JUDGE REVIEWS SEVERAL MOTIONS IN DEPUTY'S SUIT

PITTSBORO - A Chatham County Superior Court judge ruled Monday that
fired county deputy Dan Phillips will be allowed to amend a lawsuit
filed against Sheriff Ike Gray to include allegations that Phillips
was fired in part because of the role he played in an FBI
investigation of nearly 5,000 pounds of marijuana discovered missing
from the sheriff's department.

A second motion by Phillips' attorney, Chapel Hill-based Al McSurely,
to name Chief Deputy Randy Keck both as an individual and in his
capacity with the sheriff's department as a second defendant in the
case, was partially denied. Keck will be named as a defendant in his
role as chief deputy, but will not be named as an individual
defendant, Judge Wade Barber decided.

Attorney Chris Sullivan of Raleigh, who, along with County Attorney
Bob Gunn, is representing Gray in the case, argued that too much time
had passed since the time the lawsuit was first filed on Feb. 1,
2001, to allow the amendment to be made.

Sullivan did not oppose a motion to compel the testimony of Gray and
Keck after Barber ruled that the lawsuit would be amended.

The original lawsuit named Gray as the sole defendant and alleged
that Gray had Keck fire Phillips because Phillips had knowledge of
racist incidents at Chatham Central High School in Bear Creek.

Phillips, who served as a resource officer at that school for several
months, said he was fired the day after he was asked to take a lie
detector test about the origins of a tape that contained racist
statements allegedly made by former Chatham Central principal William
"Buddy" Fowler.

Phillips has denied making the tape, and said he told Keck that he
would take a lie detector test if the complainant would also submit
to one.

The suit also alleges that Phillips was not allowed to report racial
incidents that he witnessed at Chatham Central to the U.S. Department
of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) investigators. The OCR
investigators were in Chatham County for a complaint filed against
the school system in mid-1999.

Soon after Phillips filed his suit, Gray's attorney filed a motion to
move the case to a federal court in Greensboro. Phillips attorney, Al
McSurely, filed an opposing motion April 4 to keep the case in
Chatham County.

On Sept. 27, a federal judge ruled that the case should be heard in
Chatham County.

The updated suit claims that Phillips was also fired because he
helped a drug informant report to the FBI that more than 3,000 pounds
of marijuana had been stolen from the back of an Army surplus truck
and 2,000 more pounds had been stolen after it was dug up from where
it had been buried a county landfill.

A tentative trial date for the suit has been set for mid-July.