DRUG SALES ALLEGEDLY REAPED MILLIONS FOR SUSPECTS

Lexington area resident Wyatt Nathan Kepley allegedly received at least $2
million in cash from a conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs.

Former Davidson County narcotics officers David Scott Woodall and Douglas
Edward Westmoreland allegedly received at least $250,000 in cash each from
the same conspiracy.

The figures, which shed a bit more light on the volume of the alleged
criminal operation, are included in a new indictment issued last Friday by
a federal grand jury.

The indictment, which supersedes one issued Dec. 7, re-charges the three
men and three other defendants with conspiracy to distribute cocaine,
marijuana, steroids and Ecstasy.

The new document also adds six more charges, including civil rights and
firearm violations and extortion, against individual defendants.

Kepley, Woodall, Westmoreland and their co-defendants - William Monroe
Rankin, another former narcotics officer with the Davidson County Sheriff's
Office; former Archdale police Sgt. Christopher James Shetley; and
Lexington resident Marco Aurelio Acosta-Soza - will be re-arraigned on the
new indictment next week.

The new indictment further orders all of the defendants except Acosta-Soza
to forfeit proceeds they allegedly received from the conspiracy. Under
federal law, "proceeds" is a gross, not a net, figure. That means the cash
amounts that Kepley, Woodall and Westmoreland allegedly received from the
conspiracy were not necessarily all profit. According to a federal
affidavit in the case, defendants had to pay suppliers for drugs that they
sold.

The indictment's forfeiture counts would require Kepley to give up $40,000
in cash delivered to agents of the FBI and the State Bureau of
Investigation, $3,500 in cash provided by Kepley, as well as a 2000 Isuzu
Rodeo.

Woodall would lose $8,696 in cash and Westmoreland would lose $22,500 in
cash that, according to court testimony, they gave to an individual for
safekeeping on the eve of their arrests last month. Woodall also would have
to give up a 2001 American Iron-Horse motorcycle and a 1967 Chevrolet.

The forfeiture counts do not indicate cash proceeds of the same magnitude
for Rankin or Shetley. The indictment merely directs them to forfeit any
property derived from or used in the alleged conspiracy.

For Rankin, that includes $9,700 in cash found by federal and state
investigators at his in-laws' home, where he was living when he was
arrested, as well as a 1988 Chevrolet truck.

For Shetley, that includes a 2000 Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

The forfeiture counts and the additional charges in the new indictment
raise the stakes for the defendants.

Woodall faces four additional charges - two counts of extortion, one count
of carrying a firearm in the commission of a felony and one count of
violating civil rights (for searching Kepley's apartment with a warrant
that he, Westmoreland and Woodall allegedly knew to be groundless).

Westmoreland faces two additional charges - violating Kepley's civil rights
and, while acting with Woodall as a law enforcement officer, extorting
$2,500 from a suspect.

Rankin faces just the additional civil rights count.

Shetley faces just one additional charge of extortion for allegedly taking
$2,649 from a suspect during his work as a police officer.

Kepley faces one additional charge - for possession of a handgun by a
convicted felon.

Potential penalties under the new charges range from one to 20 years in
prison and $100,000 to $250,000 in fines.

But defense lawyers indicated the additional penalties, under the federal
sentencing system, would not necessarily add significantly to the potential
sentence for a conviction on the original drug conspiracy charge -
imprisonment for 10 years to life and up to $4 million in fines.

Walter Jones of Greensboro, who is representing Shetley, said robbery or
use of a gun would be considered aggravating factors that could increase a
sentence for drug conspiracy.

Lynn Klauer, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Anna Mills Wagoner, said the
additional charges were not intended to increase pressure on the defendants
to cooperate with the government or plead guilty.

"Prosecutors have an obligation to charge crimes that we have evidence of
and that we think will lead to convictions," Klauer said.

Lexington lawyer Charles Harp II, who represented Westmoreland initially in
the case, said that was consistent with his experience in federal court.

"Ordinarily, when the federal government charges someone with an offense,
they will charge them with every offense that they think has been
committed," Harp said.

Harp said he withdrew as Westmoreland's lawyer because last fall he
represented a defendant who is now challenging her conviction in a case
investigated by Woodall, Westmoreland and Rankin.

Urs Gsteiger of Winston-Salem, originally appointed by the court to
represent Shetley, who then hired Jones, is now representing Westmoreland.

Several defense lawyers declined to comment on the new indictment, saying
they had not had a chance to review it.

Jones said the new indictment was not a surprise, since prosecutors had
hinted in court that more charges would be coming. He and Gsteiger said
they plan to enter pleas of innocent for their clients at next week's
arraignment.

As for scheduling, the new indictment "basically starts a new process,"
Klauer said. Trial, originally scheduled for Feb. 11, will be delayed at
least until March, and a judge or magistrate will probably set a new
schedule for pre-trial proceedings next week.

Said Jones: "We're really in many respects starting from scratch."