EX-DEPUTY NO LONGER FACES DRUG CHARGE

Former Mecklenburg Sheriff's Sgt. Shirley Riddle, one of the star defense
witnesses in Rae Carruth's murder trial, won't be prosecuted on a
prescription drug charge.

The charge was dropped this week after the former deputy's sister admitted
she, not Riddle, altered the prescription for the anxiety medication Xanax.

"When she confessed, we didn't have a case against Shirley Riddle," said
Mecklenburg Assistant District Attorney Bruce Lillie.

Riddle's 59-year-old sister pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempting to obtain
a controlled substance by fraud. She was placed on probation for 11/2
years, fined $400 and ordered to undergo a drug evaluation and follow any
treatment recommendations.

Defense attorney Bruce Park said his client stepped forward and confessed
to changing the prescription for her sister's medication.

Riddle, 54, was charged in February with attempting to obtain a controlled
substance -- Xanax -- by fraud. Her arrest came less than two months after
she testified in Carruth's trial.

Riddle told jurors her superiors asked her to cover up jailhouse
conversations suggesting Cherica Adams' killer acted on his own impulse
rather than on Carruth's orders.

Riddle testified that Van Brett Watkins told her he shot Adams after the
woman made an obscene gesture at him. Riddle's testimony bolstered the
defense's theory that Watkins killed Adams in a rage after a botched drug
deal -- not because Carruth hired him to shoot the mother of his unborn child.

Watkins, who pleaded guilty to murdering Adams and was sentenced to at
least 40 years in prison, denied telling Riddle that. He testified Carruth
paid him to shoot Adams and pressed him for months to do it.

Adams, 24, was eight months pregnant with Carruth's baby when she was shot
four times in a November 1999 drive-by shooting. She died a month later.
Doctors saved her baby, Chancellor, in a Caesarean.

Carruth, 28, was acquitted of murder. But the former Carolina Panthers
player was convicted of conspiring to commit murder and is serving at least
18 years and 11 months in prison.

Mecklenburg Sheriff Jim Pendergraph said Wednesday his office investigated
Riddle's allegations of a cover-up and found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Pendergraph also disputed that Riddle reported Watkins' alleged statements
to her superiors. He said his office first learned about those alleged
statements after Riddle went to Carruth's defense lawyers.

"We don't cover up things," the sheriff said. "That's not the way we operate."

Less than a month after the jury verdicts in Carruth's trial, Riddle was
arrested after a pharmacist reported an attempt to alter a prescription for
Xanax.

Riddle's sister later came forward and admitted committing the crime. Her
lawyer said she was going through a stressful time because of her
daughter's sickness. He said his client changed the number of refills from
one to four.

Riddle was charged after she later tried to get the altered prescription
filled. Riddle's attorney, Allen Brotherton, said his client has always
denied altering the prescription.

"There was absolutely no motive for Sergeant Riddle to have altered that
prescription," Brotherton said.

Riddle, meanwhile, was fired from her job at the Mecklenburg Sheriff's
Office in July. Pendergraph said Riddle's firing came after an internal
investigation into allegations of misconduct. He said state personnel laws
prohibit him from discussing grounds for terminations.

Brotherton contends Riddle's firing was connected to the prescription
charge and her testimony in Carruth's trial.

"The sheriff's department used the circumstances of the drug charge as an
excuse for firing her, when it is clear the real reason was her
embarrassing testimony in the Carruth case," Brotherton said. "Sergeant
Riddle feels betrayed by the department and is happy to have finally proven
her innocence."