STATE DROPS CHARGES IN DRUG CASE

Ex-Officer Pleaded Guilty To Federal Charges Instead

State drug charges against a former Thomasville police officer were
dropped yesterday, a day after he pleaded guilty to similar charges in
federal court, court officials said.

Sgt. Russell Earl McHenry Jr. 32, pleaded guilty Tuesday to possession
with intent to distribute cocaine, Ecstasy and marijuana in U.S.
District Court in Greensboro.

As a result of pleading guilty to the federal charges, the state
drug-trafficking and conspiracy charges against McHenry were dropped,
said Howard Newman, the Guilford County assistant district attorney
handling the case.

"That's generally the way it's done," Newman said. "The charges arose
out of the same conduct. (Otherwise) you're punishing them twice for
the same conduct."

McHenry's sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 21.

Agents with the State Bureau of Investigation, working on a tip,
arrested McHenry at his Greensboro home last November. McHenry, an
11-year veteran, resigned from the Thomasville Police Department
immediately after his arrest.

For Thomasville police officers, McHenry's guilty plea brings an
embarrassing chapter for the department closer to an end.

McHenry rose through the ranks at the department. He joined the police
force in 1990. He worked for the city's vice/narcotics unit from July
1994 until October 1996. In October 1999, he was promoted to sergeant
over the patrol division, supervising seven officers.

When police officials received a tip that McHenry was involved in drug
activity, they treated it like any other investigation, Thomasville
police Chief Larry Murdoch said.

"I hate that it happened," he said. "(The officers) are embarrassed by
the fact that one of their own was arrested for drug activity.

"But we've already moved on away from it," Murdoch said. "We're all
about business of providing good police service."

The circumstances surrounding McHenry's arrest on Nov. 5 match those
of an informant who helped state and federal investigators build their
cases against three former Davidson County deputies and an Archdale
police officer charged with drug distribution, extortion and
civil-rights violations.

Those men were arrested a month after McHenry.

Authorities have not identified the informant, but the statements the
informant made to investigators in an affidavit were critical in the
arrests of Davidson County Lt. David Scott Woodall, 34; Lt. Douglas
Edward Westmoreland, 49; and Sgt. William Rankin, 32; and Archdale
police Sgt. Christopher Shetley, 35.

Investigators also arrested Wyatt Kepley, 26, and Marco Aurelio
Acosta-Soza, 23, who are not in law enforcement, based on the affidavit.

All the men are accused of conspiring to distribute cocaine,
marijuana, steroids and Ecstasy.

If McHenry is the informant, his guilty plea on federal charges is
appropriate, the attorneys for the other defendants said.

"It does not surprise me that he's been brought over to federal court
if he's the informant," said Walter L. Jones, a Greensboro attorney
who is representing Shetley.

"If he is the contributing witness to whom so much was attributed to,
then he absolutely needed be brought to federal court," Jones said.

Defense attorneys said they don't know whether prosecutors will
recommend a shorter sentence for the informant.

"You don't know what the sentencing is until you get to court," Jones
said.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office could not be reached
yesterday for comment.