FORMER OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY

A former Thomasville policeman probably linked to last month's indictment
of three Davidson County narcotics officers and three other men pleaded
guilty to a federal charge Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro.

Investigators charged Russell Earl McHenry Jr., 32, a former Thomasville
patrol sergeant, on Monday with one count each of possession with intent to
distribute cocaine, marijuana and Ecstasy, according to federal court records.

McHenry had been scheduled to make an initial appearance before a
magistrate Tuesday and then to appear for formal arraignment next week. But
he entered a guilty plea Tuesday, officials said. Sentencing has been
scheduled for May 21.

McHenry, who lives in Greensboro, was arrested Nov. 5 on state charges of
trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in Ecstasy, possession with intent to
sell or deliver marijuana and conspiracy to deliver marijuana. The charges
stemmed from a probe by the State Bureau of Investigation and his own
police department. McHenry resigned immediately after his arrest.

A little more than a month later, SBI and FBI agents arrested three
narcotics officers with the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, 1st Lt. David
Scott Woodall, Lt. Douglas Edward Westmoreland and Sgt. William Monroe
Rankin, as well as Archdale police Sgt. Christopher James Shetley and two
Lexington-area residents, Wyatt Nathan Kepley and Marco Aurelio
Acosta-Soza, on federal charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine,
marijuana, steroids and Ecstasy.

Much of the information about the six defendants, according to a federal
affidavit, came from an unnamed former Triad police officer whose
description closely matches McHenry's. Federal officials, however, have
refused to identify the confidential witness.

McHenry had been set to appear Feb. 14 in Guilford County Superior Court
for a preliminary hearing on the state charges. But Howard Newman, a
Guilford County assistant district attorney, said the state charges will
now be dropped.

When state authorities arrested McHenry in November, they also arrested a
second man, Ronald Wayne Hall, 30, then of West Finch Avenue in Denton, on
marijuana and Ecstasy charges. Newman said Hall's charges will remain a
state case and will be sent to the Guilford County Grand Jury.