RIGHTS CHARGES FILED AGAINST EX-OFFICERS

Grand Jury Returns 7-Count Indictment, Including Extortion

GREENSBORO - A federal grand jury indicted yesterday three former Davidson
County deputies and an Archdale police officer who were arrested in
December on drug-distribution offenses on additional charges of
civil-rights violations and extortion, a court record shows.

The grand jury returned the seven-count indictment against the men in U.S.
District Court in Greensboro.

Most of the new charges against the men stem from a continuing
investigation of their activities and from information given to state and
federal investigators last November by an unidentified former police
officer who authorities say conspired with the men.

Former Davidson County Lts. David Scott Woodall, 34, Douglas Edward
Westmoreland, 49, and former Sgt. William Monroe Rankin, 32, along with
former Archdale police Sgt. Christopher Shetley, 35, were charged in
December with conspiring to distribute cocaine, marijuana, steroids and
Ecstasy.

Wyatt Kepley, 26, and Marco Aurelio Acosta-Soza, 23, who are not in law
enforcement, were also arrested and charged with similar offenses.

The former law-enforcement officers were charged with several counts of
executing fake search warrants and extorting money. Kepley was charged with
possession of a firearm by a felon after he was arrested Dec. 12, the
indictment says. Kepley had been convicted in San Diego of transporting
steroids in September 2001. Woodall, Westmoreland and Rankin are now
accused of violating Kepley's constitutional rights by using an illegal
search warrant to take property from Kepley in May 2000, the indictment says.

An informant told federal investigators that the deputies broke into
Kepley's home several times and took money and drugs. Woodall, Westmoreland
and Rankin were former members of the vice and narcotics division in the
Davidson County Sheriff's office.

Woodall and Westmoreland were also accused of intimidating a man to give
them $2,500 in October 2001, and investigators say they believe that
Shetley committed a similar offense that month, taking more than $2,500
from another man, according to court documents.

Woodall, who authorities say was the leader of the group, was also charged
with civil-rights violations in Rowan County.

Woodall is accused of illegally entering the home of a Rowan resident and
taking $600 from him Nov. 2, 2001, the indictment says. The informant told
investigators that Woodall kicked in the door and threatened the residents
with a handgun.

Federal authorities plan to seize any drug-related profits from all the
men, except for Acosta-Soza. That includes almost $85,000 in cash, cars and
motorcycles, the indictment says.

Woodall, Westmoreland, Shetley, Kepley and Acosta-Soza are being held in
the Forsyth County jail with no bond allowed. Rankin was released on a
$50,000 bond Jan. 7.