HEGE DISCUSSES DEPUTY DRUG ARRESTS

Davidson County Sheriff Gerald K. Hege on Tuesday denied that interagency
politics clouded his judgment in dealing with three "rogue cops," as he
described them.

Three of Hege's deputies, an Archdale police officer and two other men face
federal drug charges after being arrested last week by FBI and State Bureau
of Investigation agents. Charged are Sgt. William Rankin Jr., 32; Lt. David
Scott Woodall, 34; and Lt. Douglas Edward Westmoreland, 49. The three are
Davidson County deputies assigned to the vice-narcotics division.

Also charged was Chris Shetley, an Archdale police patrol sergeant and
former vice officer, and two other men, Wyatt Nathan Kepley and Marco
Aurelio Acosta-Soza, who are not law-enforcement officers.

An affidavit released last week indicates that the law-enforcement officers
routinely robbed drug dealers for cash and drugs they could sell, sometimes
by breaking in and other times by serving false search warrants.

According to the affidavit, an informant told investigators that Hege had
been told there were problems with Woodall and Westmoreland, and he
confronted the men.

They reportedly denied the allegations, and the informant said Woodall told
him that Hege believed the information "may have been part of an election
year ploy by the NCSBI to cause trouble for him," as stated in the affidavit.

Hege said Tuesday it's true that the sheriff's office has had strained
relations with the SBI in the past, but over the past year-and-a-half that
hasn't been the case.

"Since the new director (Robin Pendergraft) came in, the State Bureau of
Investigation has an office here and we get along fine," he said.

Hege said he remembers the conversation described in the affidavit, but
said Woodall and Westmoreland told him they'd spoken with an SBI agent
about the allegations and said "everything was cool."

Hege said he didn't "blow it (the allegations) off" and didn't make any
statements about a possible SBI plot to discredit him.

The sheriff said he tried to reach his department's SBI contact several
times to discuss the matter, but was unsuccessful. The agent had been
transferred to another county, he said.

As far as he knew, Hege said, his men were gathering evidence in the Kepley
case and preparing to arrest him.

Hege said when he got word earlier this year that Kepley had been arrested
in California on drug charges, in his mind it confirmed that his deputies
had completed their work and turned their information over to the SBI.

Supervision of vice-narcotics officers in his department has been stepped
up since the arrests, Hege said. He and five captains and majors will begin
working nights to supervise vice operations.

Hege acknowledged the criticism he's received since the arrests.

"We know the blood's in the water," he said.

Since the arrests, other allegations have been made against the officers.

Officers have confiscated $22,000 one of the officers left at a friend's house.

"We're trying to find out everything we can to separate fact from fiction,
and turn it over to the State Bureau of Investigation," Hege said.

The sheriff disputed allegations many have made that his high profile and
concern with projects outside of his sheriff's responsibilities, such as
his Court TV show and Blue Line Foundation, clouded his judgment.

"We're dealing with three guys here - especially Woodall - who knew how to
catch people at it (drug violations) and therefore how to avoid it," he said.

And since many of the people the officers victimized were breaking the law,
Hege said, they weren't likely to complain.

The three deputies had been drug-tested within eight months prior to their
arrest, and the results were negative, he said.

Cases involving 35 people facing 91 charges have been called into question
because the officers worked on them, Hege said.

Garry Frank, Davidson County's district attorney, is currently reviewing
the cases.