HEGE TO TOUGHEN DRUG TESTING FOR NEW VICE-NARCOTICS DEPUTIES

Drastic Steps Are Needed To Restore Confidence Of Public, Counterparts Say

Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege outlined a plan to overhaul his
vice-narcotics unit yesterday, a week after federal authorities arrested
three of his top investigators on drug-distribution charges.

Several new deputies have been assigned to the unit. Hege, along with four
of his highest-ranking officers, will supervise these deputies, Hege said.

The sheriff also will execute search warrants and go on drug raids with his
deputies who will undergo more extensive drug testing that will include use
of steroids, Hege said.

"We're trying to overcome a very bad situation," Hege said. "You've just
got to continue on."

Three deputies, Lt. David Scott Woodall, 34, Lt.Douglas Edward
Westmoreland, 49, and Sgt. William Monroe Rankin, 32, along with Archdale
police Sgt. Christopher James Shetley, 35, were arrested last Wednesday by
agents from the FBI and State Bureau of Investigation.

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

All are charged with distributing drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and
steroids. They are being held in Forsyth County Jail.

Officials in Davidson and surrounding counties support Hege's
reorganization and say the measures are necessary to rebuild the public's
confidence in the sheriff's office. "He's on the right track," said Sheriff
BJ Barnes of Guilford County. "I think, no I know, because I've spoken to
him, that he wishes that he had done this sooner."

Barnes, who was elected the same year as Hege in 1994, said he has several
safeguards in his department to prevent misconduct by his deputies.

His narcotics officers take a drug test every six months; deputies are
shifted around so that the same people don't always handle the money and
the drugs; and the Guilford County Sheriff's Office has an internal-affairs
division that investigates any complaint against an officer, Barnes said.

The last time Woodall, Westmoreland and Rankin were tested for drug use was
in 1999. The last drug test conducted on a Davidson County deputy was in
May, sheriff's officials said.

Sheriff's officials don't believe that the deputies are tested for
steroids, which is more difficult and more expensive to detect.

"We're going to break the bank testing, but we're interested in it," said
Davidson County sheriff's Capt. Jody Shoaf, the new public-information
officer. "We want it out."

The internal-affairs officer at the sheriff's office is also reviewing
complaints against the three deputies, Hege said.

Those types of changes will help Davidson County Sheriff's Office rebound,
Barnes said.

"It's a reputation that they're going to have to live down," Barnes said.
"But they can do it."

Davidson County Commissioner Larry Potts said he is confident that Hege
will make sure that the new measures cut down misconduct.

"I think they'll work without a doubt because I think the sheriff will make
them work," Potts said.

"Even though it was an isolated incident ... I think it's an ongoing thing
to let (people) know that we are here for you, not to harm you," he said.

Still, even with all the additional supervision, Hege said that the bottom
line is whether the deputies can be trusted.

In a department shaken by the arrests and allegations that the deputies
issued fake search warrants, intimidated suspects and broke into homes,
trust may be an invaluable commodity.

Hege has said he trusted the arrested deputies. More than a year ago, he
assigned Woodall to investigate a tip that Kepley was involved in steroids
distribution.

According to a federal affidavit released last week, Woodall and Kepley
worked together.

"It's like putting the fox in the hen house," Hege said. "But I had no way
of knowing."

In late November, when his deputies denied rumors that they were linked to
a federal drug probe, Hege said he believed them.

Hege denied telling his deputies he thought that the rumors were an SBI
ploy to harm him in next year's election, as the federal affidavit alleges.

Hege said he tried to call SBI officials about the investigation, but
nobody returned his phone calls.

"I figured if something was going on the agent would have called me," Hege
said. "The key to this is you have to trust someone and the community has
to trust us."

The SBI would not comment on its role in the continuing investigation.

However, officials continue to uncover evidence about the case. This week
they discovered $22,000 that belonged to one of the arrested deputies.

The deputy had left the money at a friend's house, Hege said.