SHERIFF REORGANIZES VICE OPERATIONS

Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege said this morning he is reorganizing
his vice-narcotics operation to prevent the problems that surfaced last
week when federal and state investigators arrested three of his undercover
officers for allegedly conspiring to distribute drugs.

In a wide-ranging news conference at the courthouse, Hege said he worked
closely with vice and narcotics officers for his first six years in office
but took a less hands-on role during this past seventh year.

That's when the activities allegedly occurred that led to the indictment of
the three undercover officers, an Archdale police officer and two Lexington
residents.

Hege said he and other veteran officers - Maj. Brad Glisson, Maj. Danny
Owens, Capt. Jody Shoaf and Capt. Chris Coble - will supervise search
warrants and drug raids much more closely and will document each step.

"Documentation is the key," said Hege, adding that he will himself spend
more time working at night.

As a result of the federal indictment, county residents are coming forward
and giving the sheriff's office new information about the officers who have
been charged, Hege said.

The sheriff's office is following up on some of the information but also is
encouraging people to contact the State Bureau of Investigation if they
feel more comfortable, Hege said.

One citizen complaining that an officer took a large amount of money from
him during a traffic stop picked one of the indicted officers out of a book
of photographs and the sheriff's office forwarded the information to the
SBI, Hege said.

He said the sheriff's office also recovered $22,000 that one of the
indicted officers allegedly left at a friend's house and forwarded the
money to the SBI.

Hege denied language in a federal affidavit suggesting that he dismissed
reports several months ago of an investigation against his drug officers as
a political ploy aimed at next year's elections.

He said a year and a half ago he might have felt that way but that he likes
the new head of the SBI.

He said he tried to contact the SBI more than once about the reports that
his officers were under investigation.

He said he also asked 1st Lt. Scott Woodall twice to investigate
information he had received about possible steroid trafficking by Wyatt
Kepley, one of the Lexington men charged in the federal-state probe.

At one point, Hege proposed having an officer follow Kepley to Romania to
check out information that Kepley was getting steroids there and sending
them back to Davidson County.

Woodall assured him both times that other agencies were on top of the
situation, he said.

Shoaf said all three of the indicted sheriff's office undercover officers -
Woodall, Doug Westmoreland and William Monroe Rankin - took drug tests
within the past eight months and passed.

Hege said a total of 91 cases involving 35 individuals investigated by the
three officers are pending in court.

"It'll affect 35 defendants that may walk," the sheriff said. "But we don't
have a problem with that. We're between a rock and a hard place."