HEGE TO REIN IN DRUG OFFICERS

LEXINGTON -- Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege, stung by the arrest last
week of three top vice-narcotics deputies, announced Tuesday that the unit
will have more oversight.

Hege will have a more hands-on role, such as going out on major drug raids
and searches, he said at a morning news conference. He will work more night
shifts, too.

He also assigned a team of officers to oversee the operation of the unit.
Maj. Brad Glisson, Maj. Danny Owens, Capt. Jody Shoaf and Capt. Chris Coble
will not work cases but will document each step of operations, such as
making sure seized drugs and other evidence get logged into the evidence room.

Previously, the vice-narcotics unit operated on its own, Shoaf said. Lt.
David Woodall, one of the six men arrested last week on federal drug
charges, was involved in the cases and had direct supervision of the unit,
Shoaf said.

During his first six years in office, Hege said he worked more closely with
the vice-narcotics unit but has not done so in the past year. He said he
thinks that is when problems began.

He also said that what happened at his department is no different from what
other police agencies have faced.

"You can't guarantee that it won't happen again," he said. "But there will
be more supervisors going on searches and raids."

Officers from the tactical team have been assigned to fill the vacancies in
the unit, Hege said. Their names were not released because they will be
working undercover.

"You just have to continue on," Hege said. "You have to rebuild, start all
over and do it at a slow pace."

Woodall, 34, Lt. William Monroe Rankin, 32, and Sgt. Douglas Edward
Westmoreland, 49; Archdale police Sgt. Christopher James Shetley, 35; Wyatt
Nathan Kepley, 26; and Marco Aurelio Acosta Soza, 23, of Lexington were
arrested by the FBI last week and each charged with one count of conspiracy
to distribute controlled substances.

An indictment by a federal grand jury charges the six men with distributing
220 pounds of marijuana, 11 pounds of cocaine, anabolic steroids and
Ecstasy during the past year.

The arrests not only hurt the department's image; they also jeopardize some
of the cases the deputies were involved in.

According to records from the Davidson County Clerk of Court's office, the
three deputies had 35 pending cases in the system. There is a chance those
cases will have to be thrown out.

During the news conference in the sheriff's department's law library, Hege
also responded to claims that he had heard of the allegations against the
deputies but dismissed them as part of an election-year ploy to discredit
him and his department.

According to the 33-page affidavit the FBI released Friday, Woodall told
the FBI's informant that Hege confronted him and Westmoreland about their
alleged involvement in selling drugs. Woodall told the informant Hege
believed the information was a smear attempt by the SBI.

The sheriff said he confronted the officers about drug allegations, but he
said he never said it was part of a political attack.

"I have made (derogatory) statements about the SBI in the past, and I think
(Woodall) said that to ease his mind" about what the SBI was looking into,
Hege said.

Hege said he contacted the SBI after he heard the allegations to find out
more about the investigation, but his calls were not returned.

The six men will be arraigned before a federal judge in Winston-Salem this
morning.