SCANDAL CASTS PALL ON POLICE COMMUNITY

How the public responds to the recent scandal of four law enforcement
officers arrested on federal drug charges will affect the future of
Davidson County Sheriff Gerald K. Hege and possibly law enforcement in
general, officials say.

Larry Potts, chairman of the Davidson County Board of Commissioners, said
he doesn't believe the scandal will diminish Hege's reputation in the long
run. "He runs a tight ship," Potts said. "Even running a ship as tight as
he did, this happened."

Potts said Hege has earned the trust and respect of Davidson County
residents over the years.

"I think he's tried to maintain his position as leader of the department,
and the buck stops here," Potts said. "I'm sure it won't happen again."

Three of those arrested, Sgt. William Rankin Jr., 33, Lt. David Scott
Woodall, 49, and Lt. Douglas Edward Westmoreland, were all Davidson County
sheriff's deputies, all in the vice/narcotics division.

Also arrested was Chris Shetley, an Archdale police patrol sergeant and
former vice officer.

Also charged were Wyatt Nathan Kepley and Marco Aurelio Acosta-Soza, who
aren't law enforcement officers.

The six men were arrested on charges of racketeering, possession with
intent to distribute cocaine, marijuana, MDMA (ecstasy), anabolic steroids
and cocaine.

Other charges include laundering money and using firearms in relation to
crimes.

Shortly after the arrests, Hege stated that vice-narcotics officers can be
vulnerable to temptation because of the situations in which they work.

Hege, who could not be reached Saturday, said last week that the nature of
the undercover law enforcement officers' jobs also makes it difficult for
supervisors to monitor them.

High Point Police Chief Louis F. Quijas said there are no state or federal
guidelines for how supervisors should monitor vice-narcotics officers, but
there are common accepted practices.

"You've got to be very diligent in making sure there are checks and
balances," he said.

All the same, he said, "we'd be naive to think it couldn't happen" to anybody.

"You're dealing with human beings. We don't grow these police on farms or
get them right out of the seminary," the chief said.

Vice-narcotics officers face stressful situations and make decisions under
pressure, he said.

The High Point Police Department is mentioned in an affidavit in support of
search warrants released Friday by the U.S Attorney's Office. The affidavit
states when Federal Express Corp. employees found a partially opened
package of steroids in April, they called the High Point police.

Since the package was bound for a Lexington address, High Point officers
notified the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, the document states.

A High Point police detective who is not named became suspicious when
Woodall picked up the package, saying Hege's department had never been
interested in steroids before then.

The High Point detective reportedly notified the FBI about the package.

Quijas said he was not aware of the incident, and that the Davidson County
Sheriff's Office had not been "under any official suspicion" by his department.

Quijas said the contact that the High Point detective made with the FBI
could have been informal - a casual conversation around a coffee pot, for
example.

People are quick to make negative judgments against police, Quijas said. So
a few bad apples can be a real setback to public faith in police officers
as a whole.

"These situations are always so unfortunate," Quijas said. "It hurts all of
us. It's the nature of the beast. People have the tendency to paint us with
a broad brush."