AFFIDAVIT DESCRIBES DRUG ACTIVITIES OF 3 DEPUTIES, OFFICER

Allegations Were Made By Unidentified Officer

LEXINGTON -- Federal officials released a 36-page affidavit yesterday
documenting part of the investigation of three Davidson County
deputies and an Archdale police officer who were arrested this week
on charges that they distributed crack cocaine, marijuana, steroids
and Ecstasy for more than a year.

According to the affidavit the four law-enforcement officers and
another law-enforcement officer arrested in November sold drugs
around the Triad. Authorities say they believe that the men deposited
the money they made from the sales in unidentified bank accounts or
used it to buy more drugs and Harley-Davidson motorcycles

According to the affidavit, the officers broke into homes, issued
fake search warrants and intimidated suspects to obtain marijuana,
cocaine and steroids. The affidavit describes a complex and sometimes
strained relationship between the men, who often bickered, stole from
one another and at one time discussed killing a deputy who was one of
their partners.

The affidavit was filed Dec. 10 as the basis for search warrants for
the officers' homes, meeting places, and cars belonging to the
Davidson County Sheriff's Office.

The deputies, Lt. David Scott Woodall, 34, Lt. Douglas Edward
Westmoreland, 49, Sgt. William Monroe Rankin, 32, and Sgt.
Christopher James Shetley, 35, of Archdale are in Forsyth County Jail.

Wyatt Nathan Kepley, 26, and Marco Aurelio Acosta-Soza, 23, who are
not law-enforcement officers, have also been arrested. Kepley is the
son of Davidson County Commissioner Billy Joe Kepley.

The five men were arrested Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The
arrests shook Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege, who at one point
confronted the men, who told him that they had done nothing wrong.

Most of the allegations come from the unidentified police officer who
was arrested Nov. 5 on drug charges. The officer was charged with
trafficking Ecstasy, possession with intent to sell and distribute
marijuana and conspiracy to traffic Ecstasy and deliver marijuana,
according to the affidavit.

"(He) elected to cooperate with state and federal investigators and
informed them that he was part of an organized criminal conspiracy
comprised at the top levels of officers from different
law-enforcement agencies," the affidavit reads. "This criminal
organization was conducting widespread drug trafficking, extortion,
witness intimidation, aggravated assaults, robberies and thefts."

The police officer wasn't identified, but on Nov. 5, State Bureau of
Investigation agents arrested Thomasville police Sgt. Russell Earl
McHenry Jr., 32, on similar charges.

Federal authorities say they believe that the deputies had been
trafficking drugs since 2000, but the affidavit only goes back as far
as April 2001, when the informant said he became involved with the
men.

Most of the informant's conversations were with Woodall who
investigators allege carried marijuana and cocaine in the sheriff's
office's undercover van.

The informant told investigators that he used steroids and that he
bought them from Kepley.

In April, Kepley was arrested on steroid-possession charges in San Diego.

The informant said he ran into Rankin outside in bar in High Point
and told him about Kepley's arrest. Rankin offered to get him some
steroids. According to the informant, the next day Rankin gave him
$300 worth of steroids.

Rankin later introduced the informant to Woodall, according to the
affidavit. According to the informant, Rankin and Woodall gave him
steroids to sell.

The informant said he sold steroids for several months, and in July,
asked Woodall if he could sell marijuana.

In October, he said he started buying Ecstasy from Woodall to sell at
nightclubs and parties. The informant said he split the profits from
the sale of the drugs with Woodall.

As business increased, Shetley, the informant's friend, and two other
unidentified men started selling drugs for the informant, the
affidavit said.

The informant said that he and the other officers also used fake
search warrants to seize cocaine, money and guns from drug dealers.

The informant told investigators that Woodall had a "stash house", a
wooden outbuilding in Thomasville, where he took the seized drugs to
be weighed and divided.

According to the informant, the relationship between the men was at
times strained.

While Kepley was in California appearing on the steroid-possession
charges, Woodall and the informant drew up fake search warrants for
Kepley's apartment in Lexington, the affidavit said. The informant
told authorities that he presented the warrant to Kepley's
girlfriend, who allowed him to search the apartment. The informant
said he seized as "evidence" a Food Lion bag filled with cash and
$320,000 worth of the steroid Primabolin.

Woodall later resold the Primabolin to Kepley for $12,000 in cash,
the informant said.

According to the informant, the officers searched Kepley's house
several times with search warrants. Twice they broke into the house
and took money, according to the informant.

The officers also bickered over what roles they would have in their
network, the informant said.

Woodall and Rankin complained that Westmoreland always drove the
get-away car during burglaries but never went inside the houses,
according to the affidavit.

This past spring, Woodall and Westmoreland thought that Rankin had
leaked information about the steroids to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

"Woodall said he and Westmoreland did not think Rankin had the heart
to take the heat and they had discussed the possibility of killing
Rankin," the informant told authorities.

But the men also helped one another, the informant said.

Woodall received marijuana and cocaine from Acosta-Soza, the
informant told investigators. When Acosta-Soza was in a Texas jail in
October, he called Woodall to ask for help. Woodall eventually
traveled to Texas to bail out Acosta-Soza.

Acosta-Soza called Woodall several times while in he was in jail,
according to telephone records from the Panola County Jail.

According to the informant, the men didn't think that officials at
the Davidson County Sheriff's Office suspected anything.

Davidson County Sheriff's Office has received a handful of complaints
against Woodall, Westmoreland and Rankin this past year, according to
the informant.

Several months ago a man came to the sheriff's office demanding that
officials return $3,000 that they took from him during an arrest, an
informant said. According to the informant, Woodall and Westmoreland
were involved with that arrest.

In a conversation taped by federal agents Nov.29, Woodall also told
the informant that Hege had confronted him and Westmoreland the day
before about, "being involved in selling drugs."

Woodall said he denied the charges and thought that Hege believed him.

"Woodall ... stated that Sheriff Hege believed the information may
have been part of an election-year ploy by the N.C. SBI to cause
trouble for him," according to the affidavit.

Last night Hege said he had not seen the affidavit and declined to
comment on the conversation he had with Woodall and Westmoreland.

"These guys are where they belong in my opinion," Hege said. "I
really don't want to comment until I talk to the guys in Greensboro."