HEGE WENT ALONG FOR THE RIDE

LEXINGTON -- Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege thought he and three of
his deputies were going to an early morning planning session for a
multiagency drug raid when they pulled up to the National Guard Armory in
High Point about 5 a.m. Wednesday.

But it was a set-up -- a ruse that the FBI and the State Bureau of
Investigation had organized to get the deputies there and arrest them on
drug trafficking charges.

The arrests of the deputies -- Hege's top narcotics officers -- may end up
throwing a number of cases they investigated in jeopardy.

The county's district attorney will review pending cases the deputies were
involved in to see if those cases can be prosecuted or whether they will
have to be thrown out. The number of cases that could be affected was
unclear Thursday.

In all, the three deputies, an Archdale police officer, the son of a
Davidson County commissioner and another man were arrested by the FBI, and
each charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. An
indictment handed down by a federal grand jury charges the men with
distributing 220 pounds of marijuana, 11 pounds of cocaine, anabolic
steroids and Ecstasy over the past year.

Hege, who was not charged, went to the meeting at the armory at the request
of one of the deputies who was arrested. During the meeting, the deputies
who were helping plan the bogus raid were put in handcuffs.

"It was a total shock," Hege said. "When you work in narcotics, you work
across county and state lines. It was supposed to have been a planning
session where you talk about strategy. You can meet any place, at a church,
in an empty building -- any place to talk about how you are going to make
the drug bust."

No other arrests are expected, said Lynne Klauer, an assistant U.S.
attorney with the Greensboro office. Additional charges could be levied
against those already in custody, however.

Federal officials are reviewing cases the deputies were involved in during
the past eight months to see if they may yield more evidence against the men.

Davidson County District Attorney Garry Frank will review those cases as
well to determine whether they can still be successfully prosecuted. Frank
doesn't believe the deputies would have any credibility on the witness
stand. Therefore, the cases may hinge on how much evidence exists beyond
what those three deputies had, such as whether other officers were present
at the time of the arrest or if the defendants had made a voluntary
statement about their guilt.

Defense attorney Georgia Nixon has about a dozen clients who were arrested
by the three deputies. Because the deputies are in federal custody and
would be unable to testify in court, she expects those cases to be dismissed.

Hege has fired the three deputies, Lt. David Scott Woodall, 34; Lt. William
Monroe Rankin, 32; and Sgt. Douglas Edward Westmoreland, 49. He has said he
would not want them back even if they are cleared of the charges.

Also arrested were Archdale police Sgt. Christopher James Shetley, 35, who
has been with the department since 1995, Marco Aurelio Acosta Soza, 23, and
Wyatt Nathan Kepley, 26, who is the son of Davidson County Commissioner
Billy Joe Kepley.

Shetley resigned after he was arrested Wednesday.

A jailer with the Forsyth County Jail said Woodall, Rankin, Westmoreland,
Shetley and Kepley were being held there. The jailer said Soza was not
there, though his wife, Nancy Soza, 21, said she visited him there
Wednesday and Thursday and planned to go back today to see him.

The six men are being held without bond. They will have bond hearings Dec.
19 in Winston-Salem.

Soza, of 203 Northview St., Lexington, had been unemployed for the past
three to four months, Nancy Soza said. He last worked installing floor
covering, she said.

Nancy Soza said her husband was arrested about two years ago by either the
sheriff's department or the Lexington Police Department on a drug charge.
There were no records of his arrest at the Davidson County Clerk of Court's
office.

"He always had money, but I never asked him where he got it," said Nancy Soza.

Authorities have not released details about the connection between Soza,
Kepley and the four law enforcement officers.

Wednesday's arrest was the second time in two months area law enforcement
officers were arrested on drug charges. Thomasville police Sgt. Russell
McHenry, 32, of 5524-B W. Market St. in Greensboro was arrested in November
and charged with trafficking in MDMA (Ecstasy), conspiracy to traffic in
MDMA, possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana and conspiracy
to deliver marijuana.

Staff writer Paul Garber contributed to this article.