DAVIDSON OFFICERS INDICTED

GREENSBORO - Three ranking officers in the Davidson County Sheriff's
Department are among six people facing federal charges of distributing
cocaine and marijuana and other illegal substances for more than a year.

U.S. Attorney Anna Mills Wagoner announced today the arrests following
indictments returned by a federal grand jury in Greensboro on Friday.

Those arrested include David Scott Woodall, 34, a lieutenant with the
Davidson County Sheriff's Department; and Douglas Edward Westmoreland, 49,
and William Monroe Rankin, 32, both Davidson sheriff's sergeants.

Christopher James Shetley, 35, a sergeant with the Archdale Police
Department, also was indicted, along with Wyatt Nathan Kepley and Marco
Aurelio Acosta Soza, who are not employed in law enforcement.

All are charged with distributing controlled substances.

Sheriff Gerald Hege was not taking calls this morning. A staff member said
he would have a written statement later in the day.

All of those charged live in Lexington and Thomasville.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's office, the arrests
were made beginning Tuesday evening by teams of federal and state law
enforcement officers as a result of an eight-month investigation involving
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Bureau of Investigation.

Agents of the U.s. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshal's
Violent Crime-Fugitive Task Force participated in the arrests.

The indictment says beginning in the year 2000 and continuing to the
present, the defendants and others conspired to distribute more than five
kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride, more than 100 kilograms of marijuana,
unspecified quantities of anabolic steroids and unspecified quantities of
Ecstasy.

The indictment specifies that the distribution occurred in Davidson County
and elsewhere.

The federal charges carry a fine of up to $4 million and/or imprisonment of
not less than 10 years and up to life.