POLICE ARREST FOUR OF THEIR OWN

Three Davidson County sheriff's deputies and an Archdale police officer
were among those arrested on drug charges by FBI and State Bureau of
Investigation officers early Wednesday morning.

U.S. Attorney Anna Mills Wagoner announced the arrests of: David Scott
Woodall, 34, of Allred Road, Lexington; Douglas Edward Westmoreland, 49,
Bowers Road, Thomasville; William Monroe Rankin, 32, Hidden Hills Drive,
Thomasville. They are all Davidson County Sheriff's Deputies. Archdale
police officer Christopher James Shetley also was arrested. His age and
address were not immediately available.

They were arrested along with Wyatt Nathan Kepley and Marco Aurelio Acosta
Soza on charges of distributing drugs. Ages and addresses for Kepley and
Soza were not readily available.

According to a grand jury indictment, those arrested conspired to
distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride, 100 kilograms of
marijuana, and quantities of anabolic steroids and MDMA, which is known as
ecstasy.

The suspects had been involved in drug activity since sometime last year,
the indictment alleges.

All the suspects live in Lexington or Thomasville.

Shetley verbally resigned from his position as an Archdale police patrol
sergeant as SBI agents escorted him from the police station this morning,
said Archdale Police Chief Gary Lewallen.

Wyatt Nathan Kepley is the youngest son of Billy Joe Kepley, a Davidson
County Commissioner.

All the deputies arrested were vice-narcotics officers, said Davidson
County Sheriff Gerald Hege.

Hege said his office coordinated the arrests of the three deputies by
telling them to meet at the National Guard Armory in High Point about 5:30
a.m. FBI agents were waiting for them.

Rankin had been employed with the department since 1997, Woodall since
1991, and Westmoreland since 1995.

"They had excellent performance records," Hege said.

"These guys were well liked. They were personable people."

Vice-narcotics officers are vulnerable, Hege said.

"This is the thing you fear as a sheriff, because of the way vice is
operated," he said. "There's really no monitoring system. And they're out
there in the midst of temptations and evils."

Hege said questions had been raised about pending cases the men had been
working on. He said District Attorney Gary Frank would examine those cases.

Sgt. Chris Shetley, who had been with the Archdale Police Department since
1995, was a patrol sergeant and shift supervisor.

He had been a vice-narcotics officer prior to his position change in August.

"I don't have an answer for what led up to this," Lewallen said Wednesday.
"Those individuals (vice-narcotics officers) are in situations dealing with
the worst elements of society. You have to have strong willpower to
determine where the line is and not cross it."

He said other members of the department were in a "numb state" from the
news of Shetley's arrest. One officer's mistakes should not reflect on the
department as a whole, he added.

"We're going to continue to be positive," he said. "The citizens of
Archdale know what we're about."

The arrests were the result of an eight-month investigation involving the
FBI, SBI, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals
Service Violent Crime/Fugitive Task Force.

The suspects were being held in the Guilford County jail in Greensboro.

The suspects will make their first appearance in Davidson County District
Court Dec. 19.

Penalties for the drug violations could include fines of up to $4 million,
a minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a minimum supervised release term
of five years.