DEPUTY: ALERTING FBI GOT HIM FIRED

Chatham Lawsuit Amended To Include Chief Deputy As Well As Sheriff

SANFORD - In an amended lawsuit filed in Chatham County District Court
Wednesday, former Chatham County Sheriff's Sgt. Dan Phillips alleged that
he was fired after he helped alert the FBI that more than 5,000 pounds of
confiscated marijuana was missing from the sheriff's department.

An addendum to the lawsuit includes a motion to compel the testimony of
Sheriff Ike Gray and Chief Deputy Randy Keck regarding the missing
marijuana. Gray's and Keck's attorneys instructed them not to answer
several questions on the subject during depositions taken earlier this
year, Phillips' attorney Al McSurely said.

The original lawsuit, filed Feb. 2, named Gray as the sole defendant and
alleged that Gray fired Phillips because Phillips had knowledge of racist
incidents at Chatham Central High School in Bear Creek.

Phillips, who served as a school resource officer at that school for
several months, said he was fired the day after he was asked to take a lie
detector test about the origins of a tape that contained racist statements
allegedly made by former Chatham Central principal William "Buddy" Fowler.

Phillips has denied making the tape, and said he told Keck that he would
take a lie detector test if the complainant would also submit to one.

The suit also alleges that Phillips was not allowed to report racial
incidents that he witnessed at Chatham Central to the U.S. Department of
Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) investigators. The OCR investigators
were in Chatham County for a complaint filed against the school system in
mid-1999.

Soon after Phillips filed his suit, Gray's attorney filed a motion to move
the case to a federal court in Greensboro. Phillips attorney, Al McSurely,
filed an opposing motion April 4 to keep the case in Chatham County.

On Sept. 27, a federal judge ruled that the case should be heard in Chatham
County.

In the amended lawsuit, Keck is added as a defendant. The suit claims that
Phillips was also fired because he helped report to the FBI that more than
3,000 pounds of marijuana had been stolen from the back of an Army surplus
truck and 2,000 more pounds had been stolen after it was dug up from where
it had been buried a county landfill.

The 2.5 tons of marijuana had been confiscated by the sheriff's department
in February 2000 in a drug bust near Siler City.

At the time of the bust, and when the marijuana was discovered missing
Sept. 28, 2000, Gray was chief deputy and Keck was head of the department's
narcotics unit. Don Whitt, who was sheriff at the time, retired for health
reasons in December 2000, and Gray and Keck moved to their current positions.

The lawsuit also alleges that Gray and Keck concealed the thefts until
after they were placed in their current positions.

"There are two themes in this case. First, that tape of the principal and,
then, the missing marijuana from the sheriff's department," McSurely said
earlier. "We are saying that Phillips was unfairly targeted in both these
cases ... because he upset various political figures in the county."

The amended lawsuit states that Phillips took an informant to Asheboro to
meet with FBI officials about the missing marijuana in mid-December 2000.
The suit also alleges that the same informant attempted to give the
information to Keck, but he would not return phone calls.

No arrests have been made in the marijuana thefts, but the FBI announced
earlier this year they have suspects.

Gray did not return telephone calls Thursday. Keck is out of town and is
not expected to return until Monday.