MISDEMEANOR LARCENY, OBSTRUCTION RESULTS IN SUSPENDED SENTENCE, FINE

The former chief of the North Topsail Beach Police Department pleaded
guilty Monday in Onslow County District Court to taking $200 from the
town and obstructing a state probe into the case.

Daniel Robert Salese, 40, was given a 45-day suspended sentence and
was placed on oneyear supervised probation on the misdemeanor
charges. He also must surrender his law enforcement certification to
the N.C. Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards, perform
48 hours of community service and pay a $250 fine as well as court costs.

District Court Judge Leonard W. Thagard, who presided over the
proceeding, said he didn't think any sentence he could impose would
be worse than the consequences Salese already faced, including "loss
of career, embarrassment to him and his family and the embarrassment
to law enforcement." Salese, whose salary was $65,000 at the time of
his resignation on Friday, was charged Thursday with misdemeanor
larceny and obstruction of justice, following an investigation by the
State Bureau of Investigation. He was represented by Jacksonville
attorney Walter Vatcher. Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee,
who prosecuted the case, told the judge that the District Attorney's
office asked the SBI to investigate Salese after North Topsail Beach
police Sgt. Lee McKnight reported that $200 in seized drug money was
missing from the department safe. After McKnight seized the money
during a drug arrest in January 2006, he wrote down the serial
numbers and placed the money in a safe within the Police Department.
In October 2006, McKnight noticed the money was missing from the safe
and reported the incident to the District Attorney's office, Lee
said. "The state had a duty to investigate at this point because it
was a drug case," Lee said. "We needed to know what happened to the
$200." Once SBI agent Mark Francisco started his investigation, $200
reappeared in the safe, Lee said.

"But it was not the same money," Lee said, adding that Francisco knew
this because McKnight had recorded the serial numbers of the bills
seized during the drug bust.

"During the initial investigation, Chief Salese said he used the
money for the purposes of making change for parking tickets and
license plates," Lee said. "It was later discovered that was not in
fact true. We contend that the money was used for Chief Salese's own
purposes and not for making change." Vatcher told Thagard that Salese
was married and has two children who are ages 12 and 16.

Salese joined the North Topsail Beach Police Department in 1992 and
has served as chief since 1998.

"He served without any problems at all until this incident," Vatcher
said. Vatcher indicated that McKnight didn't properly label the
seized drug money in an envelope.

"(Salese) was not aware that money had been used in a drug
transaction," Vatcher said.

Salese placed the $200 in his desk drawer, Vatcher said. "He said he
told Sgt. McKnight that he had it in his drawer," Vatcher said.
Salese agreed to plead guilty to the two misdemeanor charges with the
condition that the state not proceed with any additional charges that
might arise out of the investigation of the stolen $200, Lee said.
Before he was sentenced, Salese addressed the judge. His wife,
Rhonda, was behind him in the courtroom.

"I would like to apologize to the court, to the district attorney and
to my family for this unfortunate incident," Salese said. "It was not
intentional on my part. ... I want to put it behind me and go on with
my life for my kids' and wife's sake." Salese, who was released on
$3,000 unsecured bond after his arrest Thursday, resigned Friday. The
resignation was announced following an emergency closed meeting of
the North Topsail Beach Board of Aldermen. Casey Fillinger was named
interim chief and will lead the 12-officer department while the town
looks to replace Salese, who was the longest-serving police chief in
the town's history.