Click the source for the whole thing. Heads rolling everywhere.

The War on (some) Drugs brings corruption as sure as it brings profits. Here's the full article - posted for educational and discussion purposes.

Hege went along for the ride

12/14/01

By CYNTHIA JEFFRIES, Staff Writer

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.

The drug war puts us all in harm's way. First by increasing crimes and funding criminal organizations, second by infringing on our rights, and third by corrupting our police departments.

It is time to pursue real solutions which reduce the harms that drugs and drug laws cause in our society.

Glad Hege was not involved.

The drug war puts us all in harm's way. First by increasing crimes and funding criminal organizations, second by infringing on our rights, and third by corrupting our police departments.

It is time to pursue real solutions which reduce the harms that drugs and drug laws cause in our society.

Unfortunately, the drug war fascists will never allow that...

you know what they say?
Cops always have the best weed.
although they tend to get it by ripping off
the small time dealers, and jack the price up.
time to end the WOD. it just aint working.

Glad Hege was not involved.

Is Hege a cop or a movie star? Or both?

It will be fun to see Hege interviewing the former narcs on his jailhouse talk show !!

Thanks for posting this article. Just more evidence that, as long as the focus is on the supply, the so-called "drug war" is and will remain a bad joke.

As long as there is demand, there will be supply. If there is to be any chance of victory in the war on drugs, demand for drugs must be severely reduced. How to do that is the real question.

Simple: make the consequences of being stoned on these drugs REALLY unpleasant. Scrubbing floors with toothbrushes, picking up trash on the roadside (best done in either 125-degree sunshine or in a blizzard), that sort of thing.

I LIVE in Davidson county, and people here have been saying for about 18 months that some drug trafficking was going on in the Sheriff's department.

Although Hege wasn't PERSONALLY involved, it couldn't have happened to a better fascist. Hege is a laughingstock, and since he wasn't on the ballot during the last election cycle, I was able to vote straight Republican.

You can't drive 10 miles in this county these days without passing one or two of his goons. He has expanded the size of the Sheriff's department repeatedly, disobeyed the oversight of the county commissioners repeatedly, and just generally goes around acting as if he owns the entire county.

I know personally several of his top deputies, and went to school with them. They are all FINE people, but Hege is NOT.

Just to give you ONE small insight into the way he does things, several years ago Hege was driving along a country road and saw somebody riding their four wheeler either across a paved road, or on the paved road for a short distance. What does the super crime fighter do to this obviously murderous villainous arch criminal?? He chased the poor boy off the road down some farm dirt-roads. He was able to get close enough to the fleeing rider, that he HIT the 4 wheeler with his patrol car (The infamous black widow car paid for by Richard Childress racing, located in Welcome). He damaged his patrol car fairly badly in his attempts to either spin the guy out NASCAR style, or in his attempt to run the poor boy over.

Bear in mind that this county has an exceptionally LOW crime rate, and is mostly rural. Hardly the inner city in need of cleaning up by Buford Pusser.

I have lived here all my life, and I cannot remember ANY public official that I have disliked more. EVER.

From SalonNews.com

Hege gives his officers as much slack as his inmates. No profanity. Always shave. Always wear your hat outdoors. Never be at an event that is serving alcohol. First offense, a $100 fine. Second offense, you're fired. Your vehicle must be maintained, serviced, oiled, washed. First offense, 3-day suspension. Second offense, you're fired. And never be late. "If you're late for work, you don't work," says Hege. "You supposed to be here at 8, be here at 8, not 8:01 or 8:02 or 8:03." Second offense, you're fired.

I guess that doesn't count for Coke, Ecstasy, etc.

I've seen stuff on TV about this guy before - He must be to caught up with promoting himself to be effective at running his squad...

State officers stupid enough to traffick without federal protections get what they deserve.

As long as there is demand, there will be supply.

The primary fallacy of the drug war, babe.

Without SUPPLY there is no such thing as demand.

Without SUPPLY there's little point in robbing or killing to get the drugs.

Without SUPPLY, most addicts end up cold-turkey clean.

Thanks to Uncle Sam, we got the supply we need to keep demand such that there's a need for a federal police force to wage the War on Drugs. (War III in the Noun Series).

Is Hege a cop or a movie star? Or both?

I've only seen him on TV. But I defer to the post by "gratefulwarfratt" above. He lives there.

Thanks for the informative post. It is exactly what I suspected.

> As long as there is demand, there will be supply.

The primary fallacy of the drug war, babe.

Which is "fallacy," what I wrote or, what you did?(:)

Without SUPPLY there is no such thing as demand.

How utterly ridiculous! If OPEC was to cap all their wells today, would we stop demanding oil? If the do-gooders shut down all the tobacco companies tomorrow, would smokers quit smoking? If Usama bin Laden poisoned all our drinking water next month, would we no longer demand water?

Without SUPPLY there's little point in robbing or killing to get the drugs. Without SUPPLY, most addicts end up cold-turkey clean.

So, you think supply causes demand? I hope you're kidding.

Thanks to Uncle Sam, we got the supply we need to keep demand such that there's a need for a federal police force to wage the War on Drugs. (War III in the Noun Series).

So, Uncle Sam isn't trying to win the war on drugs; he's only trying to milk it.

Freedom bump