Pubdate: Thu, 06 Dec 2001
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2001 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.news-observer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304
Author: Angela Heywood Bible
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

SUIT CLAIMS COVER-UP IN CHATHAM

PITTSBORO - Documents filed Wednesday in Chatham County Superior Court 
allege that top sheriff's officials tried to conceal the theft of 5,000 
pounds of marijuana from the department in September 2000 and later fired a 
sergeant who helped notify the FBI.

In November 2000, Dan Phillips took an informant to Asheboro to tell FBI 
officials about the missing marijuana, sparking a federal investigation. 
Phillips was fired two months later.

In his lawsuit, Phillips alleges that Ike Gray waited until he was 
appointed Chatham County sheriff a year ago to tell county commissioners 
about the marijuana, which had been missing for at least four months. Gray, 
who was chief deputy before the promotion, replaced Don Whitt, who retired 
midterm because of poor health.

Reached at home Wednesday evening, Phillips said he preferred not to 
comment. "I don't want to draw attention to myself," he said. "I'm a sworn 
officer of the law, and I upheld my duty. I felt like all along in my heart 
I did the right thing. I love Chatham County, and I hate that it had to 
happen like this."

Gray did not return messages left at his office and could not be reached 
Wednesday for comment.

Phillips' original lawsuit, filed in February, alleges that Gray fired him 
because the sergeant knew about racist incidents at Chatham Central High 
School. Phillips claims that when he was the high school's resource officer 
in 1999 and 2000, then-Principal William "Buddy" Fowler made several racist 
remarks and ignored racist graffiti found in a bathroom. The suit alleges 
also that some of Fowler's comments were tape-recorded by an unknown person 
and Phillips was blamed.

The suit contends that school officials didn't report the racially charged 
episodes to the federal Office of Civil Rights, which was investigating 
allegations of racial discrimination in the school system. In the amended 
lawsuit filed Wednesday, Phillips adds Chief Deputy Randy Keck as a second 
defendant and claims that, in addition to the school incident, he was fired 
for helping report the sheriff's department to the FBI after 3,000 pounds 
of marijuana evidence was stolen from a surplus Army truck parked behind 
the department, and 2,000 pounds was unearthed from a shallow hole at the 
county landfill. The drugs had been seized in February 2000 during an 
undercover sting at a barn southwest of Siler City.

Phillips also filed a motion to compel testimony from Gray and Keck, whose 
attorneys kept them from answering questions regarding the marijuana 
incident during depositions for the lawsuit. Keck is away from work this 
week and also could not be reached for comment.

Phillips' attorney, Al McSurely of Chapel Hill, said his client can't be 
fired for trying to enforce the law. During the discovery period for the 
original lawsuit, he said, it became apparent that Phillips was fired also 
because he knew too much about the missing marijuana.

According to the lawsuit, the marijuana cover-up unfolded like this:

On Sept. 28, 2000, Keck, then a narcotics unit lieutenant for the sheriff's 
department, drove the truck to the landfill and discovered that 
three-fifths of the marijuana was missing from the truck. He returned to 
the department and told Gray and Whitt, who agreed not to reveal to anyone, 
other than the FBI, that the marijuana had been stolen. That same day, Keck 
told the FBI that some of the marijuana was missing but didn't request an 
investigation.

Gray has told The News & Observer that he requested an investigation 
immediately.

Later that day, Keck returned to the landfill and parked the truck next to 
a hole that a county landfill employee had prepared with a backhoe, 
according to the complaint. He then took samples of the bales of marijuana 
and placed them in evidence bags.

When Keck began unloading the marijuana into the hole, a member of his 
narcotics unit said they should pour diesel fuel over the bales and burn 
the evidence, according to the lawsuit. Instead, Keck insisted they simply 
bury it in the hole, which was 4 feet deep. Department regulations require 
that such evidence be destroyed.

On Nov. 22, 2000, Phillips received a call from an informant who said the 
2,000 pounds of marijuana buried at the landfill had been stolen, according 
to the lawsuit. The informant said he had called Keck about the crime, but 
the narcotics officer had said he was too busy to talk to him, was going on 
vacation and would call him back, but he never did.

According to the lawsuit, "In one conversation, Lt. Keck told the informant 
that the informant should not worry about the marijuana that had been dug 
up because 'we had put something on it that would make people sick.' The 
informant told Lt. Keck, 'It ain't made nobody sick yet.' "

Five days later, Phillips and Officer Robert Lefler of the state Division 
of Motor Vehicles took the informant to meet with FBI agents in Asheboro. 
The informant told federal officials that the marijuana had been removed 
from the landfill and was being sold in Chatham County.

Phillips asked the federal agents whether he should report this information 
to his superiors at the sheriff's department, and the agents said no, 
according to the lawsuit. At that time, the agents said the FBI would 
initiate an investigation into the department.

Before he retired Nov. 30, 2000, Whitt told Gray about Phillips' trip to 
visit federal agents with an informant, the lawsuit says.

On Dec. 4, 2000, the Chatham commissioners, who did not know about the 
stolen marijuana, appointed Gray interim sheriff until the next election in 
2002. That same day, Gray appointed Keck chief deputy. Neither Gray nor 
Keck initiated an internal investigation into the missing marijuana after 
being sworn in. But the investigation continued into whether Phillips had 
made the tape of Fowler, the former Chatham Central principal.

Sometime in late 2000, Keck told an FBI agent he was going to fire one or 
two of his deputies for being dishonest in an internal investigation about 
a tape made of a school principal, according to the lawsuit. On Jan. 18, 
Gray dismissed Phillips, refusing to say why.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges that Gray and Keck fired Phillips 
because he "refused to engage in two plans to cover up possible wrongdoing 
or criminal activity," referring to the stolen marijuana and to the 
principal who allegedly made racist remarks.

According to the complaint, Gray and Keck believed Phillips had helped to 
initiate a criminal investigation by the FBI into the stolen marijuana, 
threatening their plans "to keep those facts quiet until they had been 
promoted and had time to consolidate their new authority."

No arrests have been made in connection with the marijuana thefts.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth