Pubdate: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 Source: Dispatch, The (NC) Copyright: 2002, The Lexington Dispatch Contact: http://www.the-dispatch.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1583 Author: William Keesler Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption) EX-COP'S COOPERATION HELPS WIN SHORTER SENTENCE WINSTON-SALEM | A former Thomasville police sergeant won praise from a prosecutor and a federal judge Friday before receiving just 25 months in prison for possession with intent to distribute cocaine, Ecstasy and marijuana. Rusty McHenry's cooperation with federal and state agents helped lead to guilty pleas on federal drug charges by three narcotics officers with the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, an Archdale police sergeant and five other individuals. "You've done some horrible things, but then you've done some very brave things to help offset them," U.S. District Judge N. Carlton Tilley Jr. told him. Because of that, Tilley said, he was willing to grant a larger reduction from federal sentencing guidelines than he would normally allow. A pre-sentence report listed the potential range for McHenry's term, for what is his first criminal offense, as 57 to 71 months. After his 25 months in prison, he must serve three years of supervised release, provide 50 hours of community service in each of those three years, and pay a $300 assessment. The sentence visibly pleased McHenry's lawyers and members of his family. After marshals led McHenry, 32, a burly former steroid user and weightlifter in a white dress shirt and tie, with a mustache and goatee and close-cropped hair, out of the courtroom in the Hiram H. Ward Federal Building to begin serving his term, his girlfriend hugged members of the FBI and the State Bureau of Investigation present for the hearing. One of his lawyers, Joe Bruner of High Point, told the judge the girlfriend had assisted McHenry and the agents with an undercover investigation that started immediately after McHenry's arrest in Greensboro last Nov. 5 on state charges of Ecstasy trafficking and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Bruner said McHenry, who resigned from the Thomasville Police Department, began cooperating two weeks before he ever contacted a lawyer and that he carried out multiple undercover drug transactions with subjects he knew to be armed and dangerous. Any of those transactions could have proved fatal if the surveillance equipment McHenry was using had been discovered, Bruner said. "He put himself at great risk." With encouragement from McHenry, who also was represented by Charles Lloyd of Greensboro, his girlfriend helped arrange drug deals by telephone and accompanied him on controlled buys, Bruner said. The two developed a signal system for communicating during transactions. According to a federal affidavit, McHenry made four separate powdered cocaine buys, monitored by state and federal agents, from Scott Woodall, then head of the Davidson County Sheriff's Office narcotics unit. The undercover investigation and information provided by McHenry led to the arrest in mid-December of Woodall, 35, and two other narcotics unit members, Lt. Doug Westmoreland, 50, and Sgt. Billy Rankin, 32, as well as Archdale police Sgt. Chris Shetley, 41, and Lexington area residents Wyatt Kepley, 26, and Marcus Aurelio Acosta-Soza, 25, on federal charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine, marijuana, steroids and Ecstasy. McHenry, referred to in the affidavit as Confidential Witness-1, also described for investigators a pattern of conduct by the law enforcement officers, sometimes with his participation, that included writing fake search warrants, planting evidence and fabricating charges, keeping drugs and money seized during arrests, attempting to extort more money from the people arrested, and intimidating suspects and potential witnesses. Those allegations helped lead to additional charges against the other officers. On Jan. 28, federal prosecutors charged McHenry with only possession with intent to distribute cocaine, Ecstasy and marijuana, and on the next day they allowed him to plead guilty. State prosecutors dropped their charges against him. Two other Lexington-area residents, Jonathan Eric Apt,, 29, and Elizabeth Ann Harward, 25, and Randolph County resident Chad Douglas Wilson, 22, have since been charged with related federal drug offenses. Since mid-December, Bruner said, McHenry has received numerous threats by letter, over the Internet or communicated through third parties. Two garages in Davidson County refused to work on his car for fear someone might attack him and hurt one of their employees. Virtually isolated in protective custody, McHenry declined a chance to enter the federal witness protection program because that would prevent him from seeing his two children, Bruner said. But he agreed to give his wife full custody because of concerns for their safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra Hairston told Tilley she could not dispute anything Bruner said. McHenry "did everything that was asked of him," Hairston said. But the judge, besides commending McHenry, also lectured him. Tilley said McHenry's criminal conduct, as a policeman, had undermined public support for the law. "It really does endanger the whole system," the judge said. Tilley also said McHenry sold drugs to citizens he was sworn to protect. "You . put drugs in the hands of people who could be very much harmed by them," the judge said. Asked by Tilley if he wanted to speak, McHenry choked back tears but managed to say, "I want to apologize to the citizens and to law enforcement for the black eye they received because of my conduct." McHenry is the first federal defendant to be sentenced in North Carolina in connection with the investigation. Woodall, Westmoreland, Rankin, Shetley, Kepley and Acosta-Soza are scheduled for sentencing next month. Apt, Harward and Wilson are to be sentenced in August. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom