Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jan 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

FORMER OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY

A former Thomasville policeman probably linked to last month's indictment 
of three Davidson County narcotics officers and three other men pleaded 
guilty to a federal charge Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro.

Investigators charged Russell Earl McHenry Jr., 32, a former Thomasville 
patrol sergeant, on Monday with one count each of possession with intent to 
distribute cocaine, marijuana and Ecstasy, according to federal court records.

McHenry had been scheduled to make an initial appearance before a 
magistrate Tuesday and then to appear for formal arraignment next week. But 
he entered a guilty plea Tuesday, officials said. Sentencing has been 
scheduled for May 21.

McHenry, who lives in Greensboro, was arrested Nov. 5 on state charges of 
trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in Ecstasy, possession with intent to 
sell or deliver marijuana and conspiracy to deliver marijuana. The charges 
stemmed from a probe by the State Bureau of Investigation and his own 
police department. McHenry resigned immediately after his arrest.

A little more than a month later, SBI and FBI agents arrested three 
narcotics officers with the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, 1st Lt. David 
Scott Woodall, Lt. Douglas Edward Westmoreland and Sgt. William Monroe 
Rankin, as well as Archdale police Sgt. Christopher James Shetley and two 
Lexington-area residents, Wyatt Nathan Kepley and Marco Aurelio 
Acosta-Soza, on federal charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine, 
marijuana, steroids and Ecstasy.

Much of the information about the six defendants, according to a federal 
affidavit, came from an unnamed former Triad police officer whose 
description closely matches McHenry's. Federal officials, however, have 
refused to identify the confidential witness.

McHenry had been set to appear Feb. 14 in Guilford County Superior Court 
for a preliminary hearing on the state charges. But Howard Newman, a 
Guilford County assistant district attorney, said the state charges will 
now be dropped.

When state authorities arrested McHenry in November, they also arrested a 
second man, Ronald Wayne Hall, 30, then of West Finch Avenue in Denton, on 
marijuana and Ecstasy charges. Newman said Hall's charges will remain a 
state case and will be sent to the Guilford County Grand Jury.
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