Pubdate: Sat, 21 Dec 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, The Dispatch Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) WOODALL'S STATEMENT ON BUST CONTRADICTED A Davidson County Sheriff's Office lieutenant contradicts former First Lt. Scott Woodall's recent statement that the cocaine used to convict a Lexington man on a drug distribution charge was planted. In an affidavit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, Lt. Steven E. Jones said he crawled under Terrence Barriet's house on Bristol Street in May 1999 with former Lt. Doug Westmoreland and retrieved a plastic bag containing crack from a drain below a commode. The office of U.S. Attorney Anna Mills Wagoner submitted the affidavit in an effort to convince a judge to reject Barriet's pending motion to vacate his 10-year sentence on drug and firearms charges. Barriet's motion relies dramatically on an affidavit from Woodall stating that Barriet had no drugs that day. Barriet and Woodall are both serving sentences, now in the same federal prison in Manchester, Ky. Woodall, Westmoreland, Sgt. Billy Rankin of the sheriff's narcotics office, Thomasville police Sgt. Rusty McHenry, Archdale police Sgt. Chris Shetley and five civilians all went to federal prison this year after pleading guilty to roles in a conspiracy that distributed large amounts of cocaine, steroids, marijuana and Ecstasy. Court documents accused the law enforcement officers of abusing their authority in a host of ways, including 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. As for Barriet, state court records show a long list of charges against him, including a conviction for possessing cocaine with intent to sell or deliver, starting roughly in 1992. Based on evidence from the May 1999 raid, a federal grand jury indicted Barriet on charges of possessing 25.1 grams of crack cocaine and possessing a firearm by a convicted felon. Although Barriet maintains in court papers that he told his public defender the drugs were planted, he pleaded guilty to the charges in federal court and received a 120-month sentence in June 2000. In May of this year, two months after Woodall pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute four kinds of drugs and to a pair of other charges, Barriet started trying to file a Section 2255 motion to vacate, set aside or correct his sentence. After Woodall went to prison for 27 years in July, Barriet filed Woodall's affidavit, which stated that "officers of the arrest detail manufactured evidence and testimony/statements against Terrence Barriet; to wit, planted crack cocaine in a drain plug." Westmoreland, Rankin and other officers also were present during the bust, court documents indicate. Like Barriet's motion, Jones' affidavit, filed Thursday, gives a detailed account of the raid on Bristol Street. About 9:05 p.m., officers leaped from a van, ran onto the porch and announced their intentions, Jones stated. Detective Jeff Medlin, another former member of the sheriff's narcotics unit, hit the door three times with a ram and Jones pushed his way past a sofa used to block the door. Jones stated that he saw Barriet run into the bathroom and close the bathroom door. Jones kicked the door off its frame with his right foot. Barriet's daughter was in the bathtub and his wife, Michelle, was sitting on the toilet. "I told her not to flush it, but she had already done so, and the tank was filling back up," Jones said. Officers could find no drugs in the toilet itself, even after they later broke it apart. After the Barriets were secured, Jones stated, he went under the house with Westmoreland and located the clean-out plug directly under the commode. "Sgt. Westmoreland then unscrewed the plug and started to scrape out old soap buildup and waste floating in the pipe. He then asked me if I saw plastic floating, I said yes and he used a coat hanger to reach up there and pull it out. It was a large cookie of crack cocaine sealed in plastic and tied off." During a subsequent interview by officers, Jones stated, Barriet admitted selling crack but also said the cocaine found in the sewer line wasn't his because it was too white in color and too great in quantity. Barriet said he had purchased 10 grams of crack that was "'brown,' like butter" earlier that day in Winston-Salem. Jones stated that Barriet told officers he was willing to pull jail time but asked them to leave his wife out of it. Woodall's affidavit said the officers used the threat of charges against Barriet's wife to coerce a confession from him. Michelle Barriet ended up pleading guilty in state court to cocaine possession under a community sentencing program and received a fine and probation. Jones' statement appears to repeat word for word a report he filed at the time of the bust. In comparison, the U.S. Attorney's Office argues in its motion, "Woodall's statement is not credible." Unlike the drug case of another Lexington man, Joseph Hedgepeth, "the government has been unable to substantiate the allegation of police misconduct in this case," the U.S. Attorney's Office wrote. After Hedgepeth filed a Section 2255 motion arguing that some of the same sheriff's narcotics officers had violated his rights in obtaining a conviction against him, the U.S. Attorney's Office agreed earlier this year that the motion should be granted. Hedgepeth is now a free man. In the Barriet case, the U.S. Attorney's Office further argues that the defendant's motion is barred because it came more than a year after his conviction. The government also notes that Barriet, a felon, does not deny illegally possessing a firearm. Ultimately, however, a federal judge might have to decide which affidavit to believe - Woodall's or Jones'. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager