Pubdate: Sun, 17 Feb 2002
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2002 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.news-observer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304
Author: Angela Heywood Bible

Chatham Sheriff Wants To Stay

MISSING MARIJUANA, LAWSUIT LIKELY TO LOOM IN ELECTION

PITTSBORO - For more than a year, Ike Gray has been the man who weathered 
the storm.

Since being appointed Chatham County sheriff 14 months ago, he has 
shouldered a lawsuit filed by a former deputy who claims he was fired 
illegally, and he has managed a department that in recent years solved a 
lower percentage of property crimes than most agencies in the state.

But most troublesome is the unsolved case of stolen marijuana, in which the 
department allowed 5,000 pounds of the confiscated drug back out on the 
streets.

Gray admits the whirlwind of controversy has made his first year as sheriff 
the worst of his 25 years in law enforcement. Still, the Chatham County 
native announced plans last month to run for the post he currently holds.

"One of my goals is to get a good public trust in this department," Gray 
said last month, his attorney by his side.

Regardless of who wins the election, the next sheriff faces a wide array of 
problems. Gray's opponents say the department lacks leadership and 
organization. Residents say officers aren't seen enough around the county. 
Trying to serve a rapidly growing Hispanic population has challenged 
deputies, none of whom speaks Spanish well. And the office's clearance rate 
for property crimes -- an indication of how well deputies solve burglaries 
and larcenies -- is about half the state average, according to the State 
Bureau of Investigation.

Many residents have said those problems -- plus the stolen marijuana and 
the lawsuit -- have been an embarrassment to the county.

Five other men have announced plans to run for sheriff. They are Siler City 
police Sgt. James Bowden, county Commissioner Rick Givens, former deputy 
Darden Jarman, retired Trooper Randy Knight and Pittsboro police Sgt. 
Richard Webster. The filing period is Monday through March 1, with the 
primary election tentatively scheduled for May 7.

"The field is open," said Gary Phillips, commissioners' chairman, "because 
of all the troubles the department's had in the last year and because some 
powerful people have decided to run. It's a field of interesting folks, all 
who have a constituency of some sort."

Chatham County makes the case for electing law enforcement, said Dean 
Kueter Jr., director of government affairs at the National Sheriffs' 
Association in Alexandria, Va.

"The election would go a long way," Kueter said, "in giving the voters 
ultimate say in terms of who their law enforcement officers are."

Webster, who was a Chatham deputy for 10 years, said the department is 
"behind the times." The sheriff's office has not adapted to the county's 
crime trends and demographic changes -- the mix of traditional rural 
communities, new subdivisions and a rapidly growing Hispanic population. 
"The whole department needs to be reorganized from top to bottom," he said. 
"A lot of this is the good-old-boy system down here. It's not whether you 
can do the job or not. It's like a checkerboard. It's time to turn the 
board over and start the game again."

Since Gray was appointed sheriff in December 2000, he has acted with 
integrity, runs a pretty good jail and has a modest ego, Phillips said. 
When the commissioner first met Gray while working in the Ruritans' cooking 
line at Silk Hope Old Time Farm Days, a local festival, he was impressed.

"He just came in, worked, never drew any attention to himself," Phillips said.

Born in the Brush Creek Church area in 1950, Gray grew up working the 
fields of his father's tobacco farm. The youngest of five siblings, he 
dropped out of school in the 11th grade.

"It was one of these deals where the farm consumed so much of my time," he 
said. "We didn't have any money, but we had love in our family and we had 
food on the table. And we went to church every Sunday."

Gray took jobs in construction and at a chicken hatchery. He married Jane 
Culberson, his wife of 33 years, and later earned his GED. He worked at the 
Siler City Police Department for less than a year, then returned to 
construction because it paid more.

But Gray missed police work and eventually put himself through Basic Law 
Enforcement Training. By the late 1970s, he was working as a patrol officer 
for the Pittsboro Police Department. He took a job as a patrol deputy at 
the sheriff's department in June 1983 and became an investigations sergeant 
three months later. In December 1990, he was promoted to chief deputy, a 
position he held until he replaced an ailing Don Whitt 10 years later.

At first, Gray considered staying out of this year's sheriff's race. His 
contenders' complaints, it seems, have merit. His deputies, he said, need 
more training in investigating crime scenes, collecting evidence and 
writing reports. To improve property crime clearance rates, Gray would like 
to start a breaking-and-entering task force. But most of all, he said, the 
department needs more than its 54 sworn officers.

"Manpower is a problem," he said. "You can't effectively patrol a 
707-square-mile county with five or six deputies on patrol at any given time."

In 2000, the latest year for which statistics are available, Chatham 
deputies solved 9 percent of the county's property crimes. The state 
average was 17.4 percent. Harnett County, which is similar to Chatham in 
size and terrain, has fewer deputies per person but still maintained a 14 
percent clearance rate. Moore, another county of similar size and 
population, solved 12 percent of its property crimes.

Phillips, the commissioners' chairman, said the county has battled with the 
sheriff's office over finances. During the past budget period, the board 
denied the department's request for two more deputies.

"People out in the county tend to say [the officers] are just not as 
visible as they should be," Phillips said. "It seems to me, just looking at 
it, it's a tremendous amount of money we give that department. We believe 
the resources are there."

In fiscal 2001, the sheriff's adopted budget was about $2.7 million. This 
year, it grew to almost $3 million.

Knight, a telecommunicator for the state Highway Patrol, said Chatham 
deputies lack proper training and time-management skills. There are too 
many break-ins, and officers aren't patrolling places that fall victim most.

"There seems to be no direction for any type of enforcement that these 
people are offering," he said. "Deputies are not utilizing their time. 
There's four or five officers sitting down in that office right now doing 
nothing. The people are tired of it."

'I Do Care About This County'

The past year, Gray said, has been tough. The lawsuit, marijuana scandal 
and media attention have been distractions. Gray said he has held meetings 
with his deputies to boost the department's sagging morale.

Gray said he believes he has done fairly well. He said he thinks he has 
kept the department together since the marijuana theft -- 3,000 pounds from 
a surplus Army truck parked behind the department, and the remaining ton 
from a shallow grave at the county landfill. The drugs had been seized in 
February 2000 during an undercover sting near Siler City. Gray would like 
to complete the career he started in Chatham County. After dealing with his 
emotions and thinking about the 19 years he has put into the sheriff's 
department, he decided that keeping his job was worth the recent aggravations.

"I do care about this county and the citizens in this county, and I know I 
am capable of running this department effectively," he said. "I thought 
that I needed to pursue the office of sheriff because it's what I've been 
striving for all these years."

Throughout an interview last month, Gray often was kept from responding by 
one of his attorneys, who sat by his side. At one point, the attorney, 
Chris Jones, led Gray outside the room to discuss their answer to a question.

Gray maintains he did nothing wrong in regards to the stolen marijuana. 
Within 48 hours of becoming sheriff, he called the FBI to ask for a 
full-scale investigation, he said. Before then, Jones said, shots were 
called by Whitt, who was still sheriff.

"I wasn't the sheriff," Gray said. "It was not my fault, and I have tried 
and will continue to try to have some closure. I think, if anything, it's 
brought me closer to my grass roots of being a Christian, knowing that I 
have to depend on a higher power to help me through turmoil."

The marijuana incident, however, was coupled earlier this month with the 
lawsuit when former Sgt. Dan Phillips alleged that his firing was connected 
to the missing marijuana case. He said he was punished for taking an 
informant to the FBI in Asheboro, sparking a federal investigation into the 
thefts.

Gray has not commented about the lawsuit, but Jones said that Gray fired 
the former deputy because he refused to take a polygraph test to determine 
whether he had made a tape of William "Buddy" Fowler, the former Chatham 
Central High School principal, making racial slurs.

"Sheriff Gray's motive," Jones said, "was nothing more than to fire an 
employee who was insubordinate and threatened the department with a 
meritless lawsuit."

Despite the problems he faces, Gray maintains he is the best candidate.

"The more experience that I'm able to obtain, the better leader I will be," 
he said. "I am capable. I feel there's definitely things I can improve on, 
and I intend to do that."
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