Pubdate: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC) Copyright: 2003 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc. Contact: http://www.journalnow.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504 Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily home delivery circulation area. Author: Paul Garber FORMER DEPUTY'S SENTENCE IN DOUBT Wrong Guidelines Used, U.S. Appeals Panel Rules Douglas Westmoreland, a former Davidson County sheriff's deputy now serving prison time on drug charges, could have his 11-year sentence reduced. Westmoreland, 51, will return to federal court to be sentenced again because U.S. District Court officials used incorrect guidelines in setting his sentence, a three-judge panel from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a decision released yesterday. The new sentencing may or may not reduce the amount of time that Westmoreland will spend in prison, said Urs Gsteiger, his attorney. A date for a new sentencing hearing has not been set, Gsteiger said. Westmoreland, a former sheriff's lieutenant, was one of three deputies with the Davidson County Sheriff's Office arrested last year as part of a drug ring that distributed steroids, cocaine and marijuana in the area. Only the reported ringleader, former Lt. David Scott Woodall, received a longer sentence than Westmoreland out of five law-enforcement officers involved in the scheme. Woodall was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison. According to court documents, Westmoreland and other officers carried out a search warrant at the home of Michael Wayne Martin, a Davidson County resident. Westmoreland found $2,500 in a pair of pants in Martin's bedroom but did not record the money on an inventory sheet from the search. About a month later, Westmoreland and another unidentified officer met with Martin and told him that if he didn't complain about the money that was taken, no charges would be filed. Martin accepted the deal and no charges were filed, according to the appellate court's summary of the case. Westmoreland was charged with extortion for that incident, as well as conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana. In July 2002, he was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 135 months in prison. He is jailed at the Loretto Federal Correctional Institute in Loretto, Pa. Westmoreland appealed his sentence earlier this year, arguing that the court used a tougher extortion guideline - 'extortion by force or threat of injury or serious damage' - than the case merited. He argued that the guideline that should have been used was 'blackmail and similar forms of extortion.' The appeals court determined that his threat to press criminal charges didn't involve force and didn't involve a threat of physical injury or a threat of any destruction of property. Westmoreland's actions also did not constitute blackmail, the court determined, because he was not demanding money but instead was trying to hold on to money that he had seized. The most appropriate guideline, the court ruled, should therefore be related to receiving a bribe: 'offering, giving, soliciting or receiving a bribe -- under color of official right.' Gstieger said that it will be up to the sentencing judge to determine how the court's decision will influence Westmoreland's sentence, but that it could result in less time in prison. Lynn Klauer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Greensboro, said that she could not assess how the court's ruling might affect Westmoreland's sentence.