Pubdate: Wed, 04 Jan 2006 Source: Daily Reflector (Greenville, NC) Copyright: 2006 Daily Reflector Contact: http://www.reflector.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1456 Author: Corey G. Johnson Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) FORMER OFFICER ENTERS PLEA A Bethel police lieutenant arrested in connection with drug and weapons charges entered a guilty plea in federal court Tuesday. Jerome Earl Cox of Grimesland pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting another in knowingly and unlawfully distributing more than five grams of crack cocaine. At the 30-minute hearing, Cox was joined by his pastor, wife and numerous other family and friends. Seen wiping away tears, the nearly five-year veteran of the Bethel Police Department offered few words beyond the yes or no answers he gave Magistrate Judge David W. Daniel. Cox will be sentenced by Judge Malcolm Howard on April 3. As a result of his plea agreement, U.S. Attorney John Bennett said Cox will be required to cooperate with prosecutors, and possibly testify against his former boss and friend, suspended Bethel police chief Reginald Laverne Roberts. If deemed uncooperative, Cox could face from 5 to 40 years in federal prison and a $2 million fine. "It is not a happy occurrence to see a law enforcement officer admit to wrongdoing," Bennett said. "But when it happens, you have to be aggressive in the pursuit of it because wrongdoing can be devastating to a town." Roberts, 41, and Cox, 31, were arrested Oct. 27 after a three-month probe by the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office and the FBI of alleged drug trafficking and illegal gun sales. On Nov. 1, Greenville FBI agent Donald Coward testified that his agency's investigation of the two men began in August after an unidentified man -- described as a convicted felon and cooperative witness -- contacted Beaufort County narcotics detectives about a conversation he had with Roberts. Coward said the man told investigators Roberts wanted to sell a kilo of cocaine that had been stored in the police department's evidence room. On Sept. 23, the witness, Roberts and Cox went to a storage unit in Chocowinity supposedly owned by a drug dealer named "Alverez," but secretly purchased by the FBI for the covert operation, Coward said. Hidden cameras planted by the FBI, recorded Roberts waiting in a nearby vehicle while Cox smashed open the lock to Alverez's unit with a hammer, Coward said. Coward said Cox took $5,500 in cash and an electronic scale. The witness got $1,800 and the officers took the rest, Coward said. A month later Roberts allegedly sold the witness a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol that had been listed as stolen. The next day, Cox, Roberts and the witness went to an impound lot in Washington, N.C., to steal drugs and money stashed in a supposed drug dealer's truck. Coward said Cox broke the truck's front window and Roberts took a black bag containing $2,000 in cash, 10.7 grams of cocaine and an electric scale. Hidden cameras and FBI agents monitored the event, Coward said. On Nov. 9, a federal grand jury indicted Roberts on one count of illegal distribution of a controlled substance, one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, one count of the use of a firearm during the commission of a crime in relation to drug trafficking, and two counts of being in violation of federal law for the distribution of a firearm to a known felon. Cox, through his attorney Myron Hill, was in talks with the U.S. Attorney's office and was spared a grand jury indictment. Nearly 30 family members and friends watched, prayed and erupted into tears when Cox was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals. Until his April 3 sentencing hearing, he will be held at the Pitt County Detention Center, then transferred to a federal detention facility in Butner. A hearing planned for Tuesday morning for Reginald Roberts was rescheduled for Feb. 13 after the federal public defender's office cited a conflict of interest. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom