Pubdate: Sat, 05 Aug 2006 Source: Fayetteville Observer (NC) Copyright: 2006 Fayetteville Observer Contact: http://www.fayettevillenc.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/150 Author: Greg Barnes Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture) FORMER DEPUTY PLEADS GUILTY RALEIGH -- A former Robeson County deputy pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to stealing about $25,000 in federal drug forfeiture money. Kevin Meares, 37, admitted that he forged the names of confidential informants on vouchers used to get the federal money from the Robeson County Sheriff's Office. Drug investigators routinely give informants money to make drug buys. But Meares admitted that he filed fraudulent vouchers -- used as an accounting measure -- either by forging an informant's signature and pocketing all of the money or by making out the vouchers for more than he gave his informants. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Frank Bradsher said Meares acknowledged that C.T. Strickland, his former supervisor in the sheriff's Drug Enforcement Division, taught him how to file the fraudulent vouchers. Strickland and former drug deputies Steven Lovin and Roger Taylor were charged June 9 in a 10-count indictment alleging that the men burned two homes and a business, assaulted people, paid informants with drugs and stole and laundered public money. The four are among seven former deputies charged in a three-year state and federal investigation called Operation Tarnished Badge. The investigation continues. Meares and James Hunt were charged by a bill of criminal information and have agreed to testify against other former deputies in exchange for their guilty pleas. Hunt pleaded guilty last week in U.S. District Court in Wilmington. Meares and Hunt face up to 20 years in prison. Hunt, who is accused of stealing about $160,000 during six drugs stops along Interstate 95, was ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution. Meares faces fines of up to $500,000, as well as three years probation on top of the maximum 20-year prison sentence. Bradshaw said Meares worked as a Fairmont task force officer and had a mutual agreement with the Sheriff's Office as a drug investigator. He came to work full time with the Sheriff's Office in January 2005 and resigned in August 2005, after the State Bureau of Investigation and the federal Internal Revenue Service seized computers and documents from the Sheriff's Office. Meares is accused of stealing the federal forfeiture money between 1998 and 2002. His lawyer, Rosemary Godwin of Raleigh, said Meares would not comment. After the hearing, Meares and family members followed Godwin out of the courtroom and into a nearby office. Drug money seized by the Robeson County Sheriff's Office becomes part of a federal forfeiture program. Once the federal government determines that the money can be forfeited, 80 percent is returned to the Sheriff's Office, which must follow strict spending guidelines. Paying informants is allowed under the program. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Evenson declined again Friday to discuss details of Operation Tarnished Badge or who else might be charged. Johnson Britt, the Robeson County district attorney, confirmed this week that the investigation uncovered that some on-duty deputies helped former Sheriff Glenn Maynor move into a home and landscape his yard about three years ago. County taxpayers paid for the move, Britt said. Jim Brown, the assistant Robeson County manager, said no determination has been made on whether to require the deputies involved to return the money. "We're waiting for all the details to come in," Brown said. Another former deputy, Joey Smith, has received a target letter saying he is the subject of the investigation and asking for his cooperation. Federal court documents show that Smith was appointed a lawyer last month. He has not been charged. Two other former deputies -- J.W. Jacobs and Billy Hunt -- also have not been charged, but Britt said he has had to throw out any cases in which they served as lead investigators because they would have no credibility with jurors. Jacobs was charged in 2003 with conspiracy and obstruction charges for his role in allowing a convicted felon to carry a gun during a sting operation. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and surrendered his law enforcement badge, Britt said. Billy Hunt was among five deputies who resigned after the state and federal investigators seized the computers and documents from the Sheriff's Office. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman