Pubdate: Tue, 18 Dec 2001
Source: Dispatch, The (NC)
Copyright: 2001, 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)

SEARCHES FIND SUSPICIOUS SUBSTANCES IN PROBE

FBI agents executing a search warrant seized a duffle bag and a small bag 
containing a total of 29 wrapped white balls of an unknown substance from a 
Thomasville outbuilding described in an affidavit as a "stash house" for 
indicted narcotics officer Scott Woodall of the Davidson County Sheriff's 
Office.

According to a federal inventory, they also confiscated numerous pills, 
syringes and liquid vials, all contained in a blue nylon bag, as well as 
scales, cutting boards, knives, a torch, plastic baggies, an open box of 
rubber gloves, and an iron skillet and a small silver bucket, both 
containing possible residue.

In a separate search at the county vice and narcotics unit, agents found a 
"plastic box containing green leafy substance and scale" inside a 
gold-colored Chevrolet Caprice sedan belonging to the sheriff's office.

They discovered rolling papers, straws, a stun gun and packages of 
photographs of drug usage and of homicides/suicides in the center console 
of a white GMC van belonging to the sheriff's office.

They found a .40-caliber Glock 23, a light, semi-automatic handgun with a 
13-round magazine for bullets, but little else, in a brown Chevrolet Tahoe 
four-door sport utility vehicle whose owner is unknown.

And they returned unexecuted a search warrant for a tan-colored Tahoe 
reportedly assigned to indicted narcotics officer Douglas Edward 
Westmoreland. The inventory did not specify why no search was made or 
whether the vehicle could be found.

These are results of the first searches stemming from last week's arrest of 
three Davidson County narcotics officers, an Archdale police officer and 
two Lexington residents on charges of conspiring to distribute large 
quantities of cocaine and marijuana as well as steroids and Ecstasy.

A federal grand jury issued a sealed indictment Dec. 7 against 1st Lt. 
Woodall, Lt. Westmoreland and Sgt. William Monroe Rankin of the sheriff's 
office, Sgt. Christopher James Shetley of the Archdale police, and 
Lexington area residents Wyatt Nathan Kepley and Marco Aurelio Acosta Soza.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Klauer in Greensboro and Special Agent Joanne 
Morley of the FBI in Charlotte said they could not comment on the nature of 
the substances seized in the searches.

The affidavit used to obtain the search warrants from a federal magistrate 
alleged that federal and state agents four times observed Woodall selling 
cocaine to a former police officer charged in a separate case with 
distributing Ecstasy.

The affidavit also alleged that Woodall sold marijuana - sometimes out of 
Tupperware boxes kept in the white GMC van - as well as steroids and Ecstasy.

The affidavit alleged that he used scales in the "stash house" to weigh and 
package cocaine and marijuana and a vacuum-pack machine to package 
marijuana for distribution.

The document said he also kept his Harley-Davidson Iron Horse motorcycle there.

The small, pre-fabricated storage building described as the "stash house" 
stands beside a small white-siding house at 1014 Virginia St., a dead-end 
street of similar 1940-ish homes just beyond the southern limits of 
Thomasville.

Monday afternoon, an upholstered chair sat empty on the front porch of the 
house and a rusty brown pickup sat parked in the front yard. In addition to 
the "No Trespassing" signs on the both the outbuilding and the house, a 
note attached to the home's front door said, "Don't knock or ring doorbell 
unless you are with the fire or police department and then something better 
be burning or dead!"

No one was home.

Mildred Turner, who has lived next-door for 24 years, said two cars of 
federal agents swooped in one morning last week - she thinks it was 
Wednesday, the day agents with the FBI and the State Bureau of 
Investigation arrested the sheriff's deputies and the police officer - and 
removed contents from the outbuilding for a little more than an hour.

Her husband, Wayne, who works for a cushion fabrication and supply business 
in High Point, said a pair of sheriff's office patrol cars together parked 
along the street for about an hour Sunday, and a black, dark-windowed, 
unmarked law enforcement car, like those used by the sheriff's office, 
drove through Monday evening while a reporter was there.

"There's been a lot of law enforcement down through here in the past week," 
Mildred Turner said.

County tax records indicate Woodall does not own the property. Mrs. Turner 
said another man, whom she described as a good neighbor, rented the house 
and appeared to let others use the outbuilding for storage. The man who 
primarily used the outbuilding was not as friendly as the renter of the 
house, she said.

A federal magistrate has issued five other search warrants that 
investigators have not yet returned. They are for the sheriff's office 
vice-narcotics unit, the Thomasville homes of Westmoreland and Shetley, and 
two other cars belonging to the sheriff's office.
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