Pubdate: Sat, 26 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

ROBESON SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT UNDER SCRUTINY FOR YEARS

The Robeson County Sheriff's Office has been battered by accusations of 
corruption for years, long before Glenn Maynor took over as sheriff in 
1994. But Maynor was running the department when the rumors turned into 
charges. The department came under some of its closest scrutiny during the 
administration of Maynor's predecessor -- Sheriff Hubert Stone. In 1986, 
the sheriff's son, Kevin Stone, shot and killed Jimmy Earl Cummings, 
touching off a storm of controversy in the Lumbee Indian community when the 
death was ruled either accidental or self-defense. In 1988, the county made 
national headlines when Eddie Hatcher and Timothy Jacobs held 20 people 
hostage at The Robesonian newspaper. Hatcher and Jacobs, both Indians, said 
they wanted to draw attention to corruption and drug trafficking in the 
Sheriff's Office.

The State Bureau of Investigation determined the allegations to be 
unfounded. Stone retired in 1994, after 16 years as sheriff and 41 years in 
law enforcement.

His replacement was Maynor, who had little law enforcement experience 
besides about four years as a Lumberton police officer. Maynor had spent 
the last 18 years as a Lumberton City Council member and 17 years as 
director of the Lumberton Housing Authority.

Maynor, a Lumbee, made up for the lack of experience with a healthy dose of 
charisma. He ran for sheriff saying the office needed a strong 
administrator, a leader responsive to residents. He beat James Sanderson, a 
former St. Pauls police chief, by a wide margin.

About two years later, former Deputy Ray Strickland said, he received a 
cryptic call from Stone regarding his nephew, C.T. Strickland. "He said, 
'Listen, you tell C.T. to be careful and document everything because he's 
going to need it working for Glenn.'" Strickland remembers.

Stone does not deny making the call.

He said he had started receiving many calls himself from people concerned 
about how deputies were conducting themselves. Stone said the wife of one 
of the deputies accused in the Operation Tarnished Badge investigation even 
called him seeking advice.

Stone declined to reveal the wife's name. Eight former deputies have now 
been charged since the investigation began 3 years ago. Three of those 
deputies have pleaded guilty since July.

When Maynor took office, he at first kept Mark Locklear on as chief of 
detectives.

Locklear said he trained Strickland, Steven Lovin and Roger Taylor the 
three officers named in a federal indictment at the center of the Sheriff's 
Office probe.

"All three of them had excellent work ethics, they really and truly did. 
They went over and aboveboard," Locklear said. "I don't know what happened 
after my departure in 1998." Locklear said he was fired because of a 
falling out with Maynor over politics. Locklear, who lost a bid for the 
sheriff's seat this year, declined to elaborate.

Maynor -- who resigned as sheriff in 2004, citing health problems -- has 
not returned repeated telephone calls since the former deputies were 
indicted. He beat Stone by a landslide in the 1998 sheriff's election. 
Under Maynor, Strickland became supervisor of the Drug Enforcement 
Division. He was forced to leave the department in 2003 after a judge ruled 
that he falsified an application for a search warrant.

That same year, Taylor was charged in state court with conspiracy and 
obstruction of justice. He was accused of allowing a convicted felon to 
carry a weapon during a sting operation and then trying to impede an SBI 
investigation into the incident. After he was charged, Taylor now 36 -- 
went to Iraq to work for a military contractor.

Those two cases led to Operation Tarnished Badge and the charges against 
the eight former deputies.

One of the eight, Kevin Meares, pleaded guilty this month to stealing about 
$25,000 in federal drug forfeiture money.

In a federal hearing on Aug. 4, Meares acknowledged that he forged vouchers 
when he received public money to pay confidential informants. Other times, 
Meares said, he made out the vouchers for more than he gave to the 
informants and pocketed the rest. Meares told investigators that Strickland 
taught him how to do it.
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