Pubdate: Thu, 27 Jul 2006
Source: Fayetteville Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2006 Fayetteville Observer
Contact:  http://www.fayettevillenc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/150
Author: Greg Barnes

FORMER ROBESON DEPUTY PLEADS GUILTY

WILMINGTON - A former Robeson County deputy pleaded guilty Wednesday 
to stealing about $160,000 during six traffic stops along Interstate 95.

James Owen Hunt spent about $8,000 of that money to pave his driveway 
and about $16,000 on a pontoon boat, Assistant U.S. Attorney Erick 
Evenson said.

Hunt, who is 39, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiracy 
to commit money laundering.

As part of his plea agreement, he will pay $150,000 in restitution 
and testify against other former deputies of the Robeson County Drug 
Enforcement Division. Hunt, who faces between 10 years and life in 
prison, will be sentenced later.

Since June, federal investigators have charged five former deputies 
with stealing money from drug dealers along I-95. One of those former 
deputies is Steven Lovin, Hunt's ex-partner.

In court Wednesday, Evenson said Hunt and Lovin stole roughly 
$160,000 between 2001 and 2004 during drug interdiction stops. They 
turned in nearly $1.7 million as evidence in those cases. Evenson 
said Hunt and Lovin used racial profiling to stop people they thought 
might be carrying illegal drugs and money.

"They were looking for clean-cut Hispanic individuals traveling down 
the interstate," Evenson told U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle.

On Oct. 17, 2001, Evenson said, Hunt and Lovin stopped a vehicle 
driven by two Polish nationals who were driving south from Canada. 
Under T-shirts in the trunk, Evenson said, the deputies found the 
drug Ecstasy, $78,050 in Canadian money, $11,700 in U.S. money and 
more than $9,000 in money orders.

Evenson said the deputies stole the U.S. money and turned the rest in 
as evidence against the two Polish nationals.

Judge Boyle asked Evenson how the deputies thought they could get 
away with skimming money and charging the drug suspects at the same time.

"They hedged their bets," Evenson replied. He said they believed 
authorities would side with them over the drug dealers if questions ever arose.

On Jan. 27, 2002, he said, Hunt and Lovin found $264,000 under the 
floor and seats of a vehicle occupied by two Hispanic men. Evenson 
said Lovin took a $10,000 bundle, put it in a bag and later split it 
with Hunt on a dirt road.

On March 11, 2002, Evenson said, Hunt and Lovin stole between $50,000 
and $60,000 during a traffic stop on I-95 and turned in $384,518 as evidence.

During a traffic stop on Aug. 2, 2002, Lovin found a secret 
compartment in a vehicle's floor containing $139,780, Evenson said. 
Lovin placed $10,000 inside his shirt and later split the money with 
Hunt, Evenson said.

On Sept. 9, 2002, he said, the two deputies skimmed $60,000 during a 
traffic stop and left $373,985 as evidence. Evenson said Lovin took 
the money to his home, and he and Hunt split it on the kitchen table. 
He said Hunt took his share home and put it in the freezer.

On April 1, 2004, Hunt stopped a vehicle and contacted Lovin for 
help, Evenson said. The deputies tapped on the spare tire, found that 
it wasn't hollow and cut it open at a local garage, he said.

"Mr. Lovin told Mr. Hunt, 'This is a good one,"' Evenson said.

The deputies put $10,000 in a camera bag and divided the money at 
Hunt's house, he said. They left $295,000 as evidence.

Evenson said Lovin instructed Hunt not to spend large amounts of 
money so he wouldn't draw attention to himself. Lovin and Hunt used 
multiple banks to launder the money, and Lovin told Hunt to use money 
orders because they were less likely to be traced, Evenson said.

He described Hunt as "very cooperative" with federal investigators. 
Information from Hunt led the investigators to a secret hydraulic 
compartment under a staircase in Lovin's home, Evenson said. He did 
not say what was found there.

An indictment says investigators seized a Ford F-150 pickup truck and 
a Harley-Davidson motorcycle from Lovin. Lovin's lawyer, Jeff Welty 
of Durham, sat in on Hunt's hearing.

"It provides information to us that the government is likely to give 
at trial," Welty said. "That's why we are here, to listen and learn."

Welty declined to comment further about the case against Lovin, who 
along with former deputies C.T. Strickland and Roger Taylor were 
released from jail this month.

The three were arrested June 9 on 10 counts of racketeering between 
1995 and 2004. An indictment accuses the men of assault, theft of 
public money, distribution of drugs, money laundering and burning two 
homes and a business.

Another former deputy, Kevin Rudolph Meares, has been charged with 
conspiring to commit money laundering between 1998 and 2002.

Like Hunt, Meares was charged under a bill of criminal information 
and has agreed to a plea in exchange for information. An Aug. 4 
hearing has been scheduled for Meares.

Charges against the five men stem from a 3-year state and federal 
investigation dubbed Operation Tarnished Badge.

The operation culminated in March 2005 when investigators searched 
the Sheriff's Office and found drugs in deputies' cars and lying out 
in the open in the Drug Enforcement Division, a prosecutor says.

Evenson declined to say whether more arrests could be made.
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