BETHEL OFFICER CHARGED TO REMAIN SUSPENDED

A Bethel police lieutenant who pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal
drug charge, will remain in suspended-employee status until town
commissioners receive records confirming the plea, officials said
Wednesday. Mayor Frank Hemingway said he would not speculate about
when a decision will be made about Jerome Earl Cox's employment.
After Tuesday night's closed session discussion about Cox's status,
the Bethel Board of Commissioners authorized town attorney Keen
Lassiter to pick it up copies of the plea agreement as soon as it
becomes available.

Cox was with the Bethel Police Department nearly five years prior to
is October arrest in connection with federal drug and weapons
charges. Although the plea agreement was filed with the federal
clerk's office Tuesday, it is still being processed, court officials
said. It is not expected to become available until Friday.

"This is just so unfortunate," Lassiter said. "If we had our
druthers, we would wish this never happened. But it has, so we'll
handle it and move forward." Once Lassiter receives the documents, he
will bring them to the town manager, who will distribute copies among
board members. At that point, a decision could be made one of two
ways. The town manager may make the decision to terminate or the town
commissioners may choose to vote on the decision during a special
session. At a 30-minute hearing in federal court Tuesday, Cox,
flanked by numerous family members and well-wishers, pleaded guilty
to aiding and abetting another in knowingly and unlawfully
distributing more than five grams of crack cocaine.

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.

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. The investigation was
initiated in August 2005 after a unidentified witness went to
Beaufort investigators with allegations that Roberts offered to sell
a kilo of cocaine that had been stored in the police department's
evidence room.

Roberts, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 9, remains
suspended without pay. He is being held in the Pitt County Detention Center.