FORMER OFFICER ENTERS PLEA

A Bethel police lieutenant arrested in connection with drug and
weapons charges entered a guilty plea in federal court Tuesday.

Jerome Earl Cox of Grimesland pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting
another in knowingly and unlawfully distributing more than five grams
of crack cocaine.

At the 30-minute hearing, Cox was joined by his pastor, wife and
numerous other family and friends. Seen wiping away tears, the nearly
five-year veteran of the Bethel Police Department offered few words
beyond the yes or no answers he gave Magistrate Judge David W.
Daniel. Cox will be sentenced by Judge Malcolm Howard on April 3.

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.

"It is not a happy occurrence to see a law enforcement officer admit
to wrongdoing," Bennett said.

"But when it happens, you have to be aggressive in the pursuit of it
because wrongdoing can be devastating to a town."

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.

On Nov. 1, Greenville FBI agent Donald Coward testified that his
agency's investigation of the two men began in August after an
unidentified man -- described as a convicted felon and cooperative
witness -- contacted Beaufort County narcotics detectives about a
conversation he had with Roberts.

Coward said the man told investigators Roberts wanted to sell a kilo
of cocaine that had been stored in the police department's evidence room.

On Sept. 23, the witness, Roberts and Cox went to a storage unit in
Chocowinity supposedly owned by a drug dealer named "Alverez," but
secretly purchased by the FBI for the covert operation, Coward said.

Hidden cameras planted by the FBI, recorded Roberts waiting in a
nearby vehicle while Cox smashed open the lock to Alverez's unit with
a hammer, Coward said.

Coward said Cox took $5,500 in cash and an electronic scale. The
witness got $1,800 and the officers took the rest, Coward said.

A month later Roberts allegedly sold the witness a .45-caliber
semi-automatic pistol that had been listed as stolen.

The next day, Cox, Roberts and the witness went to an impound lot in
Washington, N.C., to steal drugs and money stashed in a supposed drug
dealer's truck.

Coward said Cox broke the truck's front window and Roberts took a
black bag containing $2,000 in cash, 10.7 grams of cocaine and an
electric scale. Hidden cameras and FBI agents monitored the event, Coward said.

On Nov. 9, a federal grand jury indicted Roberts on one count of
illegal distribution of a controlled substance, one count of
conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, one count of the use
of a firearm during the commission of a crime in relation to drug
trafficking, and two counts of being in violation of federal law for
the distribution of a firearm to a known felon.

Cox, through his attorney Myron Hill, was in talks with the U.S.
Attorney's office and was spared a grand jury indictment.

Nearly 30 family members and friends watched, prayed and erupted into
tears when Cox was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals.

Until his April 3 sentencing hearing, he will be held at the Pitt
County Detention Center, then transferred to a federal detention
facility in Butner.

A hearing planned for Tuesday morning for Reginald Roberts was
rescheduled for Feb. 13 after the federal public defender's office
cited a conflict of interest.