POLICE SCANDAL DETAILS EMERGE

Ex-Officer Gave Party For Felon, Prosecutors Say

A local drug dealer was the guest of honor at a 1997 party thrown by
narcotics officer Ralph Tyrone Williams and attended by several other
Richmond County Sheriff's Office deputies, according to new documents filed
in federal court. In addition to the federal charges that Mr. Williams and
former Officer Joseph Ellick already face, prosecutors have filed documents
seeking permission to tell a U.S. District Court more about alleged
discoveries by federal investigators.

Prosecutors want a jury to hear about the party held after convicted drug
dealer Joe Nathan Green was paroled in February 1997, and they want to
expand on the charges lodged against Mr. Williams and Mr. Ellick in a
February indictment.

The two former officers have pleaded innocent to charges of conspiracy to
possess crack cocaine for distribution, attempting to possess cocaine,
conspiracy to interfere with commerce and misprision of a felony. A trial
date has not been set.

On top of charges detailed in the indictments, prosecutors heaped on more
allegations in documents filed Tuesday, including:

a.. Mr. Williams routinely "fixed" traffic tickets for money.

a.. Mr. Williams got former vice officers Stoney Turnage and Roderick Berry
- - who have pleaded guilty in an unrelated police corruption case and are
awaiting sentencing - to overlook code violations at two nightclubs in
which he is a part owner - Robbie's Sports Bar and the Millennium Club.

a.. Mr. Williams and Mr. Ellick stole confiscated drugs and gave them to
dealers to sell.

a.. Mr. Williams used his position to clear a drug dealer's criminal record
in return for payment.

a.. A person identified as "D.H." took half a pound of marijuana from
"V.C.," then took that person and the drugs to Robbie's Sports Bar, where
the marijuana was given to Mr. Williams.

a.. Mr. Ellick told known criminals the best time to enter the narcotics
unit's vehicle impound lot to steal tires and wheel rims. The thousands of
pages of evidence and dozens of tape recordings that prosecutors have
already made available to defense attorneys indicate that federal
investigators were at work on the case as early as 1998.

According to court documents, federal investigators obtained a judge's
permission in September 1998 to install a pen register at an Augusta
residence. A pen register records telephone numbers called from a certain
phone.

In August 1999, investigators obtained permission to install a tracking
device on Mr. Williams' vehicle.

Mr. Williams, 36, and Mr. Ellick, 34, are free on $25,000 bonds. Mr.
Williams was fired from the sheriff's office after his indictment. Mr.
Ellick left the department and moved to Florida last year.