Deputy Gary Warren Odum Pleads Guilty

[WaTcHeR]

11.29.2006 - RALEIGH, N.C. A Robeson County sheriff's deputy had entered a guilty plea to charges of taking public money and doing private work for a former elected official.

Deputy Gary Warren Odum also pleaded guilty in federal court to selling illegally programmed satellite television cards used to intercept TV signals.

The 37-year-old Odum's plea brings to a dozen the number of former deputies charged in a federal and state investigation. Federal officials won't name the elected official.

But Robeson County prosecutor Johnson Britt has said investigators substantiated that deputies had helped former Sheriff Glenn Maynor move into a new house and landscape his yard.

Maynor resigned as sheriff two years ago.

Sentencing will be later. The maximum sentence for each count of the two counts he pleaded to is five years in prison and a 250-thousand dollar fine.

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[KC]

RALEIGH - A former sheriff's detective pled guilty Monday to fraud charges related to private work he did for a former elected official while on duty.

Gary Warren Odum, 37, of Lumberton, also pled guilty to illegally programming satellite TV cards and selling them. Odum resigned from the Sheriff's Office on Tuesday.

Two other former deputies, Paul Pittman and Billy Hunt, last month plead guilty to receiving taxpayers' money for helping landscape the yard of a former elected official and working at that person's campaign fund-raiser.

The U.S. Attorney's Office didn't name the former elected official in the bill of criminal information, but it has been widely reported that the deputies helped former Sheriff Glenn Maynor while on the clock. Maynor, who has not been charged with a crime, resigned in 2004, citing health reasons.

Federal prosecutors say Odum was instructed by his supervisors to record the hours worked for private benefit for Maynor as if he performed his duty as a law enforcement officer. The value of that work exceeded $5,000, according to the statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Odum becomes the sixth deputy to take a plea deal as part of an on-going investigation of the Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said until Odum's resignation Tuesday, he had not been aware of the charges against the deputy.

“It's makes you feel sad to see one of them lose their job and be charged with a crime,” Sealey said.

Odum worked as a road deputy, a school resource officer, a detective in the Juvenile Division and most recently as a detective in the Major Crimes Division.

Odum faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, two years supervised probation and a $250,000 fine for each charge. A sentencing hearing has not been set.

Early this month, former deputies Roger Taylor, C.T. Strickland and Steven Lovin were also charged with illegally programing satellite cards.

Taylor, Strickland and Lovin were first indicted in June on a host of racketeering and other charges, including arson and stealing money from drug dealers. Their trial has been rescheduled for March.

Former Deputy James O. Hunt, 39, pled guilty in July to conspiracy to commit money laundering and admitted to stealing more than $160,000 during six interstate traffic stops with his partner, Lovin.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Dec. 13 along with former Deputy Joey Smith. Smith pled guilty last month to conspiracy to commit money laundering. Federal investigators have said he misused about $4,000 that has been seized from drug dealers.

Former Deputy Kevin Meares, 37, pled guilty last month to conspiracy to commit money laundering and admitted to stealing about $25,000 earmarked to pay informants. Meares is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Dec. 12.

www.robesonian.com/articles/2006/11/30/news/news/story01.txt