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GREENSBORO - Two ex-members of the Greensboro Police Department's special intelligence unit were indicted on felony charges Monday, culminating a yearlong probe into alleged abuses of power.

The suspended officers, Sgt. William "Tom" Fox and officer Scott E. Sanders, face charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Sanders also is charged with hacking into a computer issued to another local officer by the federal government.

The six indictments sketch out a series of events in which Sanders, who faces four of the felony counts, is accused of knowingly deceiving fellow law enforcement officers at all levels of government - local, state and federal - while working to illegally gather information about or besmirch the reputations of three black officers.

Sanders said through his attorney he is not guilty. Fox's lawyer declined to comment until he can review the indictments.

"Officer Sanders will plead not guilty because he is, in fact, not guilty and we are confident that when this case comes to a close, a jury of his peers will vindicate him," said his attorney, Seth Cohen.

The charges emerged from a State Bureau of Investigation inquiry into possible criminal misconduct by various Greensboro police officials in a scandal that also forced the resignation of the former chief, David Wray, in early 2006.

For Fox and Sanders, the charges are unlikely to fetch huge amounts of time behind bars if the men are convicted. For example, the penalty for fraudulently accessing a government computer is four to 25 months of incarceration, if a judge decides against the more lenient option of probation.

But under North Carolina law, a guilty verdict or guilty plea to any of the charges would result in the revocation of the two men's state certification as police officers, which is required to work in law enforcement.

‘Disturbing' charges

Mayor Keith Holliday said Monday the indictments were "disappointing, (but) not surprising" and paint an unsettling picture of the department's internal climate during the ex-chief's reign.

"What is truly disturbing is that the actions on which the SBI based their charges are, in fact, consistent with the environment described by both black and white officers of differing ranks and by members of outside law enforcement in late 2005," Holliday said.

"No one can be happy about indictments of their community's police officers," the mayor said. "If a police officer or a small group of officers decides that the end justifies the means, and if their superiors fail to stop them, our system of justice can be compromised."

Holliday said the indictments should help reassure "the public that we were acting responsibly and with full respect for all involved" in the larger controversy surrounding Wray's ouster.

The incident has polarized Greensboro along racial lines and led to conflicting claims of just what the special investigation unit was up to, why and under what right or authority. Because of the investigation, Holliday said, the City Council and City Manager Mitch Johnson were prevented from telling their side fully while others spread falsehoods and half truths.

It is unclear whether Monday's actions by the Guilford County Grand Jury might eventually lead to other charges against other people.

For now, though, assistant SBI agent-in-charge Kanawha Perry said the allegations are all that could be brought from an inquiry that initially spanned "potential violations of the law including illegal wiretaps; extortion; illegally accessing government computers; obstruction of justice; failure to discharge official duties; misuse of position by public officials; altering or falsifying documents; kidnapping and felonious restraint."

Some alleged misconduct involved misdemeanors that could not be prosecuted because the state's statute of limitations on such infractions has expired, Perry said.

Other instances of questionable conduct were referred to the Greensboro police internal affairs division to investigate whether they violated department policy.

"Other matters were determined not to involve either criminal or departmental violations," Perry said.

The twisting road that led to Monday's charges against two rather low-level officials began in mid-2005, when city administrators began looking into allegations that black officers were being treated unfairly and singled out for scrutiny by the special investigations unit.

An outside consulting firm from Raleigh was later brought in to examine the allegations. It reported that the special intelligence unit "had crossed the line of appropriateness."

The now-defunct special intelligence unit had been formed initially to track gang activity and organized hate groups, but under Wray it delved increasingly into what some in the department perceived as internal corruption.

Monday's indictments go back to separate incidents over a two-year period that began in December 2003, when then-investigator Sanders, who is white, allegedly hacked into a federal computer given to black Greensboro police officer Julius Fulmore. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had given Fulmore the computer to do some work for the agency.

After being denied access to Fulmore's computer multiple times by a HUD agent, Sanders allegedly deceived an SBI agent into helping him "hack" into Fulmore's computer, according to the indictment.

Sanders falsely led SBI agent Gary Rick Cullop to believe the computer belonged to Greensboro police and he had permission to tap its contents, grand jurors said.

Sanders' actions "were undertaken with deceit and intent to defraud and obtain information from the computer in question, to which the defendant knew or should have known he was not legally entitled to," their indictment says.

‘A good cop'

While not addressing the allegations specifically, Sanders' attorney Cohen depicted him as "a good cop who did nothing more than conduct justified investigations ordered by his superiors into serious allegations of wrongdoing against fellow police officers."

"If there is one thing the media and public hopefully have learned over the past few years, it is that it can be a serious and embarrassing mistake to assume that because someone has been indicted, that person is in fact guilty of a crime," Cohen said.

The other two charges against Sanders and both of those against Fox unfolded in late June 2005. The indictments allege that's when the two conspired to deceive other officers from Greensboro and Winston-Salem about the professional integrity of two black Greensboro police officers.

Fox, then-sergeant over the intelligence unit, and Sanders told the two officers not to share sensitive information with the two black officers in that same intelligence unit.

The intent was to frustrate an investigation that black officers Norman Rankin and Ernest Cuthbertson were pursuing by keeping them away from an important confidential informant, the grand jurors alleged.

"The clear implication of what was being said by Sanders and the defendant (Fox) was to portray officers Rankin and Culbertson (sic) in a bad light and imply they were ‘dirty cops' and ‘couldn't be trusted,' " they said.

The indictments did not make clear what sort of criminal investigation Rankin and Cuthbertson were pursuing. Grand jurors allege Sanders flatly told other officers his goal was to frustrate that inquiry.

"The defendant (Sanders) told Officer Slone, ‘That's what we want, we don't want this investigation to go forward. What we want is for them to fail,' " according to one of the indictments.

In his remarks, Holliday acknowledged the public's division over Wray's ouster and the sense among some predominantly white residents that investigators were "going after the wrong targets."

Some have questioned, for instance, why Greensboro police Officer James Hinson hasn't been disciplined for myriad actions, from conduct unbecoming to an officer to potential conflict of interest in his co-ownership of a home for troubled teenaged girls.

Hinson, who is black, was investigated and cleared of misconduct in 2006 by internal and criminal investigations.

Holliday said the investigation resulting in Monday's charges "has been like peeling back the layers of an onion."

"First, concerns about unequal treatment and mistreatment of officers and allegations of intimidation," Holliday said. "Then the hints of failure to follow proper protocols and procedures. And finally, the possibility of actual misconduct rising to the level of criminal activity."

Staff writers Margaret Banks and Sonja Emquist contributed to this report.

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