By LANCE MARTIN
rrspin.com

GREENVILLE – Ten defendants in the Operation Rockfish police corruption case are scheduled for arraignment in Greenville at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 9, according to federal court records.

None of the five who have already taken pleas in the case are included on the docket so it is expected, according to a spokesman for the United States Attorney’s Office in Raleigh, the 10 scheduled for an appearance that day will be advised of the charges against them and the penalties they face. They will also be asked to enter a plea of not guilty or guilty. If they plead not guilty a trial date is set. If they plead guilty a sentencing date is set.

In the notice of hearing, the following defendants are on the docket: Lann Tjuan Clanton, Ikeisha Jacobs, Jason Boone, Adrienne Moody, Cory Jackson, Jimmy Pair, Jr., Curtis Boone, Antonio Tillmon, Alphonso Ponton, and Thomas Jefferson Allen, II.

Jacobs, J. Boone, Jackson, Pair, C. Boone, and Allen are all former deputies with the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office. Tillmon is a former officer with the Windsor Police Department.

As of this report there is no indication in electronic federal court records any of the 10 on the Feb. 9 docket have entered pleas.

The first person to take a plea in the case, former Northampton Deputy Wardie Vincent Jr., is now scheduled for sentencing on April 12 in Greenville before Senior Judge Malcolm Howard, court records show.

Tosha Rochelle Dailey, Kavon Phillips, Alaina Sue-Kam-Ling and Crystal Pierce have also entered pleas and are tentatively scheduled for sentencing in March.

Dailey formerly worked as a 911 dispatch operator for Northampton County

The only indication any plea arrangements could be afoot is what was mentioned in a motion extending the pre-trial deadlines which was filed earlier this month and noted, “Discussions are occurring between the parties that have the potential to resolve some or all of the above-captioned cases.”

The motion was granted earlier this month.

The Operation Rockfish police corruption sting contains a 54-count federal indictment that alleges 13 the law enforcement officers and two other individuals protected narcotics shipments and cash proceeds during transit along the East Coast for what they believed was a large-scale drug trafficking organization that was actually an undercover operation by the FBI.

The first count charges the conspiracy was ongoing since Nov. 7, 2013 and continued up until the day all 15 were arrested on April 30 of last year.

 

(Lance Martin is Editor and Publisher of www.rrspin.com. Permission was granted to publish this story.)