Hege's nine-year reign as "high sheriff" and undisputed Republican
kingmaker of Davidson County is in tatters.


From The Washington Post, 9/29/03:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14802-2003Sep28.html

15-Count Indictment Puts the Heat on Hege

N.C. Lawman, Who Bills Himself as the Nation's Toughest Sheriff, Faces
Embezzlement Charges

By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, September 29, 2003; Page A03


LEXINGTON, N.C. --

Gerald K. Hege pushed the macho, Southern lawman thing to extremes.

He had the Davidson County jail painted pink with murals of teddy
bears carrying buckets of tears to taunt the inmates.

He got himself a nitrous-oxide-propelled hot rod, souped up by the
late Dale Earnhardt's racing team, and showed off by taking his
deputies on 172-mph thrill rides.

Hege boasted that he was the toughest sheriff in America, and anyone
who has seen him strutting around this rural county in his mirrored
sunglasses and paramilitary uniform, sometimes carrying a submachine
gun or a thick walking stick that looks more like a club, would be
hard-pressed to dispute him.

His bravado was matched only by his passion for self-promotion:

For a time he had a weekly show on Court TV and the joke among the
in-crowd is that instead of calling for backup on big cases, he phoned
the newsrooms at the local television stations.

But Hege's nine-year reign as "high sheriff" and undisputed Republican
kingmaker of Davidson County is in tatters.

He was suspended this month after being named in a 15-count indictment
that includes charges of embezzling several thousand dollars from his
department's vice accounts and obstructing justice by trying to cover
up illegal withdrawals from the account.

Deputies have told investigators that Hege had employees do repairs at
his home during work hours, ordered deputies to help his children with
personal moves and threatened to fire anyone who cooperated with the
state and federal probe of his office.

One deputy said he was ordered to "fix" reports to show a decrease in
crime.

Others said that Hege instructed them to stop Hispanic and black
drivers, saying they should pull over anyone "darker than snow."

Buffeted by the accusations, Hege -- the man who once courted
attention with such vigor -- has silently retreated to the old
farmhouse where he lives, refusing to talk about the case.

"He became bigger than life, and that's probably what has led to his
pending demise," said former Davidson County Commission chairman Larry
Potts, a onetime Hege supporter who clashed with the sheriff in recent
years.

Hege is a Vietnam War veteran who returned to the county where he grew
up to become a law enforcement officer.

He didn't last long the first time around, either being fired or
resigning -- depending on whom you talk to -- after his involvement in
a fatal 1973 shooting, three years after he took the job.

He went to work as a railroad switch operator, but kept trying to get
back into law enforcement, twice running unsuccessfully for sheriff
before unseating the incumbent in 1994 and becoming the first
Republican in 20 years to hold the post.

He was fascinated, friends say, by Buford Pusser, the archetypal tough
guy Southern sheriff from Tennessee who was the subject of the
"Walking Tall" films of the 1970s.

Once in office, Hege set about shaping his own rugged image.

"I love the smell of handcuffs in the morning" became his motto,
playing off a line from the Vietnam epic, "Apocalypse Now."

He distributed posters that declared:

"This ain't Mayberry, and I ain't Andy."

Hege, who has thick gray hair and a penetrating gaze, backed his
bluster by pulling all the televisions from the county jail and
ordering the pink jailhouse paint job.

He bought machine guns and outfitted his deputies in black,
military-style uniforms.

"He's the kind of guy that if you tell him, 'I'm gonna whip your butt,
meet me behind the steakhouse at 2:30,' he'll be there waiting at 2
o'clock," said Daryl Daniels, a tire shop owner and longtime friend.

George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone" is Hege's signature song, and he
would blare it, friends say, when he took out his super-charged Chevy
Impala, known as the Spider Car because of the web and spider he had
painted on the side.

Hege came to love the chase, though his penchant for high-speed
adventures has been controversial, particularly when he has followed
suspects into neighboring counties with guns blazing.

"I chase. I ram. I slam," Hege told ABC's "20/20" in an interview that
aired in November 2000.

"I'm going to take you off the road. If you get out and run, I'll put
the dogs on you."

Hege's face is everywhere in Lexington, renowned for an annual
barbecue festival that draws more than 100,000 visitors to sample
piles of chopped "Lexington-style" pork swimming in a distinctive,
vinegary sauce.

He glowers down from posters behind restaurant counters and in auto
repair shops.

Several deputies have told investigators that they were ordered to
sell the posters, which promote a foundation Hege formed to help
families of law enforcement officers injured or killed in the line of
duty, to local businesses and keep lists of those who didn't buy.

The posters show Hege in hunting gear or glaring at kneeling drug
dealers.

One poster says:

"Scumbags . . . We don't play in Davidson County." Another shows him
standing on top of a tank with the caption, "Old habits are hard to
break!"

Hege has also placed his likeness on everything from coffee cups and
T-shirts to pocket knives and desk statues.

He bottled "Sheriff Hege's Lexington-style BBQ Dip" and sold it to
some of the 20 or so barbecue restaurants here, ordering deputies to
make deliveries during work hours, according to affidavits.

Sometimes his partisan fervor may have colored his approach to the
job:

He once set up drunken-driving roadblocks outside a fundraiser held by
Democratic rivals.

He didn't mind offending the powerful, and he was seldom delicate.

Months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks he sent out a
holiday card that depicted him holding Osama bin Laden's severed head
with the caption "Happy Ramadan."

"He let all that power go to his head," said Wayne Harron, 30.

"I hope they lock him up and throw away the key."

Supporters and foes alike, though, say there is another side to Hege,
a gentler side.

Daniels tells of Hege personally paying the electricity bill for poor
neighbors.

"The sheriff is two people," Potts said.

"His public image is a gung-ho Rambo, Buford Pusser combo; his private
image is more caring."

Many here say Hege is still popular enough that he could win another
term if an election were held today, even with the indictment and a
possible trial looming.

On the day the indictment was announced, Daniels sold out his
stockpile of Sheriff Hege's BBQ Dip.

_________________________________________________________

This redneck scum closed his zipper on his *****. I hope he enjoys
entertaining his fellow inmates as they welcome him to the slammer.

Harry