By Sarah Willets
A second Pembroke police
officer has been suspended from his position, and a Red Springs police
lieutenant has been charged with drug crimes for a second time.
Pembroke Officer Dean Simmons
was suspended with pay for 30 days effective Wednesday, according to Gary
Locklear, the town’s attorney.
“He is suspended pending the
results of an investigation,” Locklear said, declining to release any further
details and saying it is a personnel matter. An SBI spokeswoman said the agency
is conducting an investigation into the department, but would not say if Simmns
is the target.
Locklear said Simmons has been
with the Pembroke Police Department for about a year. Police Chief Grant
Florita did not return a reporter’s call.
Earlier this week, Detective
Reese Oxendine was suspended after he was arrested Monday. Oxendine is charged
with two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery for events that allegedly occured
earlier this year and led to a three-day suspension in March while the town
investigated the allegations.
On Wednesday, Red Springs
police Lt. George “Tommy” Thomas Wright, Jr. was arrested in Lumberton for
fraudulently obtaining hydrocodone. He was jailed under a $25,000 secured bond.
According to a statement from
the SBI, Wright “saw numerous doctors and dentists in Cumberland, Robeson, Hoke
and Scotland counties complaining of back, neck or tooth pain to obtain
hydrocodone.”
Wright was charged with five
counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, four counts of level 3
trafficking and one count of level 1 trafficking by possession of opiates.
Wright faced similar charges in
Cumberland County in July. At that time, he was charged with four counts of
obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, three counts of level 1 trafficking
by possession in an opiate and one count of level 2 trafficking by possession
of an opiate.
Wright, who had recently been
made the head of Red Springs’ detective division, was put on paid leave. Red
Springs officials declined to comment.