Walter Hubert Stone (died February 11, 2008) was an American law enforcement officer who served as the Sheriff of Robeson County, North Carolina, from 1978 to December 1994.
Stone's tenure as sheriff was marred by allegations of corruption, namely accusations that he was involved in the narcotics trade, but he was never charged with any crimes in connection with his shrieval service.
This led to the largest crackdown on such violations in county history up to that point, with dozens arrested for alleged offenses.
[13] Stone oversaw the doubling in size of his office's drug enforcement division[7] and worked closely with District Attorney Joe Freeman Britt to prosecute narcotics-related offenses.
[16] In particular, he was criticized for a perceived closeness to drug dealers, especially when he appeared as a character witness in a 1985 trial for a local man charged with cocaine dealing and wrote a letter asking for the release of another who had purchased large quantities of marijuana from undercover federal agents.
[17] A sheriff's deputy arrested by federal investigators for drug dealing in the 1980s testified under oath that one county dealer paid Stone $300 in a protection racket for every one ounce (28 g) of cocaine he sold.
[19] On November 1, 1986, Kevin Stone—a sheriff's deputy and the son of Hubert Stone—shot and killed Jimmy Earl Cummings, an unarmed Lumbee man.
[23] The Robesonian printed numerous letters complaining about unfair law enforcement, but withheld publishing others supportive of county officials as they were submitted anonymously.
Stone and Britt complained about this discrepancy, but the paper's editor argued that the two must have written or solicited the letters supportive of them, as otherwise they would have likely been unaware of their existence.
In the event's aftermath, The Carolina Indian Voice wrote that blacks and Native Americans faced discriminatory treatment from Robeson County law enforcement officers and called for Stone's resignation, accusing him of attempting to "sucker" Lumbees into believing that he was "pro-Indian".
[15] In early 1988 Lumbee attorney and activist Julian Pierce campaigned for a new Superior Court Judgeship in Robeson County.
Peirce stated that as judge he would investigate allegations that Stone was engaged in a protection racket with drug dealers.
Chavis was arrested and charged with murder, while Goins was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head in his father's house.
Investigators quickly declared Goins' death a suicide, and Stone said he had probably killed himself to avoid being arrested, re-iterating that Pierce's murder was due to a personal dispute and not political.
Pierce's briefcase, which had reportedly contained documents corroborating corruption claims in county government, had gone missing, as had the sheriff's office dispatch tapes from the night of March 25/26.
[13] A crime scene photo also showed that the shotgun which had killed Goins sitting in his lap with its breech open.
When asked if he thought Goins killed Pierce, Stone refused to comment, citing Chavis' impending trial.
[16] Circumstances surrounding the murder of Pierce remain contested, and members of his family and elected officials have in the years since his death questioned the investigation.
On August 3 a body was found with a bullet wound in a swamp in South Carolina by a fisherman, and a few days later his car was discovered in Fayetteville.
[14][30] Police arrested two young men—Larry Demery and Daniel Green—for the murder, using evidence collected from the car and the automobile phone's records,[30] as well as a video of the two men wearing Jordan's affects, including a National Basketball Association championship ring gifted to him by his son.
[31] In 2015 Green sought a new trial, and in court filings his lawyers accused the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation of withholding evidence; one of the calls in Jordan's car's phone records was placed to Hubert Larry Deese, a cocaine dealer and Stone's illegitimate son.
Marshal, being nominated by U.S. Representative Charlie Rose for the position of supervisor in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
[38] The largest police corruption investigation in North Carolina's history, the operation led to 22 officers, including Sheriff Maynor, pleading guilty to a variety of charges.