May 25, 2004

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  Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege prefers a hi-tech machine gun and a souped-up Chevy Impala as his crime fighting weapons.

  
  

  Deputies: Image ruled Hege

  
  

  
  

  5-23-04

  
  

  
  

  By Eric Collins & Ed Williams, Staff Writers
  News & Record

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  LEXINGTON --  In Davidson County Superior Court last Monday, gone were the aviator shades, the paramilitary garb and the Dirty Harry swagger that defined the embattled sheriff for nearly a decade. Gerald Hege - Davidson County's top cop - copped a plea: guilty to obstructing justice.

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  	Sheriff Hege tapes his cable show for Court TV.

  
  

  Despite every embarrassing news story about reckless chases, officers shooting at people or vehicles, Hege drawing a gun on another cop, jailers having sex with inmates, deputies harassing minorities and Democratic rivals, Hege rolled along with a well-oiled PR machine.

  
  

  Hege painted jail cells pink to humiliate prisoners, put inmates to work, and retrofitted the department with uniforms and weaponry that made it appear he was going to war. Even his office looked like a military-style bunker.

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  To hear Hege tell it -- and he was on a regular soapbox to voters through his local radio and national cable-television shows -- he was at war.

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  The Davidson County Sheriff's Office K.A.T.N. spider patch stands for "Kicking Ass and Taking Names."

   

  
  

  15 indictments against Gerald Hege were unsealed, along with hundreds of pages of sworn affidavits from 28 of Hege's officers. The breadth of alleged wrongdoing was staggering and painted a picture of a lawman who:

  
  

  • encouraged officers to engage in illegal activity;
  

  • harassed political opponents;
  

  • encouraged his staff to manipulate crime data to make the department look good;
  

  • encouraged officers to engage in racial profiling; and
  

  • used public money for personal use.
  

  The most damning allegations involved money missing from drug funds and the falsifying of records to hide that fact. 

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

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