From: Gary Hunt at the
Outpost of Freedom in Andrews, North CarolinaDate: February 1, 1994 Phone: messages (704) 321-4110,
NORTHPOINT TEAMS HEADQUARTERS #2
As I mentioned yesterday Mr. Davis, Betty Lou and Jim had gone to see Chief Deputy (I had said "undersheriff"", but was corrected by the receptionist) Clay Hardin. I called Deputy Hardin today to see if he had pursued the investigation into the matter, as he was requested to do during that meeting. He stated that there was a pending investigation regarding a marijuana bust. I asked if there was any explanation as to why the plane was flying in circles so many miles from the location of the bust. He stated that he could not discuss the matter on the phone, so I asked if I could come and speak with him. He then decided that he couldn"t speak to me in person. He suggested that I contact Mr. Davis to find out about the meeting, I told him that I had and he said that there was nothing more to it. Perhaps Mr. Davis would have better served the purpose by filing his complaint with a wall. This would have, at least, saved some gas.
I then asked him for the phone number of the SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) agent who had confronted the trio after the meting. He chose not to give me a number, however he did get SBI agent Thomas Frye to come to the phone. Of course the pause between him leaving the phone to Frye returning was, considering that they share a trailer for office space, sufficient for a quite lengthy conversation. Agent Frye answered with a friendly, public image voice asking what I wanted. I told him that I was trying to get information regarding an overflight by a SBI airplane a few months ago. He directed me to a supervisor and said that policy did not allow him to answer any questions regarding an investigation. I then asked him what he could tell me about an incident that occurred between he and the trio after the meeting with Hardin. He, again, referred me to the supervisor, Bill Matthews. I asked if a report had been filed regarding the incident after the meeting so that Matthews might be in a position to answer my questions and he suggested that I have a good day as he hung up the phone. It seems that secrecy is a way of life in contemporary public servants. As Sgt. Schultz has told us so many times, "I know nothingk!"
I contacted District Supervisor Matthews after he returned to his office late this afternoon. Matthews explained that he was not free to discuss this matter, but did explain that he is responsible for press releases. As he remembered it, the Sheriffs Office did the news release on this one. Funny, the Deputy wouldn"t talk about it, the SBI won"t talk about it, nobody, apparently, even knows how the press found out about it. He then referred me to the Assistant Director of the SBI in Raleigh. Being late in the day, I will pursue this tomorrow. At this point it appears that we have found an extremely HOT potato!
In reflection on what has happened, it seems rather strange that a simple reporter investigating a simple story is shunted up to the number two man of an agency that is not even listed in the phone books simply by asking a few simple questions.
