?Mill IB JR.
HHHHHMHHI
IBSmH
i?? ? ? JBBI
Fish, Bands, Boat Rides On Tap For Day At Docks, Details Page 3-B
n
1 k.' ' i / y3 -V *r' )
HCwb :r.uN ? Buuf. Ei I NDlk i
r. <?-. r?AV i ? ~
r . s} . ova lot
_? PR I NGP ? F i M i A3j-'<$A
Thirtieth Year, Number 20
eiwj IMI MUNSWICK IEACON
Shallotte, North Carolina, Thursday, March 19, 1992
50<t Per Copy
36 Pages, 3 Sections, 1 insert
U.S. Marshals Seize
Local Marina Allegedly
Bought With Drug Cash
BY DOUG R UTTER
The U.S. Marshal's Service has
taken ownership of a local marina
that was reportedly purchased with
proceeds from a drug trafficking op
eration.
Taylor's Landing Marina, located
on the waterway at Holden Beach,
was forfeited to the federal govern
ment earlier this month, according to
court records.
The marina owner, Donnic Ray
Beaver of Holden Beach, declined
to comment on the matter. He re
ferred questions to his attorney,
Evan Ross of Charlotte.
"We're still in negotiations with
the U.S. government about the mari
na," Ross said Tuesday. "It would be
inappropriate for me to comment
about any aspcct of that at this lime."
U.S. District Court Judge W. Earl
Britt ordered forfeiture of the marina
property in a court order filed March
4 in the state's eastern district court
in Wilmington.
As part of the court order, the
United States will pay United
Carolina Bank S50.151, the amount
of unpaid principal on the property
as of July 12, 1991, plus interest.
The court order was issued in re
sponse to a civil complaint filed
June 19, 1991, by Assistant U.S.
Attorney G. Norman Acker 111 in the
Wilmington district court.
Acker said last week that money
and property connected with the sale
of drugs and other illegal activities
can be forfeited to the United States
and used to benefit law enforcement.
The marina, which covcrs almost
an acre of waterfront property, is
valued at between S250.000 and
$300,000.
Beaver was indictcd in December
1990 in U.S. District Court in the
state's middle district for trafficking
in excess of 1,000 kilograms of mar
ijuana, according to court records.
Maxie Glen Reedy, a special
agent with the Internal Revenue
Service's criminal investigation di
vision, stated in an affidavit that
Beaver was a "major trafficker" in
Cabarrus County for four years
starting in 1987.
Reedy was involved in an
Organized Crime Drug Enforcement
Task Force investigation conducted
through a grand jury in Greensboro.
The investigation was expanded in
October 1990 to include Beaver and
others.
The IRS special agent stated that
Beaver, and former partner Grovcr
Michael Poplin, made numerous
trips to El Paso, Texas, to purchase
illegal drugs.
The marijuana was transported to
Cabarrus County, where Beaver and
Poplin used a residence at Bailey's
Lake to distribute the drugs. The af
fidavit said Beaver also kept mari
juana in his garage at his residence
in Kannapolis.
According to the affidavit. Beaver
was arrested in April 1990 in El
Paso in a reverse sting operation by
the West Texas Multi-County Task
Force and charged with illegal in
vestment.
At ihc lime of the arrest. Reedy
said Beaver was attempting to pur
chase 340 pounds of marijuana from
an undercover officcr. He was re
portedly carrying S 1 74,(XX) in a red
gym bag and S 10,203 on his person.
Beaver was convicted of illegal
investment in El Paso County in
Octobcr 1990 and sentenced to five
years probation, according to the af
fidavit
Reedy further stated that Beaver
and his wife, Sarah, purelpscd the
marina property on Jan. 17, 1990.
Alan and Diane Holdcn of Holden
Beach sold the property to the
Beavers for SI 14,900. The Holdcns
were in no way implicated in the in
vestigation.
Beaver reportedly bought the
property with SI ,000 in currency
and a counter check for SI 13,900
which he purchased at the NCNB
branch at Holdcn Beach.
Reedy said Beaver bought the
check with currency that he carricd
into the bank in a paper bag.
The IRS special agent concluded
that Beaver purchased numerous as
sets, including the marina, "with
proceeds from his narcotics traffick
ing activities in an effort to conceal
those very activities so that he could
continue to operate his lucrative but
illegal enterprise."
Reedy stated that Beaver violated
federal law twice by concealing the
proceeds of his drug trafficking
business with uie purchase of the
bank check and using the proceeds
to purchase the marina.
? ? ? ? ? I
STAFF PHOTO BY DOUQ RUTTER
FEDERAL MARSH AIS seized Taylor's landing Marina at H olden Beach, alleging that the owner,
Donnie Ray Beaver, bought the property with proceeds from a drug trafficking operation. The service
posted "No Trespassing" stickers on the windows last week.
Shallotte Board Resumes Debate Over Post Office
BY DOUG RUTTKR
Shallottc officials resumed their public debate with
the postal service Tuesday night, unleashing a second at
tack on plans to move operations from the downtown of
fice to the South Brunswick branch in May.
"When those people came in to the post office they
came in to shop with our merchants," Mayor Sarah
Tripp said. "Our merchants arc worried."
Discussion of plans to move most mail-handling oper
ations and employees trom the Main Street office to the
new South Brunswick branch on N.C. 9()4 at Seaside
was similar to the one held six weeks ago.
At that Feb. 4 meeting, aldermen passed their con
cerns along to Ronald Reeves, superintendent of postal
operations at the Shallotte Post Office.
Danny Moles, director of field operations with the
postal service in Fayettcvillc, took the brunt of the ques
uomng and criticism this week.
Moles said the only difference in town once the move
is completed will be the lack of a daily traffic jam at the
post office. "Shallotie will not suffer one ounce," he
said.
The Shallotie postmaster and carriers for all 10 area
routes will be working out of the new office. Window
and box service aren't expected to change in Shallotie.
Mayor Tripp said the town's biggest beef is that local
officials weren't informed of the post office's plans until
the new branch was built.
"We feel like the post office is part of the town," she
said. "Nobody was consulted, it was iikc it was a big se
cret."
However, Moles said postal service officials had cor
responded since 1986 with former mayor Jerry Jones re
garding the Shallottc Post Office.
Moles said Jones, now a county commissioner, wrote
letters seeking help with the traffic problem at the post
officc. He also mentioned the possibility of relocating
the officc.
Alderman Wilton Harrelson, who has been on the
(See SHALLOTTE, PaKe2-A>
Costly Bone Marrow Transplant
Said Local Woman's Only Hope
BY SUSAN USHER
Chris Caudill wants to sec her sons, Jesse, 4, and
Eric, 10, grow up.
That sounds like a simple enough ambition for a 36
year-old woman, but for Chris the goal dangles on a
slender thread of hope ? a bone marrow transplant that
her doctors at Duke University Hospital want to try, a
last resort.
When doctors reviewed the limited options avail
able, Chris said she was over
whelmed at first with a sense of
hopelessness, a feeling that she was
surely going to die.
After crying steadily for three
days, she came to a decision ? to
grasp at any possibility of life.
"They said they couldn't
promise me anything, but they said
it's my only chance. I've had radia
tion; I've had chemotherapy. What
else is left?" CAUDILL
It was only then that Chris learned her insurance
would cover the chemotherapy, but not the transplant
itself.
"It's hard when you pay insurance for 1 8 years and
they come up and say we can't pay for that," she said in
an interview last week.
The procedure will cost an estimated $170,000, of
which about 3145,000 will go toward hospital charges
and about S27.500 toward professional fees and outpa
tient care costs. A deposit of $116,000, in certified
check or money order, is due on admission and the bal
ance when she completes the treatment.
With the outcome uncertain, why take the gamble?
For life.
"I like being alive," she said. "And I'd like to see my
children grown. You can't help them if you're not
here."
Her church, Dixon Chapel United Methodist at
Vamamtown, is spearheading efforts to raise the mon
ey, and quickly, it will take two to three months for
Chris to complete four cycles of chemotherapy to
shrink the tumors as much as possible in advance. Then
it will be lime for her to enter the hospital.
"She's got to have some time for her children," said
Marlcne Varnam, who is co-chairing the drive with
Loucllcn Norris. "If we don't do anything else we'll
buy some time for her."
"We're calling on friends and about everybody we
know."
Observers and Chris herself say the drive has be
come a unifying element in the community, taking peo
pie's minds off less serious troubles as ihcy reach out to
Chris and her family.
"Ii seems to be pulling people together," said Chris.
A gospel sing and car wash Saturday arc the first in a
scries of fund-raising events planned. Proceeds from all
the efforts will be channeled through the church by way
of a special account set up at a local bank.
"So far, everybody we've talked to has offered to
help in some way," said Mrs. Vamam, but more help is
needed if the goal is to be met.
Chris, the daughter of Harry Lcguin and Ester
Varnam and a graduate of Shallotte High School, is
employed at the U.S. Army's Military Ocean Terminal
at Sunny Point near Soulhport. Her husband, Jimmy, is
a carpenter.
Even by selling their home on Stanley Road in
Supply and other belongings, she said, there's no way
they could come up with the money.
While iasurance will pay for the chemotherapy treat
ments, her insurer. Blue Cross & Blue Shield, will not
pay for the transplant procedure itself because it is con
sidered an experimental course of treatment for her
type of cancer.
The company docs provide coverage for bone mar
row transplants to treat certain cancers, but not a cancer
such as hers, which began in her breast three years ago.
After her diagnosis in 1989, Chris underwent a mastec
tomy and related therapy.
Now, she says, "!t has jumped right back out at mc."
The malignancy reappeared as a cancer of the bone
in the area beneath her collarbone and in her left shoul
der and upper arm. Tumors have visibly distended her
arm. With the growths pressing against nerves, she
lives in constant pain and is unable to lift her left arm
much above waist level.
The cancer is growing rapidly and has not responded
well to other treatments.
"1 think that's why they're trying to get me in (for
the transplant) as fast as I can," she said.
Since making the decision to go for the transplant,
Chris has undergone an extensive battery of tests and
scans to ensure that she is a suitable candidate, includ
ing a biopsy to make certain the cancer had not invaded
the marrow of her bones.
After three years of various treatments, she said,
"That was the most painful thing I've ever been
through."
With the hope offered by the transplant, though,
she's not complaining.
Her doctors plan an "autologous" transplant, which
means Chris's own bone marrow will be used.
The procedures leading up to the transplant are risky,
with odds high that she might not survive.
Chris entered Duke last Thursday to begin the first of
four cycles of high-dosage chemotherapy. She will re
(See TRANSPLANT, Page 2- A)
STAFF PHOTO BY TEFlflY POPE
DAMAGE W/iS ESTIMATED at $25,000 to the North Brunswick High School mobile classroom
housing an in-school suspension program. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with arson in connec
tion with the Saturday fire.
Officers Charge North Student
With Setting Fire To Building
BY TERRY POPE
A North Brunswick High School
student was charged Monday with
seuing a fire that destroyed a mobile
classroom building on the I eland
campus early Saturday morning.
Blake Kennedy Hobbs, 16, of
Lei and, was charged with felonious
burning of a school building, said
Brunswick County Fire Marshal Ce
cil Logan.
Logan and detectives with the
Brunswick County Sheriff s Depart
ment filed the charges following an
investigation. They had suspected ar
son from the beginning, said Logan.
The mobile classroom thai burned
housed the school's In School
Suspension (1SS) program, where
students who are disciplined spend
their school day isolated from other
students.
While there, they do independent
work on classroom assignments and
are not allowed to associate with
their friends or classmates.
Hobbs was released from the
Brunswick County Jail Tuesday af
tcmoon under 53,000 bond.
The fire was reported around 1 :30
a.m. Saturday. Firefighters from Le
iand Volunteer fare Department bat
tled the blaze and kept it from
spreading to other adjaccnt mobile
classrooms and the main school
building.
Damage was estimated at
S25,0(X), said Logan, who would not
comment on a possible motive or
source for the fire.
"I'm not at liberty to say at this
point," said Logan. "We're still in
vestigating."
Felonious burning of a school
building is a class E felony, punish
able by up to 30 years in jail. The
charge also carries a minimum term
of nine years in prison and a fine, or
both.
Hobbs is being charged as an
adult in the ease.
There were no injuries in the fire,
Logan said.
Brunswick County off-duty dep
uties began patrols on the campus
during school hours last week, in re
sponsc to parents who asked the
Brunswick County Board of Educa
tion for help in making the campus
safe from crime.
Fire At West
The fire at North wasn't the only
school fire reported in Brunswick
County last week.
Students stuffed paper towels into
a heater vent inside a boy's bath
room at West Brunswick High
School last Wednesday, March 11,
causing a fire that was quickly extin
guished, said Logan.
School officials callcd the Shal
lottc Volunteer Fire Department just
after 3 p.m., but had the fire under
control before firefighters arrived.
Damage was estimated at $500 to
the bathroom, located on the west
side of the main school building,
said Logan.
School authorities are investigat
ing that case, said Logan, in an ef
fort to find out who is responsible.
'The bathroom was pretty
smoked up," said Logan.
There were no injuries.