On May 10, 2021, members of the Alamance County Sheriffâs Office Street Crimes Unit and Special Operations Unit conducted a traffic stop on a 1994 Ford Explorer at 3539 S NC 87 Hwy. in Graham, NC. The occupants of the vehicle were identified as John Ferguson and Elizabeth Moody. The Street Crimes and Special Operations Unit were familiar with Mr. Ferguson and had received information that he was involved in the sale of methamphetamine. Both occupants gave consent to officers to search their vehicle.  Â
During the search, methamphetamine residue, which tested positive in a presumptive field test, was found in a metal canister on a keychain. The vehicle also contained two packages postmarked from Great Britain addressed to Thompson Mill Road in Graham, NC, and two packages that were sealed in USPS bags.
by Carli Brosseau, The News & Observer ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. Last summer, as thousands of people around the country poured into the streets to express their grief and fury at the death of George Floyd and so many other Black people killed by police and vigilantes, I.
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Sheriff Johnson has long been the most visible representative of the local power structure in Alamance County, North Carolina, a place where the governing board is all-white, where Black people still endure racial slurs in grocery stores, and where a marble statue of a Confederate soldier looms over the downtown square of the city of Graham, the county seat. A tireless political operator, Johnson has served as the county’s top law enforcement official since first being elected in 2002. So dominating is his presence that supporters and opponents alike refer to Graham as “Terry’s Town.”
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