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http://www.dailytarheel.com/content/...ocaine-charges
Five arrested on cocaine charges
All are current or former students
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September 17, 2009
Dean Drescher and Eliza Kern
Staff Writers
Chapel Hill police arrested five people, all of whom are or have been UNC students, after finding them with 197.6 grams of cocaine Tuesday night.
The bust at 211 Church St. came as part of an investigation by the police narcotics division into drug use in the town of Chapel Hill.
Jonathan Ray Plymale, 22, of Greensboro, and Eliza McQuail Vaughan, 21, of Nags Head, were arrested and charged with trafficking and cocaine possession with the intent to distribute.
Plymale was scheduled to graduate in May 2009. Vaughan is a junior.
Both were also charged with conspiracy to commit a felony, maintaining a dwelling to keep drugs, and misdemeanor counts of drug paraphernalia.
Julianne Kornegay Howard, 19, a sophomore from Greensboro, and Hugh Graham Jones, 22, of Chapel Hill, were arrested and charged with felony possession of less than two grams of cocaine.
Howard’s address is listed as 313 E. Franklin St. — the location of the Chi Omega sorority house.
Benjamin Thomas Nash, 24, of Elizabeth City, was charged with felony possession of less than one gram of cocaine and a misdemeanor for possession of four grams of marijuana. He told police that he is a UNC student.
Texts provided to The Daily Tar Heel indicate that at about 9 p.m. Tuesday, Vaughan sent a text message to a large number of people saying “im straight on fire,” a slang way to indicate that drugs are available for purchase. At 10 p.m., the five were arrested.
Plymale and Vaughan were both arrested and brought to the Orange County Jail on Wednesday morning. Their bonds of $15,000 each were both secured, and they were released the same day.
Because they had smaller amounts of drugs, Howard, Jones, and Nash were not taken to jail.
Sgt. Tommy Crawford of the Orange County Jail, said individuals charged with possession of smaller amounts of drugs are usually given a ticket or taken to the magistrate’s office to sign themselves out.
Flora Parrish, records supervisor for Chapel Hill police, said the amount of cocaine the police discovered was unusually large.
“Usually we get point-something. This is 100-point-something. That’s a lot.”
Plymale and Vaughan are listed on Facebook as in a relationship with each other. Plymale’s Facebook page also lists his involvement with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
He worked for the Chapel Hill law firm Massengale & Ozer for three months in the summer of 2008, but is no longer employed there.
Members of Chi Omega and Sigma Alpha Epsilon have been instructed not to talk.
Lt. Kevin Gunter, spokesman for the Chapel Hill Police Department, said the investigation is ongoing.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
