www.enctoday.com
by Lindell Kay
District Attorney Dewey Hudson says he wants to make sure last week’s moonshine and marijuana bust of Willie Nelson’s band members was above board.
Longtime Nelson bass player Dan Edward “Bee” Spears, 60, of Franklin, Tenn., and five other members of the band were cited with possession of non-tax-paid alcohol. Two of them were also cited with marijuana possession.
The citations came just minutes before the band was set to take the stage Jan. 28 at the Duplin County Events Center on Fairgrounds Drive in Kenansville. The performance was subsequently canceled.
Hudson said he is investigating whether N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement agents applied selective prosecution in the situation.
“Selective prosecution is best described like this: Law enforcement can’t set up a road block and let their friends through without checking them and then stop someone they don’t know,” Hudson said. He has been looking over reports from the ALE agents present during the incident and will more than likely interview the agent in charge.
The D.A.’s office has fielded several calls from Duplin County residents and from people all over southeastern North Carolina wanting to know why ALE agents charged Nelson’s band members in Kenansville when similar actions go unnoticed at other larger venues across the state.
Grammy award-winning Nelson was not present in Kenansville when his band members were cited. The 76-year-old strummer had yet to arrive at the sold-out show.
Many in attendance that night said they felt the concert was canceled because of the band members’ bust. Hudson, who was at the events center to see the show, said he understood everyone’s frustration.
ALE agents allegedly smelled marijuana smoke coming from the band’s van in the parking lot of the event center and wrote citations to, but did not take into custody, the band members, who were also not prevented from performing, said Ted Carlton, special agent in charge of ALE District III.
ALE is ready to cooperate with Hudson’s investigation, he said.
Shortly after the concert was canceled, a notice on Nelson’s Web site said Nelson’s left hand was in pain and he could not play. Nelson did play the next night, Jan. 29, in Rome, Ga., but canceled a Jan. 30 show scheduled in Asheville. His Web site offered two reasons: first saying his hand was in pain again and later saying the show was canceled because of forecasted inclement weather.
Nelson’s publicist, Elaine Schock, said Nelson’s shows were canceled because his left hand hurt. The right-handed guitar-picker had carpal tunnel surgery on his left hand in 2004.
Schock would not discuss any other possible reason the two North Carolina shows were canceled, despite Nelson playing his guitar “Trigger” for a crowd of 3,000 in Georgia in between the canceled shows in Kenansville and Asheville.
In addition to Spears, ALE agent Kenny Simma also cited Robert Allen Lemons, 59, of Spicewood, Texas; Aaron William Foye, 32, of San Marcos, Texas; and Thomas Ray Hawkins, 54, of Atlantic City, N.J. for moonshine possession.
Kenneth Koepke, 52, of Burnet, Texas, and Dudley Bishop Prewitt, 59, of Spicewood, Texas, were cited for moonshine and marijuana possession.
The events center general manager, John Duane Vogt, 58, and his assistant, Donald Farrior, 50, both of Kenansville, were cited by ALE agents for trying to interfere with their investigation.
Vogt told The Daily News on Friday that he did not get in the way.
“In no way, shape or form did I interfere,” he said.
Vogt said the ALE’s actions have severely damaged Kenansville’s businesses, which have been struggling to get visitors to come to the rural town.
“I understand law enforcement was doing their job,” he said. “I just hope we can work out something where we can have a show without them arresting 70-year-old men for drinking beer in the grass and busting performers who don’t even have enough marijuana to get arrested.”
Hudson said Nelson’s Nashville attorney, John Brown, has hired Sampson County lawyer Doug Parsons to represent the band members in court. Parsons has filed for discovery in the case, and the D.A.’s office has already turned over some records to the defense, Hudson said.
The next scheduled court date in the case is March 10.
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