You’re reading a story from Sidelines 100, a project showcasing a century of student storytelling at Middle Tennessee State University. Sidelines 100 plans to highlight 100 stories from the newspaper archives this fall and spring.
This story originally ran in the Feb 14, 1978, edition of Sidelines. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay on top of all things Sidelines 100.
An MTSU sophomore who previously worked undercover with Murfreesboro city police said he has been shot at twice since he testified Thursday in General Sessions Court.
Ricky Alan Davis, according to a Feb. 10 story in a Nashville newspaper, said he had been given $600 a month since August to buy marijuana as an agent for the police department.
He appeared in court against Oliver Spurgeon, 23, of Murfreesboro, who was described as a “close friend” of Davis’. Spurgeon was charged with two counts of selling marijuana (totaling 28 grams). He was bound over to a preliminary hearing on Feb. 16.
Refusing to comment on his testimony or his undercover work, Davis said he was “in enough trouble already.
“My car windows have been shot at twice,” Davis said. “I just don’t want to talk about it any more. Everything I say gets distorted.” Davis was referring to the story written by Tennessean reporter Jim Wisuri. “He didn’t even talk to me about it before he wrote the story,” Davis said. “He just asked me how to spell my name. I thought he was a court reporter.”
Although Wisuri denied it, Davis said he talked to the reporter on the phone Friday night about so called distortions in Wisuri’s story.
“I can understand that he would be upset,” Wisuri said, “and I know he talked to Chuck Varn (one of the city police officers who arrested Spurgeon) after the court hearing. But he didn’t talk to me.”
One of the points of the story Davis seemed to disagree with was the amount of money given to him by the police department. “He testified that they gave him $600,” Wisuri said, “but he said it so softly that at first I thought he said $60.” The amount was later confirmed by the judge, he added.
Davis was also upset by Wisuri’s identification of him as a quarterback for the football team. “Football has nothing to do with this, “he said. Redshirted last fall, Davis will be one of three contenders for the starting quarterback spot next season.
University officials didn’t know that a city undercover agent was working on campus until about two weeks ago when warrants were signed based on Davis’ work, according to University Police Chief Matthew Royal.
“That’s normal procedure,” Royal said. “For the agent’s own protection, the less people who know about it the better. We really don’t want to know who the agents are.”
Only two city police officers knew about the undercover work, Royal, also a member of the city vice squad, added.
All arrests involving Davis’ “buys” took place off-campus, he said. “Davis was given money to buy marijuana both on- and off the university. He was not limited to the campus.”
“Nobody on campus knew there was an undercover city agent until the police department called our university captain the day before the arrests,” Shewmake said. “It’s not unusual for them not to tell us.”
Undercover agents, both city and state, are usually successful, Royal said. “We’ve had several on campus and they’ve all worked well.” Students acting as undercover agents generally do so either as a deal with police or for pay, Shewmake said.
“Kids will get caught with something and the police will work out a deal with them instead of an arrest,” he explained. “Sometimes they’ll be paid for the undercover work.”
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