Former NC deputy facing 35 felonies wants Wake DA off case, charges dismissed
Update: “Wake County DA alleges ‘smear campaign,’ as judge sends ex-drug investigator to trial”
The former head of the Granville County Sheriff’s Office drug unit is asking judges in two counties to dismiss nearly three dozen felony charges against him and bar Wake County’s district attorney from prosecuting the cases due to conflict of interest, according to court documents.
In the filing, attorneys for Chad Coffey say Mike Waters, the district attorney for Granville, Vance, Franklin, Warren and Person counties, recused himself from the case in 2020 due to a conflict of interest and asked Wake DA Lorrin Freeman to take over. The motion contends that, after that, Freeman should have barred Waters from any involvement in the case.
Waters, however, continued to participate in the prosecution in secret, which was only uncovered after defense attorneys sought communication between the two DAs, the motion states.
“Mr. Waters knew that ‘the proper administration of justice’ required that the prosecution team be ‘neutral and unbiased’ as to Mr. Coffey,” the filing states. “Yet Mr. Waters worked to undermine the neutrality and objectivity of the prosecution team through private communications with the prosecutor about the prosecution.”
Waters declined to comment, noting that he has been subpoenaed to testify for a related hearing Tuesday in Wake County.
“I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to discuss the case,” he wrote in a text to The News & Observer.
Coffey faces 24 felony charges in Wake County that accuse him of obstructing justice and obtaining property by false pretenses after falsifying training and qualification requirements for a former Granville County sheriff and former chief deputy each from 2013 to 2018.
In Granville County, he faces another 11 felonies charging him with obstruction of justice, conspiring to deliver cocaine, embezzlement by a public officer and other offenses.
The indictments contend Coffey misused sheriff’s office money meant for drug investigations and allowed confidential informants to keep a portion of the narcotics they bought during investigations into alleged dealers.
Coffey’s attorneys Hart Miles, Collin Cook and Elliot Abrams have filed motions in Wake and Granville asking for the Wake County DA to be removed and the charges to be dismissed.
‘Very contentious matter’
“As you can see from the filing this has become a very contentious matter that is set for hearing next week,” Freeman said Thursday, telling The N&O she would need to limit her comments in the pending case.
Across the nation, prosecutors who have tried to hold law enforcement officers accountable have faced retaliation with allegations accusing them of wrongdoing, she said.
“Obviously, it is upsetting to see that pattern playing out,” she said.
Freeman also said the allegations in the motion are a summary “in the light most favorable to the defendant” of a 36-month investigation with 150 witness interviews and more than 30,000 pages of evidence.
“This is a matter that needs to be addressed and aired out in court,” she said. “That is what the justice system is for, is to bring forth these issues and to have them tried in front of a jury who can weigh the credibility and the veracity of allegations and insinuations.”
If a judge allows Freeman to remain on the case, she plans to bring the Wake County charges to trial the second week of February.
Freeman, who was elected DA in 2014, is up for re-election this year.
Investigation into Granville sheriff’s office
The case is tied to a years-long investigation into the Granville County Sheriff’s Office on several issues.
Former Granville Sheriff Brindell Wilkins was indicted in 2019 on felony obstruction of justice charges amid allegations he discussed killing former deputy Joshua Freeman in 2014. Joshua Freeman allegedly had a recording of Wilkins using “racially insensitive language,” The News & Observer reported.
Wilkins, who had been sheriff since 2009, stepped down that year pending the investigation. In June he faced additional charges related to the sheriff’s office drug unit and improper approval of gun permits, WRAL reported.
In October, he was indicted on 14 felony charges accusing him of falsifying records.
Coffey was moved from the drug unit in 2019 and lost his job in January 2020, WRAL reported.
Coffey’s motion contends Waters sought charges against Wilkins and his employees for years after Wilkins supported Waters’ opponent in the 2014 DA election.
Waters won the multi-county election but received only 31% of the vote in Granville County.
The motion also questions Waters dismissing cocaine, DWI and other charges against Joshua Freeman in the years that followed.
After Waters was elected in 2014 but before he officially took office in January 2015, Waters, then a defense attorney, represented Joshua Freemen in domestic violence allegations, the motion states. Freeman had recently been fired from the sheriff’s office for misconduct.
In a November 2018 letter to Lorrin Freeman, Waters said Joshua Freeman had given him a copy of the recording in 2014, which Waters shared with the FBI.
Lorrin Freeman and Joshua Freeman aren’t related.
The FBI investigated the case against Wilkins for about a year before closing it without taking action, the motion states.
In January 2017, Waters shared the recording with the State Bureau of Investigation, the letter states. .
“I think, at this point, I would be considered a fact witness, and it would be appropriate for you to advise the SBI about whether or not to open an investigation,” Waters wrote in the letter to Lorrin Freeman.
DWI, drug charges dismissed
After he was fired, Joshua Freeman was charged in Granville County with DWI and resisting a public officer in 2016. He was charged with cocaine possession, maintaining a vehicle to use drugs, and possession of drug paraphernalia in 2017.
Coffey was one of the lead investigators for those two cases.
Waters dismissed the DWI case in 2018, according to court documents in which Waters wrote one of the officers involved in the arrest was deemed not credible after committing perjury in another county.
In the motion, Coffey argued the officer was present but not an essential witness.
An assistant district attorney in Waters’ office dismissed the drug charges in 2019, citing “prosecutorial discretion.”
Witness messages deleted
In July 2020, Coffey was indicted in Granville County on two charges, one of which has been dismissed.
The remaining obstruction of justice charge was based on an allegation that Coffey provided misleading information in a report indicating that an informant did not provide assistance on a case, when she did, according to court documents.
The informant’s probation officer told the FBI that Waters met with the informant on April 11, 2017 to discuss items on her phone and whether “she could erase it,” the motion states. Waters took possession of the phone that same day, the filing states.
“Notably, on April 11, 2017, a number of text messages and pictures were accessed and deleted from the phone,” the motion states.
The messages would have undermined the credibility of the informant, the motion states.
‘Text messages and private conversations’
After Waters asked the Wake DA to prosecute Coffey, Lorrin Freeman should have kept Waters out of the investigation, the motion states.
“Mr. Waters affirmatively endeavored, through text messages and private conversations, to influence the decision-making of the prosecution team by instigating ill-will toward Mr. Coffey,” the motion states.
Coffey’s motion highlights an October 2020 text conversation between Lorrin Freeman and Waters. It follows Waters sending screen shots from a Facebook post from Coffey’s wife. The post contended Freeman was trying to coerce Coffey into pleading guilty to pending charges by threatening to bring additional charges related to allegations about him using drugs and having sex with people he arrested.
According to the motion, Lorrin Freeman responded to Waters’ text, saying: “Sooner or later he’s (Coffey) going to realize I’m not f---ing around.
“He should already,” Waters texted.
Freeman: “Hope you keep sending me stuff like this. I do my best thinking....”
Waters: “Well I thought you’d feed off of it”
Freeman: “Exactly”
Freeman then asked Waters to continue to send information on the case, according to the motion.
Five days after the exchange, Coffey was indicted on 10 new felony charges.
Coffey’s attorneys contend the charges are based on uncorroborated statements from informants.
Lorrin Freeman said she regrets some of her comments made during private communications that “weren’t befitting of this office” and “don’t reflect the decorum and the expectations to which I normally hold myself. “
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
