Wake County DA alleges ‘smear campaign,’ as judge sends ex-drug investigator to trial
A former head of the Granville County Sheriff’s Office drug unit will stand trial next week after a judge shot down a motion to dismiss most of his charges and remove the Wake County district attorney from the case.
Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour rejected former deputy Chad Coffey’s motion Tuesday to dismiss the charges and remove Wake DA Lorrin Freeman because of an alleged conflict of interest, according to court documents.
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, Coffey faces another 11 felonies charging him with obstruction of justice, conspiring to deliver cocaine, embezzlement by a public officer and other offenses.
Tuesday’s ruling only concerns the Wake County charges. Coffey’s trial on those charges is set to start Monday.
Alleged conflict of interest
Coffey’s attorneys argued that Mike Waters, the district attorney for Granville, Vance, Franklin, Warren and Person counties, asked Freeman to handle the investigation into former Sheriff Brindell Wilkins and his deputies due to his conflict of interest, but that Waters then continued to participate in private.
Wilkins, who stepped down pending an investigation, 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.
Waters represented Joshua Freeman against domestic violence allegations before taking office in 2015. At the time, Joshua Freeman had recently been fired from the sheriff’s office for misconduct.
Joshua Freeman was charged after he was fired with DWI and resisting a public officer in 2016 in Granville County. 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 on those cases.
Those charges were eventually dismissed by Waters’ office.
Coffey’s motion also contends Waters sought charges against Wilkins and his employees for years after Wilkins supported Waters’ opponent in the 2014 DA election.
Text to the Wake DA
Coffey’s motion included texts from Waters to Lorrin Freeman related to the Wake and Granville cases.
Coffey’s attorney Elliot Abrams argued Tuesday that Lorrin Freeman took up the Wake County charges as an extension of her initial involvement and that the conflict of interest travels with her.
Freeman, however, successfully argued that, unlike in the Granville County charges, she didn’t step in for Waters but has the authority to bring charges against Coffey in Wake County since the documents Coffey is accused of falsifying were submitted to a state agency in the county.
Granville County officials hired an auditor to review the Granville County Sheriff’s Office, Lorrin Freeman argued, and referred the case to law enforcement officials after identifying concerns.
“The reality of the situation is at this point we are Wake County moving forward on Wake County charges,” Freeman said.
In addition, Freeman said that neither she nor Waters has a conflict of interest.
“Your honor, this is a slanderous smear campaign scantily clad as a motion,” Freeman said Tuesday.
Freeman said it is tempting to go through the allegations and show the court they are false, but instead she plans to focus on the Wake charges in which her office has original jurisdiction since the documents were submitted to an agency within the county.
Coffey filed a similar motion, asking that Freeman be barred and the charges be dismissed, in Granville County. That case isn’t expected to move forward soon, Freeman said.
