“I'm Not Fucking Around.” New Filings Allege A Vengeful Lorrin Freeman Engaged In Improper Conduct; Created Conflict Of Interest
Lorrin Freeman is the Wake County District Attorney. In theory, that means her job is to prosecute crimes that police officers commit—in Wake County. In practice, however, we know that Freeman refuses to prosecute officers–even when they kill civilians, like when she failed to prosecute a Raleigh police officer who killed a man suspected of stealing a cell phone by firing 11 rounds at him while the man was trying to get away from the officer.
So, it came as a shock to people in Raleigh when Lorrin Freeman decided to finally take seriously alleged crimes committed by a police officer. What’s even more head-scratching, was the fact that the sheriff’s deputy she is prosecuting doesn’t even live or work in Wake County.
He lives in Granville County. You don’t need to be a constitutional scholar to know that Freeman has zero authority to prosecute anyone for anything that happens in Granville County. That’s not her job. That’s the job of the Granville County District Attorney.
So what happened here? Why is Freeman finally prosecuting a police officer accused of committing a serious crime? Why is she spending her time on a case from Granville County when there are so many worse cases involving alleged police officer crimes in Wake County, the place where Lorrin Freeman is actually the District Attorney?
Here’s what happened.
Freeman’s friend, Mike Waters, the District Attorney in Granville County, begged his buddy, Lorrin, to handle the investigation and prosecution of Chad Coffey, a sheriff’s deputy accused of falsifying documents, obstructing justice, and being part of a cocaine conspiracy. Don’t get us wrong, Mr. Coffey might be a real asshole, it’s not for us to say. If he did these things, then he should be prosecuted and convicted. But why is any of this Lorrin Freeman’s job?
Mr. Waters told Freeman that he has a conflict of interest that prevented him from fairly prosecuting the case. “I am of the opinion that a neutral and unbiased determination of whether to charge is vital to the proper administration of justice,” he wrote.
Why did Mr. Waters have a conflict of interest?
Shortly before Mr. Waters was elected to be the District Attorney in Granville County, he was a private criminal defense attorney who represented another sheriff deputy, Joshua Freeman, alleged of criminal wrongdoing. Mr. Freeman pointed the finger at Chad Coffey. Mr. Waters echoed to anyone who could stand listening to him–not least of which included local, state, and federal authorities–allegations against Mr. Coffey, all of which tended to benefit his own client’s interests.
So, when Waters officially became the District Attorney, and had to decide whether Mr. Coffey had actually committed a crime, Waters correctly assessed that he should not be involved in making that decision. He knew that he could not be fair, or be viewed by the public as being fair.
It is this conflict that allows Waters to off-load the case onto someone else and Lorrin Freeman the authority to prosecute it. District Attorney Freeman obliged Waters’ request, and took on the case. And you don’t need to be a political genius to understand why her decision to take this case makes sense, even if it is morally atrocious. Freeman needs to score points with friends and political allies across the state ahead of a rumored run for North Carolina Attorney General.
While she might be doing her friend Mike Waters a favor, the way she’s handling the case is doing no favors for Freeman’s career or reputation.
Lorrin Freeman has somehow managed to make the conflict of interest at the heart of the case worse, not better. Here’s a pro-tip for anyone concerned about ethics or professionalism: If you recuse yourself from a case because you admit to your “conflict of interest” then the next steps are for you to sit back, relax, read a book, and drink a piña colada. What you absolutely should not do is start texting back and forth with the new person prosecuting the case–you know, the person who is only doing this work for you so that she can eliminate your “conflict of interest.”
Either Mike Waters ran out of piña coladas or else no one gave him this basic advice.
Almost immediately, Waters messaged Lorrin Freeman about the Chad Coffey case, sending her insider intel, gossip, emotional encouragement, and strategy advice. So, of course, as a respected and experienced lawyer, Lorrin Freeman texted Waters back and told him that she absolutely cannot be communicating with him about the Coffey case (read the full filing below).
LOL. Of course, Lorrin Freeman didn’t do that.
According to a new legal filing in Wake County Superior Court, D.A. Waters texted Freeman on multiple occasions, telling her variously that she is a “bad ass”, suggesting that she get “training and standards” curriculum that Coffey wrote in order to use it to harm Coffey’s defense, and even suggesting that Freeman call him (Waters) to testify as a witness against Coffey.
Instead of telling Waters to “get lost”, Freeman asked him to “keep sending me stuff like this.” In other words, instead of working to ameliorate the conflict, it appears as though Freeman ultimately helped Waters to launder his conflict of interest through her.
But that’s not the worst of it.
Mr. Waters also sent “screenshots of Facebook posts by Mr. Coffey's wife that were critical of the prosecution,” here’s a screenshot of the text exchange that happened next:
You don’t have to guess why Mr. Waters sent that text message to Lorrin Freeman, the person prosecuting Mr. Coffey. Mr. Waters told us exactly why he sent it. He sent it because he thought Lorrin Freeman would “feed off of it”. And she did, responding that “sooner or later” Mr. Coffey would “realize I’m not fucking around.”
Now you might read this and think to yourself—sure, Lorrin Freeman sounds like a petty 7th grader whose best friends start sitting at another lunch table without her, but petty vindictiveness isn’t that big of a deal, right? Well, it is a big deal when the person threatening vengeance is both an adult and a prosecutor with the power to put you in prison.
Perhaps coincidentally–we will leave the judging to you–five days after this text exchange, Lorrin Freeman filed an additional ten felony charges against Mr. Coffey, which is most certainly, not fucking around.
Freeman’s conduct might not be illegal. It might not even technically be a violation of her obligations as a member of the North Carolina State Bar. That’s not for us to judge.
But it smells bad. Real bad. And it should be investigated.
That’s why Raleigh Watch is sending copies of this article to the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office and to the North Carolina State Bar Association. We will keep you updated.