Cornice Lee was working in the Richmond County Clerk of Court’s Office in 2018 when she made a decision that placed her in the middle of a major drug trafficking operation and got her charged with six counts of computer invasion of privacy.
Lee’s offenses were related to her decision to access potentially secret court documents narcotics officers filed in a drug investigation that involved her boyfriend. The charges against her were recently dismissed at the request of the district attorney’s office.
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Local and federal drug investigators were just tying up a two-year investigation of an Augusta drug trafficking operation when Lee accessed the documents. That investigation netted nearly $250,000 in cash, 4.77 pounds of cocaine, nearly eight pounds of marijuana and a truckload of weapons.
The seizures took place over less than three months when search warrants were executed as a result of the investigation that resulted in the arrests of at least two customers who met with insiders of the trafficking operation. Lee could have learned this by accessing secret court documents.
The investigation centered on Terrance Freeman, an Augusta man who Richmond County Sheriff Sgt. Julio Concepcion heard had moved large amounts of drugs from Atlanta to Augusta since 2014. Freeman has a brother, Timothy Reid, a perceived leader in the trafficking operation, who was also Lee’s boyfriend/fiancé.
the Jail Report
The investigation started in earnest in 2017 as detectives worked with cooperating drug users and/or sellers. They staked out suspected members of the operation, following and photographing them as they – according to the narcotics investigators – made pickups and deliveries. Sources told the investigators Freeman was buying kilograms of cocaine and packages of marijuana in 10-to-20-pound bundles, according to the investigative file.
Narcotics investigators stopped a couple of customers after they met up with members of the suspected operation. In a Sept. 17, 2018 traffic stop, investigators confiscated 18.7 grams of powder cocaine and 2.5 grams of crack. In another traffic stop on Sept. 30, they hit a small jackpot with two packages, one with 28.1 grams and the other with 29.9 grams of cocaine. There are 28 grams in an ounce.
Detectives also had 17 controlled buys from Freeman or others in his group. In a controlled buy, law enforcement gives the cash to an informant to pay for the drugs and takes the purchase afterward.
Armed with what they believed they knew so far, Concepcion obtained a judge’s order to tap Freeman’s phone. They had a pretty good idea that Freeman would be loaded with cash when headed to Atlanta on Sept. 27, 2018. He and Mario Hubbard had been discussing buys of multiple kilos of cocaine.
The local narcotics agents contacted the Green County Sheriff’s Office to make a traffic stop of Freeman on the interstate. He was driving a 2005 black Lexis ES 330 registered to Lee, the county clerk employee. Freeman had $90,785 in cash, which he agreed to relinquish ownership of. He walked away from the encounter.
According to the investigative file, Freeman arranged for Reid, Lee’s boyfriend and Freeman’s brother, to have more cash wired to him in Atlanta. He still had cocaine to buy in bulk, cocaine narcotics agent believe they watched later being delivered to Timothy Myers, Freeman’s main customer. The narcotics investigators believed Myers was supplying the Meadowbrook neighborhood.
On Oct. 18, 2018, agents executed multiple search warrants at several locations where Freeman and his inner circle lived or visited often. The narcotics investigators seized more than 54 ounces of cocaine at one house, and hefty quantities of cocaine and marijuana from another. They also seized around $60,000 in cash.
The day after the coordinated raids, Lee was working at the Richmond County courthouse on James Brown Bouvard. She repeatedly searched names of some of those arrested on her office computer. In the records would have been the original affidavits Concepcion presented to a judge to obtain search warrants, including the tap on Freeman’s phone.
Although search warrants and their accompanying affidavits, which spell out why officers believe they are legally justified in searching personal property, are eventually unsealed and made public, the files Lee could have searched were not public.
That same day Lee searched the records, Freeman dumped his phone and got a new one with a new number.
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Concepcion learned Freeman’s new phone number from a source. He got a new warrant to run a tap on the phone Nov. 5, 2018. Narcotics officers were listening as Freeman talked to his Atlanta contact, Hubbard, about marijuana. Hubbard told Freeman he was having trouble getting cocaine. On Nov. 25, 2018, officers got information Hubbard had pounds of marijuana for Freeman.
A new set of search warrants were executed Dec. 4, 2018 for eight homes.
At Freeman’s main point of the operation on Veterans Drive, law inforcement found multiple vacuum-sealed packages of marijuana – 199.3 grams, 110.7 grams, 453 grams, 225 grams and 470 grams – in a shed in the backyard and more contraband in vehicles parked at the house.
Reid, Lee’s boyfriend and Freeman’s brother, took responsibility for the 87.7 grams of cocaine and an AR 15 rifle found in his vehicle.
At the home of another suspected member of the operation, law enforcement found 1,797.1 grams of marijuana and $32,018 in cash. They also found five weapons including an AK 47 and an AK 15 pistol.
At the Grovetown home Reid and Lee shared, narcotics investigators only found four grams of marijuana and 9.8 grams of cocaine, but those amounts along with a stolen gun were enough to file charges against both. Reid was also accused of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
According to civil forfeiture petitions filed in connection with the group, not only did officers seize large amounts of cash and several vehicles, they seized a trailer, ATVs, multiple weapons, pressure washers, a generator, electric and gas power lawn and gardening tools, security systems, cameras, power tools and speakers.
Freeman and others in his inner circle pleaded guilty in federal court to various charges late last year. He was sentenced to 100 months in prison. Reid was sentenced to 78 months in prison while Myers received 96, and the reported Atlanta source, Hubbard, was sentenced to 151 months in prison. Christopher Chinn – in whose home was found 160 grams of cocaine, nearly 440 grams of marijuana and $12,000 in cash – also got 151 months to serve.
The district attorney’s office dropped charges against Lee. A memo of explanation sent to The Augusta Press, along with the investigative file requested under the state’s Open Records Act, reads in part: “The fact that she accessed this information only after the warrants had been executed presents a reasonable doubt of her intent. A jury would likely expect the state to prove that Cornice Lee was utilizing this information to impede the investigation, or for some other purpose other than simply reading the details.” Another problem: to prove the crime, the state would have to prove she knew she was not authorized to look at the documents and the clerk’s office offers no such instruction, according to the memo.
“Under the law a ‘nosey’ inadequately trained employee looking up this information … has not committed a crime. While there is certainly indication and suspicion that Cornice Lee knew what she was doing was improper, there is no way for us to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.” The memo on the District Attorney’s office statutory was written by Assistant District Attorney Ryne Cox. He presented the order for the dismissal to Chief Judge Daniel J. Craig for his signature Feb. 10.
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Nothing in the record indicates any attempt was made to have Lee’s office computer examined by a computer forensic expert to determine what documents she accessed during the narcotics investigation.
Lee’s defense attorney, Keith Johnson, said the problem with the case was that there was no proof what documents Lee may have looked at. The part of the discovery concerning Lee was a single page that listed the dates, times and names she looked up, Johnson said. In the rest of the discovery, Lee’s name is only mentioned in passing.
Johnson said he asked for supplemental discovery – often photographs, videos or recording statements referenced in the paper discovery material – but nothing more about Lee was ever produced.
Lee was in a relationship with someone who sold drugs, but there was no evidence she took part in that, Johnson said. She paid a huge price for that, losing her job and home and 65 days in jail before she could get bond, Johnson said.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
