Four Johnston County attorneys and a former court clerk pleaded guilty Monday morning for their roles in a ticket-fixing scheme.
According to the State Bureau of Investigation, the attorneys used dismissal forms signed by former Assistant District Attorney Cynthia Jaeger after she left the District Attorney's Office in September 2007.
Of all the attorneys, Chadwick Lee and Jonathan Lee Hatch faced the most charges. They each pleaded guilty to 10 counts of felony obstruction of justice, 10 counts of altering an official case record, and one count of conspiracy to commit felony obstruction of justice.
A special agent with the SBI said Monday that they both had close relationships with Jaeger and asked her to sign dismissal forms before she left office.
They could both spend up to four and a half to five years in prison.
Lee has to reimburse clients for $29,000 and pay a $10,000 fine.
Hatch has to reimburse his clients for $14,000 and pay a fine of $10,000.
Two other local attorneys were involved in the scheme, according to the SBI.
Van Sauls pleaded guilty to four counts of misdemeanor obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to a 90 day suspended sentence and three years of probation. He has to reimburse clients for about $2,350 and pay a fine of $2,500.
Jack McLamb also pleaded guilty to three counts of misdemeanor obstruction of justice. He got a ninety day suspended sentence and three years of probation plus a $1,000 fine.
Former assistant clerk Portia Snead pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor obstruction of justice.
Judge Henry W. Hight Jr. told the defendants, "I don't get it. The only thing I can say is it had to come about from stupidity born of arrogance."
Charges are still pending against Jaeger. She faces three felony counts of obstruction of justice and 83 misdemeanor counts of failing to perform her duty of office. She has not entered a plea, which means she may fight the charges in a trial.
Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a statement, "we expect those who serve as officers of the court to have the highest ethical standards. When the people we trust to uphold the law break it, our system of justice is threatened. Rooting out this corruption in the courts will help restore the system's integrity."
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By myrak on 01/26 04:12 AM
The Officer of the Court responsible for insuring those charged was, in fact, guilty of PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT, and is still the ONLY ONE not prosecuted or punished. Attorney General Roy Cooper seems unaware of all the vast Prosecutorial Misconduct which goes unpunished, even DA;s who pay criminals to lie on the stand are still on duty. The only DA to be disbarred EVER in NC is Mike Nifong. My opinion is that he wanted the case to go to court for a trial. Roy Cooper and the Defense Attorneys did not want it to go to a trial in a court of law - and so it was. Did AG Roy Cooper have the 'authority' to declare a verdict without a trial, without sworn testimony, without evidence validated by a judge, without sworm expert testimony in a court of law? If he has that kind of authority, why bother with trials and judges and juries? Just send the package to Cooper and let him decide. Cooper uses the term "corruption in the courts" as if the court is responsible, not his District Attorney who is responsible to prosecute the offenders. Off the subject: where was Mr. Cooper when Shaniya Davis was missing and being brutally raped and then murdered? Mr. Cooper always presents himself as the savior of our children from child predators. Now that NC has been identified as a PRIME DESTINATION for Human Trafficking, what does Mr. Cooper intend to do? Why is he so silent on this issue?
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Sunday, February 28, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Lawyers, clerk plead guilty in DWI case
SMITHFIELD - In the seven months that a band of Johnston County lawyers schemed to make drunken driving cases disappear, their only protection was the trust they had in each other to keep the secret.
Monday, that faith was gone, dissolved in the year since state prosecutors charged them with fixing the cases.
They barely looked at one another as they pleaded guilty. Their careers collapsed, and they had nothing to show for it. The scam, ill-conceived and short-lived, earned them little and cost them almost everything.
Chad Lee and Lee Hatch, buddies for more than a decade, headed to prison for nearly four years. They were spared the 50 years their crimes could have brought them; both surrendered their law licenses. Jack McLamb and Vann Sauls will be forbidden to take criminal cases as they serve three years of probation. Portia Snead, a deputy Superior Court clerk who helped with the scam, lost her job and retirement pay; she, too, is on probation. Cindy Jaeger, a former prosecutor at the center of the plot, still faces charges.
The pleas help close an investigation that rocked the Johnston County legal community. Prosecutors say that, with Jaeger’s help, the lawyers and the clerk wiped away drunken driving charges for dozens of defendants. Court documents were treated like currency, traded after hours among friends, filed in daylight under the auspices of official court business.
“I cannot understand why anyone thought this was a good idea,” Superior Court Judge Henry Hight said moments before sentencing Lee. “Detection was almost certain given the records and the number of people involved. I don’t get it.”
No explanation was offered Monday. Each of the defendants’ lawyers offered apologies and assurances that their clients were good people.
“Chad had made some mistakes. There is no justification, and I will not address one,” said Doug Parsons, who represented Lee.
An SBI agent took the stand Monday and described how the lawyers and the clerk managed to defraud the court system.
The scheme, explained in even the simplest terms, makes little sense. No one got rich. No one got a promotion or even congratulations. Some of the clients didn’t even know they were granted a favor.
Agent Randy Myers said that Jaeger, a few weeks before she resigned as an assistant Johnston County district attorney in September 2007, was bombarded with requests from dozens of lawyers, including Hatch, Lee and Sauls, for dismissals.
Myers said she agreed to grant many dismissals for her friends Hatch, Lee and Sauls, but insisted they be filed in the clerk’s office after she resigned.
Hatch and Lee obliged. The dismissals, dated August and September 2007, were filed in the clerk’s office months later. Snead overlooked incongruous dates and entered the dismissals into the court database, sealing the deal.
Only a few perks for the players emerged Monday: Lee treated Snead to a trip in New York. Hatch and Lee helped Jaeger move to Winston-Salem in fall 2007.
The clients didn’t seem to pay exorbitant rates for the gift of the dismissals. The court ordered the lawyers to refund the money collected from clients. Lee, for instance, is on the hook for $28,800. Divided among cases in which he admitted guilt, that’s not much more than the standard $1,500 rate for handling a drunken driving case in Johnston County.
Jaeger’s fate is unclear. A prosecutor indicated he intends to put her on trial in the coming months. Her attorney, David Freedman, scribbled notes, but Jaeger wasn’t in the courtroom Monday.
“This has been very stressful having this hanging over her head, and with this being handled today and not knowing what will happen,” Freedman said.
Even knowing how Monday would end did not dull the defendants’ pain and humiliation.
In court, they were forbidden from coming to the front of the courtroom unless escorted by their attorneys, a privilege they enjoyed as lawyers for years. A judge forced them to answer a litany of questions about their prescriptions, their education and their mental health. Their families packed the courtroom, dabbing eyes as they watched.
Lee Hatch is leaving his wife and two young children, one of whom is ill and must soon undergo expensive hospital treatment. Hatch’s attorney asked that he be granted work release in prison, so he might provide something to his family during the next three and a half years.
As Chad Lee walked into court, friends offered a hand. He met each with a faint smile. One man heckled him and told him he should be ashamed of himself.
He walked slowly and feebly to the same chair he’d guided clients to for years.
Parsons, Lee’s attorney, explained the toll the year has taken on him.
“He has had a tremendous struggle,” Parsons told the judge. “He is a broken man, but he is not dead. He will rehabilitate a family name which he has humiliated.”
For the next four years, though, his family’s legacy will shadow him. His father, Robey Lee, worked as a state prison official for decades, capping his career as warden of Central Prison in Raleigh.
Lee’s father looked on Monday, watching as deputies escorted his son to jail.
Source
Monday, that faith was gone, dissolved in the year since state prosecutors charged them with fixing the cases.
They barely looked at one another as they pleaded guilty. Their careers collapsed, and they had nothing to show for it. The scam, ill-conceived and short-lived, earned them little and cost them almost everything.
Chad Lee and Lee Hatch, buddies for more than a decade, headed to prison for nearly four years. They were spared the 50 years their crimes could have brought them; both surrendered their law licenses. Jack McLamb and Vann Sauls will be forbidden to take criminal cases as they serve three years of probation. Portia Snead, a deputy Superior Court clerk who helped with the scam, lost her job and retirement pay; she, too, is on probation. Cindy Jaeger, a former prosecutor at the center of the plot, still faces charges.
The pleas help close an investigation that rocked the Johnston County legal community. Prosecutors say that, with Jaeger’s help, the lawyers and the clerk wiped away drunken driving charges for dozens of defendants. Court documents were treated like currency, traded after hours among friends, filed in daylight under the auspices of official court business.
“I cannot understand why anyone thought this was a good idea,” Superior Court Judge Henry Hight said moments before sentencing Lee. “Detection was almost certain given the records and the number of people involved. I don’t get it.”
No explanation was offered Monday. Each of the defendants’ lawyers offered apologies and assurances that their clients were good people.
“Chad had made some mistakes. There is no justification, and I will not address one,” said Doug Parsons, who represented Lee.
An SBI agent took the stand Monday and described how the lawyers and the clerk managed to defraud the court system.
The scheme, explained in even the simplest terms, makes little sense. No one got rich. No one got a promotion or even congratulations. Some of the clients didn’t even know they were granted a favor.
Agent Randy Myers said that Jaeger, a few weeks before she resigned as an assistant Johnston County district attorney in September 2007, was bombarded with requests from dozens of lawyers, including Hatch, Lee and Sauls, for dismissals.
Myers said she agreed to grant many dismissals for her friends Hatch, Lee and Sauls, but insisted they be filed in the clerk’s office after she resigned.
Hatch and Lee obliged. The dismissals, dated August and September 2007, were filed in the clerk’s office months later. Snead overlooked incongruous dates and entered the dismissals into the court database, sealing the deal.
Only a few perks for the players emerged Monday: Lee treated Snead to a trip in New York. Hatch and Lee helped Jaeger move to Winston-Salem in fall 2007.
The clients didn’t seem to pay exorbitant rates for the gift of the dismissals. The court ordered the lawyers to refund the money collected from clients. Lee, for instance, is on the hook for $28,800. Divided among cases in which he admitted guilt, that’s not much more than the standard $1,500 rate for handling a drunken driving case in Johnston County.
Jaeger’s fate is unclear. A prosecutor indicated he intends to put her on trial in the coming months. Her attorney, David Freedman, scribbled notes, but Jaeger wasn’t in the courtroom Monday.
“This has been very stressful having this hanging over her head, and with this being handled today and not knowing what will happen,” Freedman said.
Even knowing how Monday would end did not dull the defendants’ pain and humiliation.
In court, they were forbidden from coming to the front of the courtroom unless escorted by their attorneys, a privilege they enjoyed as lawyers for years. A judge forced them to answer a litany of questions about their prescriptions, their education and their mental health. Their families packed the courtroom, dabbing eyes as they watched.
Lee Hatch is leaving his wife and two young children, one of whom is ill and must soon undergo expensive hospital treatment. Hatch’s attorney asked that he be granted work release in prison, so he might provide something to his family during the next three and a half years.
As Chad Lee walked into court, friends offered a hand. He met each with a faint smile. One man heckled him and told him he should be ashamed of himself.
He walked slowly and feebly to the same chair he’d guided clients to for years.
Parsons, Lee’s attorney, explained the toll the year has taken on him.
“He has had a tremendous struggle,” Parsons told the judge. “He is a broken man, but he is not dead. He will rehabilitate a family name which he has humiliated.”
For the next four years, though, his family’s legacy will shadow him. His father, Robey Lee, worked as a state prison official for decades, capping his career as warden of Central Prison in Raleigh.
Lee’s father looked on Monday, watching as deputies escorted his son to jail.
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