HENDERSON — District Attorney Mike Waters is one of several defendants named in Leech v. State of North Carolina, et al, a lawsuit going before the appellate court later this year that may affect the power of DAs across the state.
DAs have the power to issue Giglio letters to law enforcement officers, which forbids the recipient from acting as a witness on behalf of the state. That impairs an officer’s ability to handle evidence or make arrests, severely hampering their ability to do their job.
And, per General Statutes, LEOs that have been sent Giglio letters are listed in a government database. To boot, once an officer is on that list, there’s no coming off.
Colloquially, Giglio letters are known as “death letters” — they can be career killers. DAs issue Giglio letters to LEOs they deem too dishonest or untrustworthy to be used as a witness in the future.
The plaintiff in the Leech v. N.C., former Roxboro police officer SeanPatrick Leech was issued a Giglio letter in 2021.
The following testimony comes from a court document filed by the plaintiff. The Dispatch reached out to Waters for comment on the case. He declined, citing that the case is still pending.
In April of 2021, another member of Leech’s department responded to a rape in progress and arrested the suspect, while the victim, who was renting the house in which the crime took place, left. Upon her return a few days later, she found a boxcutter in her room and called law enforcement again.
Leech responded — the victim didn’t know how the boxcutter was placed there but said that it was not used in the crime. Leech consulted the officer who responded to the rape, who affirmed the victim’s testimony. Leech then disposed of the boxcutter after checking in with a sergeant.
That conversation is an important piece of evidence. After Waters’ office called a week later to get photos of the boxcutter, Internal Affairs investigated the incident, during which the sergeant reportedly said he had never had a conversation with Leech about it.
The plaintiff calls the sergeant’s testimony into question, saying the officer changed his story, and that the IA investigation didn’t find that Leech had lied — only that his testimony differed from the sergeant’s.
Waters issued a Giglio letter to Leech accusing him of mishandling potential evidence and of lying about that conversation with a sergeant. Leech resigned soon thereafter.
The plaintiff contends that the DA had no grounds to question Leech’s honesty and cites a February 2023 probable cause hearing before the Probable Cause Committee, which found that Waters’ accusations were unfounded.
The DA did not rescind the letter, the record of appeal noted. Nor was Leech removed from the database. He has since found another job as a dispatcher in Hendersonville, according to his LinkedIn.
Currently, Leech v. N.C. is moving through the state appellate court. Leech seeks a declaration that the Giglio Statute, NCGS 17E-16, is unconstitutional on its face, as well as how it was applied to him in 2021, and seeks damages to the tune of $25,000.
Giglio law dates back to the 1972 Supreme Court decision Giglio v. United States, which found that prosecutors are required to turn over evidence which could impeach a witness — bias, untrustworthiness, et cetera.
The state General Assembly, after the murder of George Floyd in 2021, signed into law a number of reforms to policing — including the creation of a state database of those who have received Giglio letters.
The employment of Giglio law has drawn some criticism. Jeff Warren, one of Leech’s lawyers, wrote in the Wake Forest Law Review that the state is in “urgent need of due process” vis-à-vis Giglio impairments.