Ex-NC cop shows up late for York County church sex crimes case, gets extra year in prison
Former North Carolina police officer Erickson Douglas Lee showed up in York County court Friday on child sex charges a day late and still received a plea deal.
The former church volunteer failed to appear Thursday for what was supposed to be a guilty plea for an eight-year sentence. On Friday, he received a sentence of nine years — one year longer because of the missed court date.
Lee, 26, was the volunteer leader of a youth group at Morningstar Fellowship Church in Fort Mill from 2020 to early 2023. Lee used that status to abuse boys, prosecutor Hannah Woods said. Lee coerced and intimidated boys at his Fort Mill home while giving them alcohol and vapes, showing them porn and sexually touching them, Woods said.
“This was over the course of several years,” Woods said. “The same things happened to minors multiple times.”
Lee was fired from his police job in Cornelius, N.C., which is north of Charlotte, when he was arrested in April 2023.
The four victims were in court Friday but did not speak. All four had been at court Thursday for hours when Lee did not show up.
A written statement from the victims and their families read in court described Lee as “a predator” and “master manipulator.”
The plea deal and sentence
Sheriff’s deputies arrested Lee Friday morning on a bench warrant when he arrived at the courthouse. Judge Dan Hall vacated the bench warrant after Lee pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors and Lee’s lawyer negotiated the nine year sentence on five of the 11 charges Lee originally faced. Prosecutors dismissed the other six charges as part of the plea deal.
Judge Hall accepted the negotiated deal.
Lee pleaded guilty under what is called an Alford plea to second- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child, first-degree assault and battery, dissemination of obscene material to a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
In an Alford plea, a defendant does not have to admit guilt, but accepts the evidence strongly showed he would be convicted at trial, Judge Hall said in court. An Alford guilty plea is treated the same for sentencing as any guilty plea.
In court, Lee said he hoped one day victims and families could find forgiveness.
What happens now?
Lee, who lived in Charlotte, will serve the nine years at a South Carolina prison. He must register as a sex offender when he gets out.
Hall also signed a 50-year restraining order that bans Lee from contacting the victims.
The criminal cases against Lee are now done. But separate civil lawsuits remain that were filed by three of the victims against Lee, the church, and some church officials.
Morningstar CEO Rick Joyner told the Herald church officials contacted law enforcement in 2023 when allegations against Lee were brought to the attention of church leaders.
The lawsuits allege negligence, a cover-up and other claims because Lee was a church volunteer at the times of the abuse. One suit was filed in August, and the other two were filed Tuesday and Thursday of this week.
Joyner told church members Sunday during services a lawsuit had been filed but “the accusations in the lawsuit were wildly untrue,” according to a Youtube video posted of the service.
Joyner said Wednesday in a telephone interview with The Herald much of what is alleged in the lawsuit, including claim of cover-up and participation by church leaders, staff or other members, is not true.
