Body found at law office ID'd as Richard Lee

A colorful figure who was Pineville’s second city judge, Richard “Dick” Lee found himself embroiled a few times in cases that garnered national and international attention.

He even had a song written for him at the height of a desegregation battle in 1980, and once sent a Town Talk reporter to jail when he refused to identify a source in a murder case.

“I’ll do it as long as I can,” Lee said about practicing law in a 2002 Town Talk article. “It’s all about helping people. That’s what this profession is all about.”

On Friday, Lee was found dead in his Pineville law office on Main Street. A preliminary investigation by the Pineville Police Department suggested that the 83-year-old Lee died of an “accidental discharged single gunshot wound,” according to a release.

An investigation into Lee’s death is continuing. The release said more information would be released later.

A Bolton High School graduate, Lee may be best known for what became known as the “Buckeye Three” case. It involved three Buckeye High School students, moved out of the Buckeye district in 1980 by a sweeping federal desegregation plan crafted by the late U.S. District Judge Nauman Scott.

The girls’ parents refused to allow them to attend Jones Street Junior High School — the current Arthur F. Smith Middle Magnet School — and signed over custody of them to people still in the Buckeye zone. Lee, then a 9th Judicial District Court judge, backed the girls’ parents.

It set the stage for a state vs. federal showdown, and drew national and international attention to the area.

“I’ve been controversial somewhat all my life, but I never did get tied up with anything (else) with that much notoriety,” Lee was quoted in The Town Talk.

He recalled getting letters of support from across the world, and claimed that they all supported his position. But he said his rulings in support of the Buckeye students weren’t about race, but rather was based on a one-time federal court ruling that said the federal government couldn’t have jurisdiction over family law.

As it turned out, Lee lost that battle. But he never thought he was wrong, and he also said he remained friends with Scott.

Then, in 1986, a statewide case about purging voter rolls landed in Lee’s court. He ruled that state Republicans were trying to shed black voters during a race for a U.S. Senate seat. Lee stopped the purge, later calling it an “illegal, devious scheme.”

His decision didn’t sit well with Newt Gingrich, then a U.S. representative from Georgia. Gingrich called Lee out in Congress, prompting Lee to write a poem that he sent to the congressman that poked fun at him.

But Lee also ran afoul of his profession several times. He once was arrested on misdemeanor charges following a incident that happened when he was drunk in Alexandria. Although he went into rehabilitation without resigning, he lost his next election.

Then, in 2004, he was involved in an incident with late Judge Dexter Ryland that resulted in him being brought up for a state bar hearing. He was suspended from practice for a year and a day in that incident, but it later was reduced to six months.