Corey Waller: From Harvard grad to drug charges

His mother was addicted to drugs and would disappear for months from his life. He only saw his father in court. He grew up in public housing — and sometimes a homeless shelter.

But with the help of an aunt and other mentors, Corey Lamont Waller not only survived, he triumphed. Playing football and working two part-time jobs, he earned a 3.9 GPA at Manual High School and was elected to the National Honor Society.

The Chestnut Street YMCA named him its "youth achiever of the year" and Waller went on to Harvard, where he graduated in 2006.

Louisville's Lincoln Foundation, which helps disadvantaged youths, said in a tribute that year that Waller had overcome obstacles in his life that would have left "the average person devastated. Corey has emerged victorious, empowered and reaching for the stars."

Now that dream has crashed to Earth, and his supporters are the ones who are devastated.

Waller, 31, who seemed to defy every stereotype, was arrested last week and charged with trafficking in marijuana and carrying a concealed deadly weapon, after Louisville police executed a search warrant and found 200 to 400 pounds of the drug in lockers he had rented at Q-2 Self Storage on Chamberlain Lane near the Gene Snyder Freeway.

Police said in a citation that Waller saw them and tried to flee and that when he was stopped they found a loaded handgun under the seat of his 2015 Cadillac, as well as marijuana and a large amount of cash.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry up to 10 years in prison, and is being held by Metro Corrections on a $25,000 full cash bond. He was indicted by a grand jury and will be arraigned Monday by Jefferson Circuit Judge Barry Willett.

Friends and family say they were stunned by his arrest, given where he'd come from and what he'd accomplished. A police report lists him as unemployed and his address as "city at large."

Larry McDonald, who mentored him as president of the Lincoln Foundation, said he was heartbroken. "Where did we go wrong?" he asked.

Former Metro Councilwoman Denise Bentley, who took Waller into her home when he was in high school, said that when she saw his mugshot on TV, it was like "somebody socked me in the stomach."

"Damn Corey," local rapper B Simm wrote on Instagram. "Made it out of the hood with a Harvard education. Why?"

By most accounts, Waller — handsome, powerfully built and well-spoken — had carved a successful career as a sales rep of medical devices and pharmaceuticals for major international companies since he left Harvard.

"I'm so serious about my career and thank God for granting me the opportunity to do what I do as a professional every day," he said in one Facebook post in 2010. "Thank God for the brain he has blessed me with," he said in another.

Louisville lawyer Tracy Davis, a family friend, said Waller, who recently moved back to Louisville from Miami, told her he was working as an executive for GE, although the company couldn't immediately confirm it for the newspaper.

"He had education, a good job and was making good money," Davis said. "This doesn't sound like the Corey I know."

Through his lawyer, Alex Dathorne, Waller declined to be interviewed, but Dathorne said he maintains his innocence.

"Hopefully, this is not something that is as bad as it looks," Dathorne said, "and that this is an individual we can salvage."

Waller's supporters say they can only speculate about why — if he is guilty — he squandered his opportunities.

McDonald, who stayed in touch with Waller through the years and has mentored many teenagers, said he may have been inexorably drawn back to the streets.

"I am not sure he was able to separate being an Ivy League grad from the lifestyles he was accustomed to, based on how he grew up," McDonald said.

Bentley said Waller, despite his education and success, may have been unable to overcome his absence of strong family support as a child.

"If you don't have the foundation of a mother or father, it doesn't matter if you went to Harvard or JCC," she said.

Bentley and others said young Corey grew up in chaos.

He failed the second grade and moved from home to home, attending six elementary schools in five years, according to the Lincoln Foundation tribute. He sometimes came home to an empty house in which there was little or nothing to eat.

When he was 11 years old, however, an aunt, Paula Fulton Jackson, took him in and began turning his life around, giving him love, attention and stability.

"I had structure and support — things got better," Waller told Courier-Journal editorial director David Hawpe, who profiled him in a 2002 column. "I give credit to God and my aunt."

She made him join programs that targeted promising young black students, like the Lincoln Foundation's Whitney Young Scholars Program, and Black Achievers.

He joined the Beta Club and Future Business Leaders of America at Manual High School, worked part time at UPS and Best Buy, and tutored children with disabilities after school.

Junis Baldon, now a senior associate at Frost Brown Todd who knew Waller through the Whitney Scholars, remembered him as a "smart guy and incredibly focused," though also as someone who could rub people the wrong way.

"He was so confident it bordered on arrogance," Baldon said. "But given his background, maybe he needed that."

At Harvard, Waller played football for a season, catching a single pass for 21 yards in 10 games.

But he was proud of his alma mater and showed off his class ring and crimson Harvard letter jacket in pictures on Facebook.

Returning to Cambridge in 2012 for a roommate's wedding, he wrote: "It's cold here but man this city pledged me from a young man to a man. Thanks Boston!"

In a series of posts through his 20s, Waller sounds like a typical young adult coping with life's tragedies and triumphs.

He talked about his father, with whom he reconnected but who died in a house fire in 2009.

"Dad I hated to see you go but I know God had a plan for you," Waller wrote. "I miss you so much. I promise I have not forgot what I promised to you and I will make you proud. I love you Dad."

Waller also bragged about his cars, including a black BMW M6 that he showed in adoring photographs. "I promise it's the best car I have had thus far (truly the ultimate driving machine). You know I have pretty much had them all."

He wrote that his priorities were "God, Family, Career," as well as a girlfriend, who he identified only as J.S., "and nothing else until those three things are taken care of."

And he said he loved his jobs — including covering a three-state territory for Becton Dickinson & Co., a med tech supplier — and later for bioMerieux, a French company that specialized in in-vitro diagnostics and microbiological testing.

"I love science its (sic) amazing!" he exclaimed, though he added in another text, "France is beautiful but the travel to get there is terrible!"

In 2008, Waller had his only other brush with the law (besides speeding tickets, which he frequently accumulated), when an officer, responding to a complaint of a vehicle at his address in the 9100 block of Old Bardstown Road, asked him to step out of his 2006 Lexus and he allegedly reached toward the center console as if he were going for a weapon, according to a citation.

He was charged with menacing and later, possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia after a police dog found a baggie with "drug scales" and "residue of cocaine." The alleged cocaine was never sent for testing and all three charges were dropped.

The next year, Waller wrote that he was studying for an Air Force officer qualifying test. "My mind is made up. Consider it a done deal!!! Yes that will be my next big step in life. I will be commissioned in as an officer. Grad school after serving a term!"

He didn't mention that plan again.

Friends say they had no inkling of trouble.

"To me, he was a scholar and a stand-up guy," said Damon Burgess, a Louisville real-estate developer who befriended him about five years ago and calls him a mentor. "He is a person a young black man can look up to."

Bentley said Waller had reconnected with his mother and worked through his feelings of abandonment. Bentley said he seemed to be doing well when they talked last year before Thanksgiving.

"I think Corey has a story to tell and he still has a lot to give," she said.

McDonald said Waller had a very bright future. "But what you do with your future is up to you," he said.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189