Have Case, Will Travel

4/20/2004 2:53:43 PM
Daily Journal

THE COX FILE
Who: Terry R. Cox
Firm: The Lonewolf Group
Work: Legal investigations in criminal and civil matters
Fees: Negotiable in a range of professional hourly rates
Notable Clients: Lee County sheriff's deputies Jason Stanford and Danny Dillard; former WorldCom chief financial officer Scott Sullivan; Tennessee murder defendant, George "Train" Hughlett, for whom the defense overcame a dying declaration of the victim using exhibits produced by Cox

Credentials: Certified Legal Investigator (CLI)

Certified Fraud Consultant (CFC)

Contact Information: Booneville Office

662-720-0063

662-728-9180 (cell)

On the Net: www.lonewolfgroup.com

BY GARY PERILLOUX
Daily Journal

BOONEVILLE, MISSISSIPPI

Once, his world revolved around spinning records and ad-libbing lines as a hometown disc jockey.

Even then - especially then - the future would have astonished Terry Cox had he been able to stare into those vinyl grooves and see his reflection three decades down the road.

The man who would have taken the stage to heart instead would see himself standing strangely in the shadows: No ordinary shadows these, they form a corona circling the whitest-hot glare of fame.

For in the course of two years, Cox dug deep into the most publicized criminal case in Northeast Mississippi history and the biggest corporate accounting scandal in U.S. history.

His handle?

“LEGAL INVESTIGATOR”

FROM THE BEGINNING

Upon leaving Northeast Mississippi Community College for Oxford in 1973, Cox sought student employment at the University of Mississippi.

His major was speech and theater. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum.

A placement director learned of Cox's radio days and sent him to the second cousin once-removed of disc jockeys: dispatcher for the University of Mississippi's police department.

"I never dreamed of a career in law enforcement," he said.

Cox, however, quickly gained respect for the campus police.

"They were awfully good to me," he said. "The University Police Department then and now is a very good, very well-run law enforcement agency - very professional."

Law enforcement would become Cox's major, career and avocation. In Prentiss County, he later worked for the sheriff's office and police departments in Baldwyn and Booneville.

After a term with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, he broadened his career by going to Connecticut on a leap of faith and landing a corporate security job with the international pharmaceutical firm, Boehringer Ingelheim.

A dream job brought him home, and in 1989 Cox went to work as a Criminal Investigator for District Attorney John R.Young.

THE INVESTIGATOR

An 8-year tenure with Young's office steeped Cox in criminal investigations, work that would prepare him for the transition to opening his own firm.

Leaving the D.A.'s office in 1997 followed a painstaking investigation of his own soul.

"I just felt like I was being led to something else," he said. "I enjoyed the people I worked with and the work I was doing ... But I just felt like there was something else out there I wanted to do. And I was in the process of setting up my own office when the good Lord opened doors for me at the Farese law firm of Ashland.

"That was a wonderful experience for me."

Cox's work as a staff investigator exposed him to far more civil case work while continuing to offer challenging criminal cases.

By 2000, he tackled opening his own firm, The Lonewolf Group, where the Farese firm continues as one of his biggest clients. He also petitioned 70 other law firms for business and gains referrals through investigator contacts.

Two years later, he worked for Tony Farese and Booneville attorney Joey Langston on the successful acquittal of Lee County deputy sheriffs Danny Dillard and Jason Stanford.

The celebrated case addressed federal allegations that Dillard and Stanford violated the civil rights of Billy Ray Stone, who died at the scene where he killed Lee County Sheriff Harold Ray Presley.

Cox's contributions were a key to winning the case, Tony Farese said.

"An important aspect of this was ... obtaining statements from witnesses and also going to the scene of the event," Farese said. "We had to file an order in federal court to compel the right to do that. We were granted that right and Terry was able to photograph, video the scene and also make accurate diagrams.

"And the reason that is so important is you want your jury - which is the triier of fact - to know as much as possible and to actually be able to visualize the scene where the events took place. And Terry does an excellent job in providing accurate, realistic diagrams."

”LAND FORCE ONE”

To investigate such cases, Cox has equipped a traveling office.

George W. Bush has Air Force One.

Terry R. Cox has Land Force One.

His wife, Teresa, saddled his Suburban with that moniker. She even ordered an executive traveling desk that straps into the passenger seat and holds Terry's laptop, personal digital assistant, case files, video cameras, cell phone with wireless Internet, still cameras and other equipment.

In the back, Land Force One is equipped with everything from a second laptop and portable printer to safety cones, police tape, spray paint, measuring devices, more cameras, and special mounts that enable him to film a traffic accident scene while he's at the helm of Land Force One.

A power inverter behind the console converts DC power and allows Cox to run multiple devices at once.

"I can literally run my office from my vehicle," Cox said.

The gadgets facilitate his jobs, but they're no substitute for the grist of investigative greatness: years of experience, continuing education, licensing and integrity.

"There are case-specific things that have to be done in any case," Cox said. "And if you're not familiar with those things, you can do more damage than good in a hurry."

Cox's skills and equipment are state-of-the-art, but Farese sees another attribute as his key strength.

"I'll be honest with you: The most important trait with any investigator is that he has integrity," Farese said. "And that's what in my opinion is Mr. Cox's strongest asset. Because if the investigator does not have integrity, it certainly affects the impact of the work.

"And to me, that's what makes Mr. Cox so attractive in an employment scenario, and I use him almost exclusively."

INTO THE FUTURE

For Cox, the future holds more adventures.

He learns something new on every case.

And he's trying to raise the bar for Mississippi, which currently requires no state license of investigators. A bill by Sen. Johnnie Walls, D-Greenville, appears to be dying yet another death in the Legislature.

He's also expanding his repertoire to take on more insurance defense cases.

His civil high points have included helping clients recover multimillion-dollar judgments in tractor-trailer collisions where the truck drivers' safety records were compromised.

In Arkansas, he ferreted out more than $400,000 in assets for a bank duped by a farmer running an agricultural shell game.

Work for Cox begins with an attorney. If someone seeks his skills without retaining an attorney, he directs them to hire counsel. That legal link forms an ideal client privilege.

"I work with their attorney to bring that trying time in their lives to a successful conclusion," Cox said. "And that's a lot of the reward for me."

Where his next case will come is an endless source of fascination to Cox himself: “There's no telling.”

And when asked the age-old question –

How can you know you're taking the right case with a clean conscience?

Cox looks the question squarely in the eye.

"If it were you or your family member or a loved one who was in a (perilous) situation, you would want someone who was working for them to make sure their rights weren't violated and that their case was properly prepared," he said.

It's not a job tailored for everyone. The work of an investigator can be a lonely one, as his company name implies.

He balances it with family, church and community service.

And Cox confesses that the business side of his work - billing, record keeping and the like - is a challenge that can consume 20 hours a week, time for which he can bill no one but himself.

But give him a case and a trail to follow, and there's no stopping Land Force One.

"One of the things I get to do through my work is to help people," he said, sitting in the stationary Lonewolf office that's stoked with John Grisham legal thrillers, professional periodicals, reference books, photographs of Judge Joe Brown, O.J. Prosecutor Marcia Clark, his wife, children, his new granddaughter and the latest gigahertz technology has to offer. "I deal with people in some of the worst possible times in their lives, whether it's a criminal defendant, a person who's been injured in a work accident or lost a loved one in a traffic accident, or a professional individual or government entity accused of wrongdoing.”

"And I work with their attorney to bring that trying time in their lives to a successful conclusion."

Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 4/4/2004 8:00:00 AM, section F , page 1