Corey Waller: From Harvard grad to drug charges

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.”

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

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