Assessors Chair Resigns Following Drug Arrest

ORLEANS – The chair of the town’s board of assessors has resigned following her arrest last week on drug trafficking and possession charges.

Julia A. Lee, 57, of Orleans pleaded not guilty Dec. 5 in Orleans District Court to charges of trafficking more than 10 grams of fentanyl,  two counts of possession to distribute a Class B drug, one count of possession of a Class B drug and two counts of possession of a Class C drug. 

Lee was arrested at her home Dec. 4 as part of a joint investigation by the Orleans, Harwich and Yarmouth police departments and the Drug Enforcement Administration Cape Cod resident office, according to a release from the Orleans Police Department. 

The board of assessors is composed of three volunteer members who are appointed to serve by the select board. According to records on file with the town manager’s office, Lee was appointed to the board in July 2020.

Lee submitted her resignation to Town Assessor Brad Hinote on Dec. 8, saying she needed “to attend to an urgent health matter.” Her term was due to expire on June 30, 2026. 

A call to the number listed in Lee’s criminal complaint was not returned as of The Chronicle’s deadline.

According to a police report from Yarmouth Police Det. Nicholas Ambrosini, a search warrant was obtained for Lee’s Harwich Road residence on Dec. 3. During a search of the residence the following evening, police reportedly found a “small glass tupperware container with an off-white powder inside,” as well as a digital scale, on Lee’s kitchen table. The substance, about 13 grams worth, tested positive for fentanyl, according to the report.

Police also found in a drawer a foldable clear sandwich bag containing approximately 6.7 grams of “a clear rock-like crystal substance,” as well as a metal container with two plastic bags inside containing “a white powder” with a combined estimated weight of three grams. The powder tested positive for cocaine, according to the report.

A second metal container with “a small folded piece of tinfoil” inside also was found, the report read. In the tinfoil, police found a piece of paper with a “colorful design on it” that was cut into 10 small squares

“Based on my training and experience, I knew this to be LSD,” Ambrosini wrote in his report.

Two additional digital scales, a cup containing approximately eight grams of “psilocybin mushrooms” and just over a gram’s worth of crushed white Lorazepam tablets also were uncovered during the search, along with approximately two grams of crystal methamphetamine found in Lee’s purse and $580 in cash in the home’s master bedroom, according to the report.

“Based upon my training and experience, trafficking weight quantities of fentanyl, along with the quantities of cocaine and crystal methamphetamine, coupled with the digital scales are all indicative of narcotics distribution rather than personal use,” Ambrosini wrote in the report.

Lee was released on $500 cash bail and is due back in court on Jan. 2.