Hammer on the Sanders Trial

John Hammer had some interesting observations regarding last week's trial of Scott Sanders on the charge of searching a government computer without proper authorization.  It should be noted that Sanders and Tom Fox also had been indicted on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice, but these charges are now being dismissed.  Think about the implications of the following statement Hammer made:

According to an impeccable source, those charges were going to be dropped whether Sanders was found guilty or not guilty.

What this means is that Tom Fox was being strung along by the state attorney general's office for nearly eighteen months even though there was no intention to prosecute him.  Consider the ethics of that kind of decision-making, and what the motives may have been.

Hammer continues regarding the politics surrounding the trial:

Coman is a tough prosecutor, which is precisely why he is the top prosecutor in the Attorney General's Office and why he was sent to handle the Duke lacrosse mess. Coman said Sanders was being treated just like anyone else accused of a crime, but the state doesn't, except in very special cases such as this one, send its top prosecutor out to prosecute class H felonies.

This was all about politics and the battle for the soul of Greensboro, and the administration of City Manager Mitch Johnson lost and lost big...

Coman's very presence in the courtroom is proof that this was selective prosecution. Coman is not sent around the state to prosecute people for stealing pine straw or misbranding cattle. He handles the cases in North Carolina that Attorney General Roy Cooper considers the most important, and the trial of Sanders fell into that category...

The state never intended to bring this case to court. Sanders and Fox were supposed to roll over on someone higher up and then hopefully they would roll over on someone even higher up until they got something against Wray, or at least a member of his command staff. The problem with that plan was twofold, first of all Sanders and Fox are honorable men and secondly they didn't have anything to roll over about. Look at all the other investigations. Assuming that the SBI knows how to investigate, in 16 months this is all they could find.

When the charges were filed against Sanders and Fox, then Mayor Keith Holliday and Mitch Johnson made statements about how grievous these charges were. But they weren't and it turned out the guys were not guilty of any wrongdoing.   It would be shocking to see Mitch Johnson apologize for what he said, but Holliday certainly should.

I suspect there is much more to learn about the political influence and manipulation that affected the state Attorney General's office and the SBI.  But it appears to me from Hammer's reporting that Tom Fox, even though he was not the focus of the trial, was done a terrible disservice.  There may not have been a genuine intention to bring him to trial.  Hammer felt Roy Cooper was hoping to get to Wray and his command staff through Fox and Sanders. 

How will these two officers be compensated for what they were put through?  It is increasingly obvious that they were the objects of politically motivated investigations, indictments-- and in Sanders' case, an absurd trial. 

Comments

[Stormy]

Joe,

We discussed this before in another post. It appears to be clear that this whole trial and prosecution of Officers Sanders and Fox was about politics. But, the remaining question is who in Greensboro had the political sway to make it happen? Surely, not Mitch Johnson or the City Council, so who? If we had the answer to that question, we would have the answer to much of what this whole event was about from the git go.

[Dr. Mary Johnson]

And yet we keep electing Coman's boss to be our chief law enforcement officer.

During his campaign, Cooper made a big show of his handling of the Duke Lacrosse case. But the truth is that he would not/could not have "handled" anything until Nifong naively fell on his sword and refered the case to Raleigh. I still wonder if he was promised mercy and then someone renigged on the promise.

Such is the law in North Carolina. And as far as I know, not ONE WORD of it has been changed since the Duke case proved that we in North Carolina have serious problems with our justice system.

This state routinely goes after innocent men (for political reasons) and lets guilty ones dance and spit on those they've victimized (because of who they are or who they know). It's maddening.

It's even more maddening that our newspapers lets them keep right on keeping on.

The laws in this state need to change - and they need to change in a fashion that has ZERO tolerance for prosecutorial misconduct.

Hello Mr. Coman (we know you're reading) - you simply cannot tell me that the state had NO jurisdiction over the doings of "non-profit" hospitals). It does not hold water.

[Joe Guarino]

Stormy, I have an idea of the types of folks who may have had the political sway: but it is difficult to know who delivered the message, and how.

Mary, we need to remember one thing about the Duke Lacrosse case. We do not know what Cooper would have done if the story had not gone national.

[wayne]

Unfortunately Dr Joe, I think we DO know what Cooper would have done. Those young men would probably be in prison, except their parents had the wherewithal to fight the evil " Political Correctness"... Cooper had no choice. He merely jumped on the bandwagon. O'Rielly had him in a strangle hold.

Except for Jerry Bledsoe, where would David Wray be right now?

[jc]

We all know know ex-mayor Holliday is a Melvin puppet but I agree with Hammers comment that Holliday should apologize to Sanders and Fox in light of all charges being dropped.

I used to think Keith was a decent man and felt awful for him when his daughter passed away several years ago. But his sliming of Fox and Sanders was over the line. He should be ashamed.

[Brenda Bowers]

"Coman's very presence in the courtroom is proof that this was selective prosecution. Coman is not sent around the state to prosecute people for stealing pine straw or misbranding cattle. He handles the cases in North Carolina that Attorney General Roy Cooper considers the most important, and the trial of Sanders fell into that category.."

Exactly! So why? Who has this kind of influence? None of the known players to my thinking. Even the Great Melvin I believe would fall short. Is Greensboro at the center of a huge drug ring that goes clear over to Raleigh? I have stated before that Greensboro is ideally located on the map to be a drug hub. Was Wray ready to blow the feds cover so he and his command staff had to be taken out and discredited to actually save their lives. Wray was later rewarded with a much more important and lucrative job, as were a few others (but not all, but of course not to raise suspicion the feds would have to move slowly and reasonably)? Is the federal government involved and simply letting the pot boil in Greensboro while they get the evidence to bring a whole network down? Everything that goes down in Greensboro is just too fictional? fantasy? illogical? for the pieces of the puzzle to fit. A few very important pieces are missing and I believe that EVERYONE of the known players are still in the dark no matter how much they know.