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http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/506264.html
Why do cops need loophole?
Dennis Rogers, Staff Writer

Now we know why the statue of justice is blindfolded. Some things are too painful to watch.

Raleigh defense attorneys Tommy Manning and Duncan McMillan won two more high-profile cases this week.

No surprise there. They're among the best defense attorneys in this city, veteran lawyers who have made their bones in the rough and ragged world of criminal justice.

But is "justice" the right word for what happened at the Wake County courthouse Monday?

Former Durham police Officers Gary Lee and Scott Tanner were charged with assaulting Rene Thomas, a cook at a Glenwood Avenue restaurant.

They appeared before Wake District Court Judge Debra Sasser. But instead of the community, the defendants and the alleged victim receiving justice, what happened was a shining example of why so many people are cynical about the law and those who practice it.

Charges were dismissed against the two former officers because the prosecutor did not present adequate evidence that the alleged assault took place in Wake County. He talked about the alleged assault taking place on Glenwood Avenue but he never specifically said the restaurant was in Wake County.

For the record, it is.

If the alleged crime did not take place in Wake County, why was the trial held in the Wake County courthouse before a Wake County judge and prosecuted by a Wake County assistant district attorney? Why did the Raleigh Police Department conduct the investigation?

Common sense, you think? Who cares. The rules must be obeyed. All hail the rules.

This was another one of those times when the legal system seemed more about good lawyering than good justice.

Manning said he has used the same legal technique 20 or 30 times in his 30-year-career and it works "every time."

The loser in this case was the public. We were robbed of our chance to know if two rogue cops assaulted a guy or if two innocent officers were being railroaded. That's something a community needs to know.

Judges and lawyers sometimes forget that we desperately need to believe in them. We need to know our court system will be there to protect us from those who would do us harm. We need to believe that truth is the only weapon we need. The alternative is vigilante justice where the strong survive and the weak are destroyed. A society that loses faith in its court system lurches dangerously toward chaos.

Lawyers Manning and McMillan did nothing wrong. They gave their clients the aggressive defense to which all of us are entitled. If I were in a jam, I'd want either -- or better yet, both -- of them in my corner.

But while such maneuvers may make for effective lawyering -- if "effective" is defined as winning -- they do little to bolster our trust. Rather, they serve to hold the law, those who practice it and those who administer it up to ridicule.

All the judge had to do was ask whether the restaurant was in Wake County. Or look it up in the telephone directory. Or check a map. Instead, she sacrificed justice and truth to the Great God Procedure.

If the law supposes what happened Monday was justice, then as one of Charles Dickens' characters said, "the law is a ass, an idiot."
Columnist Dennis Rogers can be reached at 829-4750 or drogers@newsobserver.com.