Posted on 01/24/2007 6:38:29 AM PST by FoxRun
Just heard via Fox News Alert that additional charges have been levied against Nifong. Charges are that he failed to disclose and/or hid the DNA evidence (that exonerated the 3 players charged).
I thought you were on Holiday, Howlin. ;>
Got home late last night!
How about the photo lineup? That was, in the very least, unethical.
It just wouldn't surprise me were this to be played out this way.
We missed you. Glad you are back.
Thanks, Howlin! My cable company changed the CTV channel! Yikes! But I found it. And I'm watching it now.
Gagging with Lisa Bloom and Gloria Allred.
Guy is such a loser.
AFAIK, the only issues raised in the original bar complaint were his inappropriate pre-trial statements. I don't believe that the DNA report stuff was part of it at all. (The flap over the DNA report may not have yet been disclosed at that time the bar association was initially looking into the case.)
WRAL is showing the entire thing right now on their HD channel.
Sounds like it will be the second week of June.
He looks like a hound dog!
I don't know what else he could possibly argue, but that's not going to pass with the Bar. He can argue it, but "shielding" DNA results based upon "media distraction" and then claiming he has turned over all evidence helpfull to the defense is a clear violation. And then he still backs himself into the corner when he is asked why he continued the case and brought charges when the DNA totally contradicted the claims of the accuser.
are you tan? ; )
Is this a similar case?
No, but I do have quite a rain burn. :-(
Thanks! Had no idea it was on.
He'll probably blame it on his first wife. She worked to put him through law school. Once finished, he decided to move on.
Welcome back!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1772793/posts
"In addition to fueling any existing public perception that I have a conflict of interest in this matter, this filing has also created an actual conflict, as I am now personally the subject of an investigation and charges in this case," Nifong wrote of the ethics complaint.
//
Another Nifong conflict of interest???
Seems Nifong is QUITE familiar with the Cheek/Mangum family...
(No links)
FAIR USE
Obituaries
Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC)
November 28, 1997
GOOCH
Miss Lisa Annette Gooch, 29, of 617 Bernice Street, passed Thursday, November 27, 1997, at Duke Hospital. She was born in Durham, daughter of Mrs. Louise Cheek Gooch and the late Tony E. Gooch. She was a 1987 graduate of Durham High School and a former employee of Kerr Drugs, Lakewood Shopping Center. She was a member of Mt. Gilead Baptist Church and attended Gethsemane Baptist Church.
Graveside rites will be held Saturday, November 29, 1997, at 1:00 at Beechwood Cemetery, Rev. V.E. Browne, Pastor, Gethsemane Baptist Church, officiating. Burial will be in Beechwood Cemetery.
Surviving are her mother, Mrs. Louise Cheek Gooch, of the home; her grandmother, Mrs. Gertrude Cheek, of Durham; 9 aunts, Mrs. Bettie C. Brame, Mrs. Mary C. Mangum, Miss Shirley Cheek, Mrs. Christine Gooch Ellison, Miss Joyce Gooch, Mrs. Corliss Gattis, and Miss Elaine Gooch, all of Durham, Mrs. Onnie Rowles, of Perry, Georgia, and Mrs. Donnie C. Royster, of Warrenton; an uncle, Mr. Carl Cheek, Jr., of Poway, California; a great-aunt, Mrs. Annie Bell Henderson, of Henderson; her godfather, Mr. Kenneth S. Wright, of Durham; a special friend, Mr. Joseph Williams, of Durham; and a host of cousins and other loving relatives and close friends.
//
Languid pace of justice tries mother's patience
The News & Observer
August 20, 1994
Author: JALEH HAGIGH; STAFF WRITER
Estimated printed pages: 3
DURHAM -- A few minutes before he was gunned down in his East Durham grocery store, General Wesley Cheek made his daily visit to his mother's house to make sure she was safe.
It was about 6:20 a.m., and Gertrude Cheek was greeting the day the way she always did -- with prayer.
"I said, 'Is everything all right?' And he said, 'Yes, ma'am.' And then we hugged and kissed each other and he went out the door," Cheek recalled recently sitting in her home in the Fisher Heights community.
"That's the last time I saw him," she said, her determined voice trailing off.
Later that morning, she got a phone call.
The voice on the other end told her that her son, one of eight children and known to friends as "Sonny Wishbone," had been shot during a robbery at his store, B's Stop 'N Shop on South Alston Avenue.
That was Dec. 16, 1992. Since then, Cheek has been trying to come to grips with her son's murder and the snaillike pace of the court system.
Lately, it's taken all the strength she can muster.
This month, Cheek, 71, learned that the trial of her son's accused killer had been postponed for the second time this year. And to make matters worse, she also discovered that the trial probably won't be rescheduled until January -- more than two years after her son's death.
Like many people touched by crime these days, Cheek is exasperated.
"It seems the killers have more rights than the people losing their kids," she declared, flipping through the yellowed pages of a family photo album. "I just feel real terrible. I've just been waiting too long."
The latest sputter in the case occurred two weeks ago when attorneys for the defendant, Walter Goldston, asked for a postponement on the eve of the trial. It was the second such request since April by the defense.
Lawyers Craig Brown and Brian Aus told the judge they couldn't go forward because Goldston's previous attorney, Public Defender Robert Brown Jr., had done nothing with the case during the 14 months he had it.
Craig Brown said that he and Aus were left "starting from scratch" when they got the case file in April and that they needed at least five months to prepare a defense in the capital murder case.
Robert Brown has denied allegations he did no work on the case. He has declined further comment, saying conversations between him and his former client are privileged.
Yet such legal wranglings matter little to Gertrude Cheek and her family. They say they're trying to get on with their lives, but can't until the trial is over.
District Attorney Jim Hardin Jr. said he sympathizes with the family, but can't control everything that happens in a case.
"We feel the same sense of frustration they do, but we're not going to let this setback deter us from our objective," he said.
Neither is Gertrude Cheek. She vows to continue following the case and to be in court when it's called for trial.
Until then, she'll continue to seek solace in prayer and by looking at old photographs of her son. One of her favorites is a black and white picture of him in his football uniform at Hillside High School.
Named after his father, General Cheek, 41, was a beloved figure in the community near his store.
He was a burly man who usually sported a full beard and some kind of hat. When he wasn't in his work duds, he preferred to don one of his many suits and a pair of cowboy boots.
In fact, Gertrude Cheek buried her son in one of his favorite outfits -- a white suit with matching boots.
News of his death spread quickly, and friends flooded his mother's home with calls and sympathy cards. The elder Cheek saved every card and letter. She keeps them in a white plastic bag.
"He was just a lovely person, and when he got killed, Durham was just torn to pieces," she said, shaking her head.
General Cheek also owned Cheek's Seafood and Soul Food Restaurant. In his spare time, he mentored troubled teens and lent his strong pipes to the choir at Greater St. Paul Baptist Church.
He was one of two Durham grocers who were shot down during robbery attempts in the same week. His death sent chills throughout the community and prompted other grocers to arm themselves.
Investigators said they think two men were waiting for Cheek to open his store that morning. They announced a robbery and got into a shootout with Cheek, who was thought to keep a gun behind the counter. Cheek was shot numerous times and managed to shoot one of the robbers before collapsing in a heap on the floor.
Gertrude Cheek knew how much her son loved running his own store. Still, she thought he was in a dangerous business.
"He told me not to worry about it," she said. "He loved the store. He always wanted to have his own business."
Always the dutiful son, General Cheek checked on his mother each day, bought her groceries and made sure her bills were paid. If she needed special shoes for her tender feet, he'd drive her to the appropriate store and offer to pay for them.
"He was a mother's child," she cooed. "He lived with me until he was 39 years old. He said, 'When you leave Durham, Mama, I'll leave.'"
Caption:
A collection of yellowing photographs is a poor
substitute for a son, but it's what Gertrude Cheek must make do with
as she waits for an accounting.
//
Trial under way for defendant in grocer killing
The News & Observer
May 2, 1995
Author: JALEH HAGIGH; STAFF WRITER
Estimated printed pages: 2
DURHAM -- Gertrude Cheek sat Monday morning in the back of Superior Court, reading her favorite Bible passages and waiting patiently for the man accused of killing her son to be brought to trial.
She's good at the waiting game.
After all, it has been 2 1/2 years since two gunmen walked into B's Stop and Shop in East Durham and killed her son, General Wesley Cheek, during an early-morning robbery and shootout Dec. 16, 1992.
On Monday, the second of two defendants in the case went on trial. Walter Goldston could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery charges.
"I hope they'll go ahead with this case and get it over with," Gertrude Cheek said, clutching her Bible, which is held together with electrical tape. "I haven't been able to sleep at night."
In opening arguments, prosecutor Mike Nifong described General Cheek as a burly man who didn't scare easily and worked hard at his convenience store, a fixture on South Alston Avenue.
Though he was strong, standing 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing 272 pounds, Cheek, 40, knew it was dangerousto run a grocery store. He kept a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun behind the counter in case anyone tried to rob him.
On that cold December morning, Cheek opened his store the way he had hundreds of times before. Sometime before 8 a.m., two men walked in, one armed with a .38-caliber revolver and the other carrying a .22-caliber pistol.
They put $1 on the counter for a drink, waited for Cheek to open the cash register and demanded his money. Cheek reached for his gun and the shootout began.
When it was over, Cheek was lying face down behind the counter. He'd been shot six times and was covered with blood. His gun was a few feet from his right hand. Before he died, he managed to fire off four rounds, hitting Goldston once in the left shoulder and giving police a key piece of evidence.
"In firing his gun, he was able to tell us something," Nifong told the jury. "He was able to tell us who one of them was."
Goldston showed up at Durham Regional Hospital that afternoon and had a bullet removed from his left shoulder, Nifong said. The bullet was a .25-caliber round that tests show was fired from Cheek's gun.
Defense lawyers Brian Aus and Craig Brown contend Goldston was in the store that morning but didn't rob or shoot Cheek. Aus told jurors that Goldston, "was at the wrong place at the wrong time."
The defense also tried to impeach the credibility of Goldston's co-defendant, Robert Davis, potentially a key witness for the state. Davis pleaded guilty to a lesser charge last year and is expected to testify against Goldston as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Davis, who at one point faced first-degree murder and robbery charges, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder. He's expected to get a 10-year prison term after he testifies against Goldston. Family and friends said Cheek was generous with his time and money. When he wasn't working at the store, he tended his seafood restaurant on Roxboro Road and attended services regularly at Greater St. Paul Baptist Church.
He also found time to look in on his mother just about every day.
"Me and my son always been very close," Gertrude Cheek said during a break in the trial, which continues this week. "He paid my bills and was my only means of support."
photo; Goldston; file
Edition: Durham
Section: News
Page: B4
//
Time ticks slowly in jail cells as Durham justice grinds along
The News & Observer
May 20, 1995
Author: JALEH HAGIGH; STAFF WRITER
Estimated printed pages: 4
DURHAM -- Like many defendants awaiting trial in the Durham County Jail, Ardell Davis counts his time in months, not days.
It goes faster that way. It also keeps the Brooklyn, N.Y., native from dwelling on being locked up.
Besides, Davis knows it's the only way to survive the waiting game at the jail, where an overloaded court docket means suspects spend an average of four months behind bars before they have their day in court.
For those charged with murder, the wait is even longer. They routinely sit in jail for one or two years before a jury determines their guilt or innocence.
"It doesn't matter what charge you got. In Durham, you're going to wait," said Davis, who has spent 10 months in jail awaiting trial on armed robbery and assault charges.
Across the Triangle, the problem of court backlogs has been most pronounced in Durham, where officials have struggled to dispose of dozens of felony cases that have been gathering dust while suspects languish in jail.
While a crime-weary public might have little sympathy for accused criminals like Davis, there are other costs to consider.
There's the cost to taxpayers to keep suspects locked up for months before trial. And there's the emotional burden on crime victims who often feel forgotten as cases drag on.
Durham's criminal case backlog has been building for years, the product of increased crime, a lack of judicial resources and poor court management. Not too long ago, it wasn't unusual for Superior Court in Durham to shut down at midweek because of scheduling problems.
Most of the criticism for the sluggish pace of justice has been aimed at District Attorney Jim Hardin Jr., currently in his second year as the county's top prosecutor.
He has responded by clearing out dozens of old criminal cases and drafting an ambitious plan to fast-track cases through the courts with minimal delays. Yet even Hardin, a former drug prosecutor, concedes his work is far from finished.
A look at the suspects awaiting trial in the jail on one randomly selected day shows that justice in Durham is anything but swift.
On one recent day, there were 25 inmates out of 215 awaiting trial who had been in jail for four months or more, according to statistics provided by the Sheriff's Department.
That's longer than many legal experts say it should take to move felony cases through the courts.
"There's just no excuse for having people serve time when they haven't been convicted of a crime," said Marvin Sparrow, of N.C. Prisoner Legal Services. "You're taking up more {jail} space. It's a cost to the county that is totally unnecessary."
There are human costs as well.
While many of the suspects awaiting trial might eventually end up behind bars, that's not always the case.
Take Antwoine Lloyd. He spent 14 months in jail before jurors acquitted him of attempted rape and kidnapping charges three years ago. For Lloyd, there's no compensation for the lost time.
"You end up being deprived of your liberty with no recourse," said Durham Public Defender Robert Brown Jr., who represented Lloyd. "There is zero they can do. They don't get any money for it. They don't even get an apology."
Court delays also take a toll on crime victims, who often feel victimized twice, once by an assailant and again by a slow judicial system.
Having to wait months for a trial makes it harder for victims to deal with being attacked or put a loved one's death behind them.
Just ask Gertrude Cheek.
She waited more than two years for Walter Goldston to stand trial in the death of her son, General Wesley Cheek, 60, who was shot six times during a robbery at his East Durham grocery store in December 1992.
Goldston spent 2 1/2 years in jail before he was convicted this month of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Among the inmates awaiting trial at the time, Goldston had been locked up the longest.
"I'm fed up," Cheek said after the trial. "It just doesn't make sense to me. I think the killers, they get more attention than we do who have lost our kids."
General Cheek was well known in his community and his store, B's Stop and Shop, was a fixture on South Alston Avenue. When he wasn't working, he checked up on his mother and made sure her cupboards were full and her bills were paid.
Now that the trial is over, the elder Cheek is relieved. But she can't hide her disgust with a criminal justice system that she says forgot about her.
"It has really damaged my life," she said.
The state offers no specific guidelines for when criminal cases should be resolved.
Yet legal observers say most felonies should be disposed of within four months of a defendant's indictment, earlier when a suspect is waiting in jail. Murder cases are the exception because they are more complex and typically take longer to prosecute.
While Durham continues to grapple with the backlog, there are signs that things are improving.
In fiscal 1994, the median age of a pending felony case in Durham was 196 days, or about six months, according to the most recent figures available from the state Administrative Office of the Courts.
That was far above the state average of 129 days. By contrast, in Orange and Chatham counties, the median case age was 125 days and 93 days in Wake.
Recently, Hardin said the efforts by his office to clear out older cases have cut the median case age in Durham.
The median case age is the point at which half the cases are younger and half are older. The lower the median age, the smaller the backlog, court officials say.
"We've made a concerted effort to dispose of the cases where defendants are held in pretrial custody," Hardin said. "We've gotten rid of 28 murders in the first quarter of this year alone. And a lot of those folks were in pretrial detention."
Meanwhile, Ardell Davis continues counting the months inside the Durham County Jail. He can't afford to get out on bond, which is set at $50,000. And unlike some inmates awaiting trial, he refuses to plead guilty to end the waiting game.
"It's messed up," Davis said of the system. "I hope I won't be up here a year. The way it looks, I'll be up here a year and a half."
//
Man gets life term for fatal shootout
Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC)
May 10, 1995
Author: JOHN STEVENSON The Herald-Sun
Estimated printed pages: 3
Walter W. Goldston was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for the 1992 shootout murder of store owner General Wesley Cheek Jr.
Jurors in Durham County Superior Court deliberated all afternoon before rejecting a death verdict for Goldston and returning with the decision for life imprisonment.
The same jury convicted Goldston last week of first-degree murder in Cheek's death at his B's Stop and Shop, on South Alston Avenue, on Dec. 16, 1992. Goldston also was found guilty of attempting to rob Cheek, but no separate punishment will be imposed for that offense.
Court officials said Goldston will have to serve 20 years before becoming eligible for parole.
But Goldston will get credit for the two years and four months he has been in jail awaiting trial, defense lawyer Brian Aus pointed out.
``I'm just happy that we saved his life,'' Aus said. ``I'm real happy about that. If we couldn't get a not-guilty verdict, this was the next best thing.''
Goldston, wearing a gray sport coat and tie, ``took it OK,'' Aus said of the life-imprisonment decision. ``Obviously, he was relieved he didn't get the death penalty.''
Aus also said Goldston's convictions will be appealed.
When Judge Orlando F. Hudson offered Goldston a chance to speak Tuesday, he remained silent, as he had during the rest of the trial.
A key piece of evidence against him was a .25-caliber bullet removed from his arm at Durham Regional Hospital. The State Bureau of Investigation later matched the bullet to a gun carried by Cheek.
But Aus contended to jurors last week that Goldston merely was in ``the wrong place at the wrong time'' and was caught in crossfire between Cheek and another man -- Robert Louis Davis Jr. Davis has pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the murder and is waiting to be sentenced. In returning with a life-in-prison decision for Goldston Tuesday, jurors accepted prosecution contentions that there was an ``aggravating'' factor in the case: a desire for financial gain on Goldston's part at the time he killed Cheek.
First-degree murder is the only crime for which jurors, rather than a judge, decide punishment. Life in prison or death are the only options.
During the morning session of court Tuesday, Goldston often sat with his head in his hands as opposing lawyers cajoled the jury about his fate. At various times, he stared at the defense table for long periods or closed his eyes, head hanging.
Aus contended that Goldston should not be put to death because he was emotionally disturbed and mentally ill -- something that Chapel Hill psychiatrist Billy Royal had testified to a day earlier.
And Craig Brown, Goldston's other lawyer, argued that ``putting Walter Goldston to death would have no deterrent effect'' on other would-be robbers and killers.
``Have we become so harsh as a society, as a county, as a city that the attempted taking of money is worth a life?'' asked Brown. ``Have we become so mean?''
But prosecutor Michael Nifong said the state Supreme Court has ruled that killing in the pursuit of financial gain is, in fact, worthy of capital punishment.
``There are a lot of reasons that people kill,'' said Nifong. ``They kill for jealousy. They kill for revenge. But the worst possible motive for killing is money.''
Nodding toward the victim's mother, Nifong added that ``Gertrude Cheek is here, too. On Dec. 16, 1992, she wanted her son to live.''
Edition: Final
Section: Durham
Page: C3
//
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=nc&vol=1996%5Csupreme0613%5C&invol=goldston
By the mid-1990s, Nifong was getting assigned to the county's most serious felonies. In the courtroom, he showed not just a command of the law but a certain art about trial lawyering.
In 1995, he prosecuted Walter Goldston, who was accused of killing a convenience store owner. Nifong sought the death penalty.
Brian Aus was one of Goldston's attorneys. He remembers that in closing arguments, Nifong started talking to the jury about the angles of bullets -- the state thought that Goldston fired as he lay on the floor. Nifong said, "I hate to do this in a suit," Aus recalled. Nifong flopped on the floor to describe the shooting.
"It was something," Aus said.
Goldston was convicted and sentenced to life.
"He's always very polished," said Aus, who has known Nifong for 22 years. "He doesn't rely a lot on notes or stuff. He just gets out there, gets to his point and moves on."
In his prosecutions, Nifong opened up his entire file to defense lawyers -- something the law didn't require until 2004. It was a matter of fairness, he said in the 2005 interview, but it also added to the intimidation factor. He would tell a lawyer what he had and what he was going to do, and then in court he would do it.
"I was very good at what I did, but I was kind of cocky," he said.
//
A case of misguided sympathy
The News & Observer
May 15, 1995
Author: Barry Saunders; Staff writer
Estimated printed pages: 2
In the movie "In the Heat of the Night," the police chief played by Rod Steiger fingered the leather wallet he'd just taken off one of the town thugs. It belonged to a murder victim.
"I've got the motive, which is money, and the body, which is DEAD!" he thundered. That line helped Steiger win an Academy Award for his performance.
Well, Assistant District Attorney Mike Nifong had the motive (which was money) and the body (which was dead) in last week's Walter Goldston murder case. But Nifong didn't win an Oscar -- or even a death penalty, which is what he really wanted. You see, Nifong apparently could not convince the jury that Goldston's murder of General Wesley Cheek was more than a run-of-the-mill Durham killing that warranted the ultimate penalty.
Actually, 10 members of the jury found the evidence compelling enough to sentence Goldston to take the Dirt Nap, the Big Sleep, whatever you want to call it. But two of them did not. And that's where this case gets nasty. If you've got a weak stomach, you probably shouldn't read this.
Hey, what am I saying. Read it, by all means, but at least wait until you've finished eating.
You know how they say there are two things you don't want to see being made -- sausages and laws? Well, after last week, you can add another: jury verdicts and sentences.
I wrote last week about what a mockery of justice the trial made, of how defense attorneys -- desperate to mitigate the callousness of their client's crime -- pointed out that he used to go to church with his mother and played drums in the Durham High band.
I heard from scores of people, most of whom were as upset as I was over the decision to spare the life of a man who had no compunction about taking another's. But I also heard from two jurors who were even more upset than I because they'd seen the whole sordid thing up close.
One juror told me, "I was appalled and thoroughly disgusted when {defense attorney Brian Aus} pulled out something about a couple of bad checks Mr. Cheek had written" -- as though that devalued his life and made Aus' client's crime not so bad.
The vote in favor of the death penalty was 10-2. The two black jurors, both women, obstinately refused to consider it, the jurors who called me said. "One said that because this boy had lost his father when he was 8, and his grandmother when he was 12, she didn't think he should die," one agitated juror told me. "She said blacks grieve differently than whites."
Don't ask.
Believe me, I understand black people being leery of the court system in this country. It's like comedian Richard Pryor said, "You go into court looking for justice, and that's exactly what you find -- just us."
What the two jurors did was ensure that a 20-year-old
ne'er-do-well who killed a hard-working man for chump change could be out on the street again by the time he is 40.
The juror continued, "If those two jurors had done what they'd sworn to do, this wouldn't have happened ... I looked over at Mrs. Cheek" -- the victim's mother -- "and I wanted to hug her and tell her her two black sisters had let her down."
Hey, wait a minute, now. I doubt the race of the two hold-out jurors was the main factor in their sympathetic view. Hell, I'm sure they know that most of the people victimized by black criminals are also black -- as was General Wesley Cheek. I just hope they'll be able to sleep safely and soundly -- especially 20 years from now, when Walter Goldston could get out with an even bigger chip on his shoulder.
###(Got a tip for a story? Want to talk to Barry about this topic -- or anything else? Call him at 836-2811.)
Edition: Final
Section: News
Page: B1
//
Man serving life for murder fails to get new trial
Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC)
January 22, 1998
Author: JOHN STEVENSON The Herald-Sun
Estimated printed pages: 2
A convicted killer serving a life term has failed to win a new trial, despite pointing to new evidence he says exonerates him.
Superior Court Judge Orlando F. Hudson denied Walter R. Goldston's bid Wednesday, saying he did not believe a key element of the supposedly new evidence.
The element in question was a sworn affidavit from Robert Louis Davis in which Davis said he, not Goldston, was involved in the 1992 fatal shooting of store owner General Wesley Cheek at his B's Stop and Shop on South Alston Avenue.
But when Goldston's lawyer called Davis to the witness stand this week, Davis recanted, insisting, ``That's not true.'' He said Goldston told him what to put into the affidavit.
``Everything I wrote in my handwriting, he had already wrote [sic] ,'' Davis testified. ``I copied it in my handwriting.''
In squelching the bid for a new trial, Hudson said the statements in Davis' affidavit ``lack credibility and are not true.''
Goldston, wearing orange jail coveralls and with his legs shackled and hands cuffed, insisted in brief testimony Wednesday that ``I'm not your killer.''
He admitted he was in Cheek's store when the fatal shooting occurred, but said he was an innocent bystander. He also said he was wounded by a stray bullet fired during a shootout between Cheek and Davis, Goldston added.
``I can't make these people tell you the truth,'' Goldston said of Davis and others. ``The only thing I can do is pray to God and hope I can come out of this.''
Goldston also alleged that the Police Department and prosecutor Michael Nifong made deals that allowed Davis and a second killer to get off easily while Goldston unfairly took the rap for slaying Cheek.
Goldston pointed to a plea bargain that allowed Davis in 1995 to get a 10-year prison sentence as an accessory to the murder -- a sentence from which he already has been paroled.
``In a nutshell, the district attorney, the Police Department -- they played the game of let's make a deal,'' Goldston complained. ``Yes, Mr. Nifong, you cut a deal with two killers. You let them go. ... I didn't have anything to do with the killing.''
Nifong countered that the evidence offered by Goldston and his lawyer, Tom Eagen, was not really new.
Nifong said Goldston could have presented the same information at his original trial but failed to do so.
``There was no due diligence on the defendant's part'' to offer the information in a more timely manner, Nifong said.
``On every conceivable basis, the defendant must lose [the bid for a new trial],'' he said.
Edition: Final
Section: Durham
Page: C3
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