 |
Jun 3, 2006
|
||
 |
|||
 |
|||
|
Jun 3, 2006
|
||
|
|||
|
|||
| Online Phonebook | Sandhills Guide | Business News | National News |
 |
|
|
BY JOHN CHAPPELL: Staff Writer SBI agents are looking into accusations that two former Moore County prosecutors obstructed justice and withheld evidence to send a man to death row. John Gregory Hoffman spent seven years on death row after a jury convicted him of killing a jewelry store owner in Marshville. Ken Honeycutt (then Union County district attorney) and Scott Brewer (now a District Court judge) knew about a deal to give favors to a key witness against Hoffman -- but didn't inform his lawyers, the N.C. State Bar alleged. The bar accused Honeycutt and Brewer of felonious obstruction of justice, lying to the judge, and subornation of perjury. They sent accusations and evidence against the two to Union County's district attorney, Michael Parker. Parker promised a review and a decision as to whether to bring charges by April 1. Just before his announced deadline, but without public notice, Parker asked the office of Attorney General Roy Cooper to investigate. Parker still has made no public comment, but it is not uncommon for investigations to remain undisclosed. "Some DAs make announcements, and some don't," said Noelle Talley, speaking for Cooper's office. "The SBI initiated its investigation March 29 at his (Parker's) request." What the SBI finds out will go to Parker, who will have four choices. He can bring charges based on the SBI investigation. He can ask for the case to be transferred to another district attorney. He can request a special prosecutor. Or he can simply decide not to prosecute. Talley said it is too soon to speculate. "To be honest, the SBI is in the investigative stage," she said in an interview. "Their results will go to the district attorney who requested the investigation, in this case Parker. DAs have a variety of options. There is a mechanism through the Administrative Office of the Courts where they can request it be sent to a DA in a different jurisdiction, or they could ask for a special prosecutor." Parker has made no statement about charges or the status of any investigation. Hoffman was granted a new trial, expected to start in October. At his first trial, testimony by a cousin, Johnell Porter, helped convict Hoffman of killing Danny Cook. But Porter has said he made up that testimony. Honeycutt and Brewer were both present in the room when Hoffman was promised favors in exchange for testifying, he says. Promises were made and kept, but those deals were not revealed to defense lawyers. The bar calls that felonious prosecutorial misconduct. Porter got immunity from state and federal prosecution, money and a reduced federal sentence as pay for his testimony, according to the state bar. His prison sentences were reduced by at least 15 years, and Porter escaped prosecution for at least a dozen serious crimes in Charlotte. Honeycutt and Parker have said they didn't know about those deals, that federal authorities made the arrangements and they only promised to do what they could to help Porter. However, Porter told The Charlotte Observer that the two prosecutors talked over the deals with him, while he was in jail. His former attorney, Aaron Michel, backed that in a sworn statement of his own. Once the SBI investigation is complete, Parker will be in the spotlight again. Other lawyers say he should not be the one to decide what happens in this case, for a number of reasons. Various legal groups are asking Parker to step out of the case because of his previous relationship with the two former prosecutors. Parker had been Honeycutt's chief assistant when he was DA, and it was Honeycutt who proposed that Parker succeed to that job when he left to run for another office. Honeycutt has since returned to private practice. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers have both urged Parker to step aside. They said a special prosecutor should decide whether or not Honeycutt and Brewer stand trial. Also, the lawyer's association said Parker has no business investigating misconduct charges connected to a case headed for trial under his office. But as of now, once the SBI finishes the job Parker has asked it to do, everything will end up back on his desk in Union County. Honeycutt's picture, clad in his judge's robe, hangs on a wall in the Moore County Board of Elections. He served here first as an assistant district attorney in the late 1970s, then as a District Court judge. In December 1993, Honeycutt resigned his seat on the bench to become assistant district attorney to Carroll Lauder. At that time, Moore was part of a five-county prosecutorial district. Brewer worked as an assistant district attorney in Moore County between 1988 and 1996. He is currently a District Court judge in Rockingham. Parker has not commented on whether he will take whatever evidence the SBI collects or evidence sent him by the bar to a grand jury and seek criminal indictments. He worked for Honeycutt as chief assistant until Honeycutt retired after losing a bid for the state House of Representatives. Gov. Mike Easley -- at Honeycutt's request -- appointed Parker to his present district attorney position. |
|
|
||
|
|
