Garland Yates And The "Reverse NIfong"

The News & Observer reports today that Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby will not launch an investigation into how the son of former House Speaker Jim Black (now in prison) received contracts to provide pest control at the state's newest three prisons, despite not being the low bidder.

D.A. (Colon) Willoughby said he could not launch an investigation because he did not see in the report evidence of a crime.

This really does not surprise me. The powers-that-be running our state really want to get this nasty Black business behind them and "look forward".

But this is the statement that really caught my eye:

"At this point, without someone making an accusation that, if true, would be a violation of the law, I'm reluctant to conduct an investigation," he said.

In other words (if I am understanding this right), the Wake County DA would pursue an investigation, if someone came forward and made criminal accusations against Black's son.

In 2003, I did just that. I stepped forward and reported perjury, contempt and fraud on the part of Randolph Hospital senior executives (Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin) to the Randolph County D.A., Garland Yates. I begged for an investigation.

A number of lawyers I informally consulted opined that, given the fact that these allegations were leveled against the administrators of a "non-profit" institution by a physician who served in state & federal public service programs, this matter merited a referral to the Attorney General's Office and/or State Bureau of Investigation.

It was an easy slip off the hot-seat that Garland Yates did not take advantage of. Instead he played true-blue-small-town-good-ole-boy.

He did not think a crime had occurred (it's apparent Yates slept through some classes in law school). He made his decision without ever speaking to me. He has since refused to take my calls, or meet with me to explain his reasoning.

His staff has consistently treated me like dirt.

It's my belief that the Randolph County D.A.'s office holds a grudge. A friend of a friend told me that Yates was really pissed off over my website when it went online.

Good!

This is what really happened: Mr. Yates killed any investigation before it could start . . . telling SBI officers that he would not prosecute no matter what an investigation revealed (I know this because I went a few exasperated e-mail rounds with SBI investigators who could not waste time and money on an investigation if the DA was not going to act on findings that might contradict his learned "conclusions").

Of course, Mr. Yates came to his conclusions without ANY kind of criminal investigation being conducted by any local law enforcement agency. I've asked for help from both the Asheboro Police Department and the Randolph County Sheriff's Department. I've been blown off in deference to the District Attorney.

In North Carolina, D.A.'s can bring bring innocent men (I am loathe to say innocent, because the bad-frat-boy behavior of the Duke three was far from "innocent") on bogus criminal charges. If you think Mike Nifong is the only D.A. in N.C. guilty of that, you don't read the newspapers.

In their absolute prosecutorial discretion, North Carolina District Attorneys also can just ignore citizens with legitimate criminal complaints. In much the same way "over-zealous" prosecution is a bad thing, so is "under-zealous" prosecution.

I call it the "Reverse Nifong".