Addison Series #4 - "They call it 'squeezing'"

Readers Note: For general background on the Addison Series posts see “The Cpl. Addison Series.” Cpl. David Addison is a veteran Durham police officer whose regular assignment is Coordinator for Durham CrimeStoppers, described as an independent nonprofit organization.

To understand this current post readers should be familiar with the contents of “Addison Series #1" - "This horrific crime,” and "Addison Series #2" - "CrimeStoppers will pay cash,"and "Addison Series #3" - "Not my poster."


Those posts provide the data base for this post and the next and last in the series – “Sue who?” I’ve reversed the order of the last two posts because as I worked on them I realized this “Squeezing” post ought to come before "Sue who?”

John
_____________________________________

On Jan. 12 of this year the Raleigh N&O reported DA Mike Nifong’s office had again said the false accuser had changed her story of what happened the night of March 13/14:

Critics, such as Duke law professor James Coleman, said the new document was a blatant attempt to fix a flawed case and called for a criminal investigation of Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong and his staff.

"Who would believe that a witness, nine months later, suddenly recalls facts that coincidentally negate evidence produced by the defense?" said Coleman, who led a Duke committee that investigated the lacrosse team's culture and has criticized Nifong's handling of the case for months.

Coleman’s call for a criminal investigation of DA Nifong and his staff has so far received little attention. I think that’s because so much attention is being paid to State Bar action against Nifong which will likely lead to his disbarment. Also, the special prosecutors are reviewing the original “case” (really a frame-up) and the public is waiting on that review.

But I expect an outcome from both the Bar’s work and the special prosecutors’ work will be a push for a criminal investigation of Nifong and his staff, with staff broadly defined to include any who helped with the “the case” in any official way.

Very soon thereafter, others will become involved in the investigation; for example, reporters and medical personal who talked to Crystal Mangum and/or police.

The investigators – I’m going to call them Feds because so many of the actions committed against the players and others involve due process and civil rights issues – will have a list of people they want to talk to.

That list will grow and the order of names on it will change as the Feds develop new information and leads. But initially near the top of the list of people the Feds want to talk to you’ll find Durham Police Cpl. David Addison’s name.

That because when the Feds come on a case and they see that a police spokesperson repeatedly gave the public false information about what they’re investigating, the Feds always want to know why the officer did that.

“Let’s give him a little squeeze and see what he tells us.”

So Addison will be asked, for example, why he told the public the players weren’t cooperating with police when they were. Addison will be talking to people, almost all of whom have police and/or criminal investigative backgrounds. They know how exceptionally cooperative the players were compared to most suspects they’ve dealt with. They know Addison knows. He’s a veteran officer, after all.

And worst of all for Addison, he knows they know he knew.

That will set up a moment of truth or perjury for Addison, recently selected by Durham Jaycees as their Outstanding Young Public Servant of the Year (That information provided by Addison’s DPD supervisor, Maj. Lee Russ, during a 12/06 interview).

If Addison maintains he just decided on his own the players were uncooperative and it didn’t happen that way – someone else tells the Feds “how we told David his main job was to convince the public that the players were these horrible guys who were all covering up. We all knew that was false but we went over and over the stuff with David so he’d get it right when they interviewed him. And boy, he was good.” – Addison’s in big trouble.

And he’s only answered one question so far.

I’m sure all of you who’ve read the Addison Series can think of a dozen questions to ask Addison which he’ll have to answer either by incriminating himself, but telling the truth or by incriminating himself even more deeply by perjuring.

Addison has far more to tell the Feds than the public realizes. Most citizens can’t even recall his name from last March. Many of those who do recall his name dismiss him as a “mouthpiece” who got carried away with the case.

They’re wrong.

As I said before if Addison had ever gone off-message last March he would have been quickly corrected by someone involved in the case. That he wasn’t corrected as he talked of “this brutal rape” and “this horrific crime” tells you he was very much on-message.

The Feds will know that, so they'll ask questions like: “Tell us, David, which people gave you which messages? Was there a lot of revising of how you’d word the message? Who’d you practice with? What were you told to say if someone in the press learned DPD had talked to Kim Roberts?”

Think of Addison as an actor and some of the other conspirators as scriptwriters and directors. If all Addison was going to do was deliver the Gettysburg Address you don’t need scriptwriters and all the director need do is spend a little time helping Addison with his delivery.

But when you’re building a frame-up from next to nothing, it takes a lot of time and work. Addison’s role as the police spokesperson those first critical days was a key to the success of the frame-up.

So the conspirators spent a lot of time with Addison “going over the lines.” Addison was present at the creation. He has a lot to tell.

And what he has to tell concerns not just his spokesperson falsehoods, but his writing and distributing the infamous CrimeStoppers “Wanted” poster. Did Addison do that on his own or was he directed to do it?

What Addison has to tell will surely be of interest to the Feds in the first stage of their investigation. Later in the investigation, the Feds may have heard it all from others so what Addison says then won’t be worth much, especially to him.

Addison’s in a terrible tight spot right now. He authored and distributed the CrimeStoppers “Wanted” poster which DPD and Durham City both say they had nothing to do with. CS, according to Addison’s supervisor, Maj. Russ, gave Addison a blanket authority to issue CS posters at his discretion. CS board members can’t be found, at least by me.

The “Wanted” poster, in the opinion of every attorney I’ve spoken with, libeled 46 Duke students who played lacrosse for the school.

There will almost certainly be some civil action concerning the poster with Addison in the center of that action.

He’s not a wealthy man. He will have considerable difficulty paying for adequate legal representation during a Federal investigation. If a perjury charge were to come out of that investigation, Addison will be in an extraordinarily difficult situation with few friends and few resources.

For his sake and justice’s sake I hope Addison cooperates fully and promptly with the Feds. He may lose his badge and his job in the process; and he’ll be left with a lot of legal bills.

But the alternative for Addison of trying to “stonewall” the Feds will be much, much worse. I hope he has friends to tell him that.