Nifong-Gurney Property Questions

Here's the Raleigh News & Observer reporting Feb. 9 under Anne Blythe’s byline on a federal bankruptcy court hearing the previous day at which disbarred former Durham DA was asked about his financial assets:

… Charles Davant, a lawyer representing Dave Evans and Collin Finnerty, two of the three exonerated players, asked Nifong about his insurance policies and assets.

Bankruptcy trustee Sara Conti asked about an Ashe County property that Nifong's wife, Cy Gurney, owns that he did not list as an asset. Nifong replied that Gurney owned the lot and house, but his name was on the mortgage. …(blods mine)

But back on June 8, 2007 the AP’s Aaron Beard reported:

It's not clear how much money the families could get out of Nifong, but the career civil servant’s financial disclosure statement suggests it isn't much. His only listed income is his salary of about $110,000. Aside from his Durham home and some unspecified real estate in western North Carolina, Nifong appears to have no significant assets outside of any mutual funds and retirement accounts.(bold mine)

The AP story as hosted at washingtonpost.com doesn’t say anything further about the “financial disclosure statement,” including anything further to identify just what disclosure statement is being referenced.

So we’re left to wonder about “some unspecified real estate in western North Carolina” mentioned in the June 2007 AP story with the implication it was Nifong’s property, and the Ashe County property about which the N&O reported Nifong told the court his wife, [Cy] Gurney “owned the lot and house, but his name was on the mortgage.”

Ashe County is in western North Carolina. But are the AP and N&O stories talking about the same property?

Does anyone know? Anne Blythe has never responded to my emails since I pointed out she and Samiha Khanna had failed seven times to use a qualifier such as "alleged" when they told readers about "the victim" in the N&O's Mar. 24, 2006 story which "broke" the Duke lacrosse story.

I'll send Beard an email if I can find his address.

It should be an easy matter for the AP, the N&O or any other news organization to check the court records in Ashe County for deed and mortgage filings under Nifong's and Gurney’s names.