Pubdate: Fri, 20 Aug 2004
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2004 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.news-observer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304
Author: Anne Saker

WAKE DA QUESTIONS COOPER'S USE OF SBI

Former courts administrator John Kennedy hired Raleigh defense lawyer
Joseph B. Cheshire on Thursday as the SBI opened an investigation into
whether Kennedy used cocaine in his office. Later, Wake County
officials who looked into the allegation last month and decided not to
prosecute Kennedy accused Attorney General Roy Cooper, a possible
candidate for governor in 2008, of dispatching the SBI after Kennedy
for political gain.

In an interview with WRAL-TV, Wake County District Attorney C. Colon
Willoughby observed, "It's been said that the most dangerous place to
be in this county is between a television camera and the people
running for governor."

Kennedy visited Cheshire's downtown Raleigh office Thursday afternoon
to arrange for the representation, and Cheshire advised him to keep
silent "since this thing has become this public circus."

"He just needs not to make any more comment," Cheshire said. "I do
think it's absolutely unfortunate. He was asked to resign, he
resigned, he intended to resign this month anyway, there was no reason
found to prosecute, and now his name continues to be pilloried by
other elected officials."

>From November 2001 until July 24, Kennedy served as the director of
the Administrative Office of the Courts, which oversees the operations
of the state's courts. He went to the AOC after 16 years as the
elected Wake County clerk of court.

On July 22, co-workers told Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr. that on
at least four occasions, they had seen Kennedy shielding things on his
desk. Lake asked Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison to search
Kennedy's office in the state Justice Building across Morgan Street
from the Capitol.

A drug-sniffing dog turned up what Lake described as "trace amounts of
cocaine." Willoughby said no evidence was gathered from Kennedy's
office, so after consulting with Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens,
he decided that he had no case.

But Wednesday, Cooper asked the State Bureau of Investigation to
follow up, and as a result, Kennedy retained Cheshire. Kennedy has not
been charged with a crime, and he told The News & Observer this week
that he has never used cocaine.

Willoughby and Harrison told WRAL that Cooper had no business getting
involved in a closed matter.

"It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money," Harrison said. "I'm
totally confident in what I did and what the Wake County sheriff's
office has done."

"The sheriff and the chief justice and the judge and I just got
trampled," the district attorney said. "All that does is tarnish
someone's reputation and is unfair."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin