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Wed. II: Pie charts of doom?
posted at 2008-04-03 01:16 | Last modified 2008-04-07 23:00
The Wright case took an odd turn this afternoon. (If you missed it, Part I of Wednesday's story is here.)
SBI agent K. Perry was under cross-examination by Wright’s defense attorney, Doug Harris. Harris asked Perry to recount for the jury what Wright told him last year about the origins of the investigation.
According to Perry, Wright said he was being targeted by his political enemies in the state Senate – partly because he had gone against them in the Nov 2006 election, and partly because of Wright's activism in raising public awareness about the 1898 race riots in Wilmington.
Harris: All right, tell the jury what [Wright] said to you about that.
Perry: He articulated that he felt like, since he had put together the …the [state?] on the race riots, it was sort of a way I guess of the establishment people getting back at him. And he thought this investigation was race related.
Harris: And didn’t he also say he’d gone against the party leadership back in November? Back in November 2006? He said that, didn’t he?
Perry: Yes.
That's here, by the way...
Background
In fall of 2006, just before the November election, Wright stunned his party by publicly endorsing Republican Al Roseman for the New Hanover Senate seat held at the time by Wright’s fellow Democrat, Julia Boseman, who’s openly gay. Al Roseman waged a nasty, virulently homophobic battle against the incumbent, but he ultimately lost to her.
If the Senate leadership had a beef with Wright after the 2006 election, one might surmise it could be about that race. But there’s no evidence to date that Senate leaders were even involved, let alone mad enough to launch a political hit job on a Dem in the other chamber.
Bring on the pie charts
The Harris-Perry exchange above was enough to open the door for District Atty Colon Willoughby.
At the beginning of this trial, Judge Hight agreed to a defense request to try the obstruction of justice charge against Wright separately, because it involves a different matter - Wright's campaign finance reports. That made evidence about Wright’s failures to account for hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign money irrelevant and inadmissible, which was good news for Wright’s defense.
But when Harris asked Perry to recount Wright’s theory about the motive for the investigation, he left the door wide open for the prosecution to offer its own explanation.
Enter Elections board investigator Kim Strach, who explained to the jury how the probe started – starting with the complaint by Joe Sinsheimer, then the audit, which turned up the non-profit donation checks, and finally the criminal prosecution.
That’s when the jury woke up. They loved Strach – especially the four women on the panel, who were leaning forward a little, listening intently and even nodding here and there as she explained how the audit worked.
And then Strach rolled out her secret weapon - pie charts. She had a series of them showing percentages of donations and expenses Wright did or didn’t report as required by law. It was NOT a pretty picture.
Raw numbers might’ve been good enough, but after days of foreclosure law and bank statements, the simple, colorful graphs were a brilliant move. You could just about watch the light bulbs go on in the jury box.
On cross-examination, Harris did his best to undermine Strach, but he may only have compounded his problem. She refused to be rattled, while he was more and more flustered, bordering on abusive at times. Watching the jury, it was clear many were visibly put off by Harris’s heavy-handed attack. And it didn’t even work.
What’s next
Wake DA Colon Willoughby says he’s just about done with the prosecution. Strach may be his last witness, which would mean the defense could start its case first thing Thursday morning.
Harris didn’t stick around for comments today, but said Tuesday that both Thomas Wright and his wife Joyce would take the stand, along with several character witnesses who will attest to all the good work Wright’s done for his district over the years.
After the pie charts, will it matter? Stay tuned.
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