Nifong discussing Wilson’s background. Used to be a cop, then a P.I., then he retired. Nifong hired him in 2005. Williamson: Did Wilson every tape record, digitally record any witness, other than taking notes? Nifong: Don’t know. Williamson: Why did you ask him to do it? “This was a pretty critical interview.”
Nifong: “I wanted a starting point” for the interview that he was going to do later. Williamson: Why didn’t you do it yourself? NIfong: I chose not to do it. “It was probably a mistake.”
Williamson: Was there any attempt to ascertain if she had learned anything about what the defendants were saying about that night? Nifong: Not sure what you mean. At the request of Mr. Cooney I did ask him what photos he had used. In the course of that I learned he had also showed her the 46 lineup photos. “He had paper copies of those photographs in his file.” Whoa! These were the subject of a suppression hearing.
Williamson: Would you call that a lineup? Nifong: I don’t know what he called it. But now she was referring to her alleged assailants by the names of the actual people we had indicted. “Which indicated that she had at least seen some coverage of this case,” said Nifong.
Williamson: What did that do for your chances of winning a suppression hearing. Nifong: It pretty much killed it. Williamson: So at that point you didn’t have an ID evidence and that was your whole case, right? Nifong: Yes. [So why weren’t all the charges dropped then?]
Williamson: Did you know Wilson had shown the photos when you dropped the rape charges? Nifong: Wilson told him she could no longer say a penis was inserted in her vagina and that’s the definition of rape.
Williamson: Now that was quite a difference in her earlier statements, right? Nifong: Yes. Wasn’t sure she had been asked about being penetrated by a penis.
Williamson: But you had to have asked her that to charge them with rape! Nifong: Yes. Williamson: Why didn’t you drop the other charges? Nifong: Because assaulting her with something other than a penis is also sexual assault.
Williamson: What was our assessment of Mangum’s credibility at the time you dropped the rape charge? Nifong: Didn’t feel it meant the other charges couldn’t be brought. “But the further along we got the case was developing additional problems.”
Nifong: “At the time we made that decision, all the people who has spoken to Miss Mangum” believed her story, except for Officer Shelton. [There’s at least one cop with some sense in Durham. Make him chief!] Says Himan never expressed doubts to him.
Nifong says it was after the rape charges were dropped was when he learned that Wilson showed her the lineup photos. He quickly begins talking about penises again, as if to get out of talking about Wilson’s photos.
“Not all the penetration in this case was vaginal penetration,” Nifong says. Still believes that there was an assault. Seems to think she’s so addled she can’t say, but that something happened. Nifong is looking bad right now. Williamson has taken over.
Williamson gets back to the photographs. “What was your assessment of your chances at a suppression hearing, percentage-wise?” Williamson asks. Nifong says that was about the time the Bar sent him ethics charges so he wasn’t focused on that and getting Mangum through her “child-bearing complications” he would need to talk to her and pass the case off to someone else.
