Parallel Investigations, Parallel Universes

Michael Vick's fortunes are officially circling the drain as we speak.

For those keeping score, this story broke waaaaay back on April 25 when investigators, looking into drug activity on the part of Davon Boddie, Vick's cousin, seized 66 dogs in various conditions and equipment normally associated with dog-fighting.

From then until Thursday, June 8, nothing but double-speak and obstruction has some from Surry County prosecutor Gerald Poindexter. The investigation was moving forward, then there was no reason to assume anyone had done anything. Poindexter's words changed like the weather, daily and capriciously. In spite of a mountain of evidence that could have convicted O.J. Simpson, Poindexter inexplicably allowed a search warrant to die before executing it, citing problems with the wording. Then, the property that Vick owned was burglarized...and we are supposed to believe that the burglary had nothing to do with the Vick investigation.

Then, thank God, the feds stepped in.

Acting with dispatch unknown to Poindexter, the feds executed a sealed search warrant of the Vick property on Thursday, June 8, and they didn't come with magnifying glasses and meerschaum pipes.

They brought gas masks and shovels.

They were seen leaving the scene with boxes of evidence.

And now, word comes that the carcases of over 30 slain dogs were found buried on the property on Moonlight Road. For those who may not know, dogs that are severely or terminally wounded in a dog fight are taken out, shot, and buried. In this case, Vick and his associates were stupid enough to bury the dogs on the property.

To recap: the Surry County prosecutor had the case for 6 weeks and found no further reason to look for anything else or charge anyone with anything. The feds have the case for 2 days and turn up final, definitive evidence of an extensive dog-fighting operation.

On Thursday, after being told that the property was going to be searched with or without his consent, Poindexter lit the Bat-signal for Jesse Jackass and Al Permton, wondering if the federal investigation was motivated by race.

Then, on Friday, Smeagol Poindexter contradicted Gollum Poindexter, saying that he was conducting an investigation "parallel" to the federal investigation.

Riiiiight. There will be the investigation that the feds are conducting in the real world, where real evidence is found, real charges are brought, real arrest warrants are issued, real convictions are obtained, and really rich NFL quarterbacks do some real federal time.

Then there will be Poindexter's investigation, in which it will be discovered that Col. Mustard did it in the kitchen with a pipe wrench.

Actually, given the federal heat now on the case, it would not surprise me at all if Poindexter suddenly turned up some real nugget of proof irrefutably linking Vick to the dog-fighting.

Sometime in the next week, Poindexter will give the feds a video of Michael Vick actively engaging in dog-fighting...

...in exchange for a sentence greatly reduced for his testimony and cooperation, because Poindexter himself will appear in the same video.

66 Problems

Some things bear repeating, if only because it is nigh unto impossible to believe that certain persons continue to disbelieve them, in spite of all available evidence to the contrary. To wit:

Surry County prosecutor Gerald Poindexter is still openly wondering what all the fuss is about concerning Michael Vick.

Quoted in the AP: "What is foreign to me is the federal government getting into a dogfighting case. I know it's been done, but what's driving this? Is it this boy's celebrity? Would they have done this if it wasn't Michael Vick?"

To which I respond: 66 DOGS (SOME CLEARLY WOUNDED), BLOODY CARPET, RAPE STANDS, PRY BARS, SYRINGES, AND BLACK-PAINTED DOG-FIGHTING PITS ON THE PROPERTY THAT MICHAEL VICK OWNS might be why the feds have decided to act.

The words that seem to be lacking from Mr. Poindexter's vocabulary are "probable cause." 66 dogs in various conditions and dog-fighting paraphernalia would seem to constitute probable cause in the minds of most.

But then, I'm not a lawyer.

Given the quality of his public statements, neither is Mr. Poindexter.

Quoted in the AP: "Apparently these people want it. They want it, and I don't believe they want it because of the serious criminal consequences involved...They want it because Michael Vick may be involved."

To which I respond: 66 DOGS (SOME CLEARLY WOUNDED), BLOODY CARPET, RAPE STANDS, PRY BARS, SYRINGES, AND BLACK-PAINTED DOG-FIGHTING PITS ON THE PROPERTY THAT MICHAEL VICK OWNS might be why the feds "want it."

The mere fact that Vick's dog-breeding business is interstate lets the feds in if nothing else did, Poindexter's clear obstructionism notwithstanding. And yes, we are talking about serious criminal consequences here. This is not a case of a man beating one dog, as repugnant as that image is. This is the apparent case of a wealthy man using his wealth and influence to operate a large operation that involved the systematic abuse and torture of animals for profit and enjoyment.

Then, too, there's the matter of the property in question being burglarized recently. Anyone who doesn't believe that the burglars might have removed evidence material to this investigation (i.e. incriminating video) is a fool of Gerald Poindexter's magnitude.

And we won't even discuss the search warrant that Poindexter allowed to die on the vine because he had problems with the wording. What the feds saw was a man who was actively impeding an ongoing criminal investigation for reasons unknown, and, thank goodness, they acted.

Finally, there's this little nugget from Poindexter, courtesy of the AP: "There's a larger thing here, and it has nothing to do with any breach of protocol. There's something awful going on here. I don't know if it's racial. I don't know what it is."

Ah, yes: the racial conspiracy theory finally rears its ugly head. Of course, the fact that investigators found 66 DOGS (SOME CLEARLY WOUNDED), BLOODY CARPET, RAPE STANDS, PRY BARS, SYRINGES, AND BLACK-PAINTED DOG-FIGHTING PITS ON THE PROPERTY THAT MICHAEL VICK OWNS means nothing; the fact that Michael Vick happens to be black does. Of course. Surely Vick's color is driving this investigation, and not the 66 DOGS (SOME CLEARLY WOUNDED), BLOODY CARPET, RAPE STANDS, PRY BARS, SYRINGES, AND BLACK-PAINTED DOG-FIGHTING PITS ON THE PROPERTY THAT MICHAEL VICK OWNS.

Actually, by playing the race card, Poindexter will achieve his ultimate goal of obstruction, because as certainly as flies are drawn to feces, Jesse Jetstream and Al Huckster will be in Virginia, shouting down the heavens in the name of racial equality and self-promotion. All of a sudden, the issue will become a black/white thing that has nothing at all to do with the animals that have been abused or the equipment used to abuse them.

As a black man, I am glad that the feds have moved in. I am glad that they are actively investigating a case that should have been prosecuted weeks ago. I am glad that they have shunted the useless Gerald Poindexter aside in favor of pursuing a justice that should treat all equally, regardless of color or celebrity.

And I sincerely hope they investigate Gerald Poindexter next.

Gerald Poindexter Must Go

Right now, if this were poker, Surry County Commonwealth's Attorney Gerald Poindexter looks like a man who is thinking about folding because he's holding four aces and he wants five.

One doesn't have to be a lawyer to see obstruction. Justice in this country is supposed to be swift, and yet, here we sit, with no indictments, arrest warrants that have been signed but not executed, crime scenes left unsearched (and perhaps unguarded), and no indication that anything will change in the near future with regard to Michael Vick. How much evidence Poindexter requires at this point becomes moot, because whatever is produced will not be enough; he'll always need something more.

Convictions have been attained with far less circumstantial evidence, to be sure, just as acquittals have been won in the face of mountainous evidence (see Simpson, O.J.), but neither the dearth nor the surplus of evidence should preclude the people's representative from properly investigating malfeasance in his jurisdiction. The simple fact is this: credible evidence exists that a major dog-fighting operation was run out of property owned by Michael Vick. Evidence has been brought forth that corroborates the charge of dog-fighting. Michael Vick owned the property at the time of the dog-fighting. Any reasonable jurist should be able to connect these particular dots.

I have opined previously that public prosecutors keep their jobs based on their won-lost records, and that they routinely ignore cases which are anything but tap-in putts. However, it appears that this particular case would be a putt trembling on the edge of the cup, a strong breeze away from falling in, and Poindexter is the man refusing to knock it in. That is what I do not understand. Why has no progress been made in this case, given the relative ease of prosecuting it?

I know that Michael Vick will call up a dream team of lawyers to create reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors. I know that they will redefine the term "legal wrangling." I know that it will become a media circus. But does Poindexter really believe that if he fails to act all of this will just go away and become a non-story?

This is Michael Vick we're talking about. In celebrity, the public never forgets. Just as Mary Jo Kopechne remains the albatross around Ted Kennedy's neck, just as unrequited murder continues to haunt O.J. Simpson, so dog-fighting will follow Michael Vick wherever he goes. We still call the man Ron Mexico, for crying out loud, and that was just for something stupid, not for a felony. Vick's character will never recover from this, prosecution or not. There will be no forgetting. There will be no forgiving. A man who is deliberately cruel to animals is as low as a man who is deliberately cruel to children, and neither are welcome around the rest of us, Clinton Portis' ignorant remarks be damned.

So, why hasn't Gerald Poindexter attacked this with the vigor of a man looking to make his mark on the tree of justice in big, bold letters?

Maybe he, personally, has no problem with dog-fighting, even if the people of his state have felt strongly enough about it to deem it a felony, even if most people find the very idea disgusting and morally repugnant. Maybe he thinks that a whole lotta trouble has been raised up over what a man does with his dogs on the privacy of his own land. He'd be wrong to think like this, but maybe he thinks this way anyway.

Maybe he is a fan or a friend of Michael Vick, and doesn't want to be seen as doing anything to damage the reputation of a young black man. Again, he'd be wrong, but maybe he thinks this way anyway.

Or, maybe he hasn't investigated this case any further because a little more digging might show that he himself has things to hide. Maybe he doesn't want to dig any more because the digging might not only implicate Michael Vick, but himself.

Maybe he's a man who likes a dog fight...who likes to bet on a dog fight...who knew about a private affair that happened out on Moonlight Road, out back, where prying eyes weren't privy to what went on inside blacked-out houses.

Call me a crank. Claim that I've watched too many movies. Fine. All I know is that this is playing out like a movie, where the identity of the villain is plain to everyone in the audience but not to the people in the scene. Dramatically, we call that "discrepant awareness."

Here, I call it obstruction of justice.

Gerald Poindexter must be removed immediately, at the very least, and perhaps made to face charges himself.

Justice should be blind, but not bound.