Duke prosecutor treads familiar ground

In the coming weeks, the new lead prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case can expect a deja vu moment when he meets with defense attorneys who will argue that charges should be dropped.

Special Deputy Attorney General Jim Coman had a similar meeting in 2003 with some of the same lawyers when they tried to persuade Coman to drop charges against former death row inmate Alan Gell.

Gell had been convicted in 1998 after prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office withheld evidence that could have proved his innocence. In some respects, Gell's case foreshadowed the one against former Duke lacrosse players Reade Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty. Previous prosecutors had withheld evidence favorable to the defense. There was no physical evidence against the defendant. The timeline had major holes. There was a solid alibi.

Coman chose to retry Gell.

It was just the most recent high-profile case for Coman, who has spent a career in the spotlight. He prosecuted members of the Ku Klux Klan after the fatal shootings of five Communist Workers Party members in Greensboro in 1979. He served as former Attorney General Lacy Thornburg's "junkyard dog," was outspoken as director of the State Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted or investigated many public officials.

Coman was appointed Jan. 13 by state Attorney General Roy Cooper to take over the highly charged case in which the three defendants are accused of sexually assaulting an escort dancer at a team party in March. A day earlier, Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong had recused himself amid a storm of criticism and ethics charges from the N.C. State Bar.

"I've heard others say he [Coman] is a bulldog and mean and tough, but my experiences have always been very pleasant," said Joseph B. Cheshire V, one of Gell's attorneys who now represents one of the lacrosse defendants. "He's always been reasonable."

A retrial for Gell

Cheshire, his partner Bradley Bannon, and Jim Cooney of Charlotte are lawyers in the Duke case who represented Gell in his second trial. When Cooney helped win him a new trial in 2002, Gell had already spent seven years behind bars, four on death row.

In spring 2003, Coman met with Cooney, Cheshire and Bannon.

Cooney tied together the evidence of innocence in a PowerPoint presentation that foreshadowed many elements of the lacrosse case. Coman chose to go forward, but the opposing lawyers still speak highly of him.

The Gell case differs from the Duke case in several key respects, Cooney said. A crime had definitely occurred: The murder victim was found in his bedroom riddled with shotgun pellets.

"You had two girls who testified that they were eyewitnesses to a murder, and a jury believed them,'' Cooney said. "And the victim's family was pushing for a retrial.''

Coman was lead prosecutor at Gell's 2004 retrial. The jury quickly found Gell not guilty.

"It was a difficult case for him to retry," Cooney said. "He and [assistant prosecutor] Pat Murphy tried as ethical and honorable a case as I've ever seen."

Coman, 64, declined to be interviewed for this story. Colleagues say the prosecutor can spin a yarn when he has a mind to, usually in salty and colorful language.

"Jim is fun to talk with; he can tell some tales," said Steve Royster, a Mount Airy defense lawyer who has faced Coman in several cases. "He loves to tell war stories, and that is very entertaining when you represent the other side. Now, he may be very personable, but he doesn't cut you any slack.''

A life in law

The son of a Rahway, N.J., police chief, Coman has been in law enforcement his entire life. His first job as a lawyer was as an attorney for the Greensboro police. In 1978, he became an assistant district attorney.