Prosecutor balks at sharing Cooper files

A Wake prosecutor today accused lawyers for Bradley Cooper of attempting a fishing expedition by asking the Cary police to turn over their entire investigative file in the murder of Nancy Cooper.

Assistant District Attorney Howard Cummings filed a motion asking a judge to quash the lawyers' subpoenas for the police files. The "attempts to access and review the investigative file ... is a fishing expedition being done as an attempt to assist Brad Cooper in his defense to a potential criminal charge," Cummings said in the motion.

Nancy Cooper, 34, was strangled in July, her body found two days after her husband, Bradley Cooper, said she went out for a jog. Police have arrested no one but much of their investigation has focused on Bradley Cooper.

Bradley Cooper's lawyers are seeking the files in connection with a custody dispute over the couple's two children. But Cummings argued that the requests "are not for the purpose of showing [Cooper's] fitness and suitability as a custodial parent of his minor children."

The children were removed from his custody days after his wife was killed. Nancy Cooper's parents and sister have been caring for the girls, 4-year-old Bella and 2-year-old Katie in Canada. They want to keep the children.

Wake District Court Judge Debra Sasser is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday on whether to return the children to their father.

Cummings' motion listed numerous reasons why the police should not be compelled to turn over their files. Among them: the case is still an ongoing homicide investigation, Bradley Cooper has refused to cooperate with the police investigation of his wife's death and disclosure of the police files would jeopardize the prosecution as well as a defendant's right to a fair trial.

Central to Sasser's decision: Did Bradley Cooper have a hand in his wife's death? Such a conclusion would be enough, Sasser indicated at a hearing Monday, to find Cooper unfit to care for his children.