Cooper can't get murder file

RALEIGH -- A Wake County Judge ruled this afternoon that Cary police do not have to turn over their entire investigative file into Nancy Cooper's murder to her husband's attorneys.

Wake County District Court Judge Debra Sasser said today that doing so would potentially jeopardize the ongoing investigation into Cooper's death.

The request came as Nancy Cooper's husband, Bradley Cooper, fights to have his young daughters returned to him in a bitter custody battle with his in-laws. His daughters were turned over to his wife Nancy's family in July, days after she was strangled to death.

Central to Cooper's quest to win back his daughters: did he have a hand in his wife's murder?

Sasser has said that she'll be asked to answer that question in deciding who ought to take care of 4-year-old Bella and 2-year-old Katie.

No one has been charged with Nancy Cooper's death, but police have scrutinized Bradley Cooper from the start. In July, they obtained a search warrant to scour his computers for evidence that he researched how to dispose of a body.

In an affidavit filed today, a woman identified as Rosemary Zednick said she saw Nancy Cooper jogging shortly after 7 a.m. on July 12, the day of her disappearance. Friends of Nancy Cooper have said in separate affidavits that she did not go jogging that day.

Late Monday, Cooper's attorneys requested copies of Cary police's entire investigative file into his wife's murder to help prepare for Thursday's custody hearing.

Assistant District Attorney Howard Cummings asked Sasser 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 a motion.

But in his motion Tuesday, Cummings argued that Cooper's requests for police files "are not for the purpose of showing [Cooper's] fitness and suitability as a custodial parent of his minor children."

Cummings' motion listed numerous reasons why 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.