Cooper lawyers accused of 'fishing'

Prosecutor slams request for files

RALEIGH -- A Wake County prosecutor Tuesday accused lawyers for Bradley Cooper of attempting to improve his defense against a possible criminal charge by asking Cary police to turn over their entire investigative file in the murder of Nancy Cooper.

Assistant District Attorney Howard Cummings asked 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 a motion.

Nancy Cooper, 34, was strangled in July; her body was found two days after her husband, Bradley Cooper, said she went out for a jog.

Police have not arrested anyone, but much of their investigation has focused on Bradley Cooper.

Bradley Cooper's lawyers are seeking the police files in connection with a custody dispute over the couple's two 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.

Central to Sasser's decision is the question of whether Bradley Cooper had 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.

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.