I've been reading stories for the last month now that have made me question how serious the Surry County prosecutor is about Vick's case. I've heard about unexecuted search warrants, slow progress, and lots of interviews where Poindexter gets to look like the good ol' fashioned country lawyer. For whatever reason, the Feds have stepped into the investigation, and suddenly that image is going up in smoke. Nope, what we have here is a good ol' fashioned turf war.
Before the events of Thursday, Poindexter said the investigative team was planning to meet soon to go over the evidence it has collected, to assess its reliability and make sure it had all the experts needed to help make its next search most helpful to the investigation.
Now, the case has gotten bigger again, and it's somebody else's.
"There's a larger thing here, and it has nothing to do with any breach of protocol," Poindexter said, still trying to rationalize where the federal government fits in. "There's something awful going on here. I don't know if it's racial. I don't know what it is."
Vick and Poindexter are black.
Look, I understand being angry about having someone else come in on your case. Clearly the Feds thought this case was too big and too slow-moving for them not to get involved, and I'm not sure whether that was the right decision or not. So I'm not going to criticize Poindexter for questioning what exactly is going on here. But what I am going to criticize him for is the race card he decided to play so he could get his name out there.
I really can't think of another good reason for Poindexter to say that, even in such a roundabout way. Earlier on in the story, he questions whether there's some kind of celebrity status driving this, and that's also a fair conclusion. But in my mind, it's absolutely inexcusable to suggest that Mike Vick is being picked on because he's a black man. I'm pretty sure the fact that the investigation of a single house looked like it was going to take several months entered much more heavily into this decision than that. Whether Vick is or isn't guilty (and cousin Davon Boddie says it was his fault), this case still had to go forward. To flip this around, I very much doubt Poindexter would be pleased if someone questioned whether the case was moving slowly because Vick was a local celebrity and a black man.
So what I see here is a county prosecutor who is trying to make himself bigger than the case, which is a dangerous decision at best. If he had a real problem with the federal search, then by all means, talk to the feds and figure it out. Then afterwards, bring us their reasoning and give us what you think are their motives. But when you go straight to speculation and bring race into it...well, you've crossed a line that's bound to make people question whether or not you're fit to prosecute this case. Whatever he may feel about this case, he's doing Vick more harm than good by speculating for his own sake.