At Nichols hearing, Fulton DA denies misconduct

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard took the witness stand Wednesday to deny that he and his staff committed prosecutorial misconduct in two high-profile murder investigations.

Howard was forced to testify in a hearing in the Brian Nichols death penalty case because Nichols’ lawyers contend Howard might have committed perjury to stonewall their investigation of allegations that a former Nichols prosecutor engaged in illegal drug use.

JOHN SPINK / jspink@ajc.com

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard listens to attorney Henderson Hill while on the witness stand Wednesday.

PHOTOS
• A look at the case 2005-present
• Penalty phase | Verdict
• Weeks in court:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

• Interactive graphic: The 2005 shootings
• Video: Nichols' confession

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That prosecutor, Gayle Abramson, was prosecuting Nichols on rape charges March 11, 2005, the day he is accused of escaping from his holding cell at the Fulton County Courthouse and killing four people, including the judge on his case. Nichols has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Howard said he was aware of information that had surfaced on a wiretap implicating Abramson in using cocaine and Ecstasy in Atlanta and in California. The California angle involves allegations that Abramson used drugs when partying with a close friend of murder defendant Scott Davis, who was also a key target of Howard’s office for a unsolved, high-profile Buckhead murder.

But Howard, whose office convicted Davis in 2005, said the allegations against Abramson had nothing to do with the Nichols murder indictment.

“I just think it is extremely reaching,” Howard said. “I just don’t see what the connection is.”

Nichols’ attorneys have claimed Abramson’s “gross misconduct” while on a 2004 trip to California raised questions about her judgment when she was prosecuting Nichols for rape in 2005. Nichols’ attorney contend Abramson overlooked factors, including evidence of his impaired mental health, and sought a sentence of life in prison when other factors suggested Nichols didn’t deserve the maximum penalty on charges of kidnapping and raping his former girlfriend

Howard said he didn’t investigate whether Abramson — then one of his chief prosecutors — was breaking the law because she denied using drugs when he questioned her.

Instead, Howard said he suspected Davis knew he was being wiretapped and made up false charges to tarnish the investigation.

“I thought we were wasting our time,” Howard said of the wiretap. “I was well aware of the character of Ms. Abramson. She was an outstanding young woman. Just to mention the allegations in her presence brought such a physical reaction that I saw no reason to believe them.”

“The information on that wiretap was fake; it was phony; it was fabricated, so I didn’t really give any credit to what it said.”

Abramson contends she met Davis’ friend by happenstance in Atlanta and visited him in California.

Davis contended Abramson had gone to California to gather evidence against him. Abramson denied any role in an undercover operation and insisted her friendship with Davis’ friend was coincidental.

She previously told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she didn’t knowingly do illicit drugs, that she was slipped a drug that made her unconscious at the party in Palo Alto and that she saw other people doing illegal drugs when she awoke.