Within a week, the state-area conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People plans to formally ask the U.S. Department of Justice to review the case of Harold Wright Jr.

The organization announced the action Thursday at a news conference at the Church of God In Christ in Tacoma.

“The only possible explanation for charging Mr. Wright is that he is a prominent member of the community who happens to be a black male,” said Oscar Eason Jr., the regional president of the NAACP. “What was done here in this particular case is a miscarriage of justice.”

Pierce County deputy prosecutor Kevin McCann, one of the prosecutors who tried the case, denied the allegations.

“There was nothing about this case that was racially motivated or had anything to do with Harold Wright’s status in the community,” he said. “We filed the charge that was supported by facts that were collected during the investigation. The jury was presented with both sides of the story. They returned a verdict that was supported by the evidence that they heard.”

Wright has maintained his innocence in the case and has appealed his conviction.

“I am grateful that we have an organization that does some checks and balances,” the 37-year-old Puyallup father said during the news conference. “I feel extremely violated.”

The issue of race was first raised during the three-week trial.

In July 2007, a jury convicted Wright and his co-defendant, Richy Carter, both of whom are black, of third-degree rape involving a white woman.

During closing arguments, the defense attorneys contended that the victim falsified her story because she was embarrassed that she had slept with an African American man.

Prosecutors denied the allegation, countering that they were seeking to hold accountable men believed to have committed a crime.

Superior Court Judge Lisa Worswick ordered Wright to serve six months in jail but stayed the sentence while Wright appealed his conviction.

That appeal has been filed with the state Court of Appeals. His attorneys have raised questions of prosecutorial misconduct and a lack of evidence to support the conviction.

The Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office has until Aug. 1 to file its response. Arguments on the case will be scheduled after that.

Kit Proctor, the deputy prosecutor in charge of the appeals division, declined Thursday to provide the office’s response to Wright’s appeal or comment on it.

“That would be premature considering we haven’t filed our brief yet,” she said.

Wright was the principal of Baker Middle School from 2002 until he was placed on administrative leave in February 2007, when criminal charges were filed against him. He resigned after his conviction.

Prosecutors accused Wright and Carter of sexually assaulting a woman at the town house of a friend after meeting her and two friends in a Puyallup bar in January 2004.

The victim, then 19, knew Wright from Spanaway Lake High School, where he was an assistant principal and she was a student.

During the trial, the woman testified that she was held down and raped by at least one man – possibly two – in the town house. She couldn’t remember specific details about the incident but was adamant she did not have consensual sex.

She also believed Wright was in the room at the time.

Investigators found Carter’s DNA in the woman during a sexual assault exam the day of the attack. Forensic technicians also found DNA consistent with Wright’s on the woman’s body.

During the trial, Wright testified that he had no sexual contact with the woman but that she had danced close to him as she wore only jeans and a bra. Carter told jurors that he had consensual sex with the woman.

The NAACP decided to review the case in September and looked at the investigation and trial proceedings, Eason said. It also examined how the case was handled in comparison with similar cases.

Eason announced the results of the investigation Thursday, saying that throughout the trial inadmissible and improper racial matters had affected the proceedings and resulted in an unfair verdict. According to the investigation:

 • The victim emphasized her fear of “black men” in statements to the Tacoma School District.

 • Prosecutors charged three men with rape even though the victim could not identify the people who had intercourse with her.

“Criminal charges were filed against individuals where the only ‘evidence’ is that they were present in a residence where a crime allegedly occurred,” Eason said.

 • Prosecutors dismissed the only black juror “for no legitimate reason.”

McCann, who helped try the case, and Wayne Fricke, Wright’s trial attorney, disputed that assertion Thursday. Both said one black man was on the jury and deliberated the case.

Prosecutor Gerald Horne said he was open to the Justice Department review.

“That’s one of the worst things they could accuse us of,” he said. The prosecutors “went forward because they thought there was enough evidence to support the charge, and they found the witness to be credible.”

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268

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