Time For Judge To Tell Mayfield, NASCAR: Button It!
The very thing that shouldn’t be happening in the Jeremy Mayfield case is indeed happening.
NASCAR and Mayfield are doing what they both originally said they didn’t want to do: trying the case in public instead of in a courtroom.
The whole matter has denigrated into a he said/they said battle of verbiage and bluster. Mayfield says one thing, NASCAR counters with something else. Mayfield cites examples that absolve him, while NASCAR cites examples that damn him even more.
Now, in addition to Jeremy’s stepmother, Lisa Mayfield, NASCAR supposedly has three witnesses that will vouch for his frequent use of methamphetamines over the years, but that they have suddenly become reluctant to step forward for fear of possible legal retaliation by Mayfield’s defense team.
(As an aside, what happened to Mayfield’s threat nearly two weeks ago that he was going to file a wrongful death suit against his stepmother in the death of his father two years ago in the day or two following her coming forward with the damning testimony that she had allegedly seen Jeremy abuse meth more than 30 times over the years? I’m not condemning Jeremy, just asking. If he’s still going to go forward with the wrongful death suit but may have a few legal hurdles to get over first, I can see why the other three witnesses have suddenly become reluctant).
While I understand that fans and the media are hungry for every bit of latest news that comes out of what has become a never-ending saga, or so it seems, something has to be done to stop what has reached nothing short of a fever pitch in this soap opera.
It’s time for the federal district court judge in Charlotte assigned to the whole case, the Honorable Graham Mullen, to institute a complete gag order on NASCAR, Mayfield and the media, as a whole.
I’m the first person to fight for the media’s right to know, the First Amendment, freedom of the press and all that stuff. But neither side is doing itself a bit of good if it continues to try the case in the public court of opinion, rather than in where it should be heard: a public court of law.
While I was initially glad when Mayfield began to speak out and give his side of the story, there’s just too much information from his camp floating around that could potentially damage his case if and when it does get to court.
Ditto for NASCAR. If it has the ironclad open and shut case it says it has, what’s it gaining by coming forward and talking about Mayfield and the merits of the evidence NASCAR has against him, or the evidence Mayfield says he has against the sanctioning body?
It’s almost become a situation where each side seems hell-bent on one-upping the other at all costs.
In my mind, this drama has played out far too long. It’s time for all the elements of the case to come out in the only place they should: in court, not in print, online or over the air.
Because if this soap opera continues to go in the direction it’s currently going, no one is going to get a fair trial, be it Mayfield or NASCAR. And that, my friends, would be a gross miscarriage of justice.
This is starting to become like the O.J. Simpson trial 15 years ago, only we haven’t even gone to trial yet. I’m just waiting for one of Mayfield’s lawyers to say, “If the meth doesn’t fit, you must acquit!”
Perhaps all sides should listen to what my momma always said: “If you don’t have nothin’ nice to say about somebody, don’t say nothin’ at all.”
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