The evolution of the answers from the DA continued Friday, and it looks like the more we ask questions, the more different the answers we get.
If you're confused, we don't blame you. It's been a week of shifting explanations from the DA and her team. And just because the work week is over, doesn't mean our work trying to figure out what really happened is.
A new day brings a new explanation for why the DA had her chief investigator dig up info on grand jurors. On Tuesday, DA Pat Lykos said she didn't do anything.
"I certainly didn't authorize the investigation," Lykos said.
On Wednesday, she admitted ordering a cursory internet search looking for political bias. On Thursday, we found out she was looking for grand jury media leaks.
Rounding out the week, her chief investigator now says in a statement, "I was informed by the First Assistant DA that he and the District Attorney believed that the Grand Jury was violating the law. As a law enforcement officer, I shared a belief that a violation of the law occurred."
The investigator now appears to say this whole inquiry was looking for crimes committed by grand jurors. We should point out no violation was found. Remember this is the same investigator the DA called Tuesday.
Lykos: I called our chief investigator and asked him. Oberg: What did he say? Lykos: He said no investigation was conducted on the grand jury.
In his three page statement, Don McWilliams continues to say it fell short of what he calls an "investigation," but confirms nearly every detail we've been reporting. He insists he didn't access criminal background databases -- that would be an easy crime to prove, and he does say some of the work was done on his own time at the direction of First Assistant DA Jim Leitner.
[Read the whole statement from the chief investigator]
Judge Susan Brown picked this grand jury, asked them to serve. While state judicial rules prohibit Judge Brown from calling for an outside investigation of the DA's grand jury inquiry, she did say it's troublesome.
"Citizens who serve on a grand jury should be able to do so without fear of any intimidation or an investigation that is not provided for by law. Any interference with a grand jury or its members should gravely concern us all," Judge Brown said.
We asked DA Pat Lykos again Friday if she would join the call by her opponent for an outside probe to clear this examination of any wrongdoing, but she didn't even reply.
On Thursday, she told us the grand jury already looked at it, which confused us since the grand jury was told to look at BAT van DWI testing problems.
The story is the result of a 13 Undercover investigation. Those stories are below
