Wisely, Harrington Take Case to Public in Press Conference

Joseph Harrington described his son-in-law as “not only a bright man but the most fascinating man I have ever met.”

Eileen, his wife, and Eileen Truxton, their daughter, had similarly effusive praise.

But Willie Ray Wisely is not just any son-in-law or brother-in-law, and his marriage to Gail Marie Harrington is not just any marriage.

Wisely, 34, is fighting a 1982 murder conviction from within Orange County Jail, which is where he and his law clerk were married behind bars in secret on Christmas Eve, 1986. Only this week did prosecutors and the public find out about the marriage.

Unusual Marriage

The in-laws were on hand for a news conference called by Harrington Friday afternoon. She spoke about the unusual marriage, denouncing charges that she had smuggled Wisely drugs and allegations that they had engaged in “mutual sexual touching” in a holding cell during one of her visits.

The catered press conference was held under sunny skies on an outdoor sunroof outside the Santa Ana penthouse law office of Brustman & Haigh. G. David Haigh is representing Harrington against criminal charges filed Aug. 13 that she smuggled narcotics into the jail.

The charges are “a personal vendetta” by the district attorney’s office to smear Harrington’s reputation as a law clerk and to jeopardize her future as a lawyer, her husband said. He was heard through a speaker phone perched on a table before Harrington.

Wisely said prosecutors have singled him out for harassment because of his well-publicized 6 1/2-year defense effort and because of the legal advice he has provided fellow Orange County inmates.

Reached later, Michael R. Capizzi, Orange County’s chief assistant district attorney, said: “We felt . . . Wisely was a murderer, we charged him for murder and 12 jurors agreed. I think his statements should be taken in that light.”

Although Capizzi characterized Wisely as “just a con” no matter what he thinks of himself, the Harringtons made it obvious they think he is something special--and innocent.

“I love him like a brother-in-law,” said Truxton, 27, who works in the accounting office at Lorimar Videos in Culver City, “and I can’t wait for the day he gets out.”

Joseph Harrington, 50, a retired oil worker, said that when he learned of his daughter’s wedding, he decided to check up on his son-in-law. After plowing through 6,000 pages of trial transcripts plus police reports, he said he was “absolutely convinced a murder never took place.”

The murder charges stemmed from the death of Wisely’s stepfather, John E. Bray, who was crushed under the falling cab of his own semitrailer March 9, 1981, while he was working on the engine. The prosecution contended that Wisely rigged the cab to fall. Wisely said the cab slowly dropped on Bray due to a design fault, and he said he has affidavits from International Harvester to prove it.

Besides the marriage, it was also revealed this week that Wisely inherited real estate and other property worth more than $200,000 from the estate of his mother, Hazel Bray, who died in 1983 without leaving a will. The district attorney’s office has vowed to seize that inheritance rather than continue to pay thousands of dollars for Wisely’s county-funded defense.

“He is fully capable of picking up the bill and should,” Capizzi said.

Wisely maintains that he has been unfairly targeted by Orange County prosecutors.

He said one prosecution witness, J.D. Dunagan, who testified that he helped Wisely kill Bray for the inheritance, turned against Wisely only after having his own murder charges reduced.

Also, Wisely told the press Friday that once the trial and Wisely’s self-defense had been publicized, the district attorney threw all his resources behind getting a conviction because he did not want to lose a case to a layman.

Capizzi, when told of them, laughed off Wisely’s charges.

“We aren’t accustomed to getting words of praise from cons behind bars,” he said. He then referred all questions pertaining to Wisely’s prosecution to the assistant district attorney on the case, Edgar A. Freeman, who is on vacation.

Wisely said Friday that prosecutors were “grandstanding” by leaking the information about the inheritance to rouse public sentiment against him. Citing state statutes, he said it is standard practice for defendants like him, who start as indigents, to continue their defense with public money until the end. At that point, their assets would be assessed, and if they had any, they would pay the county back.

Capizzi agreed that usually the money would be paid back at the end, but in this case, he said, payments could begin now. The exact amount of county money made available to Wisely for his defense has been kept secret under court order.

Wisely said the prosecution has known he would get the inheritance all along, noting that Dunagan spoke about it during the trial. The $170,000 house he inherited, on Underhill Lane in Huntington Beach, is being rented, he said, with the rent money supplementing his county defense allowance, which he says is inadequate against the resources available to the prosecution.

He will not sell the house, he said, because the steady flow of rent is more helpful than one lump sum. But he said he may give the home to his father, who divorced his mother when he was a child, as a gift to take care of his father’s wife, who has bone cancer.

Wisely did not say how much rent he receives, but the tenant, who asked not to be named, said Friday he pays a property management firm $1,200 a month. The tenant said he had no problems with where his rent was going. He said he found out about 2 1/2 months ago when a woman identifying herself as Mrs. Wisely told him that they were appraising the house to use as collateral for a loan. The man said he recognized published pictures of Harrington as the same woman.

Wisely called the drug charges against Harrington “ludicrous” and the sexual fondling charge “a setup.” Both he and his wife said this week that the marriage has not been consummated, and the only time they have even kissed was during the wedding ceremony.

Defense at Standstill

For the time being, Wisely said, his defense is at a standstill because his wife is no longer allowed to visit him in the jail. He told reporters that he would retain her services for “selfish reasons” despite the negative publicity. He said he simply did not have time to train a new court clerk before his scheduled sentencing in October. He faces a possible life sentence without parole.

“Her name has been besmirched all over the county,” he said. “I don’t see what the difference is now that the mud has been thrown. She’ll just have to lift her head up and get through it.”

Harrington explained that she was paid a wage determined by hours spent in jail with Wisely and other inmates. Because she has been barred from the jail, she said, “it is fair to say I’m out of work.”

Wisely would not reveal the exact amount Harrington is paid but said it is comparable to the wage of a law clerk in the public defender’s office. Those clerks make between $1,275 and $1,577 a month.