He was just a clerk for the U.S. District Court at a very interesting time.

It was June 17, 1972 when five men broke into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.

Jim Davey once again became an unwitting part of history when his office was tapped by the Grand Jury to issue President Nixon a subpeona on July 23, 1973.

It was an historical subpeona.

Only once before in American history had a president been issued a subpeona by the Judicial branch.

In 1807, President Jefferson was petitioned to produce personal letters in conjunction with the court’s investigation of Aaron Burr for treason.

Like Nixon, Jefferson denied that the court had a right to subpeona the president. Unlike Nixon, he turned over the documents anyway.

The result was, of course, Nixon being directly linked to the cover-up and eventually resigning the office of president on Aug. 8, 1974.

Davey witnessed quite a few interesting tidbits before the case came to a close. He calls them “Watergate funnies”:

• A juror with nine kids who wanted to get away from them for awhile.

• A juror whose husband wouldn’t miss her unless she was gone more than four months.

• John Ehrlichman charging Davey 25 cents for coffee.

• Johnny Cash and his wife June attending court the day they played the tape that led to Nixon’s resignation; everyone was sketching Cash.

• The day after Ehrlichman laid blame on John Mitchell, Davey said he was asked by Mitchell’s attorneys to break into a locked file cabinet labeled “Ehrlichman.”

Davey also retained a personal copy of the restaurant bill for a meal the burglars had at Watergate Terrace on May 26, 1972. With cocktails and tax, it came to $205.

Davey is retired and lives in Cary with his wife of 48 years. He eagerly awaits his next great moment in history.