Prosecutors drop charges in Duke case

[R. Richard]

This is another installment in the 'Duke Lacrosse Rape Case.' [How the hell can you call it a rape case, when there was no rape involved? Damifino, but it worked well in the headlines.] It is a news article I ripped off and annotated. Comments?

Prosecutors drop charges in Duke case

RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina's top prosecutor dropped all charges Wednesday against the three former Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper at a party, saying the athletes were innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse" by an overreaching district attorney.

"There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado," Here, 'bravado' means 'bullshit.' North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a damning assessment of Durham County District Mike Nifong's handling of the sensational, racially charged case. "In the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly." Translation, "Hell, them scumbags was two days behind on jus' countin' graft payments and, well . . "

Cooper, who took over the case in January after Nifong was charged with ethics violations that could get him disbarred, said his own investigation "led us to the conclusion that no attack occurred." Translation, "The scumbags jus' figured they could take them Duke boys into the back room and beat a confession out of them, then the damn parents got involved."

"I think a lot of people owe a lot of apologies to a lot of people," Cooper said in a news conference held before dozens of reporters in the press room at the arena where Raleigh's NHL team plays. Translation, "The damn insurance company say I gots to apoligize, try to cut down on the size of the cash settlement."

At an news conference with the three young men and their families, one of their attorneys, Joe Cheshire, bitterly accused the media of portraying the athletes as criminals, and said: "We're angry, very angry. But we're very relieved."

 

[jomar]

About time.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Great!

Now you can focus your prosecutorial outrage against the bullshit voter-fraud charges and other politically-motivated indictments promulgated by the Alberto Gonzales Justice Dept.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

All this over a little faternaty party with strippers.

I hope the castigate DA Nyphone for dragging this out.

 

[R. Richard]

I hope the castigate DA Nyphone for dragging this out.

I think that you have overreacted here. I mean, cutting Nifong's balls off over his improper and incompetent prosecution is a bit harsh.

 

[cloudy]

Great!

Now you can focus your prosecutorial outrage against the bullshit voter-fraud charges and other politically-motivated indictments promulgated by the Alberto Gonzales Justice Dept.

Indeed.

Has he ever explained his lies about the firings?

Bet we won't hear a word out of the neo-cons on the board about that particular affair. In fact, amicus has been suspiciously quiet latetly.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Indeed.

Has he ever explained his lies about the firings?

Bet we won't hear a word out of the neo-cons on the board about that particular affair. In fact, amicus has been suspiciously quiet latetly.

He's supposed to testify before Congress on the 17th, and he's said to be holed up trying to get his story straight.

In the meantime, Congress has been getting testimony from other staffers (including some behind closed doors) and recently issued subpeonas for documents that have been withheld. Also, Rove and other staffers have been using private email accounts to discuss official White House business, including the Attorney Purge stuff, and those emails have been deleted.

That's all probably a topic for another thread, though.

 

[FatDino]

He's supposed to testify before Congress on the 17th, and he's said to be holed up trying to get his story straight.

In the meantime, Congress has been getting testimony from other staffers (including some behind closed doors) and recently issued subpeonas for documents that have been withheld. Also, Rove and other staffers have been using private email accounts to discuss official White House business, including the Attorney Purge stuff, and those emails have been deleted.

That's all probably a topic for another thread, though.

Didn't know Lit could be more informative than CNN

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I think that you have overreacted here. I mean, cutting Nifong's balls off over his improper and incompetent prosecution is a bit harsh.

He's already under investigation by the State Ethics Board and has been suspended. That's the first step.

 

[Weird Harold]

I hope the castigate DA Nyphone for dragging this out.

According to the first reports I heard about the charges being dismissed against the players (prior to the official announcement) the ethics charges against Niphon are also going to be dropped "for lack of evidence."

 

[Pure]

the case was weak; there was a lack of physical evidence, esp. since the young men had 48 hrs to clean up themselves and the house. the accuser lacked credibility, changed her story, etc. the accuser was sexually active just before the alleged events.

do the math.

i might add that there are a class of cases of 'frat house events,' the basics of which make prosecution impossible, unless the the accuser is a very credible virgin preferably a white person, with the accused's semen found inside her. groups of guys know this; some exploit it.

 

[R. Richard]

According to the first reports I heard about the charges being dismissed against the players (prior to the official announcement) the ethics charges against Niphon are also going to be dropped "for lack of evidence."

I would tend to doubt that Nifong will be let off. I am not an attorney and I know very little about the specific things that Nifong is charged with. However, there will very probably be lawsuit(s) by the accused. If NIfong is thrown to the wolves, at least "The state of NC did what was right and honorable and should be let off with quite a bit less than the full possible amount of monetary judgement, your Honor!"

 

[S-Des]

Deleted.....

 

[S-Des]

This is another installment in the 'Duke Lacrosse Rape Case.' [How the hell can you call it a rape case, when there was no rape involved? Damifino, but it worked well in the headlines.] It is a news article I ripped off and annotated. Comments?

You left off the part where the attorney general announced that they were innocent, not just that there wasn't enough evidence. I've never heard of that happening before. We have had a number of cases overturned by DNA or disputed evidence, but the prosecutors always do it grudgingly and refuse to admit fault. Every legal analyst I've seen talk about his statement said it was, "stunning".

I'm glad that the kids finally have their name cleared (since there was no crime), but I'm sure there will always be people who remember them as the guys who got away with it. It's a bad way to go through life. Although I don't suppose it will ruin their futures, I know being infamous isn't how I'd want to start my career.

 

[Pure]

they have bright futures; one already works on wall st. "the rich are not like you and I."

on a somewhat larger scale, with trial and all: william kennedy smith is doing quite well for several years.

 

[R. Richard]

they have bright futures; one already works on wall st. "the rich are not like you and I."

No, the rich tend to have a LOT more money.

 

[R. Richard]

You left off the part where the attorney general announced that they were innocent, not just that there wasn't enough evidence. I've never heard of that happening before. We have had a number of cases overturned by DNA or disputed evidence, but the prosecutors always do it grudgingly and refuse to admit fault. Every legal analyst I've seen talk about his statement said it was, "stunning".

I'm glad that the kids finally have their name cleared (since there was no crime), but I'm sure there will always be people who remember them as the guys who got away with it. It's a bad way to go through life. Although I don't suppose it will ruin their futures, I know being infamous isn't how I'd want to start my career.

I suspect that the statement of 'innocent' was yet another damage control effort. "You see, your Honor, I didn't want these fine young men to be tarred with any hint of suspicion . . ."

 

[S-Des]

I suspect that the statement of 'innocent' was yet another damage control effort. "You see, your Honor, I didn't want these fine young men to be tarred with any hint of suspicion . . ."

*snicker* Good point.

 

[R. Richard]

Some more data. Comments?

Cleared Duke players could sue

RALEIGH, N.C. - The disgraced district attorney in the Duke lacrosse rape case apologized to the three athletes in a carefully worded statement Thursday as their lawyers weighed whether to sue him — and some legal experts say they have a case.

While prosecutors generally have immunity for what they do inside the courtroom, experts said that protection probably doesn't cover some of Mike Nifong's more questionable actions in his handling of the case — such as calling the lacrosse players "a bunch of hooligans" in one of several interviews deemed unethical by the state bar.

"I think their chances of success suing Mr. Nifong are reasonably good, despite what we call prosecutorial immunity," said John Banzhaf, a professor at the George Washington University School of Law.

On Wednesday, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper threw out the case against the three young men, pronounced them innocent and delivered a withering attack on Nifong, portraying him as a "rogue" prosecutor guilty of "overreaching." Cooper said Nifong rushed the case, failed to verify the accuser's allegations and pressed on despite the warning signs.

In his first comment on that decision, Nifong said in a statement Thursday: "To the extent that I made judgments that ultimately proved to be incorrect, I apologize to the three students that were wrongly accused."

He issued what appeared to be a plea to the students not to take any further action, saying, "It is my sincere desire that the actions of Attorney General Cooper will serve to remedy any remaining injury that has resulted from these cases." [Translation: I had you arrested on no evidence. I used my position as prosecutor to vilify you in public. I cost you a ton in legal fees. However, the Attorney General done made nice. So don't you go suin' me now.]

So far, attorneys for David Evans, Reade Seligmann, and Collin Finnerty have not said whether they plan a civil action against Nifong. But they have not ruled it out.

"We're certainly going to be advising him and the Seligmann family of all of their options. But nobody is racing to file any kind of a lawsuit at this point," said Jim Cooney, Seligmann's attorney.

Separately, the North Carolina bar charged Nifong months ago with several violations of professional conduct that could lead to his disbarment. The case is set for trial before a bar committee in June.

Among other things, the bar said Nifong made misleading and inflammatory comments about the athletes, even before they were charged. In the early days of the case, for example, Nifong said several times that members of the lacrosse team were not cooperating with investigators. Not true, according to court documents.

Experts said the ethics charges could form the basis for a lawsuit seeking damages from Nifong.

"Ordinarily, a prosecutor has absolute immunity for the actions he takes in preparation for a case, but there are some caveats to that, and one of them is he does not have absolute immunity for misleading statements he gives at press conferences," said Shannon Gilreath, an adjunct professor at the Wake Forest University School of Law.

Other actions Nifong took outside of the courtroom could open him up to a lawsuit, Banzhaf said. Nifong, among other things, directed the police lineup at which the accuser identified the three players; the lineup has been criticized as faulty. The bar has also accused Nifong of lying in court about having turned over all DNA test results to the defense.

"When he acts as an investigator and advises police, or makes representations to court which may be false, in all these situations he does not have absolute immunity," Banzhaf said.

But Norm Early, a former Denver district attorney who has worked for the National District Attorneys Association, said Nifong's actions alone are not enough to win a lawsuit. Nifong's intent is crucial.

"The protection of immunity is pretty broad unless it's ruled he had malicious intent or that it was something close to that," Early said. "It would be very difficult to prove a case against him."

Other potential targets for a lawsuit include the accuser herself. Cooper said his investigators concluded no attack took place.

"There's no question they've got a lawsuit against her if she's brought false charges against them, which may be even more easily provable than actions against Nifong," said Stan Goldman, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

In October, months before the bar filed its ethics complaint, Evans' mother warned in an interview: "Mr. Nifong, you've picked on the wrong families ... and you will pay every day for the rest of your life."

How much money they could get out of Nifong is unclear.

Nifong is a career civil servant, and his financial disclosure statement filed with the state suggests he is not especially wealthy. His only listed income is his salary of about $110,000, and aside from his home in Durham and some unspecified real estate in western North Carolina, he appears to have no significant assets outside of any mutual funds and retirement accounts.

"I think it's fair to say they're angry," Cooney, Seligmann's attorney, said of the families. "It's an anger of, 'What part of innocent don't you understand?' It's not, `We're going to go take your house and pension plan.' There's no plan to seek revenge against anybody."

That has left some to suggest the players and their families might sue Duke University, which has been heavily criticized in some quarters for suspending the players and canceling the lacrosse team's season before the young men were even tried.

But Banzhaf said such a lawsuit is not likely to succeed, since university administrators did not have access to the facts of the case and were basing their actions on what they learned from Nifong.

A Duke spokesman declined to comment on the prospect of a lawsuit.

Goldman said the real aim of a lawsuit against Duke, an elite private school with a multibillion-dollar endowment, might be to win an out-of-court settlement and recoup what are sure to be staggering legal bills.

"I can see Duke University just settling with these guys, even if there isn't a tremendous basis" for a suit, Goldman said. "Duke's got a lot of money and been around a long time."

 

[JamesSD]

The final word on this whole case, courtesy of Maxim Magazine:

"You go to Duke. You’re on the lacrosse team. And your social life is so barren that you’ve got to rent a couple of cut-rate strippers? You dudes are guilty . . . of having no game whatsoever."

 

[R. Richard]

The 'Duke Lacrosse Case' continues. Nifong will now have to stand ethics charges. The case against him is very strong and he will likely be found guilty of ethics violations and very probably disbarred. I find it a little difficult to synpathize with Nifong's plight, as the Duke lacrosse guys will have to live for the rest of their lives with a sexual charge on their records. Comment?

Nifong's ethics trial still scheduled for June start

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A disciplinary committee rejected a request Friday to dismiss ethics charges against the former prosecutor in the dismissed Duke lacrosse case, who is accused of withholding critical DNA evidence from the defense.

"It's scary when you think about a case like this case. These men might have pleaded guilty never knowing the DNA evidence was exculpatory. ... It's a scary concept."
-- Bar counsel Katherine Jean

The decision by the three-member panel came shortly after an hourlong hearing, at which committee chairman F. Lane Williamson repeatedly challenged the arguments made by attorneys for Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong.

The North Carolina State Bar has accused Nifong with breaking several rules of professional conduct as he led the investigation into allegations three lacrosse players sexually assaulted an exotic dancer at a team party in March 2006.

This week, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper dismissed all charges in the case, and said the three players indicted were innocent and that his investigators concluded no attack occurred. In doing so, he portrayed Nifong as a "rogue" prosecutor who rushed the case by failing to verify the accuser's allegations.

ESPN.com on Duke case
• Looking back, some of the March 2006 comments on the Duke lacrosse case just don't seem to hold up, Gene Wojciechowski writes. Column

• The charges have been dropped, but Page 2's Jemele Hill wonders how the exonerated Duke lacrosse players will get their lives back. Column

"I don't want to make comments outside the courtroom," Nifong said after Friday's hearing, surrounded by a swarm of reporters who followed him down the street. "You'll have an opportunity to hear things I have to say inside the courtroom."

In January, after Nifong had turned the case over to Cooper's office, the bar accused the veteran prosecutor of failing to give the defense DNA test results that found genetic material from several men on the accuser's underwear and body, but none from any lacrosse player.

Nifong's attorneys denied he intentionally withheld the DNA evidence, saying he provided the defense with a report outlining test results months before a potential trial and gave notice the lab director would be called as an expert witness.

That shouldn't matter, said bar counsel Katherine Jean, because Nifong knew about the test results before he even won indictments against the three players. It's possible, she said, that with less capable defense counsel they might have chose to enter into a plea agreement, which is how the vast majority of criminal cases in North Carolina are resolved.

"It's scary when you think about a case like this case," Jean said. "These men might have pleaded guilty never knowing the DNA evidence was exculpatory. ... It's a scary concept."

The bar has also charged Nifong with lying to the court and to bar investigators, and for making misleading and inflammatory comments about the athletes under suspicion. Those issues were not addressed at Friday's hearing.

Nifong, who apologized to the three cleared players in a statement issued Thursday, could be disbarred if convicted. His ethics trial is scheduled to start in June.

There have been calls for Nifong to resign, but his attorney David Freedman said the veteran prosecutor has no intention of leaving office.

Brad Bannon, an attorney who represented one of the three players, said the men's families "want to see Mr. Nifong get what they believe he was ready to deny their sons, which is a fair hearing."

"They don't want people rushing to judgment against him any more than he rushed to judgment against their sons," Bannon said.

Also Friday, a defense attorney retrieved the $100,000 bond posted by each of the former defendants, said Jermaine Patterson, head bookkeeper with the Durham County Clerk's Office. The players were originally released on $400,000 bond, though a judge reduced the amount to $100,000 for each player last June.

 

[S-Des]

The final word on this whole case, courtesy of Maxim Magazine:

"You go to Duke. You’re on the lacrosse team. And your social life is so barren that you’ve got to rent a couple of cut-rate strippers? You dudes are guilty . . . of having no game whatsoever."

Or of being college kids.

 

[R. Richard]

You mean that college guys still hire strippers for parties? Shocking! I suppose they also try to feel girls up in the back seat of a car. The college generation is going to hell in a handbasket! I never tried to feel a girl's thighs in my schooldays, no I was well above that. [Some girls don't like boys with active hand, ah but some girls do!]

 

[Liar]

You mean that college guys still hire strippers for parties? Shocking! I suppose they also try to feel girls up in the back seat of a car.

No, that's High School. Or possibly Band Camp.

 

[R. Richard]

No, that's High School. Or possibly Band Camp.

Right. I forgot that, by the time a guy gets to college, he can no longer afford a car.