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DURHAM (WTVD) -- An overtime scandal at the Durham Police Department will cost a high-ranking officer her job. Sources told Eyewitness News Deputy Chief B.J. Council is leaving the department. Eyewitness News has learned Council was placed on administrative duty Tuesday and will be out of her job by Friday. Her departure stems from an internal probe of a Durham police officer's overtime pay. That officer earned more than $62,000 in overtime, exceeding the officer's actual salary. Sources said the officer's overtime was approved by the police department's second-in-command, who is Council. A news conference is planned for Wednesday.

Not content with the mess they created when the university threw innocent lacrosse team players to the wolves following a manifestly false accusation of group rape, Duke university has now instituted a policy for handling rape charges manifestly unfair to the accused. KC Johnson whose work in defense of the lacrosse team was outstanding, has exposed this outrage as well oin his site, Durham in Wonderland. Three Duke University students were the victims of the highest-profile fraudulent rape claim in modern American history. That fact alone should make the University particularly sensitive to the dangers of false rape allegations, and...

It's the gays, no doubt about it. No, wait. It's those darned communal-living enclaves. Scratch that. It's Duke University and President Obama. That's who done it. Predictably irrational responses from the usual Internet riffraff. Those braying, brave bloggers -- brave, that is, as long as they're hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet -- would have us believe that those groups and others are responsible for the alleged sexual assault of a 5-year-old boy by the Duke University administrator who adopted him and is accused of trying to pimp him out so that others could abuse him. Frank Lombard, associate...

We all remember the infamous Duke University rape frame-up case, in which three white lacrosse players were falsely accused of raping a black female stripper. It was front-page news coast to coast, as it had all the elements of a mainstream-media cause célèbre: the perfect victim and the perfect villains, a “downtrodden” black woman of modest means and three “privileged” white college boys. Thus did the hard-left alliance of media, academia, and a Democrat prosecutor try its best to lynch the three, and if the stripper’s story hadn’t changed with the wind, the students could very well be sitting in...

A black topless dancer lies about a rape that never happened. Three young white men are brought up on the charges and brought to the brink of having their lives totally ruined. Al Sharpton marches. (And he still never apologized). The media sings loudly. Now, the media is silent. And this case should get just as much publicity as any other. But it won't. It won't because it involves a homosexual researcher from the University who molested his own adopted five year old son. ...and also gave offered him out to other homosexual pedophiles online who wished to molest him....

A new and even more scandalous rape allegation has surfaced at Duke University. Yet the usual media and campus PC crowd are keeping mighty quiet. Identity politics apparently trumps all sense of outrage. Of course, after the disgraceful media and university reaction to the phony allegations against Duke Lacrosse team members, it is wise avoid jumping to conclusions, but the comparative silence on the current case is nonetheless remarkable, considering how many particulars of the case were left out of the main AP account. Mike Adams, writing on Townhall, lays out the facts the MSM won't: Frank Lombard is the...

A new and even more scandalous rape allegation has surfaced at Duke University. Yet the usual media and campus PC crowd are keeping mighty quiet. Identity politics apparently trumps all sense of outrage. Of course, after the disgraceful media and university reaction to the phony allegations against Duke Lacrosse team members, it is wise avoid jumping to conclusions, but the comparative silence on the current case is nonetheless remarkable, considering how many particulars of the case were left out of the main AP account. Mike Adams, writing on Townhall, lays out the facts the MSM won't: Frank Lombard is the...

It looks like Duke University has another rape case on its hands. This one may hurt the university nearly as much as the one that rocked its campus back in 2006. Unlike the previous case, this one appears to involve a credible confession of sexual abuse. Like the previous case, crucial facts are already being filtered through the prism of identity politics. Frank Lombard is the associate director of Duke’s Center for Health Policy. The university administrator was recently arrested by the FBI and charged with offering up his adopted 5-year-old son for sex. I tried to contact Frank Lombard...

History and social analysis of the Duke lacrosse case, retold in part from original documents; compared and contrasted with the social history of the Scottsboro trials.

The chancellor and provost at N.C. State have been ordered to appear before a federal grand jury meeting in Raleigh this week, according to federal records released Tuesday afternoon. Chancellor James Oblinger and Provost Larry Nielsen were asked to bring documents related to the hiring, promotion and salary of former first lady Mary Easley. The subpoenas follow reports in The News & Observer about the circumstances surrounding Easley's hiring at N.C. State in 2005 and the expansion of her duties last year, which raised her pay to $170,000. Mary Easley has come under pressure to resign her position from Oblinger...

Not long ago, sports writer Selena Roberts compared the Duke lacrosse players to gang members and career criminals. She claimed that the players’ unwillingness to confess to or snitch about a rape (that did not happen) was the equivalent of drug dealers and gang members promoting antisnitching campaigns. When since-disgraced district attorney Mike Nifong whipped up a media posse to rain justice on the drunken, male college students, Roberts jumped on the fastest, most influential horse, using her New York Times column to convict the players and the culture of privilege that created them. Proven inaccurate, Roberts never wrote a...

  At the Liestoppers forum, Walt-in-Durham has a detailed rundown of Crystal Mangum’s appearance tonight at UNC. As I have noted previously, it is mindboggling that an academic institution would invite someone who the state AG had, with copious evidence, deemed a false accuser and not allow her to be questioned on the myriad contradictions in her story. It is all the more mindboggling that the only reason for this refusal to allow questions was to prevent the false accuser from saying something that could open her to a lawsuit.I should note, in addition, that Mangum’s p.r. representative had similarly...

Lacrosse accuser to speak To address justice system, the media Rachel Coleman, Staff Writer Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Updated: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 The woman involved in the Duke University lacrosse team scandal more than three years ago will make a rare public appearance today at UNC as part of an event about social injustice. Crystal Gail Mangum, who accused three Duke lacrosse players of rape in 2006, will speak in the Sonja Haynes Stone Center about “the harsh realities of minority treatment both in the justice system and the media,” according to the event’s press release. The lacrosse...

It used to be that "stop the presses" meant changing a newspaper's front page because of big breaking news. Now, more and more, it means something else. Daily newspapers are folding or filing for bankruptcy in a number of big cities. Hoping to avoid that, the Raleigh News and Observerand its parent company are about to make some very tough decisions. The presses are still humming at the N&O. Readership is actually higher than its ever been, but the revenue stream is drying up. It started with the loss of classified advertising to the internet with sites like eBay and...

Folks, I just got the news from Thomas Loflin, III - attorney for Elmostafa. "I am at long last pleased to inform you that Mr. Elmostafa has settled his malicious prosecution action against Hecht's, its security guard, and Hecht's successor corporations, the main one of which is Macy's Inc." "The settlement came just before we were to go to court on cross-motions for summary judgment as to the issue of liability on December 1st, and before court-ordered mediation set for December 15th. We had a trial date of March 30th (2009)." The amount of money settled for can not be...

A federal judge on Thursday rejected the appeal of fallen prosecutor Mike Nifong to keep his case in bankruptcy court. The ruling opens the door for the three exonerated lacrosse players to again pursue malicious prosecution allegations against the former district attorney. In October 2007, Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann filed suit against Nifong, the city of Durham and its police department. The players claimed they suffered personal injury and emotional distress while the prosecutor, police and city pushed ahead with a gang-rape case that was flawed from the start. In their civil suit, the players allege the...

A man charged with the second-degree rape of a then-freshman in February 2007 was arrested on the same charges Nov. 14. Michael Burch, a Durham resident, is currently being held in Durham County Jail on $1.85 million bond, Durham Police Department clerks said. Burch also faces charges of first-degree sexual offense and felony aiding and abetting, for crimes which allegedly occurred June 21, said Candy Clark, an administrative assistant in the Durham County District Attorney's Office. He is scheduled to appear in Criminal District Court Dec. 8 before a grand jury. Michael Burch Burch, who is not a Duke student,...

Duke University is suing its insurance company for refusing to pay any of the settlement costs for the Duke lacrosse case. In federal court papers filed Monday, Duke is seeking financial relief from National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, an affiliate of insurance giant AIG. The case stems from gang-rape allegations that an escort service dancer lodged against three players after a lacrosse team party in June 2006. Before all the facts were gathered and any criminal charges were filed, Duke suspended the lacrosse team's season. The criminal case against the three players crumbled quickly over the next year....

Durham, N.C. — A man accused of raping a former Duke student last year is in jail again, charged with the same crime against a different woman. The first victim's father says the new charge could have been prevented if bond had been set higher in the case involving his daughter. Michael Jermaine Burch was charged in February 2007 with the second-degree rape of a Duke freshman in a bathroom during a party at a residence at 405 Gattis St. After getting out of jail on a $50,000 bond, Burch was arrested again Nov. 14 on charges of second-degree rape,...

Raleigh, N.C. — Crystal Mangum thought she was going to die when three people allegedly raped her at a March 13, 2006, party hosted by Duke lacrosse players. "I genuinely believed I was going to die in there, but I did not want to," Mangum writes in her new book, "The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story," which was released online Friday. Mangum was a student at North Carolina Central University in 2006 and also worked as an exotic dancer when she performed at the party. It was there, she claims, that three white members of the team...

Duke Lacrosse Rape Accuser Insists She Was Attacked in Memoir The woman state prosecutors determined falsely accused three Duke lacrosse players of rape maintains in a memoir that she was attacked. [snip] Click on the link near the bottom Click here to see the release.

The woman at the center of the scandal that rocked Duke University, Durham and the lives of the three lacrosse players plans to return to the city next week to promote her new book. Crystal Gail Mangum is scheduled to hold a news conference at the Know Bookstore on Thursday to promote, “The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story.” Magnum will donate $1 from the purchase of each book to help battered women, according to Vincent Clark, a representative for Fire! Products Inc., a film studio that is representing her. Mangum was a student enrolled at North Carolina...

The A&T Register ncatregister.com Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Woman behind Duke lacrosse scandal speaks out Accuser talks to Aggies about being a student again after controversy surrounding trial faded Alexandria Harper Contributor It was called a scandal but made into mockery. The Duke lacrosse case hit radio and television stations by storm in 2007. Reporters from media outlets around the country scrambled to provide day to-day updates on Crystal Gail Mangum, the accuser, and three Duke Lacrosse players; Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans, the accused. Mangum, a former exotic dancer and escort, accused these men of sexual assault...

The roles of Dwane Powell, an award-winning editorial cartoonist, and Ted Vaden, the public editor, have been reduced to part-time as part of continuing cutbacks at The News & Observer. Publisher Orage Quarles III confirmed to WRAL.com in an interview Tuesday that the N&O veterans would work on a limited basis. “You have to look at the whole picture, not just parts of it,” Quarles said when asked about why the changes were made in two of the newspapers’ most visible positions. “I had to make decisions about what our needs are not only today, but in looking forward. That’s...

DURHAM - Karen Daniel pushed up against the low courtroom wall separating her from her 21-year-old son Erick Daniels -- the young man who screamed "Mommy" nearly seven years ago as deputies led him away, convicted of a burglary and robbery he insists he did not commit. The two, who spell their last names differently, spent the day in a Durham County courtroom Thursday as lawyer Carlos Mahoney put witness after witness on the stand, trying to show that Daniels had ineffective counsel at his trial in December 2001 and was wrongfully convicted. Judge Orlando Hudson could decide today whether...

Former Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong wants permission to auction off three of his collector guitars. Court documents filed Wednesday list him as wanting to sell a Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, a Martin D-41 and a PRS Custom 24. According to bankruptcy proceedings in February, two of the instruments are worth about $5,000. If the motion to auction the guitars is approved, the auction will take place Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. at 361 Ja-Max Road in Hillsborough. Nifong filed for bankruptcy in January, listing a debt of $180.3 million. Almost all of that is estimated damages from pending civil...

In a scorching ruling today, the state Court of Appeals threw out the conviction of a man serving more than 60 years in prison on burglary, robbery and sexual assault charges, saying the Durham District Attorney's Office unfairly delayed his trial for nearly five years. The ruling could lead to freedom for Frankie Delano Washington, 47, an auto mechanic who was convicted of multiple charges last year in a 2002 invasion of a family's home in Trinity Park in Durham. Because the opinion was unanimous, the state has no automatic right to take the appeal further. The delay cost Washington...

In a sane world, Crystal Mangum's forthcoming memoir would contain just two words: "I'm sorry." Last Friday morning, I opened an email that contained a press release for a forthcoming book titled The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story. Thinking it was an Internet hoax, I googled “Crystal Mangum” and found the story on WRAL.com. Sure enough, the infamous former stripper and prostitute, who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of gang-raping and beating her in a bathroom, was writing her memoirs:....

Durham, N.C. — The woman at the center of the 2006 scandal that rocked Duke University, Durham and the lives of the three lacrosse players she accused of raping her is coming out with a book. Crystal Gail Mangum worked as an exotic dancer in March 2006, when she performed at a party hosted by several Duke lacrosse players. It was at that party, Mangum alleged, that three white members of the team trapped her inside a bathroom and raped and sexually assaulted her. David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were later indicted on the allegations. The claims also...

By Tamara Gibbs DURHAM (WTVD) -- Since three former Duke Lacrosse players were declared innocent of rape and assault charges, the alleged victim in the highly publicized Duke Lacrosse case has remained out of public view until now. In a press release, Crystal Mangum's manager has announced plans to release a tell-all memoir entitled "The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story." According to the book's co-author Vincent Clark, the book will be released in October.

DURHAM -- After figuring in the Duke lacrosse case and becoming Reader's Digest magazine's Hero of the Year, former Durham cabbie Moezeldin Elmostafa has launched what his lawyer described Tuesday as a priceless and perhaps unprecedented court claim. It involves his U.S. citizenship, which Elmostafa contends was delayed for two years by an old and bogus criminal charge that resurfaced in 2006 while the lacrosse debacle was in full swing. "Citizenship is absolutely priceless," said Elmostafa's lawyer, Tom Loflin of Durham. Still, Loflin wants several defendants to come up with a figure. "If they don't agree to my number, we'll...

Durham, N.C. — Mike Nifong is appealing an order issued last week by a bankruptcy judge who ruled a civil rights lawsuit by three former Duke University lacrosse players can proceed. Nifong filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, which temporarily protected him from the lawsuit, which claimed he, the city of Durham and others conspired to keep a weak case alive as he faced an election. David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were cleared in April 2007 of all charges stemming from an exotic dancer's claims she was raped. Nifong listed a debt of more than $180 million –...

DURHAM — Former District Attorney Mike Nifong will not be able to hide from a lawsuit in bankruptcy court, a federal judge ruled today. The three exonerated lacrosse players who filed suit against the fallen prosecutor in October will be able to pursue their claims in federal civil court, Judge William L. Stocks ruled. The ruling came more than a month after lawyers representing the players and Nifong presented their arguments in court. Nifong was stripped of his law license and ousted from office last summer for his misconduct in the Duke lacrosse case. Nifong was supposed to file a...

It seems anyone can get a college degree these days-especially if they go to North Carolina Central University. Standards of integrity there have long been dismal: This is, after all, the school that gave violent felon Solomon Burnette a diploma in 2007. Burnette, you may recall, robbed two Duke students at gunpoint in 1997. After finishing a 13-month prison sentence, he had the audacity not only to enroll in Arabic classes on our campus in April 2007; Burnette also penned a column I and many others interpreted as inciting physical violence against white Dukies in his student newspaper. Unfortunately, however,...

Collin Finnerty wanted Loyola to win in its NCAA Tournament assignment Saturday afternoon at Duke, where awkward moments could have superseded anything else. The top-seeded Blue Devils defeated Loyola as expected in men's lacrosse, then took aside a former teammate and shared a special moment. Finnerty posed for an impromptu photograph near midfield with his ex-teammates, capping a strange get-together on a splendid, yet windy, Saturday afternoon at nearly full Koskinen Stadium. Duke players say Finnerty remains part of their group even though he wore the opposing uniform during the Blue Devils' 12-7 victory. He was one of the three...

Thursday, May 01, 2008 LieStoppers is open for Business Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Blog Hooligans we have now opened the Meeting Place for viewers. A giant thanks is given to our "Tony Soprano." What he has personally accomplished since last Saturday is truly amazing! Viewers can now read the threads without registering. More importantly it means that the efforts of those who tried to prevent them from learning the facts of the Hoax/Frame have failed. The dirty laundry of those in Durham and at Duke who perpetrated this attempted frame of the 2006 Duke Lacrosse Team will...

Published: Apr 28, 2008 12:30 AM Modified: Apr 28, 2008 01:44 AM Sexual assault reported in Durham From Staff Reports Durham Police are investigating a reported sexual assault in the 900 block of Gilbert Street at 7:51 a.m. Sunday. The victim was taken to Durham Regional Hospital for treatment.

CRIME LOG From staff reports : The Herald-Sun news@heraldsun.com Apr 27, 2008 Three charges for rape suspect DURHAM -- Police have charged a Durham man with first-degree rape, assault on a female and second-degree trespassing in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred on April 22. Eric Dwayne Thomas, 35, of 704 E. Maynard Ave., Durham, was held in the Durham County Jail pending a $750,000 secured bond on the rape charge. City police arrested him Friday. A magistrate also ordered that Thomas be held without bond for up to 48 hours in connection with the assault on a female...

Deadline moved for federal lacrosse suit By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun gronberg@heraldsun.com Apr 26, 2008 DURHAM -- Lawyers on both sides of one of the three federal civil-rights lawsuits stemming from the Duke lacrosse case have agreed to move back a deadline for the city government and Duke University to file dismissal motions. Defense motions in the case filed by unindicted lacrosse players Breck Archer, Ryan McFadyen and Matt Wilson had been due Friday. But instead, lawyers for the players, the city, Duke and other defendants agreed to wait until July 2. The delay will give defense lawyers time...

DURHAM -- Three unindicted Duke University lacrosse players have amended their federal civil-rights lawsuit against the school and the city, sharpening their attack on the school's top trustee and levying new allegations of misconduct against city officials. The filing on behalf of current or former players Breck Archer, Ryan McFadyen and Matt Wilson came late last week. In it, attorney Bob Ekstrand alleged that Duke trustees Chairman Robert Steel controlled the school's response to an exotic dancer's false charge that she'd been raped by three members of the 2005-06 lacrosse team. His decisions among other things prompted the Duke University...

WINSTON-SALEM -- U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty Jr. on Tuesday denied a motion for sanctions filed by Duke University and the City of Durham and ruled that the legal team for 38 members of the 2005-06 Duke lacrosse team had violated ethical rules by using a Web site, news conference and news release to publicize the filing of their case. The players have filed a civil rights lawsuit against Duke and the city, demanding reparations arising from the since dismissed Duke lacrosse sexual offense case. Beaty also ruled, however, that the content published on that Web site -- www.dukelawsuit.com...

Durham, N.C. — Attorneys for three former Duke University lacrosse players filed a motion this week asking a judge to lift a stay that keeps them from suing former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong. Nifong filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in January, listing a debt of $180.3 million and David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann – as well as three other players who filed suit – as unsecured creditors, each owed $30 million. Attorneys for Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann, however, say in the April 8 filing that bankruptcy was a tactic he used to avoid a federal civil rights...

Sports Director Jim Henderson reports that Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva will be named as the new AD at LSU.

RALEIGH, N.C. - A probation officer assigned to a teenager charged with killing the University of North Carolina's student body president was handling 127 cases without benefit of training, state corrections officials said Wednesday. A state investigation into the case also found that Laurence Lovette never met with probation officer Chalita Thomas, while the other defendant in the killing, Demario Atwater, had his probation cases handled by 10 different officers.

Director of Athletics Joe Alleva has been named one of six finalists for the athletic director position at Louisiana State University, LSU officials announced and Duke representatives confirmed Monday. According to a statement released Monday afternoon by Louisiana State University, the six named finalists will be interviewed by the Athletic Director Search Committee Wednesday at the Law Center on the Baton Rouge campus. The committee also intends to make its final recommendations of candidates to Acting LSU Chancellor William Jenkins Wednesday. "I have been contacted by a representative of Louisiana State University regarding its vacant athletics director position and am...

As the founder and sole member of the Sheldon Award Society, I am dedicated to identifying the worst college president of each academic year. So far the presidents or chancellors of Berkeley, Georgetown, DePaul, and countless other universities have copped the Sheldon. Somewhat mysteriously, none offered to resign. snip The last of our three finalists is president of Duke, Richard Brodhead. Because Michael Nifong made himself such a spectacular villain in the lacrosse case, Mr. Brodhead escaped without much criticism. But here is what Mr. Brodhead did: On hearing the first reports, he abruptly canceled the lacrosse season, suspended the...

Woman pleads guilty to false rape report By Peyton Whitely Seattle Times Eastside bureau A 22-year-old former Woodinville woman pleaded guiltyTuesday to making a false rape accusation against a local college professor last June. King County District Court Judge Peter Nault called the case one of the "saddest" he'd ever seen in court and one that is likely to have long-term impact on future investigations. "That we hurry to castigate a person who turns out to be entirely innocent ... I don't know how it could be worse," said Nault, saying the incident will make it harder for real sexual...

2 in lacrosse case quit police force Principal investigators in the case have resigned, the Durham police chief says Stanley B. Chambers Jr., Staff Writer DURHAM - Sgt. Mark Gottlieb and Investigator Benjamin Himan, the Durham Police Department's principal investigators in the Duke lacrosse case, have both left the department in the past several weeks, Chief Jose L. Lopez said Tuesday. Gottlieb, who joined the department in 1992, had contemplated leaving for a few months, Lopez said. "I did not ask him to leave," Lopez said. "I wasn't looking for his resignation." Lopez said Himan, a Durham officer since 2002,...

At the end of February 2004, I wrote a letter that would never be received. The intended recipient was Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas prisoner on death row. Months earlier, Willingham had written me a ten-page, hand-printed essay about his life in solitary confinement and his last experience in the open air. In it, he recalled a cluster of "blazing purple flowers," the first he had seen in more than eight years. The flowers were "gifts to the world," he wrote, reminding him of his own gifts, which had been "taken away." This was a reference to Willingham's daughters, and...

Officers from both the Durham Police Department and the Duke University Police Department responded to reports early Monday morning of a possible narcotics violation by a student in Bell Tower Residence Hall, sources confirmed. DUPD Maj. Gloria Graham said a residence coordinator contacted police about the violation, but when officers arrived on site and tested the substance in question they determined that it was aspirin. No arrest was made and officers left the building at about 1:30 a.m., students said. Chris Ellis, the residence coordinator for Bell Tower, Blackwell and Randolph dormitories, did not respond to requests for comment Monday...