Free Republic

10.30.12 - 08:41 pm By Ray Gronberg gronberg@heraldsun.com; 919-419-6648 DURHAM – A new court filing purporting to be from Crystal Mangum says she can supply evidence in a Duke lacrosse lawsuit that she was paid, up front, to set up Duke University’s 2005-06 men’s lacrosse team. The filing surfaced on Tuesday, a day after federal court clerks in Greensboro received it from the U.S. Postal Service. It was styled as a motion by Mangum, acting as her own lawyer, asking that she be allowed to intervene in the civil-rights lawsuit that exonerated lacrosse players David Evans, Colin Finnerty and Reade...

DURHAM – A historian who’s written about the Duke lacrosse case must answer questions from Duke University lawyers defending the school from lawsuits filed by two groups of former lacrosse players, a federal court in Maine says. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Rich III said Brooklyn College professor K.C. Johnson has to give Duke’s legal team a deposition and turn over documents about his dealings with the players. Johnson invoked a form of journalist’s confidentiality privilege as he fought Duke’s subpoena. Rich acknowledged that such claims can be valid, depending on how the interests in each case balance out. In this...

<p>Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman is suing NBC over the network’s botched editing of his 911 tape, Page Six can exclusively reveal. We hear Zimmerman’s attorneys are about to file a complaint against NBC and its top executives, naming news president Steve Capus and correspondent Ron Allen, who was the reporter on the scene for the broadcast on “Today” on March 27.</p>

. . . [Duke President Richard] Brodhead’s initial public statement said that people must uphold the presumption of innocence. But at a private meeting that included faculty members who signed the ad, he was excoriated for that statement . . . In a subsequent open letter to the Duke community, Mr. Brodhead canceled the lacrosse season, accepted the coach's resignation, and added several sentences about the evils of rape and the legacy of racism and misogyny. It made no reference to the lacrosse players' presumption of innocence. . . . In the end, justice was done, to some extent. North...

Florida prosecutor Angela Corey has come under withering criticism from Alan Dershowitz for overcharging and leaving out important details in the Affidavit of Probable Cause filed in connection with the charge of Second Degree Murder lodged against George Zimmerman. Corey allegedly responded by threatening to sue Dershowitz and Harvard. This appears to be part of a pattern when she is criticized. Now Corey has brought a charge of felony perjury against Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, based on testimony during George’s bond hearing with regard to their financial resources. (Criminal Information and Affidavit of Probable Cause embedded at bottom of post.) There...

DURHAM -- Crystal Mangum’s attorney withdrew from her defense Tuesday, saying she had compromised the case by sharing information with supporters who rallied for her the same day. “The truth will set Crystal Mangum free,” said Sidney Harr, of the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong, which held a press conference Tuesday morning outside the Durham County jail. Mangum, 33, is charged with the murder of Reginald Daye, 46. Police found Daye with one stab wound in the torso April 3 at Mangum’s 3507 Century Oaks Drive apartment. Mangum was charged with murder after Daye died April 13. She remains...

This happened last month, but I just learned of the case because the trial court decision was just posted on Westlaw; Cline is appealing the removal. The decision is here; a newspaper article on the subject is here; the statute authorizing the removal, N.C. Gen. Stats. § 7A-66(6), provides that a D.A. may be removed by a court for “[c]onduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into disrepute.” ... partly because it comes on the heels of the ouster of D.A. Nifong — Cline was the first D.A. elected following Nifong’s ouster, and had worked for...

DURHAM - Tracey E. Cline, a prosecutor who crusaded for victims and pledged to always do right, was permanently removed Friday from her office as Durham's elected district attorney after a judge found she made false and reckless attacks on Durham's senior judge, tainting her ability to seek justice. Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood of Franklin County, who presided over the removal inquiry that began three weeks ago, dismissed Cline's claims of free speech protections and found she engaged in conduct "prejudicial" to the administration of justice which brought her office into "disrepute" in court documents filed against Superior...

The American public loves stories. It loves stories better than explicated truth, because stories entertain better. Ask Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Ask the Hofstra lads. And when the media gets something wrong, don't expect apologies or hand-wringing; there's just a rush to get on with the next story; because the truth would require so much explanation it would bore people and lose the audience. Now we have a murder committed in Virginia. Alcohol played a part. But too many people enjoy alcohol to focus on that; and besides, the media wouldn't want to come across as prudes. The defendant was a student...

LSU AD Alleva Deposed in Duke Lacrosse Suit Posted by: Walter Abbott on Saturday, February 4, 2012, 18:20 Louisiana State University (LSU) Athletic Director Joe Alleva was deposed last month in a lawsuit filed nearly five years ago regarding the notorious Duke Lacrosse Case, where a prostitute falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape. Alleva was Duke’s athletic director at the time and was famously quoted as telling lacrosse coach Mike Pressler as he was cancelling the team’s season that “It’s not about the truth anymore,” because of the intense media coverage of the controversy. Mike Nifong, the...

DURHAM -- District Attorney Tracey Cline was immediately suspended from office late Friday after a judge found probable cause that she has engaged in ongoing attacks on a Durham judge that are "prejudicial to the administration of justice" and bring her office into disrepute. Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood of Franklin County suspended Cline under a rarely used state law. He ordered a hearing for Feb. 13 to determine whether Cline will be permanently removed from the elected office she has held since 2009. Hobgood was not required to suspend Cline before next month's hearing, but he invoked that...

A judge today suspended Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline from her elected office, ruling that there is probable cause that Cline should be removed permanently. Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood of Franklin County set a hearing for Feb. 13 in which Cline will have a chance to defend her numerous court filings made over the past three months in a high-profile attack on Orlando Hudson, the senior judge in Durham. Hobgood was not required to suspend Cline before a hearing, but had the option under state law. Cline has been under scrutiny for her ongoing allegations against Hudson, allegations...

A lawyer for three members of Duke University’s 2005-06 men’s lacrosse team has subpoenaed the records of two public-relations companies Duke officials consulted in the course of dealing with false rape allegations a stripper made against the team. Durham attorney Bob Ekstrand has told federal judges information from the two firms, Burson-Marsteller and Edelman, is important to his clients’ civil-rights lawsuit against Duke because public-relations worries were central to the school’s response in 2006. “Duke’s media strategy drove its decision-making, including its decisions to deprive [players] of the procedural protections it promises to all of its students in connection with...

An extraordinary legal shouting match has broken out in Durham, N.C., between the county’s beleaguered local district attorney and its senior Superior Court judge, who has chastised the D.A. in open court. In a harshly worded court filing, Durham Dist. Atty. Tracey Cline accused Judge Orlando F. Hudson Jr. of "moral turpitude, dishonesty and corruption" and complained that the judge "harbors animosity" toward her and has engaged in "retaliatory conduct" and "gross misconduct." Court filings are typically written in dry, obtuse legal argot. But Cline’s filing contains unusually accusatory and vituperative language replete with fractured syntax and spelling errors. She...

A Durham man who was set free by the state Court of Appeals over "repeated neglect" by Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against the prosecutor, the police officers who handled his case, and the city of Durham. Frankie Washington alleges that the authorities who put him behind bars for nearly three years acted in "bad faith." The officers and Cline concealed evidence, the lawsuit alleges, and conspired to violate his rights under the state and U.S. constitutions. Cline and the police had a "reckless and callous disregard of public justice in this State," says the...

DURHAM – Durham County District Attorney Tracey Cline and the editor of The News & Observer came to one agreement Wednesday evening – that they would participate in a forum at the N.C. Central University School of Law – but that was the only thing they agreed upon. Cline took out an ad in Sunday’s Herald-Sun to announce she was calling a Town Hall Meeting at the Durham County Courthouse to speak about a series of articles the Raleigh newspaper published about her last week. In the ad, she invited Andrew Curliss, the reporter who wrote the series, to attend....

First of three parts DURHAM - The final witness in the trial of Frankie Washington was his prosecutor, Tracey Cline. Cline had pursued charges against Washington for more than four years, accusing the handyman of burglary, robbery, kidnapping, assault and an attempted sex offense in a frightening West Durham home invasion. At the trial in late February 2007, Cline was in the witness box, an unusual spot for a longtime assistant district attorney. Washington's attorney, preparing for an appeal, wanted to question her about forensic tests on the evidence - a winter hat, a bandana, a pistol-grip shotgun and a...

DURHAM – Lawyers in two of Duke-lacrosse-case-spawned lawsuits are due in court Wednesday morning to try to resolve some of their disagreements about how to handle the exchange of depositions and documents. The pre-trial conference is a continuation of a process, guided by a federal magistrate judge, that began earlier this month. Duke University and lawyers for two groups of players are trying among other things to figure out where and how many people should be questioned in the course of gathering evidence on the players’ claims against the school. The players contend that Duke administrators breached confidentiality promises and...

Complications from a "gaping" stab wound led to the death of a Durham man in April, according to an autopsy report released Friday. Crystal Mangum, 32, the Durham woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape in 2006, is charged with murder in the man's death. Police have said that Reginald Daye, 46,was stabbed with a kitchen knife during an April 3 argument at his apartment, at 3507 Century Oaks Drive. He died 10 days later. According to the autopsy report, the stab wound punctured Daye's left lung and tore through his diaphragm, stomach, colon, left kidney...

Casey Anthony. The name and the trial spark emotion. But there is a far deeper issue lurking beneath, a monster of much greater importance. Recent years have borne witness to the rampant rise of prosecutorial zeal in the courts. While no responsible citizen wants crime unpunished, prosecutors, in all their forms, have been growing in power and influence. When prosecutorial power teams up with political ambition or a high-reaching career path, we must watch carefully the potential threat to individual liberty.

Never come between the "Godmother of Soul" and her luggage. That's the lesson a West Point cadet says he learned at Houston airport when he charges Patti LaBelle's security guards roughed him up. Richard King, 23, is suing LaBelle over the incident, captured on surveillance video last March 11 at Bush Intercontinental Airport. King, a Houston resident who is a senior at the military academy, had come home for spring break when he wandered close to LaBelle's limousine. He was talking to his brother on his cellphone when her bodyguards "sprang into action," according to the civil suit he filed...

Saturday, May 28, 2011 Catalino Hat Trick Propels Maryland Maryland upset Duke, 9-4, in this evening's national semi-final; the list of the Terps' top stars included senior Grant Catalino, who scored three goals, including goal that broke the game open in the third quarter, when Maryland led 5-3. The last name should be somewhat familiar to those who followed the lacrosse case closely. [snip]

Crystal Mangum, the woman who claimed three Duke lacrosse players raped her five years ago, could soon be facing murder charges after the man she's accused of stabbing has died.

A grand jury has indicted Crystal Mangum in the murder of her boyfriend Reginald Daye. She was accused of stabbing her boyfriend, Reginald Daye, during an argument. Police were dispatched to 3507 Century Oaks Drive at 3:15 a.m. April 3, and found Daye stabbed in the torso. Daye, 46, died last Wednesday at Duke Hospital, police spokeswoman Kammie Michael has said. Mangum, the woman at the center of the Duke University lacrosse scandal five years ago, is in the Durham County jail. She originally faced a charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury....

Durham, N.C. — Family members of a man who was stabbed in his home April 3 say he died Wednesday evening. Crystal Mangum, the Durham woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape in 2006 has been charged with assaulting him. Durham police could not be reached for comment on whether her charges would be upgraded. Mangum, 32, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and was being held in the Durham County jail on a $300,000 bond. Police said Mangum stabbed Reginald Daye, 46, in the torso with...

DURHAM (WTVD) -- Police say former Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Mangum was arrested again overnight. Authorities say Mangum was arrested Saturday night and is being charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit robbery and inflicting serious injuries. Mangum is being held at the Durham County Jail with no bond. She will make her first apperance in court on Monday. Police have not released any further information on the arrest. snip

CONCLUSION Having undertaken this comprehensive review of the 41 claims asserted in this case against the various 50 Defendants, the Court concludes that the Motions to Dismiss will be granted in part and denied in part as set out herein. In summary, Counts 1, 2, and 5 will go forward under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for alleged constitutional violations. The claims asserted in Counts 1 and 2 are asserted pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment for unlawful searches and seizures without probable cause based on the Non-Testimonial Order and Search Warrant that...

Many readers will remember the infamous Duke Lacrosse case of five years ago when Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong falsely charged three lacrosse players from Duke University with rape. What made the case extraordinary, however, were not the charges per se, but the fact that they were transparently false, and yet the mainstream media and the Duke administration and much of its vaunted faculty ignored the evidence to proclaim that they were true. In the end, the case fell apart because Nifong was caught lying, and the accuser, a prostitute named Crystal Mangum couldn’t keep her stories straight. (And...

Published Wed, Feb 23, 2011 04:03 PM Modified Wed, Feb 23, 2011 04:05 PM Duke settles suit over costs of lacrosse scandal DURHAM Duke University has settled a lawsuit against its insurance company over costs associated with the Duke lacrosse scandal. The National Union Fire Insurance Co., an affiliate of insurance giant AIG, and Duke had been wrangling over whether the company should reimburse the university for costs tied to the confidential settlements of lawsuits with three former lacrosse players and the former lacrosse coach. Duke agreed to dismiss the suit, and each party will pay its own attorneys fees....

Dear Sheriff Dupnik: My name is Mike Nifong. You may not know of me, but I was once was a liberal democrat prosecutor from Durham County, North Carolina. I am writing, because I have seen you on the television over the last few days making serious allegations against people claiming they were, in part, responsible for a hideous crime without a shred of evidence to support such a charge. I know you would like nothing more than to smear these people in the hopes of advancing a political agenda—and believe me when I tell you a more understanding supporter of...

Superior Court Judge Abe Jones has declared a mistrial on the felony arson charge in the Crystal Mangum trial. The jury was split 9-3. The jury was unanimous regarding the misdemeanor charges. Mangum was found guilty on three counts of child abuse, one for injury to personal property and one for resisting arrest. During today's proceedings, former Durham city councilwoman and school board member Jackie Wagstaff was jailed for ten days for contempt of court in the Crystal Mangum arson trial. She was charged with contempt after saying "This is ridiculous" while the judge was ordering the jury back into...

Attorneys worked Thursday to keep the Duke lacrosse case out of accuser Crystal Mangum's current criminal troubles. Prosecutor Mark McCullough and defense attorney Mani Dexter agreed that if Mangum takes the stand in her own defense, McCullough will not cross-examine her about false allegations of rape she made against three Duke University athletes four years ago. Mangum faces trial on charges of arson, injury to personal property, contributing to the delinquency of her three children and resisting arrest. Police say she set the clothes of live-in boyfriend Milton Walker afire in a bathtub while the children and two officers were...

They've run off one public defender, been chastised by a new defense attorney and faced a threat of jail time by a judge. But the Friends of Crystal Mangum insist they're on her side, trying to protect her from a corrupt judicial system that they say aims to punish her for accusing three Duke lacrosse players of rape four years ago. Attorney General Roy Cooper concluded there was no rape, and former District Attorney Mike Nifong lost his law license over it, but the Friends believe Mangum's story. Now facing multiple felony charges related to a domestic violence call Feb....

Joseph B. Cheshire V, who represented former Gov. Mike Easley, is a good lawyer who negotiated a good deal for his client. As accomplished as he is as an attorney, Cheshire might be even better as a showman. Ladies and gentlemen, he put on a heck of a show Tuesday, after his client agreed to a deal that led to his felony conviction. After the hearing, Cheshire met with reporters and criticized at length The News & Observer's coverage of Easley. Easley, he said, had done almost nothing wrong, but The N&O was out to get the former guv'nah and...

Duke University and the insurance company it sued to recoup some of the settlement costs linked to the Duke lacrosse case hope to settle their differences within the next month. The National Union Fire Insurance Co., an affiliate of insurance giant AIG, and Duke have been wrangling over whether the company should reimburse the university for costs tied to the confidential settlements of lawsuits with three former lacrosse players and the former lacrosse coach. In a court document filed Friday in federal court, Duke and the company acknowledged that settlement talks had been held. "The parties are hopeful that they...

Crystal Mangum's ex boyfriend went to the Durham County district attorney's office Monday, trying to take responsibility for a February incident that left Mangum charged with arson for allegedly setting a pile of clothes on fire. Milton Walker, the ex-boyfriend, says he set his own clothes on fire and damaged his own house and vehicle. "At that time I wasn't on my medication," Walker wrote in a notarized handwritten note. 'The breakup of my relationship aggravated my symptoms and I acted out on the voices I was hearing." Quantcast Mangum is charged with arson, contributing to the delinquency of a...

Reade Seligmann is now a first-year law student. He is into his second week of classes at Emory University School of Law. In an e-mail response to my query, Reade says he is excited to be starting what he hopes will be a long and fulfilling career in law. He reports that he already has a heavy assignment load but that he is happy to be an L1. He concludes, "Thanks again for all of your support and and please send my best to all of my friends in the liestoppers crew." *** I am very pleased that this outstanding...

DURHAM (WTVD) -- A judge has ordered former Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Mangum arrested again. Officials say Mangum violated the terms of her pre-trial release related to the visitation hours with her children. (snip)

A blistering report this week identifying how North Carolina's state crime laboratory workers misrepresented blood evidence in dozens of cases over 16 years covered only two of Roy Cooper's years as attorney general. But it's all Cooper's task to clean up the problems at the State Bureau of Investigation lab and overcome questions about its work. The Democrat faces a long road back to restoring trust in the lab that helps state and local law enforcement. The lab will need to regain faith from attorneys and the public, as well as the lawmakers who approve funding for the lab and...

Longtime News & Observer columnist Ruth Sheehan, who has an ear for a story, an eye for detail and a strong sense of justice, is swapping her reporter's notebook for a legal pad. Sheehan's last column for the paper will appear in late August. She will begin classes at the University of North Carolina law school this fall. "There is no better job than being a columnist. None," said Sheehan, 45. But she's ready for a new challenge. Sheehan knew she wanted to be in newspapers from the day, back in 3rd grade, when her teacher told the class to...

BRADENTON — Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports in the country, and you don’t have to look any further than local high schools for evidence of that. Lakewood Ranch, Saint Stephen’s and Cardinal Mooney have started lacrosse teams over the past few years. This week, local players have another opportunity to improve their skills at the IMG Lacrosse Academy’s Summer Camp. The featured guest is Team USA head coach Mike Pressler, and the timing couldn’t be better. Team USA just upset tournament favorite Canada on Saturday in the final of the 2010 Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship....

Duke University is demolishing the infamous house where a woman alleged she was raped by members of its lacrosse team. Bulldozers began pulling down the home at 610 North Buchanan Street in the Trinity Park neighborhood Monday morning. As recently as May, Duke said it planned to sell the property - just as Duke has done with several other homes in the area. The university has successfully renovated several homes known as "party houses" and then sold them to owner occupants instead of landlords, who typically rent properties near Duke's East Campus. It has been four years since the house...

DURHAM Linwood Wilson, an investigator for Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong in the Duke lacrosse case, was arrested Thursday evening. Durham County sheriff's deputies made the arrest at the request of authorities in Delaware, where Wilson was wanted on cyber stalking and obscenity charges related to a domestic-violence incident, said Major Paul Martin of the Durham County Sheriff's Office. The Delaware warrant was issued June 10, he said. Durham deputies made the arrest at Wilson's home about 6 p.m., Martin said. Wilson was taken to the Durham County jail and released on an unsecured $1,000 bond. Wilson is named in...

Duke wins in overtime, 6-5

Tonya Craft Sues Accusers In $25 Million Federal Lawsuit Defendants Include Parents Of Accusers, Investigators posted May 24, 2010 Tonya Craft, who was absolved of all charges of child molestation in a highly-publicized trial at Ringgold, has filed a lawsuit against her accusers in Federal Court in Rome, Ga. The 52-page complaint asks $25 million in damages from each of the defendants. They include parents of the children who brought charges against her, the lead detective in the case, the Catoosa County sheriff and officials who investigated the complaints. Defendants are Sandra Lamb, Sherri and Dewayne Wilson, her former husband...

RINGGOLD, Ga. — A jury has said she’s not guilty and the trial that devastated her life is over, but Tonya Craft says she’ll never recover what she’s lost. “There is not a winner. There can be restoration, and there can be awareness for others to not go through this, but there are two birthdays for my daughter that I’ll never get back,” Ms. Craft said Tuesday, fighting back the tears. Two years after she was accused of molesting three girls, Ms. Craft said the first thing she cares about is regaining custody of her two children. Defense attorney Scott...

Students from the University of Tennessee College of Law have just completed their first year of working in a clinical program designed to help free Tennessee inmates who have provable claims of factual innocence. The Innocence Clinic, operated as an academic clinical program within the college's Legal Clinic, began in fall 2009 and allows third-year law students to work with a supervising attorney to investigate claims of innocence. "We look at cases where someone's made a claim of innocence, and we determine whether it's viable," said Steve Johnson, a trial attorney and partner with Knoxville firm Ritchie, Dillard, & Davies,...

William Anderson has been blogging about a child abuse prosecution underway in Georgia in which Tonya Craft is accused of abusing her daughter. The daughter, some of her friends (and their parents), and Ms. Craft’s ex-husband are witnesses for the state — so Ms. Craft needed and obtained a good defense lawyer. However, there is only so much a defense lawyer can do when the prosecutor and the judge in the case start breaking rules. Anderson’s account of the prosecutorial and judicial misconduct is shocking. Here’s a sampling: * A Facebook status update written by the prosecutor, with comments left...

I seriously wonder about some FReepers, sometimes. Any other person accused of a crime would be defended by every FReeper as being innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. I've seen whole threads written by men who have been accused of child abuse by ex-wives out to deny them their visitation rights or to wrest more money out of them. These men are rightly indignant, and furious about the unjust accusations that cannot be proven but are never withdrawn. Yet where are those FReepers when a PRIEST is accused? Where is the presumption of innocence? Suddenly, every accusation...

Duke University has instituted a new "sexual misconduct" policy that can render a student guilty of non-consensual sex simply because he or she is considered "powerful" on campus. The policy claims that "perceived power differentials may create an unintentional atmosphere of coercion." Duke's new policy transforms students of both sexes into unwitting rapists simply because of the "atmosphere" or because one or more students are "intoxicated," no matter the degree. The policy also establishes unfair rules for judging sexual misconduct accusations. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is challenging the policy. "Duke's new sexual misconduct policy could have...