Free Republic

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...

Published Wed, Mar 31, 2010 05:51 PM Modified Wed, Mar 31, 2010 05:56 PM Ex-Duke lacrosse coach settles lawsuit DURHAM Duke University and Mike Pressler, the man at the helm of the lacrosse program when a stripper brought false rape accusations against three team members, have settled a lawsuit filed by the former coach. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. "Coach Michael Pressler is an excellent coach," Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, said in a prepared statement. " He did a great job building the Duke men's lacrosse program, while maintaining a 100...

District Attorney Joel Brewer will retire Monday from the position he has held since 1994. Gov. Beverly Perdue is expected to name someone to complete his four-year term early next week. Justin Guillory, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, confirmed for The Courier-Times late Friday that current assistant district attorney Roger Echols, Jr. and Sandra S. Pugh, a Yanceyville attorney, are under consideration for the appointment to complete Brewer’s unexpired term. Echols and Pugh, both Democrats, have filed their intentions to run for the District 9A position, which serves Person and Caswell counties. The two will square off in May...

Police filed several charges against a Durham woman in connection with a fire at 2220 Lincoln St. on Wednesday afternoon. Crystal Gale Mangum, 31, and her boyfriend, Milton Walker, had an altercation, according to a police news release. Mangum set clothing on fire in the bathroom tub, police reported. Three children and the two adults were evacuated from the apartment. Police charged Mangum with five counts of arson, simple assault; identity theft; communicating threats; damage to property; resisting, delay and obstruction; and three counts of child endangerment. Anyone with information should contact Officer H. Thompson at 560-4415 Ext. 29297 or...

"Oh, I just got raped." With those five words, Danmell Ndonye turned the lives of four innocent men into a living nightmare. For several days last September, Stalin Felipe, Kevin Taveras, Jesus Ortiz, and Rondell Bedward were publicly branded as rapists, mauled by jail guards, and threatened with 25 years behind bars. "I'm not even 25 years old. I'm just 19," a relieved Felipe said later, following news that the tryst had been taped on a by-stander's cell phone, which showed the encounter to be entirely (and enthusiastically) consensual. Afterwards, classmates were "calling my daughter the sister of a rapist,"...

Three Duke University freshmen were charged with felonious possession and discharge of a weapon following an early morning incident Sunday on the Duke campus. The students — John Drew, Kyle Griswould and Brandon Putnam, who are all from Georgia — were members of the Duke football team. They have been dismissed from the squad, and the university also has determined they will not be permitted to return to campus pending the resolution of the charges. At about 3 a.m. Sunday, Duke University Police heard gunfire coming from a vehicle near the Jarvis residence hall on Duke’s East Campus. The vehicle...

Obama supports former prosecutor who kept innocent man in prison to advance her political career Barack Obama demonstrated his true level of character, ethnics, and integrity when he announced his decision to campaign for Martha Coakley: Massachusetts' counterpart of Mike Nifong. Nifong, Coakley, Scott Harshbarger and Janet Reno all built or advanced their careers by prosecuting people (Durham lacrosse players, the Amiraults, and Grant Snowden) whom they knew or should have known were innocent, although Nifong was the only one who was actually found guilty of misconduct. Even in Nifong's case, which involved his concealment of exculpatory evidence, the only...