Posted on 04/22/2006 2:45:35 AM PDT by abb
Defense lawyers and legal experts say District Attorney Mike Nifong may have crossed ethical lines in public comments about rape allegations involving Duke University lacrosse players, potentially prejudicing jurors and setting off a media maelstrom.
Nifong says that he has done nothing wrong, though he has ceased talking with reporters about allegations made by an escort service dancer hired to perform at a March 13 team party. He would speak only about his handling of the case Friday.
"In terms of what I said, no, I wouldn't say I regret anything I've said," Nifong said. "I think what I have learned, basically, is that if you cooperate with the media out of a sense of duty to public truth, you make yourself a victim."
Local observers were hard-pressed this week to remember a case with so much back-and-forth between the prosecution and defense playing out in a 24-hour news cycle. It has some suggesting a judge should step in with a gag order.
Defense attorneys for the lacrosse players say it is their clients who have been victimized by Nifong, and they blunt criticism of their own extensive public comments by saying they are just attempting to limit the damage. Some also said photos, ATM receipts and other evidence they claim exonerates the two team members arrested Tuesday were given to the media only after Nifong refused to look at them.
In its ethical rules, the N.C. State Bar orders lawyers to refrain from statements outside the courtroom that they know might have "a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing" legal proceedings. But once one side talks to the press, ethics rules say the other side can make statements "a reasonable lawyer" would believe are required to protect a client from bad publicity.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
Something is very fishy about you, my dear.
He's probably the best thing that ever happened to the sport of Lacrosse. He'll probably even be immortalized.
Thank you--Reade was at the bank at 12:24, fast food and back at the dorm @ 12:41? Is that possible?
My #159 should not be read as some kind of correction of your #158. I was affirming your "yes" upthread.
GREAT graphic..I stole it ;-)
On Hannity last night, JJ produced a new ditty:
"Don't strip! (pause) Scholarship!" ...I'm not joking.
Nifong is a wet dream for any defense lawyer who wants to argue that their client can't get a fair trial. And he pretty much threw open wide the doors to let this trial be tried in the media rather than in court.
He may not be quite as incompetant as the Eagle, CO DA but he's pretty damned close. At least he hasn't posted confidential information on the internet - yet.
" Let's send him some cheap white stripper shoes. He continues to look for them. "
The white shoe is apparently as crucial to Nifong , as the glove found at Rockingham was to Johnny Cochran.
I'm sure Nifong has fantasies about having Mangum squeeze her foot into a white " do me " pump that he will magically present at trial.
It won't matter if it was found in a dumpster 1000 miles away from Finnerty's dorm ,is the wrong size or belongs to the wrong foot.
See post 139 - a quick reply!
I think that when Reade got back to the dorm, he didn't go in immediately. Isn't there a phone call between when he was dropped off and when he entered the dorm?
You can already buy a life size goalie figure to put in the goal to shoot against. I predict, in the future, that these goalie figures will be topped with a Nifong head and wearing a lawyer suit.
No entrance 25 feet from any drop-off point to 2C. I know. I moved boxes, and believe my, I looked for the closest spot!
The very end of Edens drive, by the picnic tables, is the closest point to 2c entrance, but it's very hard to turn around (narrow), and most traffic goes to fire lane entrance about 3/4 of the way down Edens Lane.
http://map.duke.edu/index.php?oldx=426.09&oldy=-275.22&zoom=4&new.x=252&new.y=294
They own the house?
I think that the cabbie may be wrong about when his return trip was, but I don't know the area so have no idea how long it would take. Dukie07 leads me to think he may hvae been there before the police arrived at 12:55--but I'm guessing.
I was referring to the early treatment - being spit on, being ridiculed by professors in class, etc.
I understand that there is now support on campus.
Making a phone call from outside the dorm makes perfect sense. There is NO reception inside that fortress of a building!!
I think Dukie07 was refering to the ones bashing the lax players:
I am more appalled by the treatment the team received at the hands of other students and faculty than I am at the administration's stance.
Yes, they own several houses in the immediate area.
The house was off-campus. Do you still think they own it?
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