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 ...
Now there's the $64,000 question. I haven't seen anything conclusive either way. Nifong can't go much lower in my eyes but if there is evidence of someone else's DNA on mangum and he is still trying to prosecute the players, ..... well, I really think can't be said here.
I heard one of the forensic pathologists (Baden I think) speculating that there must be a pubic or other type hair, that might not be directly matchable to the full profiles of the players already done. I have since wondered if the latent searches of dorm rooms were really (or at least in part) to get (surreptitiously) hair samples from certain suspects for this purpose.
The company that the alleged victim works for (through).
A couple of things: unless the hair taken in subsequent searches could be directly tied to defendants (i.e., from their hairbrush, undergarments, etc.), I wonder if it could be discounted in court. Also, why not ask the defendants for samples again, or get a court order for samples?
Also, wouldn't the hair color automatically eliminate one of the current defendants?
I thought someone said earlier that it stood for boy/girl/boy or boy/girl/bi - alluding to menage a trois?
why not ask the defendants for samples again, or get a court order for samples?
after all the prosecutors nonsense, I would think an order would be required by defendants (and other poss suspects/witnesses) to provide samples. All would be nuts to not assert their 5th amendment rights given the show the prosecutor has put on thus far. I think an order would require a very good reason, and prosecutor might not have one at present......but if they happened upon one during these searches, it would probably become adequate to seek an order. just my musings, here....not a lawyer or habitual court attendee, LOL
Hmm. I suppose if they "happened " upon one during the searches. I would definitely want to see a sample directly from the defendant, in that case. Who knows where the "happened-upon" hair came from? The washers/dryers in the dorms are for community use. It's a stretch, but a stray hair could certainly have been picked-up during the wash/dry process. And since so many of the players seem to live in the same dorm.... I think I recall seeing that the search warrants specified articles of accused's clothing for Finnerty; was Seligman's the same?
I must say, though, that I have a hard time believing that the DA has hair evidence. One of the suspects would have to have been eliminated unless the DA is a complete fool. Oh, wait....
bbl
I don't care what political party this man belongs to, his behavior in this case shows me he should NOT be elected to office. People's lives are at stake and that is nothing to be treated lightly, as he is doing. Get the facts & evidence first, THEN prosecute.
I don't think the SANE report is going to help; and if what you're positing is true, it's going to work against her.
come to think of it, if this was a setup from the git, Mizz Crystal Mangum could have plucked a stray pubic hair or two from the edge of the bowl or the floor around the bowl (for later use) while she was "doin" her nails (the ones on her fingers or the set she left behind).
Also, the $20's passed under the locked door might have really been tickets to a private huge dildo show, part of whick might have been more comfortable without long fingernails.....this could explain the "injuries" as well as the presence of foreign pubic hairs wherever they were "found" later......hoe's THAT for cynicism and practicality?
" Do you have a link or source for the "upright position, .."
Yes- Nifong's own demonstration on the Abrams Report from March 31, IIRC. Abrams replayed the clip on Friday.
Nifong was standing upright, one arm in the choke hold position and the other arm showing how the AV was clawing and trying to pull the arm away from her neck, so she could breathe.
Interesting that in such a horrific attack as has been alleged-with the AV's mouth near each attacker's arm and Seligman's manhood- that no bite marks were even alleged to have been inflicted.
I still don't understand how Nifong can reconcile his statements and visual demonstration that she
" was clawing at her attackers in an attempt to breathe " and yet, in
the Probable Cause Affidavit it states that
Adam, Bret and Matt ".. forcefully held her arms and legs and raped and sexually assaulted her annally, vaginally and orally."
Nifong also said on Abrams that she was attacked from behind and he showed how her head was held immobile-facing forward, so I still don't know how she could give a positive ID as to which attacker did what.
The AV forgot the motto-KISS-keep it simple, stupid.
All the grand embellishments make her sound like Jon Lovitz.
Any word on prior cases that Nifong has taken a personal interest in? I find it hard to believe that his behavior is a one time thing.
If there was any "set-up" from the gitgo, it came from Kim; how to get away with all the cash. Otherwise, the ID-ing would have been much more successful.
You can't think of *any* reason why two strippers (hint: together) would be better than one?
If these kids justwanted to have sex there are much more attractive options back at the campus.
Then the show was such a disappointment one of the guys was infuriated to the point he wanted to kill.
Could be. I doubt it myself. I think they were expecting more, paid for it and didn't get it.
Easy Does It :)
Not sure I know what you mean when you say one of the guys was infuriated to the point he wanted to kill. Did one of them actually say that?
Unbelievable. As in "not believable".
Additionally, for the "contortionist sex scene" to have played out and within the time frame, the boys would have had to have been "ready". Immediately. All evidence thus far shows that A.) The boys were bored. That means... Not Excited.; B.) Girls hadn't even gotten to showing any "bod".
I think what some one is trying to prove by "nuancing" the presentation of the "gang rape" is that this was all a pre-meditated "gang rape". Which of course, doesn't fit any evidence.
Second, she didn't scream?
Third, in a house that small with that many people... nearly everyone would have (been hard to miss) observed 3 boys entering the bathroom where they knew the stripper was.
If indeed the boys had been rowdy or raving or drunk, that door would have been punched open sooner than you could have batted an eye.
This says these boys are fairly orderly. It wasn't a "scene" some like to portray as some wilding Animal House. (I think the usual race/sex/media hustlers aren't making up their minds yet as to whether this was a "white stupid, naiive" toga party; or a wilding group of wild white rich boys. It shows through their reporting.)
The team Players knew each other very well. You don't play sports together and not know who's good/bad/indifferent/slow on the ball, a gentleman or not. If the scene had played as Defense (and AV) is suggesting it did, AND, the team members in the living room even suspected someone bad was doing something bad to a lone female -- there'd a been hell to play. There is honor in sports teams. I've no doubts many of the players would have rushed the door and beat the holy crap out of anyone "raping and beating and oppressing" an unwilling female. The facts do not even add up to a consensual "thing".
Lastly, many, many years I was attending an avant garde dance performance in Berkeley. In one scene was a 3 on 1 "gang" rape (via dance). It was portrayed as with violence and rapidity; and by very skilled, LIMBER, but SMALL in height dancers.
This alleged gang rape did NOT happen, certainly, not as it is being "surmised" and "presented."
In that wee tiny bathroom? Even in the performance, no way could she have been anally sodomized and raped by two different guys, and orally sodomized. Nope. Especially -- not in the time frame. Appeared fully dressed, walked out, came back to the house smiling to get her ruby slipper.
Additionally, the anal sodomy would have certainly made her clench her teeth, no?
Ergo the latest defense manuever: Date rape drug. Crystal knocked her drink over and began drinking Kim's.
Yes, Kim is my suspect on a number of counts. Who actually raped the woman? We don't know that it was rape versus consensual sex. But the "allegations" of who did "this" to Kim don't fit the facts being provided.
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