Posted on 06/22/2006 2:23:47 AM PDT by abb
DURHAM -- District Attorney Mike Nifong plans to give defense lawyers at least 300 additional pages of information about the Duke University lacrosse rape case, adding to 1,298 pages of documentation surrendered previously.
Without describing their contents, Nifong said the new documents would be handed over during a preliminary hearing today for three recently indicted lacrosse players: Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans.
The three are accused of raping, sodomizing and restraining an exotic dancer in a bathroom during an off-campus party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in mid-March.
All are free under $400,000 bonds as they await a trial that, according to Nifong, might begin next spring.
None is expected to attend today's hearing.
In addition to a transfer of documents, the hearing will include a request from Seligmann's lawyers that his bond be lowered to roughly one-tenth its current level. The lawyers filed an affidavit in support of that request Wednesday.
Signed by Philip Seligmann, the defendant's father, the affidavit said that Seligmann had been recruited by every Ivy League university to play football or lacrosse, and that he accepted a 90-percent scholarship to be on the Duke lacrosse team.
"This case has taken an unbelievable and horrendous emotional toll on all my family, especially my wife," the elder Seligmann wrote. "We are committed as a family, along with Reade, to do everything necessary to restore our good name."
According to the affidavit, Seligmann's bail money was provided by a family friend whose "loss of income is substantial" as a result.
In a related matter, the News and Observer Publishing Co. moved Wednesday to make public certain documents -- reportedly pertaining to the alleged rape victim's medical records -- that were filed by defense lawyers under seal.
"In this case, the fact that there are charges of sexual assault is unfortunate and controversial -- either because a woman has been sexually violated or because the defendants have been wrongfully accused -- but neither is a justification for sealing a court proceeding," a lawyer for the newspaper wrote.
The lawyer, Hugh Stevens, also said the sealed documents raised questions about Nifong's handling of the case. He said that when the conduct of public officials is at issue, it is an added reason for making the pertinent files public.
Meanwhile, several defense lawyers predicted Wednesday that Nifong's latest 300-plus pages of documentation would do little to help him, since earlier paperwork -- in their view -- was more beneficial to the defense than the prosecution.
For example, attorneys Joe Cheshire and Brad Bannon have said the earlier documents showed a "very significant and disturbing deficiency" in Nifong's evidence.
Specifically, there were indications that Nifong began making public statements about the accuser's medical records even before they were in his possession, according to the two lawyers, who represent Evans.
Cheshire and Bannon said the District Attorney's Office subpoenaed the accuser's medical files from Duke Hospital on March 20 -- six days after the alleged rape.
However, the files were not printed out in compliance with the subpoena until March 30, and Police Investigator Benjamin Himan didn't pick them up until April 5, Cheshire and Bannon wrote in court paperwork last week.
But the lawyers said Nifong told a local television station on March 27 that he had no doubt the exotic dancer was raped, based on a "personal review" of her medical records. They quoted the district attorney as saying, "My reading of the report of the emergency room nurse would indicate that some type of sexual assault did in fact take place."
Citing the 1,298 pages of documentation given them by Nifong earlier, various defense lawyers also have contended there were numerous inconsistencies in the accuser's version of events, along with unacceptable omissions in a sworn affidavit prepared by police. The affidavit was used by Himan to obtain judicial permission for his evidence-gathering efforts.
Among other things, Himan failed to mention that a co-dancer had described the rape allegation as "a crock," even though she was with the accuser for all but about five minutes on the night in question, according to defense lawyers.
Nifong has bristled at that and other defense characterizations of his evidence, while attacking the national press corps for -- in his opinion -- blindly reporting the characterizations without checking their accuracy.
"Is anyone surprised that the defense attorneys are spinning this case in such a way that things do not look good for the prosecution?" Nifong wrote in an e-mail to Newsweek magazine last week.
"Their job, after all, is to create reasonable doubt, a task made all the easier by an uncritical national press corps desperate for any reportable detail, regardless of its veracity," the district attorney said.
The e-mail traffic was made public by Nifong on Monday.
URL for this article: http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-746370.html
They can coach CGM but she has to make sense, even in Durham. I don't think she'll ever testify.
They are wusses, too.
No, the possibility of a corrupt system prosecuting fake rape charges has nothing to do with the case. /extreme sarc.
I was also watching that last night. Worse than Wendy (who wants the defense to turn over all of the discovered documents to her) is that John Bourlon -- the wire-haired Nifong mouthpiece. I couldn't believe it when he said that if the players were innocent, their attorneys would be demanding a speedy trial. This is from a NC defense attorney!
In all credit to the host (I can't remember who it was), she pointed out that Reade's attorney DID ask that the trial be fast tracked during the first hearing. Bourlon dismissed that as only oral! (Does he not know that oral motions are quite common?) He then said that the players' attorneys should be filing a bill of particulars. What the h3ll does a bill of particulars have to do with a speedy trial???
This ignorant buffoon was driving me nuts. He doesn't know what he's talking about and he just talks -- shouts -- non-stop. Lord help our legal profession. He is so sleezy!
"He's so sleasy..." Hubby said, "If that guy appeared before me in a courtroom, I'd convict solely on his choice of attorney." (Sigh) I think we're a dying breed, Maggie.
Yeah, I decided yesterday to avoid the CourtTV board for a while. They have taken to deleting too much on this case. If you cannot discuss a prostitute as a prostitute, well it is not a discussion board.
Someone said on the XM radio (I think it was during Hannity or Greta)that they may have kept 1/2 of any blood sample taken.
Didn't they say yesterday that there were NO records from Durham Access? Wouldn't that be impossible. Parsing the statement, does that possibly mean that the were not supoenaed and the blood is still there?
Isn't Buckner the nearest Mental Health Facility? She could be anywhere including any local hospital. It takes a while to stabilize a manic/de[ressive. If she has a mood disorder on top of that it could be even longer.
Nifong is apparently pissed at the blogs. However, since he doesn't seem to have any idea what is going on in this case--where the records are, etc., he might want to start reading the blogs to get info.
I'm a little surprised that Durham PD seems to be so loyal to Nifong. He has made them look incompetent and corrupt.
Nifong is a brave man. He has put his career, maye even his freedom in the hands of Mangum. I certainly would not want to do that.
"he might want to start reading the blogs to get info..." How true. Made me laugh. What a travesty!
Honest to God, I can't get a read on the guy. I've sure tried, and I'm pretty good at it. I'm coming up dry on his motivation. I'm kind of leaning on "Disassociative" side. His responses aren't appropriate to the situations.
They said the only thing there was from Durham Access was an intake sheet filled out. She cried rape while that sheet was being filled out and so as most here suspected she was immediately transported to Duke hospital.
As for a tox screen, Duke might have done one at intake to see what they were dealing with and destroyed the results after the results when she declined one to the SANE. That is the only thing I can figure about this parsing of the words. If Nifong came up with one now, I would not believe it was legit.
Cheshire replies to DA's investigator
http://abclocal.go.com/images/wtvd/pdf/cheshire_letter.pdf
As Emeril would say, "BAM!!"
And I have to avoid the CTV boards too. I go over there when it's slow here. I don't know why I do it because, for the additional information I find, I have to wade through so much crap. It's just oo frustrating.
The bottom line is that the false accuser's side has been caught in lies and misleading information while the defense hasn't been caught in one inconsistency. That says it all for me.
From the start, the players said there was no sex, nothing happened. The DNA test results showed that. Case closed. As Judge Nappy of Fox said, there has never been a conviction where DNA tests excluded the defendants. Nifong said that those tests would clear the innocent, yet when he didn't get the result he wanted, he discounted the tests and got indictments based on nothing more than the ever-changing word of a convicted stripper.
The abuse of power by this prosecutor, made possible by the insane race-based policies of our times, is what makes this case so riveting. If a case like this can proceed like a runaway train in the glare of the national media, then none of us is safe from financial ruin and disgrace at the whim of some corrupt official in our justice system. This is the stuff of nightmares.
Boom!
Cheshire rolls another unpinned grenade into Nifong's camp.
3 girls now.
5 guys now.
May have deposited her money.
Holy cow!
Ooops! It's actually 4 dancers now....
Durham has a convention and visitors bureau?
Who knew?
Where do they advertise? Somalia?
JLS, I think you've got it the other-way-around. Mangum has put her freedom in the hands of Nifong. Where is she? Who has her in hiding? It wouldn't surprise me if she is sequestered under Nifong's orders. Nifong needs this case and it vanishes without Mangum.
But what happens after Nifong doesn't need it -- after he's secured his elected position? It wouldn't surprise me if Mangum turns up dead somewhere. I still do not believe that this case will ever go to trial and Nifong needs a way out.
LOL, and Durhamites believe the Duke case hasn't hurt their image ... as if locals will be a boost to their own tourism.
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