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
Pinging DukeLax List. Cheshire lands precision-guided munition directly in Nifong's office...
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/453817.html
http://abclocal.go.com/images/wtvd/pdf/cheshire_letter.pdf
Looks like the DAs office is a branch of the "gang that couldn't shoot straight."
Another version of her story. Now there were apparently 4 dancers and 5 rapists!
Is Investigator Jones a new individual?
Are the Investigators attached to the DA's Office or the DPD?
http://home.att.net/~ltc8k6/Project2.jpg
Jpeg version for the pdf challenged.
WRAL's version
http://www.wral.com/news/9417203/detail.html
"...none of us is safe from financial ruin and disgrace at the whim of some corrupt official..." my point exactly and cause herein. Wake up, America. Wake up.
Unbelievable. Of course as I told Gagal in a freep-mail we have reports of the following claims of number of rapits:
1. 2 or 3 [if this is the one Pittman aka Roberts participated in] according to Abrams after reading the intial discovery.
2. 3 or 4 [if this is the one Pittman aka Roberts participated in] according to Nifong.
3. 4, really 3.9 or 5 or 4.9 [if this is the one Pittman aka Roberts participated in] according to Mangum's ID during one of the multiple photo arrays.
4. 5 or 6 [if this is the one Pittman aka Roberts participated in] according to the document today attached to Chesshire's letter.
5. 20 or 21 [if this is the one Pittman aka Roberts participated in] according to various reports.
So by my count she has covered the integers and rational numbers 2, 3, 3.9, 4, 4.9, 5, 6, 20 and 21. Unfortunately for Nifong the number of integers themselves are countably infinite not even worrying about the decimal claims.
How come Sutton's report was not in the original set of documents? If not, is not this further evidence of the DA abusing his powers by not releasing exculpatory evidence.
This is the first look we're getting of the new documents handed over to the defense. Holy smokes!! I love Cheshire!! Now we're up to four strippers and five rapists. Gosslee says that she looks for inconsistencies. Wonder if this will meet her definition....
I'm running out of fingers and toes...
If she cannot get the number of stripper right and she called the ones not there by "name," what does that imply mental health experts here?
ROTFLMAO!!!
Who is Tammy?
Big Whoops, Mr. Wilson. I guess he, like the DA, needs to study up on their files. Makes you wonder if they have ever done any sexual assault cases, don't it.
Anybody know NGB's fax so we can send this to her?
And look at that! WRAL is showing the team pictures of the three boys. Far more flattering that those mug shots. The tide has definitely turned.
Please add me to your ping list.
Why? She'd just dismiss it as defense spin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
