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
I thought I had all the regulars on my list. Sorry. You're on it now...
I wonder what Wendy Murphy will make of this...?
Flipping awesome! Go Cheshire! Woo-Hoo!!!
What are you asking me for? :-)
A figment of CGM's imagination, I guess.
That version is rather sparse, don't you think?
The number "1304" of the discovery documents is hand-written. Can't Durham afford a Bates stamp?
ping me, too, please.
They have one, Maggie. It's just when it passes the number on a misfire, they're not bright enough to know who to reset it. :-)
You mean that particular police report? Perhaps. Maybe he's a Sgt. Friday - "Just the facts, Ma'm."
"who" should be "how" to reset it. :-)
So the DA expedites the DNA tests but sits on the rape kit?
He's hiding exculpatory evidence, IMHO, and not just the rape kit.
___
I agree 100%, whatever he is hiding it is exculpatory.
Not sparse at all! There's a video report!! This is the first I've seen of Cheshire's news conference after the hearing.
I think I've figured this out. Durham public schools--none of these guys can read. They've got one guy in the police station that types up oral statements but no one can read them later. Explains Nifong, the investigator, etc.
I've heard of this new gadget called a tape recorder. You can actually speak into this thing, press a little button and when you're finished you can hear what you've said. It's amazing! I heard things were hard after the War, reconstruction and all, but do you think Durham could scrape up a few bucks. I hear those tape recorder things aren't that expensive. Maybe we should take up a collection.
And of course now we know why Nifong shut up with the discovery. The defense can now nuke him statement by statement with his own evidence every time he opens his mouth.
Maybe they could find someone literate from somewhere like Creedmore who could read all of the documents onto a tape recorder and then the DPD, Nifong, and the investigators could listen to the documents like a book on tape. Cheshire just made them all look like complete morons. I love this guy. Any clue as to his party affiliation?
Doesn't matter if he's a good and decent man. He'd be an asset to any party -- and believe me, the Democrats need one now. If not, we are stuck with "Michael Moore's Monster" or the "Bride of Frankenstein". We'll be like the little villagers with the pitchforks and lanterns storming the White House yelling "Death to the Monster."
No- the WRAL story--very sparse. The other media story had a lot more detail.
Yeah, it was a little thinner than the others. I'm gonna check out who else has picked it up. I see where Cheshire faxed it to the AP and Charlotte Observer reporter...
What are you guys talking about? There's a video report and the actual documents are there. WRAL has more than the other news outlets.
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