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Lacrosse players' defense: Documents being withheld
HeraldSun ^ | September 1, 2006 | William F. West

Posted on 09/01/2006 10:19:41 PM PDT by Protect the Bill of Rights

Lacrosse players' defense: Documents being withheld

 




By William F. West : The Herald-Sun
bwest@heraldsun.com
Sep 1, 2006 : 11:20 pm ET

DURHAM -- Attorneys for the three Duke lacrosse players charged with assaulting an exotic dancer claim District Attorney Mike Nifong and police still haven't provided several vital documents in the case, as required by law.

As a result, the defense lawyers have filed papers in Superior Court calling for Nifong to produce those documents.

The request to Judge Osmond Smith comes after Durham County's chief prosecutor told Smith and defense lawyers at a recent meeting that a toxicology report indicated the accuser's tested negative for the presence of controlled substances.

That undercuts public hints by Nifong in April that the woman might have been given a date-rape drug, defense attorney Kirk Osborn said.

In court papers filed this week, the defense argued it hasn't seen the written report despite indications Nifong would provide copies.

In addition, the defense is calling for Nifong to hand over complete copies of information regarding laboratory testing in the case by the State Bureau of Investigation and by the testing firm DNA Security Inc.

The Herald-Sun was not able to reach attorneys for the three indicted athletes -- Reade Seligmann, 20; Collin Finnerty, 19; and David Evans, 23 -- for comment Friday.

Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans maintain their innocence on all counts -- rape, kidnapping and sexual offense -- in connection with allegations surrounding events at the lacrosse team party March 13 at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., next to Duke's East Campus.

Nifong didn't respond to a request for comment left with his office Friday.

In its filing this week, the defense also is pressing for more information about what happened in the hours after the alleged attack, particularly information regarding the accuser's trip with police to the Durham Access Center, a mental health and substance abuse facility, for involuntary commitment.

The accuser reportedly began making rape allegations while at that center.

The defense cites the lack of a substantive report about the accuser's presence at the center, and the defense points to a blank check-in log as an example of inadequate information.

In addition, the defense wants to find out what was said at a meeting Nifong and police had with the accuser April 11 at the county courthouse.

The defense said Nifong argued to an earlier judge that such information was off-limits to the defense.

More specifically, the defense argues Nifong claimed at a case hearing June 22 that the defense was not entitled to know because facts regarding the legal action were not discussed with the accuser. And the defense adds that Nifong considers that to be a confidential communication.

Debunking that argument, the defense says, is that an investigator -- Sgt. Mark Gottlieb -- in a typewritten narrative said Nifong and the accuser met and talked about the case.

The defense points out, additionally, that a police major issued a memo stating all police personnel involved in the investigation were directed to produce all e-mails to and from one other about the case.

The defense said that while the message specified a June 5 deadline for compliance -- with threats of disciplinary action for failure to comply -- there is evidence police have not fully complied.

The defense argues that, in one instance, a crime scene investigator produced a number of e-mails -- but only after defense attorney Brad Bannon found them in the investigator's case file July 18 while at the police station.

The defense goes on to contend that nearly a dozen law enforcement officers who have been involved in the case have not provided all their handwritten notes.

The defense also wants to know more about what police have on file about the woman's background in Durham and about her interaction with the local criminal justice system.

The defense, again citing the July 18 date, argues that Bannon's review of an investigative file at the police station reflects the accuser was involved -- as a suspect, witness or otherwise -- in at least five other probes.

And the defense wants to see what police may have communicated to the Durham City Council.

According to the defense, Gottlieb, in a typewritten document, said that on April 4, he was asked by a captain to produce a timeline of events for the city manager, Patrick Baker, for possible presentation to the council.

The defense wants a copy of that timeline plus a report of the substance of any meetings between or among law enforcement officers, the manager and any council member.

Baker soon afterward briefed the City Council on several points about the case.
 



TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: duke; dukelax; dukerapecase; durham; durhamdirtbag; elmo; lacrosse; nifong
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To: Protect the Bill of Rights

I think I just put a hole in my arrival time theory.

If Kim and the guard had been out to the car trying to talk to Crystal, etc., the guard would have known what color Kim's car was in the 1:22 call.

So now I think Kim did not ask the guard to call 911 until right at 1:22, and at that time, the guard had not been out to look at the car yet.

This would put Kim's arrival back near 1:22 again.


41 posted on 09/02/2006 1:15:37 AM PDT by ltc8k6
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To: All

Personally, I don't believe for a second that Kim tried to find out where the AV lived.

Remember, Kim seems to have been recruited by Simeon. What was Simeon's angle? Willie Gary? Jesse Jackson? Civil Lawsuit. What was the environment at that time?

1). There was no monetary value in saying it didn't happen and Kim would have been villified in the black community. More than villified. Remember the environment at the time - Black Panters, Jesse Jackson, Victoria Peterson.

2) Some in Durham like Kim's lawyer believed there was potentially a civil lawsuit or maybe a large settlement to make it go away. Kim doesn't need much convincing to be on the side of Green.

Actions speak louder than words. Kim's actions that night show, IMO, she was not concerned about Crystal. It does show she was concerned with getting her out of her car and getting out of Dodge.

In short, Crystal became a celebrity and a cause in the weeks after the party and Kim's only opportunity to benefit personally was to get on that bandwagon.

We need to examine those radio tranmissions closely and compare them with times. The nurse at Durham access describes Crystal as being INCOHERENT - So how does she convey the information on her kids? That is the question.


42 posted on 09/02/2006 1:38:12 AM PDT by Mike Nifong (Somebody Stop Me !)
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To: Protect the Bill of Rights

Nifong, Gottlieb, and Linwood Wilson are NOT turning over documents and information required by law?

I can't even feign being shocked anymore.

However, one has to wonder why they are withholding documents?

Why did Nifong give up some of his advantages by agreeing to let in a Judge from another stable?

With all the damaging information to have come out on the prosecution's case - it's hard to fathom that this case could bear anymore hits at this point.

It just doesn't make any sense for Nifong to be resisting by withholding - unless the information is bad news for him and his case.

How long will it take Judge Smith to see what is going on here?


43 posted on 09/02/2006 1:46:30 AM PDT by Mike Nifong (Somebody Stop Me !)
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To: ltc8k6

If you're working on a theory - throw out what Kim says.

She is going to say what personally benefits her at that given moment.


44 posted on 09/02/2006 1:48:35 AM PDT by Mike Nifong (Somebody Stop Me !)
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To: Protect the Bill of Rights; All
From your article:

"The defense said that while the message specified a June 5 deadline for compliance -- with threats of disciplinary action for failure to comply -- there is evidence police have not fully complied."

_

45 posted on 09/02/2006 1:52:27 AM PDT by Mike Nifong (Somebody Stop Me !)
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To: maggief; All
Courtesy of Maggief: -
46 posted on 09/02/2006 2:00:47 AM PDT by Mike Nifong (Somebody Stop Me !)
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To: Protect the Bill of Rights; maggief; JLS; All

I have said from the beginning that someone needed to explain the favorable treatment to Kim and Crystal.

Crystal was charged with TEN Felonies. TEN !

She gets offered a deal of 4 misdemeanors and 2 or 3 Saturdays in jail?

No one has explained how a very poor woman - according to reported income - could afford a Power Broker in Durham like Woody Vann. And then why does Vann feel compelled to take to the air wave and publicly defend a woman that he has represented once four years prior?

This treatment belies her status as portrayed by Vann, the Police, Nifong, and the Media.

I said in April that I thought the AV was an informant at some point in her past.


47 posted on 09/02/2006 2:24:54 AM PDT by Mike Nifong (Somebody Stop Me !)
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To: Mike Nifong
I have said from the beginning that someone needed to explain the favorable treatment to Kim and Crystal.

Crooked District Attorney? LOL! (Couldn't resist - good morning...)

48 posted on 09/02/2006 2:34:12 AM PDT by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: abb

That does explain a lot doesn't it!

LoL!


49 posted on 09/02/2006 2:36:01 AM PDT by Mike Nifong (Somebody Stop Me !)
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To: Howlin

I repeat the old questions: "Mr. Nifong, what are you hiding. Who are you protecting?"


50 posted on 09/02/2006 2:48:21 AM PDT by Enterprise (Let's not enforce laws that are already on the books, let's just write new laws we won't enforce.)
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To: JLS; Dukie07; Guenevere; Howlin; Locomotive Breath; Jrabbit; investigateworld; maggief; TexKat; ...

http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/
A question for Correll

In her letter of August 30th, Debrah Correll says she has a question she would like to ask Nifong, point blank.

I have a question I would like to ask Correll, point blank. How would you like for your daughter, if you have one, to be beaten, gang raped and sodomized?

JIMMY D. HAYNES
Durham
September 2, 2006

Let's rally for Cheek

Kim Brummell in her letter of August 28 asks voters not to focus attention just on the Duke lacrosse case. However, a search of Durham County court calendars for the past 12-plus months indicates that this is the only case District Attorney Mike Nifong has handled since being appointed DA. Prior to being appointed DA, Nifong spent many years in traffic court, also not trying criminal cases. Therefore, the Duke lacrosse case provides many voters their only view of Nifong and, what an ugly view it is.

True, in the beginning most citizens were outraged at those "hooligans" and that "blue wall of silence." Outraged that anyone would treat anyone the way Nifong so publicly alleged, Durham citizens rallied together.

However, then the DNA evidence came back and many began to question. Since then, most of the claims Nifong made to the media during those first two months proved false. In his words, "I would say there were some things we hoped we would have in terms of evidence we ended up not having."

Shouldn't we expect the DA to have evidence in a case before seeking indictments?

The N.C. Bar Ethics Rules: "A prosecutor has the responsibility of a minister of justice and not simply that of an advocate; the prosecutor's duty is to seek justice, not merely to convict. This responsibility carries with it specific obligations to see that the defendant is accorded procedural justice and that guilt is decided upon the basis of sufficient evidence."

Durham voters rally once again. Vote for Lewis Cheek. Recall Mike Nifong

WHITNEY CAMPBELL
Durham
September 2, 2006

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/gaynor/060901
The Duke case should be dismissed

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/15422088.htm
Duke lacrosse names team captains for 2007 season


51 posted on 09/02/2006 2:50:24 AM PDT by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: abb

http://www.nydailynews.com/08-27-2006/sports/college/story/446936p-376320c.html
Date rape drug issue overlooked in Duke case and others

BY CHRISTIAN RED
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

In the early-morning hours of March 14 in Durham, N.C., a 27-year-old single mother of two was slumped in a car in the parking lot of a 24-hour supermarket, glassy-eyed, incoherent and seemingly passed-out drunk.

A security guard called 911 and the events that would roil a town and even the country began to unfold: Two African-American women had been hired to strip at a Duke University men's lacrosse team party, a raucous gathering at a campus house, fueled by plenty of alcohol. One of the women claimed she was dragged into a bathroom and raped anally, vaginally and orally by three white players during a half-hour stretch. There was the divisive aftermath, with cries of the privileged against the poor, black versus white. Then three indictments, and critics from all corners of the country arguing the credibility of each side.

But one possible element in the troubling case has received scant attention - whether the woman was slipped GHB (gamma hydroxy butyrate), or a similar "date rape" drug at some point during the party. According to court records and a source close to the case, neither investigators nor the Durham district attorney has requested tests of the victim's blood or urine samples for GHB or other related drugs.

Both women have said they were given mixed drinks upon arrival and the second dancer has said the alleged victim soon began behaving erratically and was "out of it." About an hour after she claims she was raped, police found the alleged victim in the parking lot near campus. The officer who first arrived at the scene said the woman "collapsed to the ground" when he removed her from the vehicle. She was examined by a sexual-assault nurse at Duke University Medical Center later that morning of the 14th, about two hours after the alleged attack.

That decision to not test for GHB could play a role in Durham District Attorney Michael Nifong's case against the three men - co-captain David Evans (who graduated this spring) and incoming juniors Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty - depending on what the results would have been.

"You can pretty much incapacitate almost anyone with a handful of pharmaceutical drugs," said Doug Scott, a former police lieutenant who worked 18 years in nearby Cary, N.C., and who now trains state health care professionals and law enforcement officers on the dangers of drugs like GHB. "And I'm really surprised that we haven't been hearing more about the possibility that this woman may have been impaired by some covertly administered drug. I went through the time line (of the case) and it really looks like (the victim) was impaired fast."

It is conceivable that tests could still be done on the woman's hair (as long as she has not cut it in the six months since the incident), or on urine or blood that has been properly preserved.

"GHB gets incorporated in protein that is called keratin that makes hair. As long as you don't cut the hair, you will have GHB there," Dr. Nikolas Lemos, the chief forensic toxicologist at the San Francisco office of the chief medical examiner, said in a recent interview.

According to Trinka Porrata, a former Los Angeles police detective in the narcotics division who is now president of the non-profit Project GHB, if the woman's blood and urine samples are still available - and were stored properly - there is no reason why a test could not be conducted now.

Added Scott: "I believe that any time an investigator has reason to believe that there is appreciable or gross impairment, or other indicators that point toward even the possibility of a drug-assisted sexual assault, they should proceed to investigate that until it has been confirmed or eliminated as a possibility."

A Durham police spokeswoman did not return calls asking for comment on whether investigators have ruled out doing a GHB test now.

According to Porrata, it would not have been unusual for the Durham investigators to fail to test for GHB in the first place. Testing for date-rape drugs is a complicated, expensive process. Blood and urine samples must be collected in a timely manner since GHB remains in blood about 12-24 hours and in urine approximately 72 hours.

In the Duke case, the woman was taken to the hospital emergency room around 2:30 a.m., so it is likely any such drugs would have been detectable. The problem, said Porrata, is that police officers and investigators often lack basic knowledge about the drugs used to facilitate rapes and sexual assaults.

"It's rare for law enforcement agencies to routinely test for GHB in rape cases," said Porrata. "It's really tough for smaller departments to cover those types of tests on their own, with the costs involved. It also usually requires a specific request by the detective (to have a drug test done) and many agencies still aren't aware of the various 40-plus drugs that are out there."

Porrata also said that in a typical rape kit, standard tests are conducted first for marijuana, heroin, amphetamines and PCP. "You run into limitations with the amount of blood or urine samples," she said. " By the time you get through the other standard tests, there's little or nothing left to test for GHB."

In North Carolina, a GHB test would have had to have been conducted by an outside agency such as the State Bureau of Investigation. A spokeswoman for SBI told the Daily News that it is the obligation of the local law enforcement agencies or the hospital in question to request such a drug screening during any rape case. Scott said that when he retired from law enforcement in 2003, "there still had not been any training done" with officers regarding date-rape drugs. "You really need training from the bottom up."

When a rape victim is brought to a hospital to be examined, it is standard procedure to complete a rape kit, though aspects of the kit may differ from state to state. Scott said the North Carolina rape kit has changed very little since he retired from duty.

"A victim presents him or herself as a rape victim and is taken to a hospital where a rape kit is completed," Scott said. "The kit is used to collect evidence - hair, tissue, DNA, as well as urine and blood samples. Medical staff at the hospital usually complete the steps, in my experience, and then a law enforcement officer seizes the evidence to protect the chain of custody."

Once the evidence is protected, however, a police officer must consult with the DA about the case. "If it is felt that there is a possibility that a drug-facilitated sexual assault may have occurred, the DA's office must request in writing to the SBI that the blood and urine samples be examined for (such) drugs," said Scott.

Nowhere in the report of the search conducted in the house two days after the incident does it indicate that investigators were looking for hints of a date rape drug. There were a few items that detailed a possible struggle: fake fingernails found at the scene, the woman's makeup bag, ID card and cell phone as well as money she claims was stolen from her.

"Why weren't items related to drug-facilitated sexual assault included in the search warrant?" asked Scott. "The absence of those things would indicate to me that it wasn't even a thought."

Originally published on August 27, 2006


52 posted on 09/02/2006 2:55:39 AM PDT by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: abb
Date rape drug issue overlooked in Duke case and others

BY CHRISTIAN RED August 27, 2006

Would it be reasonable to say that CHRISTIAN RED has an unfortunate sense of timing?

53 posted on 09/02/2006 3:11:34 AM PDT by Ken H
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To: Ken H

LOL! I guess he was trying to follow his heroes at the NY Times...


54 posted on 09/02/2006 3:15:08 AM PDT by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: Mike Nifong

I think Kim tried to find out where Precious lived because she was trying to figure out how to get rid of her. According to her written statement she was getting ready to go when the guys told her Precious had passed out. Kim said if they could get Precious to her car she'd get her out of their hair. Once the accuser was in the car and they were driving away Kim called 911 to complain about racial slurs. When she was done with that I think she took steps to get rid of Precious. The logical way to do that would be to find a place where she could dump her. Unfortunately for Kim, ditching Precious wasn't easy and eventually I think she got fed up and had the police called.


55 posted on 09/02/2006 3:54:37 AM PDT by SarahUSC
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To: Protect the Bill of Rights

The DA is probably hoping to have the cases tossed on a technicality, so he can continue stirring up claims that the guys are guilty.


56 posted on 09/02/2006 4:05:10 AM PDT by js1138 (Well I say there are some things we don't want to know! Important things!")
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To: abb
Just sent to Liestoppers:

Subject: Ooops

Hi Liestoppers!

This was published August 27:

http://www.nydailynews.com/08-27-2006/sports/college/story/446936p-376320c.html

Date rape drug issue overlooked in Duke case and others

BY CHRISTIAN RED

DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

______________________________________

Do you suppose CHRISTIAN is now RED-FACED? Take him away, Liestoppers!

57 posted on 09/02/2006 4:10:15 AM PDT by Ken H
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To: Protect the Bill of Rights
According to the defense, Gottlieb, in a typewritten document, said that on April 4, he was asked by a captain to produce a timeline of events for the city manager, Patrick Baker, for possible presentation to the council. The defense wants a copy of that timeline plus a report of the substance of any meetings between or among law enforcement officers, the manager and any council member.

IMO, this may be quite interesting since Gottlieb's timeline to Baker would precede any knowledge of Reade's alibi.

58 posted on 09/02/2006 4:31:38 AM PDT by writmeister
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To: writmeister
he was asked by a captain


As in Captain Terry Mangum???
59 posted on 09/02/2006 4:43:22 AM PDT by maggief
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To: Mike Nifong

That would explain the DP officer's check on the young'uns comment.



60 posted on 09/02/2006 4:50:53 AM PDT by maggief
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