Posted on 10/15/2006 5:52:10 AM PDT by Locomotive Breath
(CBS) The three Duke lacrosse players indicted for a rape they say they didn't commit are indignant over the effect the charges are having on their lives and their families.
In their first interviews, they speak to Ed Bradley this Sunday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Agree 100%, and also had the same experience at a ladie's "smoker."
You were asking what would account for the derogatory remarks about the boys on the Yahoo board: "How can you account for the differences of opinion?", correct?
I'm saying those are the reasons for the bigotry toward the boys, because there is absolutely no logic behind their statements.
If I misunderstood your question, just disregard the answer.
Mosquito?! LOL!
Yeah, he's a loser. he was handling traffic cases for the last five years of a 27-year "career" in a not-very-stellar DA's office. He wanted so badly to be the big cheese calling the shots around the court crowd.
This was his chance to get even with the world for himself being a loser in the eyes of the best and the brightest - Duke athletes that get the grades, the girls, and the jobs - and at the same time use their pain and suffering as a vehicle to cement his job as big cheese.
I don't think he even believes he's standing up for the underdog. If he really thought there had been a rape, he would have wanted real evidence, more evidence, gathered, instead of avoiding the evidence that there was no crime at all!
Now that we have had one news cycle to digest
CBS's probe into the Durham rape hoax, is it time to
rethink the DA's actions over the past six months,
in light of the fact that he most certainly knew they
were on his case?
How can we explain the fact that the local media
never caught on to Precious's continuing performances
in nearby Orange County, when ABC11's own board
was repeatedly alerted to the fact?
Part two of Bradley's investigation may reveal more
than a hoax here in wonderland. The prosecution certainly
came out of the gate fast with Joyner, Travis and Jakki.
It is not normal at all, and goes against all professional investigative procedures.
Everything about this case seems abnormal.
Yeah, Travis, Joyner and Jakki..... That's quite an impressive and formidable team, isn't it? LOL!
Totally abnormal...
What I hope to see is someone from the prosecution side break ranks. They have got to know this whole thing is wrong. Maybe they can do it anonymously?
By chance???
How could I forget Baghdad Bob, LOL!
I hear he is working the Durham circuit now.
Man Charged In Durham Quadruple Homicide
Suspect In Federal Custody On Unrelated Charges
POSTED: 12:23 pm EDT October 16, 2006
UPDATED: 11:04 pm EDT October 16, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- Nearly a year after the execution-style slayings of four men at a Durham townhouse, Durham police have charged a man in connection with the case.
Rodrick Vernard Duncan, 27, was indicted Monday on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of attempted robbery in the Nov. 19 slayings of Juan Coleman, 27, Jamel Holloway, 27, Lennis Harris Jr., 24, and Jonathan Skinner, 26.
The four men were found lying on the carpet of a small, second-floor bedroom in a townhouse on Alpine Drive, each shot in the head. Two other people were injured.
Police said the victims were the targets of a drug-related robbery.
"We say that (Duncan's) a principal and has been identified as playing a key role," Durham Police Chief Steve Chalmers said at a news conference Monday.
Chalmers said Duncan knew the victims and that more suspects may be charged.
Duncan has a criminal record that dates to at least 1998 and includes charges of drug trafficking, assault on a government official, driving while intoxicated and possession of a stolen firearm.
Durham police had arrested Duncan on Nov. 4 and charged him with drug trafficking and possession of cocaine with the intent to manufacture, sell or deliver, and other charges.
At the time of the shootings, he was free on $100,000 bond, police said.
Duncan remains in federal custody on armed drug-trafficking charges stemming from an April 5 arrest.
He had pleaded guilty to federal drug and weapons charges for an unrelated case and is in federal custody in Forsyth County awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled for Oct. 30.
Investigators spent days searching the townhouse gathering evidence, and police canvassed neighborhoods for months looking for new leads.
Lennis Harris Sr., the father of one of the victims, told WRAL on Monday that the latest developments in the case are what the victims' relatives have been hoping, but that at the same time, it is overwhelming and seems to have brought on another set of emotions.
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong said Monday that he will seek the death penalty in the case.
"In the 28 years that I have been in Durham County, this has been, by far, the most egregious single act of violence that has occurred in this county," Nifong said.
http://www.wral.com/news/10086862/detail.html
* The DA's perfectly timed October surprise.
Wow. Isn't this the case where the father of one of the victims had complained about all the money that was spent on the Duke DNA tests, and nothing had been done on this murder?
Couch Potato's Mom is head of the Durham Bar.
She is involved with THE Committee (maybe serves on the board?)
She has donated to the Fong's Campaign.
C Destine's future must be set in stone in Durham.
Don't think anyone in the Couch family will break ranks.
But think about it.....
Nifong went to the GJ with an accusation and a bogus ID
Once it became clear fact after fact after fact indicated Precious was lying any honest DA would reconsider.
Not Nifong.
In fact, the only ones who think Precious was raped are those with an agenda....anyone looking for truth sees this for what it is.
Yet, Nifong keeps on pushing and the President of the Durham Bar supports him.
No one will break rank, I fear because they are all in too deep.
I can only see it happening if the Feds come calling.
The Raleigh (or High Point, Greensboro) Sherriff's son and his cousin IIRC..
Damn, oh damn.
No effin wonder Chalmers was MIA,he was investigating this case. /sarcasm.
How about as a defense witness at the trial?
That would be a bombshell, and it would be difficult for Nifong to retaliate, too.
Assuming he's still the DA, of course....
He has been sitting in jail since April 5th and they charged him weeks before the election?????
Nifrong's handling of the case makes sense if, and only if, he knows that the defendants are innocent. Viewed in that light, his actions, while inept, are perfectly logical (subject to the constraints of his ineptness).
Prosecutors love it when guilty defendants talk. Especially when the defendants try to spin cover stories. Very few guilty defendants can fabricate a consistent cover story without slipping up, and slip-ups by the defense are good for the prosecution. So if Nifrong thought the students were guilty, why wouldn't he want them to talk to him?
The most logical explanation is that he knows full well that if one or more of the students has a good honest alibi he might have a hard time claiming he believes them guilty. He further knows that if any of Precious' identifications is proven to be wrong, they all become even more dubious than they are.
I don't know what Nifrong is planning, though if I were one of the students I might look into getting some body armor. I don't see much of an out for Nifrong as long as the students are alive.
It's been a while since I thought of this.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:bmHJrO4Ml-MJ:www.newsobserver.com/102/v-print/story/370032.html+Lennis+Harris+Jr.,+24&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5
Here is background. (My memory was a little off)
(excerpt)
Family stories
Lennis Harris Jr., identified by police as one of those living at the townhouse, was the son of Lennis Harris Sr., a Durham fire marshal who lives in Wake Forest. His mother, Marsha Harris, lives in Durham's Parkwood neighborhood. She declined to speak with reporters.
Lennis Harris Jr. and Jon Skinner were first cousins said to have been friends since childhood. Skinner grew up in Winston-Salem before moving to northern Raleigh with his parents, Linwood and Claudia Skinner.
Reached at their home, the couple said they were not ready to talk publicly but were emphatic that their son, who lived with them, could not have been a drug dealer. Claudia Skinner is a teacher in the Durham Public Schools.
Jon Skinner was a basketball standout at Winston-Salem's R.J. Reynolds High School, where he graduated in 1997. Harris and Skinner attended St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, though neither was currently enrolled. Harris is the nephew of Sonny Harris, a former captain with the Durham Police Department.
Lajuan Coleman was also identified as a tenant in the Breckenridge townhouse, which neighbors said had been rented only weeks before. The property's owner has moved to Florida.
Coleman graduated from Southern High School in Durham before attending Florida A&M University on a basketball scholarship, family members said. He later graduated from Old Dominion University in Virginia with a degree in biology.
His mother, Sandra Coleman of Durham, said that her son grew up with several of the men who were shot and that "they were all good boys" who loved to play basketball at the Durham YMCA.
She dismissed any speculation that her son would have been involved in the drug trade. He was an avid reader of self-help and motivational books.
"I never thought I'd get a call like this," Sandra Coleman said, her hands trembling as she tried to light a cigarette. "I lost it."
Gloria Washington, a cousin who had raised Jamel Holloway since he was 5, said dealing with the nature of the shooting has been particularly difficult for her.
"Like they were animals," Washington said. "Police asked us, 'Do they have any markings on their bodies to identify them by?' "
Holloway was a 1997 graduate and three-sport athlete at Durham's Hillside High School before receiving a degree in sports medicine from Livingstone College in Salisbury. He was a volunteer wrestling coach at Hillside and worked nights at a Durham group home.
Washington said he often bought clothes and paid for haircuts for needy children. She also doubted that he was involved with selling drugs.
"If Jamel worked two jobs and he was volunteering his time, there was no way in the world," she said Monday. "I can't see it."
Forensic investigators from the State Bureau of Investigation continued to comb through the townhouse Monday in what Chalmers, the police chief, described as a "very, very slow, thorough and meticulous process." Yellow crime-scene tape still surrounded the beige townhouse, as well as seven cars parked out front.
One of the vehicles had a license plate identifying the owner as an alumnus of Winston-Salem State University. Another had what appeared to be a faded student parking pass from Appalachian State University.
Chalmers said his detectives had several strong leads, but he would not give specifics.
Could be capital case
District Attorney Mike Nifong said he could seek the death penalty against those responsible.
"It sounds to me like it would be a death penalty case, just based on the fact that you have four people that are killed execution-style," Nifong said.
Durham had the highest murder rate per capita of any large North Carolina city in 2004, according to FBI crime data. The quadruple killing makes a total of 33 homicides within the city limits in 2005, exceeding last year's total of 30 with six weeks left. Three other killings have occurred in unincorporated areas of Durham County.
City leaders stressed that many of those killings involved drugs and street gangs, and that law-abiding residents should feel safe.
"We're not giving up or giving the streets of Durham to the criminals," Chalmers said. "We do have innocent victims, but again, this particular crime certainly involved people who were involved in a certain type of activity that would bring this type of activity to their doorsteps. ... They didn't go next door. They didn't go to the next building."
Officers were in the neighborhood Monday evening to glean more information.
"This is an ongoing investigation with information coming in constantly," said a handbill they distributed. "This violent act was an isolated incident and not indicative of your neighborhood."
(News researchers Denise Jones, Brooke Cain and Susan Ebbs contributed to this report.)
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