"I've always thought this was a shakedown."
I've thought that since I first heard the wealthiest players were the ones charged. That was what first sent my BS detector speeding into the red zone.
" I'm still not sure about where the money (or lack thereof) originates or is supposed to go."
Ditto. But I suppose Duke will contribute to a lot of local construction (which means, lots of the money will be siphoned off into the pockets of local politicians).
Had the players been willing to pay for dropping the charges, I imagine that, too, would have been distributed up and down the line to all and sundry in the political world.
And I imagine that this kind of Boss Hogg operation has been conducted before, on a much smaller scales, with Duke dads paying off Durham figures to keep their son's records free of criminal charges. I'm sure this isn't Gottlieb's first time at the trough, nor Nifong's either. They are too sure of themselves.
Then maybe they have something on Brodhead. he's way too happy to go along with the program, doing his part to run the railroad.
From the start this sounded like a shakedown to me, with at least one central player getting high or forgetting parts of the story. For many people, it is not easy to recall lies, especially when there are many of them, and thus inconsistencies emerge.