Posted on 01/06/2007 5:27:07 PM PST by abb
an. 15, 2007 issue - Last April, Duke lacrosse star Reade Seligmann huddled with his dad at a Durham, N.C., law firm. A stripper hired to perform at a team party on March 13 claimed several players raped her. In a lineup, she'd identified three of them as her alleged assailants. Seligmann now awaited a call from the prosecutor that would tell him if he was one of the players she'd singled out. He felt certain he would be cleared. The call came. Reade, 20, was being indicted for first-degree rape, kidnapping and sexual offense. He had a strong alibi—cell-phone records would show he was busy calling his girlfriend at the time the alleged crime was taking place—but the D.A. declined to hear it. As he heard the news, Reade looked at his dad. It was the first time he'd ever seen his father cry. Then it hit him: how was he going to tell his mom? Kathy Seligmann was home in New Jersey with her three other boys. He dialed her number. "Mom," he said, "she picked me."
Just before the new year, Reade sat with NEWSWEEK for an exclusive four-hour interview, the first time any of the players has spoken in depth about the hellish months since the party that March night. Even now he gets emotional thinking about what his parents have gone through. Remembering that first call to his mother, he says, "It was like the life was sucked out of her." Before he hung up, he made her promise not to watch his arrest on TV. The next day, at home, she went to look for her 14-year-old, Ben. She found him in his room, sobbing in front of the TV. "Why are they doing this to him, Mom?" he asked.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
The so called fourth, it was really the first person she picked, is in fact a local whose father is as someone early pointed out is a Duke faculty member. He was out of town, in Raleigh I think, the night of the party.
"So, who is it in the NE who stands out among the white rich boys that'd be a better target sure to drag in the white Democrats in Durham county?"
"Your boy Nifong played every prejudice he could find ~ and he won office. He crushed is primary opponents and he won the general election just as easily."
"DURHAM - Mike Nifong won the election for district attorney Tuesday even though more people voted against the incumbent prosecutor than voted for him.
Nifong, on the ballot as a Democrat, received 26,116 votes or 49 percent, according to unofficial results that exclude provisional ballots.
County Commissioner Lewis Cheek, a Democrat on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate, received 20,875 votes, or 39 percent."
"Nifong received 80 percent of the vote in 13 precincts where black registered voters far outnumber whites, according to Durham County Board of Election statistics.
In the 12 precincts where Nifong received less than 35 percent of the vote, white registered voters far outnumber blacks with one exception -- a polling place where many Duke students vote went heavily for Nifong but has a relatively diverse racial breakdown of registered voters."
It's Matt Wilson. His father is a prof in the B School
http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/01/only-evidence-left.html
Matt's the guy that screwed up over the summer
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/158651/
Ok ....that makes sense
Its terrible but it makes sense
In addition Nifong barely won the primary too. This idea that he crushed his primary opponent is laughable.
He won 45% to 42% barely avoiding a run off under a typically odd NC runoff law.
http://www.newsobserver.com/630/story/435392.html
You guys are doing an amazing job keeping track of all this - and are so fast in providing the supporting evidence.
In this instance, I think the person identified by the FA but not charged basically proves the point that she was not picking the rich guys - not that it makes much of a difference to the overall plot lines. The FA just does not strike me as being that "together" to find the deep pockets and then remember exactly who they were during the line-up. Gottlieb et al probably had the resources to pinpoint who was who - so some coaching is possible. However, the fact that she is on record as picking a "not possible" - I think the most likely scenario is that she simply picked those she thought she remembered - through her apparent alcohol and drug induced haze. Given that nothing happened that was all she could do. And that is precisely why the line-up is so wrong and that it has to be thrown out - IMHO.
It did not sound like Dan Abrahms had read the complaint. The issue in my mind turns not on the class particpation grade, but on the awarding of the F on the paper at the height of the hysteria.
In addition, it is nmot the actions of the administration in suspending individuals charged with felonies - that is the policy - it is the unseemly rush to judgment and the failure to ensure due process prior to the indictments.
What i'm saying is that being accused of rape or child molestation or something like that is something that always sticks with people even if it is shown that they are innocent. Wherever they go people the accusation is the first thing people think of. No matter what they accomplish in their lives this will be the first thing people think when they hear their names. A handful still think these boys are guilty while others think them to be innocent of the charges but look at them as spoiled kids or look down at them for hiring a stripper. They can never go back to the way things were before the charges.
Why won't she? If they are sitting there, can't she just point to them and say "yes?"
I did read it and it's poppycock.
You can't get much more Irish than Collin Finnerty.
Being a Chosen had nothing to do with being chosen in the Crystal lottery.
He's busy trying to be "part of the healing process".
I think she was told who to pick. The problem is that two of them had left...but there were three boys. That gives the third one his alibi....since they were all together at the same time.
Watch her show up in court with "glasses" on.
Rename her "The penis expert who can't identify a penis" and the "blind witness".
She wont be sure. She won't be sure for the same reason she was not sure she was raped after the December hearing. Nifong will tell her to not be sure. He needs to drop this thing before he is thrown off the case. But he likely wants to pretend to still be in control. He has already signaled this as this articles second paragraph explains:
http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/1122012/
I did mean to say she won't be able, not wont be "about" to ID them. So sorry if I created the confusion.
BTW, how do you know they will be sitting there? They have only been to one recent hearing? How do you know they won't sit a bunch of young lawyers around them at the hearing? How do you know that they defense won't put three Duke lacrosse guys at the defense table that are not them and who were out of town. I doubt the defense is going to make this easy on her.
Wow has Abrams become a complete idiot on this case or what since he went to management? It is like he has not followed anything recently.
http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/
A stained reputation
The Duke lacrosse case has left serious stains on the reputations of Duke University and Durham County. Duke's administration, faculty and students almost immediately abandoned any semblance of a belief in innocent until proven guilty and threw their own to the wolves.
Durham has approved, through an election, what may well prove to be one of the most egregiously flawed, malicious prosecutions in history. How sad that it has taken the State Bar, the Association of North Carolina District Attorneys and the scrutiny and condemnation of the national press to begin the process of correcting this travesty.
Much of the world now has the image of Durham as a lawless backwater where citizens can, for political expediency, be railroaded by haphazard investigations, ignoring of evidence and incredibly weak charges.
These stains will not soon fade.
Robert Miller
Durham
January 7, 2007
The real Nifong
I find it entirely fitting with what we, the public, have learned of District Attorney Michael Nifong's personality and conduct that he arranged his swearing-in as a public officer of North Carolina to occur in private.
He forced the entire lacrosse team to present themselves for DNA sampling in a way that amounted to a public "perp" walk. Didn't bother him.
He had the accused arrested and brought to the station in handcuffs in front of national TV cameras. Didn't think twice.
But face the public and press himself after the revelations about his own misconduct and the subsequent condemnations from his peers, the media and regular citizens far and wide? Not a chance.
Instead he ensured that the public would literally be locked out of the ceremony by which he accepted the office they granted him. Was he too afraid that there would be laughter in the courtroom as he reaffirmed his pledge to faithfully discharge the duties of his office at the same time as he faces a State Bar complaint resulting from his failure to honor that very pledge?
Peter Bove
New York, New York
January 7, 2007
Reinstatement of players doesn't square Duke
Duke has not covered itself in glory on the lacrosse allegations. Last spring, when the three lacrosse players were indicted, they were, of course, presumed innocent until proven guilty [wink, wink]. But Duke wanted to get ahead of the story and decided to kick the two returning players out of school.
Today, the same two are still indicted and, of course, still presumed innocent until proven guilty. So Duke, wanting to stay ahead of the story, has magnanimously offered to reinstate them. In a letter to one of the students, Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs at Duke, writes, "We believe that circumstances warrant that we strike this balance differently."
That's indefensibly weak and borders on being disingenuous. What changed? If the two players were deemed too bad to be allowed to return in the fall of 2006, are they less bad now that the rape charges have been dismissed but the sexual assault and kidnapping charges retained? Duke did the wrong thing last year by caving in to public outrage fomented more by District Attorney Mike Nifong's comments, magnified by the press, than by any other factor. (And Duke took the opportunity to clean out the stables by firing the coach, too.)
Now, even though Duke has taken the right corrective step, the university still seems to be reacting to public pressure by reinstating them when very little has changed except the widespread perception of the DA's damaged credibility and integrity rather than the students' ostensible innocence.
Michael Brady
Hillsborough
January 7, 2007
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