Lacrosse players face old charges (Nifong retaliates against Duke Lax)

DURHAM - District Attorney Mike Nifong plans to reinstate misdemeanor charges against a half-dozen Duke lacrosse players, saying a March 13 party where a woman reported a rape broke the deals that the players made with prosecutors.

Nifong's decision could affect players who, before the party, had entered agreements in which prosecutors would dismiss the cases if the players performed community service and stayed out of trouble for six months or a year. Among the first to have his charges reinstated was David Evans, one of the team captains who lived at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., the site of the party in which lacrosse players hired two women from escort services to dance. One of the women told police that she was raped by three men in a bathroom.

Two players, Collin Finnerty, 19, and Reade William Seligmann, 20, were charged last week with first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and first-degree kidnapping. Their attorneys say the men are innocent.

On Monday, an attorney for Seligmann filed a motion seeking information that would help attack the credibility of the woman, the only person, according to the defense filing, who says a rape occurred. The motion seeks information about the woman, including criminal charges, mental and emotional problems the woman has suffered as well as social services, probation, child protective services and victim's advocacy records.

Today, Finnerty is due in a Washington court where prosecutors in an assault charge are considering whether to revoke a deferred prosecution agreement similar to those affecting other players in Durham.

According to court records, 16 players were charged in the past three years with misdemeanor charges in Durham including noise violations, public urination and alcohol violations. The deals placed the men on probation for either six months or a year.

Interest group backs Bishop

By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Apr 25, 2006 : 12:42 am ET

DURHAM -- Would-be district attorney Keith Bishop got the interest-group endorsement he thinks will matter most to voters next Tuesday. But his opponents, incumbent Mike Nifong and challenger Freda Black, both question whether he's right.

Bishop won the formal backing of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People over the weekend, a decision that came as little surprise to local activists and officials aware that he was until recently one of the group's officers.

The Durham Committee's endorsement is the only headline-grabbing interest-group support Bishop can claim -- most of the rest have gone to Nifong -- but he thinks it could give his candidacy just the push he needs to win.

"They have a fairly solid view of what will best advance the interests of all people in Durham," Bishop said of the committee. "If I had to get one, this would have been the one."

But to different degrees, Black and Nifong countered by saying endorsements don't necessarily carry the weight they once did in the county's politics.

"My campaign has been based on grassroots politics," said Black, who got an endorsement from the Police Benevolent Association. "Most of the people I've talked to - the hundreds and hundreds, thousands I guess ... tell me they don't pay attention to the political action groups' endorsements."

Nifong indicated that he's happy with the endorsements he's received -- from the People's Alliance, the Friends of Durham, the Independent and the Fraternal Order of Police -- and hinted that he's skeptical about the pulling power of the Durham Committee's backing.

"I'm not sure that some of the endorsements have quite the clout they did 20 years ago," Nifong said.

While groups could once count on delivering almost all their supporters for a given candidate, he said, the changes wrought in Durham by migration have produced "a gradual deterioration from the monolithic nature" of the county's old politics.

"One place that's certainly the case has been in the African-American community," he added.

All three candidates also are finding they have to cope with the fallout of the now-infamous Duke lacrosse case.

Nifong has received bitter criticism at times from some residents who claim he and the Durham Police Department have mishandled the case, which stems from allegations lacrosse players gang-raped an exotic dancer. But there's also no question that the case -- and the media attention that's come with it -- bolstered his name recognition.

"This probably the first time in this race that a DA's forum has been televised nationally," he observed.

The publicity has been good for Black, too, she said. It's brought attention and donations to her campaign that it otherwise wouldn't have received, she said.

"Personally, I believe we'll have a better turnout than we've had in previous years," Black said.

Despite that, political activists say all three candidacies have flaws.

Nifong's start with the lacrosse case and also include a campaign operation said by some to be "falling apart" due to trouble making basic organizational decisions. Black's center on her ties to Clayton Myrick McClanahan & Coulter, a Durham law firm suspected in past elections of backing candidates for DA with one eye on who would be most likely to make decisions favorable to its traffic-court practice.

By this reckoning, Bishop's problem is the very thing he sees as a strength --his tie to the Durham Committee.

The issue there is the overall strength of committee's endorsement slate, which includes two highly controversial school board candidates, District 1 incumbent Jackie Wagstaff and District 3 challenger Steve Matherly, who are trying to rebound from poor performances in last year's city elections.

Wagstaff ran against incumbent Mayor Bill Bell and finished third in the October primary, collecting just 567 votes against Bell's 11,333. Matherly did only somewhat better in a five-way Ward 3 City Council primary race, finishing last with 697 votes against eventual winner Mike Woodard's 6,403.

The two school board candidacies, and Bishop's, are "going to be real test cases for the Durham Committee," said Carl Kenney, a black minister, writer and activist.

Kenney added that he's "not so sure the endorsements of the Durham Committee are going to be followed by the majority of the African-American people in the city of Durham."

Bishop -- who believes he just missed getting an endorsement from the Friends of Durham -- insists that such qualms are misplaced and notes that the committee claims the allegiance of officials like Bell, state Sen. Jeanne Lucas and state Rep. Mickey Michaux.

"I don't think another interest group in Durham has as compelling a membership roster as the Durham Committee, or as compelling a history," Bishop said. "So I take it seriously as a compelling endorsement. I don't have any hesitation because one of the things the committee does is, it doesn't always go with what appears to be the mainstream view."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.