Posted on 05/01/2006 7:51:52 AM PDT by don'tbedenied
Accused Duke lacrosse player Reade Seligmann's attorneys want Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong thrown off the case.
Today, they filed a legal motion specifically asking for it.
"DA Mike Nifong neglected his duty as a prosecutor to seek the truth and a fair prosecution," the defense's motion reads.
The motions were filed just 24 hours before Nifong's Tuesday election in which he's fighting to keep his seat. Nifong is being challenged by former prosecutor Freda Black and private lawyer Keith Bishop
I remember Bissey's account very well. After it came out that Kim was saying they didn't go to the house together, Bissey slightly changed his story. He then STARTED his story with the two women being led to the back/side door, leaving out the part about the arrival. Bissey doesn't like the lacrosse guys and, reportedly, has called the cops on them four times. Taken altogether, I don't know how confidently Bissey can be relied on to stick to his original account that included the women arriving at midnight. Cell phone records will be helpful.
But we don't know if he has evidence of that independent from the women's statements.
Abrams on shortly.
If you are able to watch please let me know if anything is said about the Duke case.
Thanks.
I've always been mystified about this point. Bissey says he saw them drive up and get out of the car together.
Yes, it does look like that. The danger lies in the fact that once people, especially poorly educated people with no critical thinking skills, believe these stories, they invest emotionally in their opinions, so they can't be dissuaded from that opinion and/or belief, no matter what evidence you throw at them. They may accept those facts, but the emotional investment in the previous belief remains and their decisions, to the extent they're called upon to make any in relation to the matter, will still reflect the old belief.
Could it be that Crystal was dropped off and hopped in Kim's car to introduce herself? That way it could seen that they "arrived together." Bissey could have seen Crystal get dropped off and not have seen her get in Kim's car. Or maybe Kim got out of her car when Crystal arrived (since it was originally reported Crystal was very late) I don't think they conspired ahead of time because Kim sure played it wrong in the beginning by stating she didn't think Crystal was raped. I don't even think Crystal thought of screaming rape until she realized she was going to have to spend the night drying out.
We've never seen a full photo of Kim's car. The photo we do have, which is the one with the passenger's door open and Mangum's leg hanging out, shows a whitish patch to the rear of the open door and peeling paint revealing the very light gray under primer on the roof. It may be that there's a lot more of that light gray on the hood and/or the front fenders, such that somebody who would have no reason to ever think he would need to recall the color may have just perceived it as white, given the reflection of his own headlights. The car may also have a white hood and/or one or both front fenders that are replacements from a wrecking yard. Mostafa, a foreigner with halting English, may not know the names of colors correctly. I have heard people use the Spanish word "blanco" to mean "black" because the words sound similar, but "blanco" is actually Spanish for "white." "Negro" is "black." So Mostafa may have a similar confusion going on between his English and his native tongue.
Exactly. The father is a consummate, transparent, and clumsy liar.
I do, too, because sending the fingernails for more refined testing would or could be necessitated by the fact that DNA from multiple donors was found under the nails.
I wonder what Shabazz would say if it turns out that a bunch of black frat guys, brothas, from NCCU used Mangum, a sistuh, like a kleenex before she went on her way to the Buchanan house.
Precisely right.
I am very curious to know if that warrant for Roberts was already active and in the system, or if Nifong had it issued in ordeer to get leverage on her after looking into her criminal history in terms of her credibility as a witness, which is a routine task in all felony cases.
Yeah, I don't think they planned it ahead of time, either. Too many stupid moves on their part to support that theory, imo.
Bissey says they DID arrive together. He said he saw them drive up, one of the players came out to greet the women as they got out, and then all went to the side door.
I have wondered if Mangum got in Kim's car for a minute or two before they went in. Maybe the car with Mangum drove up, Mangum got out and then got in Kim's car for a minute, and then they got out, and Bissey simply conflated the two events into one.
The defense needs to investigate both women's movements for the entire evening prior to the party.
Nothing about the case so far. The subjects have been Patrick "Son of the Hiccup" Kennedy's latest drunken and drugged fiasco, the Susan Polk case, and now the sexual predator internet sting operation.
I'll be sure to let you know if anything is said about this case.
The defense has maintained in their timeline that the two strippers came separately, about 30 minutes apart, Crystal coming around 12am. If Bissey is correct, then the defense would have to be wrong, and the timeline pushed back to when Kim arrived. That helps the prosecution, not the defense, since it makes out the players to be liars, given that Bissey is saying that a player met both strippers out front when they arrived in the same car.
All true, except Nifong is already on record stating they did not arrive together. It was after that that Bissey avoided repeating that part of his story in his next account.
So Nifong is stuck with them arriving separately and he's stuck with Bissey's time that they all went up to the house, which means that if Kim's statement as to those times has changed since Nifong cut her a deal on her bond and probation, the defense will destroy her because of the conflicting statements AND her email to the PR firm. This benefits the defense greatly because then the guys' and Bissey's timeline rules the day.
I don't know if you saw my post on the subject, but the affidavit in support of the application for the search warrant to search the Buchanan property on 3/16 did not give an arrival time, just that Mangum joined the other dancer already there. But the affidavits in support of the applications for search warrants on Reade's and Collin's dorm rooms state that Mangum arrived at the Buchanan property at 11:30, so I think it's clear where Nifong is heading, or pretends to be heading.
Nothing about Duke on Abrams today, Snarky. :<
You know, thinking about it more, my best guess based on what we know so far is this: Kim is sitting in her car in front of the house. Mangum is dropped off a short distance away and walks up to Kim's car, maybe she knocks on the window. Kim opens the door for her and they speak for a few moments but Kim doesn't get in. The guys inside (who've been waiting and watching) see the light inside the car come on and a bit of activity and one goes out to greet and bring them in. Bissey's attention turns to the player coming out of the house. Taken altogether, Bissey perceives this as both getting out of the same car after just having driven up. If he didn't see or notice Kim sitting in her car by herself before Mangum arrived, he may not even have noticed the car. He said he'd just walked out onto his front porch at 11:50 when this all began so he probably had no idea the car had been there a half hour already. When the movements opening the doors and getting out began, he probably assumed they had just driven up. The mind always attempts to assign sequentially logical progressions to events, so we sometimes assume a certain event occurred previously based on what we're seeing before us. If Bissey had been out front earlier, and no car was parked there, and then as he's just come out of his house he sees two women who APPEAR to be getting out of a car that wasn't there before, his mind furnished the assumption that they had just pulled up, especially because a player came out of the house at the same time that he sees the women exiting the car.
The black guys wouldn't have been in jail if they'd had the bail money.
If it was Malik Shabazz's son or Jesse jackson's son or Al Dumbton's son or Harry belafonte's son, they'd be out on bail, too.
It's not the skin color, it's the money. As Jesse might say, "If you've got the bail, you're out of jail."
I didn't see it, but Guilfoyle is right.
I don't know what Nifong is talking about anyway. So far as I know, the defense hasn't waived their right to a speedy trial. If I was the defense, I'd seize on Nifong's comment and start hammering him about trying to violate the accused's right to a speedy trial and cast all kinds of aspersions on Nifong's case because he's trying to age the case. I'd have been on that like stink on you-know-what and probably would have held a press conference on it by now, or at least released a rebuttal statement to the press. Nifong has provided plenty of fodder for attacks from the defense without the defense having to tip their hand as to their evidence any further than they have.
The defense shouldn't let Nifong get away with that because it will leave the impression that they were guilty. The defense needs to heat up the pressure on Mangum by insisting on a speedy trial and a change of venue. If Nifong drops the case, the defense should use whatever procedures are available to get a factual finding of innocence, and do it swiftly.
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