Duke rape case set for 2007

Toronto Star ^ | May 19, 2006. 07:02 AM | staff

[Perdogg]

DURHAM, N.C.—One of three Duke University lacrosse players charged with rape wants the case resolved in time for the next school year, his lawyer said in court yesterday. But the judge warned he will not fast-track the proceedings.

The case "is not going to jump ahead of the line and be handled any differently," Superior Court Judge Ronald L. Stephens said at a hearing for sophomore Reade Seligmann.

After the brief hearing, District Attorney Mike Nifong said he does not expect any trial to begin before next year.

[ladyjane]

Police Chief? Durham has a police chief?

[NCjim]

Typical from the News & Observer...

http://www.newsobserver.com/138/story/440836.html

Race has a place in Duke case

How do I put this delicately? Victoria Peterson is an unusual woman.

She's a frequent, though uniformly unsuccessful, candidate for office in Durham -- someone who seeks the spotlight at public forums, especially if microphones or TV cameras are around.

During the recent rally of the New Black Panthers, one of my colleagues observed, the chairman of the group struggled to keep Peterson from monopolizing his megaphone. She was running for City Council at the time.

Peterson and I crossed paths back when she attended the murder trial of Mike Peterson (no relation), as one of his faithful supporters. She was running for City Council then, too.

But Peterson is nothing if not passionate. And on Monday, when she showed up at a news conference with defense attorney Joseph B. Cheshire V, she used her moment in the spotlight to good effect.

Cheshire, who has been the point man on the defense side of the Duke lacrosse case, was holding forth on the "false accusations" made by the "false accuser."

Peterson inserted herself into the event by asking about the racial epithets said to have been used by some of the lacrosse players on the night that three team members are accused of raping one of the dancers, who is African-American.

Cheshire responded by saying that in any group of 46 people, you could hear a racist or sexist statement of some sort. He said his client, team captain David Evans, and the other young men on the lacrosse team are victims.

He also said, "This case is not about race."

Cheshire may be right that his client and others have had their lives "chopped up" unfairly. They may in fact be innocent of every charge. But on the issue of race, he is wrong. This case is about a lot of things, and race is definitely one of them.

For once, Victoria Peterson was dead-on.

This case is about race because the slur-slinging -- alleged by both of the dancers -- is the one allegation that defense attorneys have not disputed.

Contrary to Cheshire's implication -- it doesn't matter how drunk you get, or how many drunken friends you're with, you won't sling racial epithets if they're not in your internal dictionary. I have been in lots of groups of 46, or more, and heard nary an insult.

The case is about race because of the nation's sorry history on race. Many African-Americans live with the memory of a time when white men raped black women with neither social sanction nor legal penalties.

It's about race because some people cannot believe nice boys from upper-crust homes could commit a crime against what talking heads such as Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson have dubbed the "ho" or "crypto-hooker." Believe me when I say that some of my mail has been far uglier, and more racially charged.

The question I wish Victoria Peterson had asked is: Would this story have been so huge if it had involved 46 members of the football team at St. Augustine's or Shaw? Perhaps.

But would so many people be rallying to the defense of those St. Aug's or Shaw players if the dancers from the escort service had been white?

On that, I'm not so sure.

[Perdogg]

I think Kimberly Guilfoyle is attractive. She looks like that she has done some cosmetic surgery.

[pinz-n-needlez]

Loud and clear, sir/ma'am. :-)

Pinz

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

Mercedes Colwin gets my vote for top honors of the Lady lawyers on Fox.....appearance AND total persona.

[Publius22]

Expect more articles like this now that it's pretty clear a rape didn't occur. Don't expect any soul searching on the part of those who rushed to judgement.

[gopheraj]

What the heck did he have to put her in a safe house for? I think I know, but it sure looks funny. She was in no danger from any of these boys or their family. Now the boys could be in danger from her "friends" but not her.

[JLS]

Nifong's main concern is his image within the community, imo. It would take something huge to stop him from going to trial.

So both of you view Nifong as rational and self interested although a sociopath in at least one of your cases. Then if the woman does not want to testify, why would he try to make her? That would make him look like a heavy and hurt his standing in the African-American community, wouldn't it?

[JLS]

He put her in a safe house so he could watch her and make sure her life-style does not impact the case between now and the trial. As others have said, she is likely to tire of that sooner rather than later and well before a trial in Spring 2007.

[gopheraj]

I am so sure of that, but was there a reason he gave (in public) for putting her there?

[ladyjane]

She isn't in any danger from the Duke boys and their families however I do think she could be in danger. She probably knows a lot and could finger a lot of powerful interests in Durham.

Think about it, if you were running a lot of drugs and prostitution and who knows what else, would you want her to be on the stand under cross examination? It's good she is in protective custody. She *could* be in danger and if anything happened to her the boys would be blamed.

[bjc]

I suspect that he is only looking at what appears to be in his favor for the largest possible audience. Therefore, I predict he will play the race card again and again - for example, "we cannot let powerful white establishment overwhelm a poor black female. She has already been raped once, etc., etc.

And your explanation for Nifong's behavior is...?

[JLS]

And your explanation for Nifong's behavior is...?

I don't know of course,which is why I asked the question and said it was an interesting question. Early on I thought Nifong was merely doing this for election purposes. That would make him rational and this would be in the phrase of Thomas Sowell the "cooling the mark" periods before he drops the charges for one reason or another.

But part of me after seeing his social work history and his wife's job wonders if he is a self-hating white guy suffering liberal guilt and taking that out on these young men.

[bjc]

Nifong's behavior goes beyond crass opportunism, namely, his rejection of any exculpatory behavior, his ignoring of the lack of physical evidence and his refusal to adhere to what appears the norms governing interactions among DAs and defense attorneys. His initial grandstanding plays to your point about his political opportunism. However, more worrying is his denial of reality: AV's statement of no condoms (if true) and lab report of no Duke LAX DNA. Assuming he and his team are not complete morons, then we have to deduce that Nifong is trying to manipulate reality through his power, his denial of the obvious and his gross misrepresentations.

As to self-hating, I think the behavior is more likely to be narcissistic - self-loving - a la John Kerry.

I would definitely bet that not all the relevant items were handed over to the defense. Watch for a number of key missing items. I hope the defense has a good list of what should have been in that packet. I guess I am assuming that there is nothing damning in the evidence Nifong released to the defense.

[bjc]

How is Dr Manly involved? Was she an attending physician? Is her name on any reports?

[JLS]

As to self-hating, I think the behavior is more likely to be narcissistic - self-loving - a la John Kerry.

I would not disagree but am not sure there is a conflict. The one who hates his own group, white males in the case of Nifong and Americans in general in the case of Kerry often views themselves as a special enlightened exception.

It will be interesting to see if Nifong has fudged on the discovery. Even if he has, I doubt there will be anything damning in what he turned over or did not turn over. There just seems to be no supporting evidence for these charges. That makes me wonder if Nifong is a member of the crowd that believes, "the woman said she was raped, thus she was raped" and that is why he did not want to see the evidence and why he thinks no other evidence matters.

[Waterfall]

How is Dr Manly involved? Was she an attending physician? Is her name on any reports?

---

I only know a J Manly from Duke Hospital is on Nifong's expert witness list.

http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-736328.html

As part of the motion filed Thursday, Nifong listed nine expert witnesses he expects to testify for the prosecution: L.D. Milks, Timothy G. Suggs, Hope Copeland, Jennifer Leyn and Rachel Winn of the State Bureau of Investigation; Brian W. Meehan and R.W. Scales of DNA Securities in Burlington; and Tara Levicy and J. Manly of Duke University Hospital.

[darbymcgill]

That makes me wonder if Nifong is a member of the crowd that believes, "the woman said she was raped, thus she was raped" and that is why he did not want to see the evidence and why he thinks no other evidence matters.

I don't mean to butt into your very interesting discussion, but in my opinion, all one has to do is look at his work history and the position of his wife and you have a huge chunk of your question answered.

[za_claws]

I finally found these photos showing the details of the 12:41 am photo. Whether or not Nifong is still thinking that this photo time has been tampered with I do not know, but he told Time that they were going to argue that this one actually showed her arriving and if they discredit this photo they discredit all of the photos. Now Dan Abrams said that the prosecutors got the photo from NBC17 and he may have only seen this image.
The crucial photo was taken, defense sources say, at approximately 12:41 a.m., and shows the accuser calmly being helped into a car to leave the party. Taken together with other time-stamped photos from earlier in the evening, it is crucial to the defense argument that there was not enough time that night for a rape to occur. In fact, prosecutors will argue, that photo actually shows the accuser being dropped off at the party, not leaving it, and that it was taken well before midnight. In that photo, the accuser is shown in a black or dark-colored car, which matches a description of the car defense and prosecution sources say dropped her off at the party. The person in the driver seat of that car allegedly is not Kim Roberts, whom prosecutors will argue drove the accuser away from the party after the alleged rape. Time Magazine Wednesday, Apr. 26, 2006
	this image shows CGM barefoot and blood on ankle
	CGM apparently being helped into the car showing her bare right foot.
	Shows driver, looks like Kim, shows bra strip....not a male.
I'm not really not sure if this is still as important as it was last month, but it really shows where the prosecutors are in this case, and wouldn't be really ironic if Nifong arrogant laughing about the time-line alibi was because he really thinks he can discredit this photo?

[js1138]

I think people thinking they can discredit digital photos have no concept of metadata. Here's an example of the data embedded in each image file:

EquipMake Canon
EquipModel Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
Orientation 1
XResolution 72
YResolution 72
ResolutionUnit 2
DateTime 2005:12:08 14:45:36
YCbCrPositioning 2
ExifExposureTime 0.001
ExifFNumber 14
ExifExposureProg 2
ExifISOSpeed 200
ExifDTOrig 2005:12:08 14:45:36
ExifDTDigitized 2005:12:08 14:45:36
ExifShutterSpeed 9.96578979492188
ExifAperture 7.61471557617188
ExifExposureBias 0
ExifMeteringMode 1
ExifFlash 16
ExifFocalLength 200
ExifColorSpace -1
ExifPixXDim 3456
ExifPixYDim 2304
20545 R03
ExifFocalXRes 3954.23340961098
ExifFocalYRes 3958.76288659794
ExifFocalResUnit 2
41985 0
41986 0
41987 0
41990 0
42240 2.2
ThumbnailCompression 6
ThumbnailResolutionX 72
ThumbnailResolutionY 72
ThumbnailResolutionUnit 2
JPEGInterFormat 9716
JPEGInterLength 4668

It would take some wizard to alter this in a series of image files without introducing some inconsistency. Much less be able to upload the altered image back to the camera/phone.