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.

[za_claws]

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.

particularly on a phone with the time being set by a NTP (Network Time Protocol) Server, getting time from an atomic clock.

[JLS]

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.

Certainly you are not butting in at all. All any of us can do is speculate on this.

I keep going back and forth on this. Originally, I saw it as just the sleaziest kind of election ploy. But then as you say his employement history and his wife's position makes you wonder. Only time will tell.

[js1138]

This is CIA level stuff. If you alter the metadata in an image file, you introduce all kinds on inconsistencies. Not the least of which is that every image has to be consistent with all the others. I'm sure it can be done, but I hardly think a bunch of kids could learn to do this in a couple of days and get away with it.

[JLS]

Shows driver, looks like Kim, shows bra strip....not a male.

Maybe her male cousin?

Seriously, excellent job with those pictures. Also excellent job js1138 on pointing out how much data are embedded in cell phone pictures.

[js1138]

You can't muck with this data without some serious custom programming. Changing the file date won't do it. Any commercial editing program will insert its fingerprints. I'm sure there are hackers that can do it, but the pictures were released rather quickly, long before anyone was indicted. I suspect the phone system has some additional data on these images. It would be extremely risky to tamper with the images, because getting caught would be like signing a confession.

[Ken H]

I'm really worried about the admissibility of the photos.

See posts 640 and 643.

[bjc]

Great pics. A car buff out there should be able to pinpoint the make of this vehicle. It sure looks like a Honda Accord to me - early 90s. Can we get a view of the entire wheel? Is there a picture of Kim's car around. Is that a fading of the paint on the roof or light dispersion? If the former we should be able to get a better match to the actual vehicle than the lab got with the DNA sample!

[za_claws]

I pulled clips from a video from Abrams show. I don't have a tire shot, but I did get this one it shows the dashboard pretty well, if that helps

[bjc]

We really need a car buff to contribute their expertise. I was just going from memory of the rear door panel and the molding. Anybody out there have a 90's Honda Accord?

[za_claws]

I just notice the watch on his hand, I wonder if there is another shot right before this that shows all of it.

[Krodg]

Since the thread is quiet now, I would like to ask a question that is totaly off topic.

If a statement that said "did knowingly cause harm to another or another's unborn child" was in a police report, wouldn't that mean that defendant stated she was pregnant?

When questioned, the cop said that that was standard language on all assualts against women according to Ohio law.

My question is, where do I start my research?

I don't want to highjack a thread, so you can PM me if you can help.

Oops, I almost forgot...this was two teenaged girls who had a small fight. No damage now, but could lead to problems later.

[maggief]

Jakki?

[za_claws]

It has to be Kim, She does not have her right shoe on, so the time is what the defense says it is 12:41, Kim is about to leave the house, in a very dark honda accord. and the the driver looks to be a light skin black female.

[Krodg]

Yep...Ain't he purty??

[maggief]

[maggief]

*shudder*

[Locomotive Breath]

I'm an electrical engineer - I understand the metadata, I really do. It will not matter.

My older brother is a Federal Judge and I think about trying to explain this to him. There is no way he'd understand. The only thing that he'd understand is that if it could be changed it would not be an original document and therefore was inadmissible. At the very best you'd have dueling experts who would contradict each other and the judge is likely to go the traditional route and not admit the electronic photos. Even if the judge admitted the photos, a Durham jury inclined to convict would buy Mike Nifong's argument that the photos had been alterend and the jury would discount the photos.

When I did my little expert witness thing, I remember when the lawyer for our side was deposing the expert witness for the other side. I could not ask the other expert witness anything. I had to use our lawyer as my sock puppet. The other expert witness would answer and I had to tell our lawyer what to ask next. Our lawyer had absolutely no idea what the other expert witness was talking about but our lawyer had to do the questions. (To be fair to our lawyer, I had no idea of the legal implications of anything.)

We who hang out on the internet forget how the average person is completely baffled by the whole thing.

[luv2ski]

It seems to me that the defense could call a witness to testify that if the photos were altered it would be detectable and how it would be detectable (markers, inconsistencies, etc). I'm not an attorney but that certainly seems reasonable even for an unsophisticated jury/ judge.

[Locomotive Breath]

Except that Nifong will call in an expert witness who will testify just as sincerely that the photos could be altered without a trace. When faced with two contradictory experts most people will go with their original bias. The judge to not admit and the jury to not believe.

[Krodg]

Yeah. I missed the first part of the interview, but after reading a few comments on other sites, I had to see for myself.