Posted on 05/25/2006 5:04:51 AM PDT by abb
DURHAM -- A lawyer with the state NAACP said the civil rights organization intends to seek a gag order in the Duke lacrosse case, and a journalist who participated in a forum with him on Wednesday said media coverage of the alleged rape may deprive the alleged victim of her legal rights to a fair trial.
Al McSurely, an attorney who chairs the Legal Redress Committee for the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he generally respects the defense attorneys in the case as colleagues. But they are violating the State Bar's rules of professional conduct that discourage comments outside court that are likely to prejudice a case, he said.
The NAACP will try to intervene in the case to file a "quiet zone/let's let justice work" motion. That is otherwise known as a gag order, he acknowledged, although he said he doesn't like that term.
McSurely's comments came amid the first-ever Durham Conference on the Moral Challenges of our Culture at First Presbyterian Church downtown. The session gave the approximately 150 people who attended a chance to hear a series of talks and discuss among themselves sexual and domestic violence, racism, class distinctions and the media.
(Excerpt) Read more at herald-sun.com ...
Gets worse every day, doesn't it?
I got a stomach ache last night when Alan Colmes brought up the broomstick attack (to explain the lack of DNA) and no one else spoke up on the show to refute or educate Colmes.
Tucker Carlson is going to talk about Duke soon.
A: No. [This answer could just as well be Yes.]
If it "yes", then he's going to have to explain why in detail. < /mr obvious>
So Alan brought up yet another version of CGM's story!
Is there another kind ? ;)
i think the defendant should. i have not published my cv, just responding to you suggestion that i did not know what i am talking about. i guess we will find out.
This is from today: A big Durham Case - Cross Burnings.
But, look Baker is NOT involved, it's Steve Chalmers - Police Chief.
So why is Baker questioning Police on who said what in regard to the Duke alleged Rape and he was involved with the questioning of the Duke players, but in another high-profile case (Cross Burnings), he's not involved.
Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Of couse NAACP wants a gag order, now that it has come out that the "exotic Dancer" is a skanky 'ho who had three different men's semen in her that night--none of it from any Duke Lacrosse player.
Nifong should hang his head in shame.
Who cares what they think?
Let them whine!
There is no requirement to pay any attention to them.
National Association of Aggravating Commie Pigs
Heh, heh, Mike. It's nice to know you have seen the light!
The fact that the latest Defense motion says the Detective stated the AV was unable to provide information regarding the appearance of her attackers, that fits perfectly into the reasoning that someone did an asset check and 3 weeks after the party she picked the 3 richest guys on the team.
""I asked her questions trying to follow up on a better description of the suspects, she was unable to remember anything further about the suspects," the note from Durham police investigator B.W. Himan says, according to the motion."
http://www.wral.com/news/9276876/detail.html
2. Mangum was in the Navy. I am not sure if service personnel pay FICA or not, but it is a real job.
***I guess you can call it a real job when you're servicing the fleet.***
Tucker: The defense has filed or will file a motion requesting Nifong turn over more evidence. There is only one time in the 1300 pages that the accuser was asked to give a description. I THINK it was by one of the Durham PD who intially saw her when she claimed rape. She could or would not give a description of her attackers. Defense wants to see if she was asked for a description any other times, and what she said.
That should be: She could not, or would not give a description.
So either she was never asked again to provide a description, or she was asked, and Nifong withheld that information.
That's real bad for Nifong if she were never asked again or that he withheld it..., right?
I was just dramatizing possible court testimony. Nifong knew for a darn long time that CGM had lied to him, the sane, etc.
The Herald-Sun(Durham,NC) December15,1996 Sunday Final Edition
SECTION: DURHAM; Pg. Cl
Insiders offer ugly view of police; Allegations of misconduct won't go away
BYLINE: PATRICK FLANIGAN The Herald-Sun
A former police officer insists the Durham Police Department is rife with sexual misconduct. Rumors swirl that police officers are having sex on the job.
Sound familiar?
The allegations were made in May 1987 by a cop-turned-firefighter named Kenneth Dollar.
Two months after he wrote an article describing sexual escapades on the police force, Dollar was fired.
His story, published in an X-rated magazine called “Screw,“ included vignettes that unnamed police officers had sex in patrol cars and at police headquarters. The story was accompanied by studio pictures of nude women.
"The pictures were inflammatory because that's what sells 'Screw,'" publisher Al Goldstein said in a telephone Interview last week." But every word was true. It was a signed article.
The story was easily dismissed.
"It's not a high-priority item considering the source," former Police Chief Talmadge Lassiter said in 1987about the pace of any investigation into Dollar's allegations.
Fast forward to 1996.
A respected police commander files a lawsuit against the police chief--new chief, same department--alleging that the chief permitted an atmosphere of sexual harassment and black racism on the force.
Later, the commander criticizes the police's drug enforcement policies in a published article.
The commander, former Capt. Paul Martin, is put on administrative leave for insubordination, then demoted. He resigns in protest and vows to wrap his allegations in the mantle of truth.
Within weeks, another former commander--Maj. Cleo Warren --breaks a three-year silence and corroborates Martin's story. He even says Police Chief Jackie McNeil himself engaged in sexual misconduct on the job. Five days later, last Monday, McNeil gives up his administrative duties to lead a new task force on the city's rising homicide rate. He says he must take the "spotlight" off the department and focus on Durham's worst probiem: murder.
"It's nice to be vindicated 10 years later," said Goldstein, whose tabloid boasts that four out of seven judges agree it's Obscene by any standard.
Racial tensions
Rewind to Feb. 21,1992.
Police Chief Trevor Hampton resigns, saying he hoped to end the "negative media attention" the department had Received under his command. Much of that attention focused on allegations that civilian employees in the department were operating a call-girl ring.
The call-girl rumors were never substantiated. But the controversy continued when the State Bureau of Investigation was called in to investigate charges of perjury,' obstruction of justice and intimidation of witnesses during the internal investigation of the allegations. People targeted in that investigation sued the city and the suit eventually was settled out of court.
The total cost to the city was more than$250,000.
City Manager Orville Powell speculated publicly then that the rumors might have been sparked by racial tension in the department. Hampton was the first black police chief and many of the allegations were aimed specifically at his closest associates, who also were black.
"It seems more than coincidence that the rumors only involve black people," Powell said in a 1992 interview. He said he believed a racial "split" existed among a small group of officers.
"That group might have some very strong feelings," Powell said.
Back to 1996.
The disputed driven by Martin's suit includes allegations of racism in both directions--black on white and white on black.
Martin, McNeil and Warren are black. But four other officers listed as plaintiffs in Martin's suit are white. All served under Martin in an elite drug-enforcement unit called the Crime Area Target Team.
In their suit, the officers say black commanders discriminated against white officers. One black maior used the term "cracker" in reference to a pizza deliveryman, the suit alleges.
"He ain't no cracker," the major allegedly said when it turned out the pizzaman was actually Middle Eastern.
Losing the battle
But a July 1995 memo from McNeil to Martin suggests there were concerns about racist activities by Martin's subordinates. McNeil told Martin he believed some of the officers on the CATT were "physically abusing citizens" and ''mistreating citizens differently because of race /gender."
Some of those officers, who are white, now are being sued for police brutality by black Durham residents.
"I think your supervisory personnel are personally involved and or witnessed these incidents," McNeil wrote. Shortly after that, McNeil disbanded the central CATT to emphasize the department's focus on community policing.
Martin contended the move was in response to his unit's allegations of sexual harassment. He predicted the CATT breakup would lead to a reduction in drug arrests, which in turn would create an increase in drug-related deaths.
This year, with a record 42 homicides, Durham has the state's highest per capita murder rate. The old record, 35, was set in 1994.
Allegations of sexual misconduct and racism in the Police Departments span almost a decade and three police chiefs. But Powell, who has hired all three chiefs, said there has been more smoke than fire in almost every case.
"It doesn't take much to make an allegation," Powell said. "But it takes a hell of a lot to prove they're false. How do you prove something didn't happen?"
Trying to make sense
Whether the allegations are coincidences or trends depends on whether they're true, said David Smith, chairman of the political action committee Friends of Durham.
"If you believe Paul Martin and the other officers, the things they're saying have been going on for a number of years and are just now coming to light," Smith said." The problem is, are they making it up or did it really happen? Somebody needs to find that out."
But Smith said the mere existence of the allegations, regardless of their truthfulness, points to problems in the Police Department that may run deeper than the personalities involved, "If there's a problem in the Police Department, it's bigger than Jackie McNeil," Smith said. "Perhaps it's true of all large organizations or bureaucracies when you promote somebody from within. A buddy system develops.”
City Council Member Ike Robinson, a sociology professor at N.C. Central University, expressed similar thoughts. "We seem to have a big split within our department," Robinson said in a previous interview." There are various scenarios as to what has caused this split. To be perfectly honest, I don't know which scenario has validity."
Large organizations have formalized structures that spell out the chains of authority, Robinson said. But many tend to develop an informal "shadow structure" that gives some people more access to top levels than their rank should allow. That makes some people feel more powerful while others feel slighted, which leads to disputes within the ranks.
"Large organizations can take on a life of their own that are separate and independent of the leadership," Robinson said.
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