Posted on 06/22/2006 2:23:47 AM PDT by abb
DURHAM -- District Attorney Mike Nifong plans to give defense lawyers at least 300 additional pages of information about the Duke University lacrosse rape case, adding to 1,298 pages of documentation surrendered previously.
Without describing their contents, Nifong said the new documents would be handed over during a preliminary hearing today for three recently indicted lacrosse players: Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans.
The three are accused of raping, sodomizing and restraining an exotic dancer in a bathroom during an off-campus party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in mid-March.
All are free under $400,000 bonds as they await a trial that, according to Nifong, might begin next spring.
None is expected to attend today's hearing.
In addition to a transfer of documents, the hearing will include a request from Seligmann's lawyers that his bond be lowered to roughly one-tenth its current level. The lawyers filed an affidavit in support of that request Wednesday.
Signed by Philip Seligmann, the defendant's father, the affidavit said that Seligmann had been recruited by every Ivy League university to play football or lacrosse, and that he accepted a 90-percent scholarship to be on the Duke lacrosse team.
"This case has taken an unbelievable and horrendous emotional toll on all my family, especially my wife," the elder Seligmann wrote. "We are committed as a family, along with Reade, to do everything necessary to restore our good name."
According to the affidavit, Seligmann's bail money was provided by a family friend whose "loss of income is substantial" as a result.
In a related matter, the News and Observer Publishing Co. moved Wednesday to make public certain documents -- reportedly pertaining to the alleged rape victim's medical records -- that were filed by defense lawyers under seal.
"In this case, the fact that there are charges of sexual assault is unfortunate and controversial -- either because a woman has been sexually violated or because the defendants have been wrongfully accused -- but neither is a justification for sealing a court proceeding," a lawyer for the newspaper wrote.
The lawyer, Hugh Stevens, also said the sealed documents raised questions about Nifong's handling of the case. He said that when the conduct of public officials is at issue, it is an added reason for making the pertinent files public.
Meanwhile, several defense lawyers predicted Wednesday that Nifong's latest 300-plus pages of documentation would do little to help him, since earlier paperwork -- in their view -- was more beneficial to the defense than the prosecution.
For example, attorneys Joe Cheshire and Brad Bannon have said the earlier documents showed a "very significant and disturbing deficiency" in Nifong's evidence.
Specifically, there were indications that Nifong began making public statements about the accuser's medical records even before they were in his possession, according to the two lawyers, who represent Evans.
Cheshire and Bannon said the District Attorney's Office subpoenaed the accuser's medical files from Duke Hospital on March 20 -- six days after the alleged rape.
However, the files were not printed out in compliance with the subpoena until March 30, and Police Investigator Benjamin Himan didn't pick them up until April 5, Cheshire and Bannon wrote in court paperwork last week.
But the lawyers said Nifong told a local television station on March 27 that he had no doubt the exotic dancer was raped, based on a "personal review" of her medical records. They quoted the district attorney as saying, "My reading of the report of the emergency room nurse would indicate that some type of sexual assault did in fact take place."
Citing the 1,298 pages of documentation given them by Nifong earlier, various defense lawyers also have contended there were numerous inconsistencies in the accuser's version of events, along with unacceptable omissions in a sworn affidavit prepared by police. The affidavit was used by Himan to obtain judicial permission for his evidence-gathering efforts.
Among other things, Himan failed to mention that a co-dancer had described the rape allegation as "a crock," even though she was with the accuser for all but about five minutes on the night in question, according to defense lawyers.
Nifong has bristled at that and other defense characterizations of his evidence, while attacking the national press corps for -- in his opinion -- blindly reporting the characterizations without checking their accuracy.
"Is anyone surprised that the defense attorneys are spinning this case in such a way that things do not look good for the prosecution?" Nifong wrote in an e-mail to Newsweek magazine last week.
"Their job, after all, is to create reasonable doubt, a task made all the easier by an uncritical national press corps desperate for any reportable detail, regardless of its veracity," the district attorney said.
The e-mail traffic was made public by Nifong on Monday.
URL for this article: http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-746370.html
There is also an Otha Mangum in jail and one more
A Kenneth McNeil is in jail also,
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/454107.html
Candidates have a one-track mind
Barry Saunders, Staff Writer
"Here I come to save the daaaaaay."
That theme song from the old Mighty Mouse cartoon series could be the campaign theme songs for Lewis Cheek and now Steve Monks, two men contemplating a run for Durham County District Attorney.
Are these two gentlemen donning crime-fighting capes and sallying forth to become the county's top cop because they want to make the streets safe for little old ladies?
Nope. As far as I can tell, their main motivation is to make the streets safe for the three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting an exotic dancer.
If they eschew Mighty Mouse, they could borrow galvanizing slogans from previous political campaigns: "Ask not what your county can do for you, ask what your county can do for those three, fine, upstanding young lads who are being persecuted by mean ol' Mike Nifong."
Or "We have nothing to fear but Nifong, himself."
Fortunately for us all, the results of their holy quest to get 6,300 signatures to qualify for the ballot have been underwhelming. That's probably because most Durham residents know that trials are won in court, not on MSNBC, where Duke graduate and defender Dan Abrams would almost have you believe the stripper raped the three lacrosse players.
(snip)
Please ping me if you find other relative information. ;)
bbl
This guy's druken ramblings need to be posted in full...
Barry Saunders, Staff Writer
"Here I come to save the daaaaaay."
That theme song from the old Mighty Mouse cartoon series could be the campaign theme songs for Lewis Cheek and now Steve Monks, two men contemplating a run for Durham County District Attorney.
Are these two gentlemen donning crime-fighting capes and sallying forth to become the county's top cop because they want to make the streets safe for little old ladies?
Nope. As far as I can tell, their main motivation is to make the streets safe for the three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting an exotic dancer.
If they eschew Mighty Mouse, they could borrow galvanizing slogans from previous political campaigns: "Ask not what your county can do for you, ask what your county can do for those three, fine, upstanding young lads who are being persecuted by mean ol' Mike Nifong."
Or "We have nothing to fear but Nifong, himself."
Fortunately for us all, the results of their holy quest to get 6,300 signatures to qualify for the ballot have been underwhelming. That's probably because most Durham residents know that trials are won in court, not on MSNBC, where Duke graduate and defender Dan Abrams would almost have you believe the stripper raped the three lacrosse players.
It's easy to take exception with some aspects of Nifong's handling of the case. The dude was too ubiquitous and pretty near loquacious in the early days following the incident.
That he has rectified that strategy and is now keeping mum does tend to make his case look weak, especially with the defense attorneys and Duke's lapdogs in the national press portraying Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans as victims of a politically motivated, inept prosecutor.
At the same time, the defense attorneys and the national media are figuratively doing to the alleged victim what she says the lacrosse players did to her.
The good thing about our type of democracy is that anybody in his or her right mind -- and some who aren't -- can run for office. We welcome and thank candidates who run for office out of a sense of public service.
Both Cheek, a Durham County commissioner, and Monks, an attorney, though, seem to be single-issue candidates who simply want to make the case go away -- justice be damned.
One of Monks' campaign managers, Republican activist Charlotte Woods, admitted that her involvement was motivated largely by Nifong's handling of the lacrosse rape case.
Woods, in a published interview, said, "Durham citizens are concerned about Mike Nifong's judgment going forward."
Which citizens are those, sweet Charlotte? I've not seen much support for dropping the case.
In a press conference announcing his candidacy, Monks called Nifong's handling of the case a "train wreck."
The only verified train wrecks so far are a couple of fledgling, one-track campaigns.
You can phone Barry at 836-2811 or e-mail him at barrys@nando.com.
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/454024.html
Court records spell Chalmers' name both "Stefanie" and "Stephanie," and a police records check while she was in custody returned hits with both spellings, said Kammie Michael, a police spokeswoman. But none of those hits included a "wanted" flag, which is what would lead a police officer to the outstanding summonses, Michael said.
It isn't clear why the "wanted" flag didn't come up; a new police department dispatch and records computer system may be the culprit, Michael said.
The Chalmers name wouldn't necessarily have been immediately obvious when the summonses were taken out in 2003 because they were done by loss prevention employees at a Durham Wal-Mart and a Charlotte Winn-Dixie market, where the checks were written.
"Because they weren't taken out by police officers, they wouldn't necessarily know it was the chief's daughter," Michael said.
The two bad checks amounted to $115, court records show.
Stefanie Chalmers was arrested Tuesday on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting serious injury. She is accused of striking a woman with a car one night in late April outside a home on Rhyn Court in northern Durham.
Chalmers was released on unsecured bail into her mother's custody, court records show.
Two days later, Chalmers, of 108 N. Guthrie Ave., failed to appear in traffic court on a citation for parking in a handicapped parking space on North Roxboro Road in April.
I will :-)
Tequilla last night--a bit, make that alot groggy and slow this morning. IOW a hangover, LOL.
Tequilla is the only thing that gives me a hangover. The sad part is at may age it doesn't take much to give me one.
The good thing about our type of democracy is that anybody in his or her right mind -- and some who aren't -- can run for office.
Another good thing about our type of democracy is all sorts of barking moonbats can bang away on a typewriter and convince newspapers like the NandO to publish their rantings.
Thankfully, recent developments like the internet have given rise to alternatives to the Drive-By Media monopoly, and offer an opportunity for common sense to counter the moonbats. Blogs and FreeRepublic come to mind...
Looks like Barry Saunders is still on the Kool-Aid.
Who the hell uses 'ubiquitous' and 'loquacious' in a sentence and who the hell uses them in a sentence with 'dude?'
I am soooooo impressed....NOT
LOL, It would be so funny seeing Nifong trying to dance around all this. But I am sure he can with the judge on his side.
Hell no they don't!
More columns from Moonbat Saunders...
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/saunders
JLS, the sink part may be one of the most truthful things she told. Likely the pimp/driver/boyfriend banged her head against a sink during the beating. She obviously didn't have those injuries during the examination at DUMC. Too many people involved in the examination there not to have found them.
Barry Saunders: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/saunders/index.html
He's part of the Trotter Group "Black Voices of Commentary".
What is even worse?
What I call a hangover at my age is child's play.
Saunders just doesn't get it. If Nifong can what he is doing to these white kids with no evidence and the cameras focused on him. Just imagine what he can do to poor black kids with awful public defenders. Nifong is unfit to hold such a position of power.
Okay, I made a connection with a couple of claims.
The LAX players say they were shoving money under the bathroom door to get the women to leave.
In Kim's written statement, Crystal does not want to leave the bathroom because they can get more money.
I think this confirms the LAX players account. Crystal wanted to hold out for more twenties under the door before they left.
Kim also has Crystal wanting to go back and make more money after she is in the car.
I think Kim's account of Crystal not wanting to leave the bathroom corroborates the LAX player's account.
I think the "It's only $100." comment is probably in reference to having to shove 5 twenties under the door before Kim and Crystal left.
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