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
Now all we need is a text message from Crystal to Kim's car to the bathroom saying "they're putting money under the door".
A question to the group. Does Cheshire & Co. file more motions this next week and/or release more documents? When would be the best time (from a media impact standpoint) to release the information?
That's like Kennedy, Kerry, etc., bloviating about what good Catholics they are. I'm holding my breath for the Pope to publicly excommunicate them for their views, which are contrary to Church teachings.
We all have to draw a line about what we do and what we don't do. The information coming out about the players in this debacle is amazing....and pretty scary. Wolves in sheep's clothing. Watch out for them.
LOL - Ubiquitous and loquacious. Fifth grade "Build your Vocabulary" book.
PS. So I doubt any drug tests were done at UNC. The defense wants those records:
1. So no surprises hit them at trial.
2. To see what they can find to undermine her story. For example, would a real rape victim go to the ER the next day for something completely different and not mention the rape at all? I don't know. I am not a woman, but I could see a woman who was actually raped saying to the ER MD look I was also raped and reported it last night, do you see any damage to my privates? I mean once you wait that long, you might want the MD to look at all your recent issues?
In Kim's big televised interview in which she "exposes" some of the "lies" being told by the defense she says something like..... (moving her head from side to side.. you know)
"and that part about them shoving $100...er...ahhh.... I mean shoving a 100 dollar bill under the BR door is a damn lie... didn't happen"
(finishing with a flurry of head bobbing and weaving)
How can you not believe a woman who can move her head like Kim? I wonder what they call that move on the street? We used to call street talk "jive" when I was a kid, but I never heard a word for the moving of the head side to side and up and down at the same time.. I recall seeing it mostly from women.. Maybe some of our younger, more "hip" contributors can provide input...
Thanks. I appreciate your kind words -- I'm really, truly not trying to lecture or tell "our" story. If the contrasting of the two situations Duke's/ours can help people see more clearly that this isn't just a fluke, then I will have accomplished all I set out to do. To have a foundation established to save others from what we have gone through is like Heaven to me. I wish we'd had it. The three of us in our little boat were bailing like crazy and singing songs through the dark of night to keep from giving up.
After sharing with me, you have all helped me heal. I've shed the first tears I can remember since childhood thanks to those of you on this thread. My upper lip was so stiff, I couldn't laugh anymore and you all have given that back to me. Let's not let the good work started here go away when this is over -- and it will be. I have to go now or I won't be able to see my computer to finish my work today. Closing files at the office - Ugh - I need all the eyesight I can muster. If any one of the staff here ever manages to get the papers in the folders, I'll faint.
pepperhead, I think that BS (Barry Saunders) may be on to something. Reread the paragraph where he mentions Dan Abrams. He is probably very close to being right about the stripper raping the players. I sent him an email asking that he and the N&O take the lead in investigating that possibility.
Rather than being beaten for losing the party money and taken to UNC MC, it makes more sense to me that she and person/s unknown thought more serious injuries would buttress her tale, and they were purposely inflicted with her permission sometime after leaving DMC. She may have feared being charged with making false statements to LE, and wanted more believable injuries/pics in case the police came calling.
Shoot, her father might have beat her up for all we know. I wouldn't put anything past them.
Hopefully the defense can show that during her exams on the 14th she was basically uninjured and then on the 15th she looked like she had been beaten up, meaning it wasn't the LAX players.
Are durham cops known for beating people into telling the correct story?
None is expected to attend today's hearing.
I may be exposing ignorance here and probably am, but is this proper...??? Who is "None" and why is he/she expected at the hearing?
They shoved 20-dollar bills. See how she corrected herself?
If there is, no one is talking. Did you realize that some folks don't have bank accounts? If she's sucking off the public trough, she wouldn't want a record of "earned income" anyway.
Is Mangum a common surname in that neck of the woods?
I don't think this is as complicated as that on the 15th. On the 15th she had lied her way out of confinement, the DPD knew she was lying but "modern rape sensitivity" required them to treat this clearly false claim seriously and nobody yet saw an advantage in this. Thus:
1. Nobody was conspiring with her to make her injuries look more serious. There was no reason to yet, plus she was at Duke and knew that would not work.
2. The cops had little interest in her at the time. She beat the system a little bit by not getting confined, but it also meant the cop only had to drop her off at Duke ER and be done with her. He was probably happy she pulled this scam.
It is very very very important in this to remember it was not a big deal on the 14th or 15th. It was only after Nifong facing his sagging internal polls and the Duke far left faculty started stirring things up that this became an important matter.
From the point of view of Mangum and more importantly her pimp it was business as usual on the 15th. From the point of view of the DPD, they did not even bother with securing 610 Buchannan as a crime scene. Everyone, Sgt Shelton, Office Sutton, Pittman [aka Roberts] that heard her story that night knew there was no rape.
Now maybe one of the unintended consequences of the beating is that stupid Nifong saw this opportunity and when he first saw her she was beat up some and that made him initially believe her story. I think he did initially believe with her confused story, DNA on and in her and her beat up appearance, that there was a rape. [The cops know she turns tricks, Nifong probably at that time did not.]
Nifong becomes culpable when the DNA comes back negative, he finds out she is a hooker and sees those injuries were post 14th in the physical exam. He worries if he does not charge anyone, he will lose the primary. So be commits a crime to win the primary.
Yes, it's very common. Sounds like they marry their cousins. That could, in great part, explain Mr. Nifong.
Barry Saunders is a racist, plain and simple. He is the main reason I cancelled my subscription to the News & Observer.
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