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
See yesterday's post 893. They can't read! It explains so much, including their resentment of the "elite" (literate) Duke students and why Nifong couldn't get into Duke.
"Ubiquitous and loquacious"
LOL! I thought there were two more dancers!
What's up with all this hangover talk on Saturday? LOL!
I know someone who did this exact thing. She beat herself to inflict bruises, then falsely reported a crime. A couple of years later, I was watching a movie and saw the very same thing, where a woman put a bag full of baseballs and swung it from a rafter to inflict bruises to set someone up for a false accusation.
Maybe she was making change?
Mangum is a common name in Durham, and there is even a street named Mangum.
Yeah, that's the ticket! Being the Chief of Police's daughter had absolutely nothing to do with it!
"That's my story and I'm sticking to it!"
Let's not forget this document.
$2 grand stolen and 2 suspects.
Filed by Sutton, also.
Same Sutton as the 4 dancers, 5 attackers report.
http://www.bluelineradio.com/610Buchanan.jpg
Yeah, I shake my head. Sutton will be a very key witness if this makes it to trial.
BTW, I did not keep my promise to myself to stay away from the CourtTV site. I responded to you on the Judge Stephen's performance thread.
(((Hugs))), CG. I'm glad we can help you and others. I read your post to me (the one a couple of days ago), and my bf was just amazed that your words are the same words of discouragement, anger, heartache, and wariness that he, I, and his family feel about what happened to him and to your son.
I was going to pm you and a couple of other people, but I'm going to post this public. My bf's ex wife is a meth addict. When bf's ex wife was released from rehab, she accused him of molesting their girls. The girls were medically assaulted, mentally assaulted, just to try and hang him. Well he's not a child molester, and was actually Mr. Mom because his wife was disappearing for weeks at a time. He watched his kids like a hawk. Therefore they couldn't find what wasn't there. It really messed them up though :(
Now it gets really sick. A 13 yr old girl who thought of the ex wife as a mom(her dad was murdered when she and her sisters were quite young, and mom was a fellow druggie pal of the ex), accused my bf of molesting her. This girl's mother killed herself and another daughter on an apparent drug run. A grandmother took custody of her. The grandmother changed their phone number and ignored subpeonas. No harm, no foul. Are we surprised anymore?
My bf spent 3 weeks in jail, waiting for his family to scrape enough money together to retain a lawyer. The tape of the police interview with the girl had her volunteering that she was a good liar, while she giggled all the way throughout the interview. The judge felt there was enough evidence to go to trial, and that's when the attorney dropped the bomb to plea bargain.
He's on Megan's Law website(along with thousands of other people who are probably innocent). It says penetration by a foreign object. That would be a finger, not a pop bottle or a pool cue. Notice the language they use to make their accusations as ugly as possible. No, he didn't do it. He was genuinely concerned, as she was a friend of his oldest girl, and she was spinning out of control. She spent years being part of the family, while her mom and his ex tweeked. This is the lesson to be learned: Don't feel sorry for damaged children, but instead avoid them like the plague. I've condensed this whole mess, just so people can get the general idea of the railroading he got.
Ex's motivation? She wanted the house. Bf was sick and tired of the nonsense. To get the house, she needed custody of the kids. With her history, she needed something worse than being a drug addict. Voila! Child molester!
I hope someone at your work did their job. There was a time that I enjoyed paperwork, until I took over court appointed conservatorship, then probate for my mom's estate. AAAARGH....
Dateline NBC to do show tonite on DukeLax
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12843545/
BTW, where is the AV?
It's possible she wanted to get out of the whole thing by failing to make a positive ID; hence, 6 ID sessions.
And then by making an ID of Evans with a moustache.
But Nifong wanted a case. So now the AV is out of sight
and kept away from the microphones.
Is she, in effect, still a free agent anymore? Or is she in Nifong's "custody"?
And can an order be issued by a judge forcing him to permit access to her by health care/legal professionals?
Do you take a shower after you post there? ;)
I don't post there, but I feel so dirty after browsing there. Some of the posters there are just so sad.
LOL, I picked that up, too. I guess now the Koolaid drinkers will now try to say it was a "thought crime," even though the physical act didn't take place.
You have noticed how when their arguments run out of steam they bring out the alleged racial slurs, trying to equate that with rape...
Maybe she IS being being truthful, but she was so traumatized and confused in the early going that she told different things to different people.
Either way there is damage every way you look: If she’s not credible, then the three defendants lives are nevertheless ruined, maybe forever. If she does believe she was raped, how can she ever get up the courage to testify knowing that the defense will skewer her with her own conflicting accounts?
________________________________
The Trauma standard: Reality holds no sway.
The boys lives are "nevertheless runined" so why not send them to prison to keep her from being "skewered".
And I'm bad too. I don't know why I keep going over there. Grandpa Joe, candykisses, and regina are are beyond hope. And I see red every time I read that the truth will come out when this goes to trial.
They just won't recognize that taking this baseless case to trial amounts to a financial punishment for the players. There are supposed to be checks and safeguards to prevent this from happening. What else can you do but throw up your hands at their ignorance?
Invalid thread specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the webmaster
http://boards.courttv.com/showthread.php?s=0f70b6e63ba37f72d5a128230f8258ec&threadid=268010
The thread was up and running last night.
Melanie Sill's Editor's Blog fairly active this morning at the NandO
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/editor/index.php?title=duke_case_coverage_1&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#comments
I see blue whenever regina posts. ;)
I been thinking of opening a account and replying to her in blue. I mean why the blue? Does it make her feel special or something? LOL
They just won't recognize that taking this baseless case to trial amounts to a financial punishment for the players. There are supposed to be checks and safeguards to prevent this from happening. What else can you do but throw up your hands at their ignorance?
Right they don't care what it cost. It is all for their personal enjoyment.
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