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
Oh, I'm sorry. I at first misread your post. Brodhead did allude to the racial exchange being Nifong's ace in the hole, Brodhead himself alluded to the fact that regardless of criminal behavior that the lacrosse team was "dishonorable."
This word sticks in my craw--it's all I can do not to put my fist through the monitor. I really hope I never see Bordhead face to face.
Sorry: DIDN'T allude to
Should I be surprised discovery is some "new-fangled" thing to NC? And that Alan Gell case? OMG.
WTFIIWNC???????
His grasp of language is clearly suspect: How precisely is one "pretty near loquacious"?
Hahahaha! Seriously nothing can explain Nifong, except his obsession for political power at this point.
Mangum is a common name in Durham, and there is even a street named Mangum.
Thanks to you both. I was wondering what the odds were that two of Crystal's family members were in trouble at the same time.
LOL! I thought there were two more dancers!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
I'd bet she's in Nifong's "custody". I cannot believe he is too stupid to realize that he's gone too far with this. AV has changed her story so many times, that she has to be kept away from everyone. I'll bet her kids are just loving this. /sarcasm
She may have wanted to get out of it by failing to ID the "suspects", but didn't realize that some folks have political aspirations that supercede reality.
As for the judge issuing an order for the medical and legal records to be released, I really couldn't answer that. Usually, the medical records are off limits.
Thanks. I was beginning to wonder if anyone even got that one!
Can you create as much pressure as a death threat from the NBPs?
Man oh man, go to a baseball game in the middle of a 95+ degree afternoon. With a sinus (YEAH!, sinus, that's the ticket) headache on top of the heat. It's finally gone.
LOL, I don't drink much, but when I do, I drink with a purpose. Husband has learned he can never have more than one beer. Being designated driver is the price he pays to play golf.
Don't worry,I tasted all the Tequilla I guarded. Wouldn't want anyone to be accidently poisoned.
"Grandpa Joe, candykisses, and regina.... "
That sounds like some nasty stuff.
Pinging DukeLax List
Dan Abrams to be interviewed on NBC Dateline...
Very nasty!
DATELINE ALERT!
It looks promising when Dan Abrams is one of the interviewees and the first issue raised is the false accuser's many versions of the incident.
They're doing a story on hazing first.
Don't worry about it. I screw up PM's all the time :)
Years before I met my bf, I participated in a child custody board for men. I couldn't believe how vicious people can be, the lengths they'll go to "win". Sort of like our buddy, Nifong. A couple of years ago, a young man almost went down the tubes on the same allegations, but he listened to us, and did not talk to the cops without a lawyer present. The charges were dropped by the accuser(ex gf- mother of their preschool aged daughter), when Social Services started investigating her and her fiance.
At a certain age, those safety scissors are unmanageable. I have 4 kids, so I know. I thought your son was in college? My son was in special ed since he was 7. There is nothing wrong with him intellectually, it's all behavioral. Your initial post reminded me of something harebrained that my son would actually do...for a joke(ADHD? Bad impulse control?). Don't think I didn't try and fix him, either. If I could have fixed him, he'd have a HS diploma, and maybe at least a partial track and field scholarship. He was good. He'd smoke me everytime I chased him down the street.
If your son is a minor, or was when this was done to him, can you have the records sealed? It will make things easier for him. I can't believe they went forward with the non evidence presented against your son.
Sometimes you wonder why He gives us burdens. We stay close to the Lord, and I pray quite a lot. Not only for bf who also prays, but my son and daughters, and people who request prayer. It has been said that God helps those who help themselves. I'd like to see a change in how justice is done. Real justice for real criminals. I will always believe that there is a war against men in this system.
It's Show Time!
Did you notice that Dateline said that Abrams saw all the documents that were "presented to the Grand Jury"? Since the Grand Jury wasn't probably presented with sh*t that would be an incorrect statement.
Mr. Recall Moran insists that they meant that the Grand Jury documents were within the pages that Abrams saw.
Mr. Recall Moran is wrong again.
Their other prosecutor Bondi said nothing except that Nifong BELIEVES in this case and a jury will decide. Duh.
With all due respect to Mr.RecallMoran, he is wrong.
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