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
Rep. Paul Miller, D-Durham, resigns state House seat
http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-747966.html
" Gov. Mike Easley will appoint a replacement for Miller, nominated by the Durham
County Democratic Executive Committee to complete Miller's term. That likely will be
attorney Larry Hall, who won the Democratic primary last month to succeed Miller
and has no Republican opponent in November.
Floyd McKissick, chairman of the Durham County Democratic Party, said
he'll call a meeting within the next two weeks to come up with a nominee."
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:HBa4vhF9hZ8J:www.larrydhall.com/bio.html+%22Renaissance+Group%22+durham+hall&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=firefox-a
Larry D. Hall, Durham’s native son, is a husband, a father, a mentor, an advocate, and a businessman. He attended Spaulding Elementary, Shepherd Middle School and Hillside High before going on to Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, where he graduated with a double major in Political Science and Business. Larry then earned his law degree from the UNC School of Law in Chapel Hill.
A leader in Durham for over 20 years, Larry has devoted time and energy to many different civic groups and community organizations. The list includes:
• Durham Legal Aid Society (Member, Board of Directors)
• Durham County Bar Association (Chairman, Board of Directors)
• Durham Companions Youth Mentor Program
• Rites of Passage Youth Mentor Program
• Durham Branch, NAACP
• Durham Business & Professional Chain (Member, Board of Directors)
• Durham Chamber of Commerce (Member, Board of Directors)
• Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People
• Durham Minority/Women Business Enterprise Advisory Committee
• Durham Renaissance Group
• Durham People’s Alliance
• North Carolina Leadership Caucus (Chairman)
• Raleigh-Durham Young Marines
• Durham Capital Improvement Bond Planning Committee
• Marine Corps League (Commandant, Eno River Detachment 872)
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A21240
MARCH 17, 2004
Floyd McKissick Jr. disciplined by N.C. Bar
BY JENNIFER STROM
Durham attorney and former city council member Floyd McKissick Jr. has been disciplined by the N.C. State Bar for professional misconduct involving a conflict of interest.
(snip)
http://www.core-online.org/history/mckissick.htm
After leaving CORE, McKissick (SR.) launched a plan to build a new community, Soul City, on Warren County North Carolina farmland. McKissick saw Soul City as an integrated community with sufficient industry to support a population of 55,000. For his venture, he received a $14 million bond issue guarantee from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and a loan of $500,000 form the First Pennsylvania Bank.
Soul City, however, ran into difficulties and despite the best offers of McKissick, the project never developed as he had anticipated. Finally, in June 1980, the Soul City Corporation and the federal government reached an agreement that would allow the government to assume control the following January. Under the agreement, the company retained 88 acres of the project, including the site of a mobile home park and a 60,000 square foot building that had served as the project’s headquarters.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development paid off $10 million in loans and agreed to pay an additional $175,000 of the project’s outstanding debts. In exchange, McKissick agreed to drop a lawsuit brought to block HUD from shutting down the project.
http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/htm/04930.html
Floyd B. McKissick Papers Inventory (#4930)
To: comments@foxnews.com
Subject: Duke Lacrosse-- The DA's 1300 Pages
We keep hearing from some of the reporters that "no one has seen the DA's entire report", or "we only know what the defense has selectively released". I would like to bring to Fox News attention that Dan Abrams has personally seen every page of the original 1300 pages that the DA turned over to the defense. From the June 19 Abrams Report:
DAN ABRAMS: Well now I've seen them all. It's all numbered. Every page is numbered of the discovery. I've seen it all now everything that the D.A. handed over to the defense team, and this case is even weaker than I originally thought. [end excerpt]
-- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13438728/
In my opinion, it is newsworthy that a respected and credible legal analyst has seen the documents, and reported on them. I see no reason why that fact cannot be reported as part of the Duke Lacrosse coverage.
Excellent job, Ken H!
FOX's misinformation "reporting" is abysmal.
Oh I think we can all imagine how Mangum got money to pay Woody, if there was not just a trade of services.
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You think maybe the media was off when they portrayed her as a poor single Mom that was dancing for her second time - or working her way through school as they put it!
Ah, the advantages of living a tax-free life!!
Shakedown?!?
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:81K8licYmPoJ:www.owdna.org/OWD_in_news2.htm+McKissick+clement+durham&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=13&client=firefox-a
Council praises Duke effort
(May 16, 1997. N&O)
... "I would like to commend the university in this regard," council member Floyd McKissick Jr. said after Duke officials made the first public presentation of their ambitious plan at the council's work session. "Duke has a reputation of being a very exclusive enclave," McKissick added. "People there have little interaction with the city of Durham." Over the past year, Duke has undertaken an effort to make its resources more accessible to the community. To spearhead the plan, the university hired former City Council member Sandy Ogburn to lead a community relations team.
Although council members said they are pleased with Duke's decision to work with the 12 neighborhoods, they said the initiative could have the opposite effect if Duke doesn't follow through on its promises. "Duke needs to build up trust and improve credibility," council member Howard Clement said...
Someone from the Durham city government talking about "trust and improve credibility"? Oh good grief. Nothing's changed in the near decade since that was written. Who'd want to become involved in the pig sty that is Durham.
HAMMER: Greta, sometimes you don't have corroboration because people commit good crimes.
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So, I guess they're stepping away from the Drunk Frat Boys at KEG party that had been drinking since 2:00pm that day.
And, the other segment with Dr Baden and Dr. Henry Lee was enlightening (they were discussing JonBenet), when the forensics Docs said that DNA testing is so sensitive today that they could be picking up DNA from people than produced the garments or handled it in a store.
But - not a single skin cell on the Perfect Criminals.
I wonder if Jim Hammer thinks it would've been different if Harry Truman had looked in Hitler's eyes. Hell, let's do away with Cross-examination - let's just let the jurors get in line to look in the accuser's eye's - or maybe - they should look into David Evan's eyes.
Maybe determining one's truth or deceit by looking into an accuser's eyes depends more on the biases of the examimer than the innocence or guilt of the those being assessed.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1621008/posts?page=107#107
To: TommyDale
http://www.nccu.edu/studentlife/greeks/APA/
107 posted on 04/25/2006 9:56:52 AM CDT by xoxoxox
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:wHaS8DcpZW8J:www.unctv.org/bif/transcripts/2005/transcript2116.html+McKissick+clement+durham&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=14&client=firefox-a
Lewis: And Councilman Clement you have been a member for 52 years. What lead you to become a part of Alpha Phi Alpha?
Clement: Well the greatest influence in my life was my father, Alpha John Howard Clement, Jr. He pledged Alpha in 1926 at Johnson C. Smith University. And when I enrolled at Howard University in 1951, my father said to me, “When you pledge Alpha” he didn’t give me an option. He said, “When you pledge Alpha I’ll help you.” And that is what I did, I pledged Alpha and he was there when we crossed the burning sands. And up until the date of his death in 1987 he remained an annual payment dues; he had all of his pass cards from 1926 until 1987. That made a profound impact on me. And I said I am going to surpass my father in terms of tenure in this great organization and in the meantime my brother pledged Alpha, I have two brothers-in-law who are Alphas, I have several cousins who are Alpha. In fact there are enough Alphas in my family to form a chapter. You only need seven and I’ve counted 12 Alpha’s in my family, who if we banded together as a society we would be legally titled a chapter in Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. And I never regretted these 52 years that I have been a member.
Thanks for the info. Is that intended to be passed on?
Hannity & Colmes to have "new information" on Duke case...
Huffinstuff is on ... I'll go back to the Sex in the City rerun for now. ;)
(Pass on the info.)
Hannity has done a good job on the Duke case, including exclusives.
Yes, Sean been outstanding.
from the link:
Lewis: Vice President Ward can you think of other Alpha men who have been involved in say shaping not only North Carolina but the country as a whole?
Ward: Well I think the list is kind of countless but let me just mention a few. One for example is Floyd McKissick who was a pioneer here in North Carolina and then went on to become the national director of CORE and was working hand-in-hand with Brother Martin Luther Kind during the Civil Rights Movement. Adam Clayton Powell, we all know of Congressman Powell’s contributions and what he did for education as chairman of a major committee in the United States House of Representatives.
should be-- Sean's been outstanding.
Pat DumbBlondie and Skeletor insist that the defense has "no right" to know the theory of the case. What country do these people live in? The do have a right to know which VERSION of Crystal's story that Nifong plans to prosecute which is what they are asking for in the motion. Morons.
Yeah, Hannity needs to get back. Colmes is terrible and a liar.
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