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
Megan:
After reciting the effects this has had on the 3 lax players- "Well, that's the way the legal system works."
Sounded damned proud, also.
Won't we all sleep better tonight?
No, no don't go. You find yourself among those who know not the depth of Nifonglaxitude and become embroiled with the need to explain...http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1657062/posts.
Here (minus the . at the end:) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1657062/posts
Thanks. Couldn't figure out what I had done. I'm a slave to punctuation!
You know, I go out to those new threads from time to time and I don't recognize 99.9 % of the names.
I like it here better :-)
Nope. I don't think you're in the tequila. :)
I thought it was balanced, especially for the Washington Post. But Marcus' expressed hope that Nifong is proved right because the alternative is so troubling is a naive understatement at best.
What's going on in Durham is more than "troubling."
I just read the Vanity Fair piece a couple of nights ago. And although it's dated, I thought that article was very good. I liked it better than the SI piece.
The hope that Nifong is right, because if he were this corrupt is upsetting to her sensibilities, was a slimey end to the article. I think I've heard that feeling expressed before and it's troubling. These people would rather see 3 innocent guys go to prison than believe that their justice system hold people such as Nifong. I would like to tell them to GROW UP. I swear, libs live in an alternative universe.
See, I thought it was a rather good ending. I don't believe there is anyone with half a brain out there who doensn't know that no rape occurred. So, in effect, she is saying "There is a problem here, folks." Now, I admit, it could have been made in a stronger way; but, then again, those who believed so adamantly in the FA need to be eased into the realization that they were duped. (I'm not saying that they SHOULD be eased into it; I'm just saying that if they come to the realization on their own, rather than having it shoved down their throats, the result may actually be better. Then, they'll be pissed that they were duped, and want to do something about it!) /rose-colored glasses
I can't spell OR proofread, sorry.
Would that be Dan Hill?
I think we are about in the same place. Those that believe that "elite white self-absorbed athletes" are obviously more likely to be guilty of a crime than a "young black mother/student/dancer" hold the idea that a prosecutor that agrees with them cannot be crazy or corrupt. Coming around to the idea that this champion of the poor underclass is wrong is highly disturbing to them, it conflicts with their world view. She conveys this in the last part of the article. The reality is, however, that 3 young smart athletic men who did not rape a prostitute could go to jail for years and years. That is far more disturbing to, for instance, me, than the idea that this champion of the people is a sleazy whacko. I assume these race baiters are nuts, corrupt, and probably evil from the get go. Her article was well balanced but she showed her world view there at the very end.
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/452981.html
Slow-going
Dan Hill, an insurance and banking executive who is one of the Cheek petition organizers, said the fundraising has been slow. He batted back speculation that parents and friends of Duke lacrosse players were behind Cheek.
"There is not one shred of truth to that," Hill said Tuesday. "This is a local issue that's become national entertainment. We're doing all we can to let local people resolve the issue. It's important that the money being raised be local. Nobody from Duke has put me up to this. Zero money has been coming in from out of Durham."
Cheek's campaign is not an effort to exonerate the accused, Hill said. It was begun, he said, because of mounting questions about Nifong's public comments before charges were filed and the evidence that defense attorneys have made public since then.
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/452981.html
Slow-going
Dan Hill, an insurance and banking executive who is one of the Cheek petition organizers, said the fundraising has been slow. He batted back speculation that parents and friends of Duke lacrosse players were behind Cheek.
"There is not one shred of truth to that," Hill said Tuesday. "This is a local issue that's become national entertainment. We're doing all we can to let local people resolve the issue. It's important that the money being raised be local. Nobody from Duke has put me up to this. Zero money has been coming in from out of Durham."
Cheek's campaign is not an effort to exonerate the accused, Hill said. It was begun, he said, because of mounting questions about Nifong's public comments before charges were filed and the evidence that defense attorneys have made public since then.
Whoops, my computer has been in the tequila.
"They" certainly came up with that 20K rather quickly.
http://www2.snl.com/irweblinkx/bio.aspx?IID=4064834&PID=186283&AIP=51096&PersonSection=1073742159
I totally understand your viewpoint, and cannot say that I disagree.
What kind of disclosure does NC require for political contributions?
Sure it was: last time you were "protecting" the tequila; now it's the computer's fault! :)
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