DA plans to turn over more papers in lacrosse case (DukeLax)

The Herald-Sun ^ | June 22, 2006 | John Stevenson

[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

[Locomotive Breath]

It turns out that Duke students can also register to vote. It will be interesting to see if they do that in any significant numbers. This being a non-presidential year election, regular voter turnout will be not so great. A relatively smaller group of highly motivated voters could have an impact.

[GAgal]

There is a relatively small window of opportunity in which Duke students can register to vote. They have to be living in Durham 30 days first (classes start Aug. 28), and must sign up no later than 25 days before election day on Nov. 7.

Hopefully, someone will figure out the exact days to register and get the word out on campus.

[I want to know]

***complete control***

Who wants complete control? Is Nifong 1.) a dupe, being used by others; 2.) unsrupulous, doing this for political reasons; or 3.) truly wants to see justice done.

And while I understand Durham City and Durham politics are far from ideal, how do the articles you share have anything to do with the case or non-case against the three lacrosse players?

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

My answer (although you did not ask me) is
1.) a dupe, being used by others;
2.) unsrupulous, doing this for political reasons;

[I want to know]

Thanks. All input is appreciated, especially yours : )

The articles xo shares are interesting concerning Durham politics, however, I can't understand why Nifong would put so much on the line to take this to trial. If the only reason he did this was for politics I can't help but think that he would have dropped the case once he won the primary. Why take the chance all hell would break loose by pursuing a case built on knowingly false accusations? If he dropped the case in May this would have been a distant memory by November and he wouldn't have the problems he has now, with all the information being released from the defense, Cheek considering a run against him in November, and the city of Durham upset with how this has played out in the media.

(Disclaimer: I think this case is very weak from what information we know. And I don't think Nifong has a "smoking gun" that we don't know about. But I'm not quite ready to say Nifong is a bad guy. Almost, but not yet there.)

[JLS]

I can't understand why Nifong would put so much on the line to take this to trial.

My view is:

1. Nifong need this case to win the primary.

2. He did not plan to drop the case but he did not plan on it getting so much publicity that he could neither take it to trial or drop it. [Taking it to trial now futher increases his civil and criminal liability, while dropping it costs him the election in November for sure unless Cheeks drops out.]

3. He did it because he could. He had a DA for a boss his entire career. The DA seemed all powerful from Nifong's vantage point. He imagined he was all powerful once he got the position. And he does not mind losing cases, he punished who he wants by dragging them through a trial.

[abb]

New news story today...

Duke dad says evidence clears son
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liduke014803152jul01,0,310496.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines

[NeonKnight]

Good article abb. Sounds like Finnerty may very well have an airtight alibi.

[JLS]

Thanks for the link. I was out of pocket, playing golf and seeing a play two hours out of town, yesterday after I posted the link to the NBC interview with Finnerty's parent.

I guess Cheeks has not commented on running or not? Possibly he wants to see that his 10,000 signatures include 6,303 valid ones.

[RecallMoran]

I used to take the "young democrats" bus (there was no republican/conservative union then) to the polls and vote for Jesse Helms. I would laugh all the way back.

[RecallMoran]

You might want to send that info to the "FriendsofDukeUniversity" site so they can post it. I would also send it to the Duke New Sense web site and maybe they can figure out a way to spread the word. http://dukenewsense.com/blog/dcu.html

[RecallMoran]

You didn't ask me either but I think XOXOXO said before that there was a Stephens/Nifong clique and a Black/Hardin/somebody else clique. They are vying for control.

[Ken H]

Demographics of Durham County voters:

According to the latest voter registration figures, Durham County has 27,070 registered Republicans, 24,566 of whom are white. The county has 86,621 registered Democrats, 46,586 of whom are black. So the demographic bloc supportive of Nifong's behavior formed a majority of the Democratic electorate, while those most likely to be alienated by his tactics couldn't vote in the primary. As the director of the Durham County Board of Elections noted the day after the primary, "We had a lot of irate, irate Republicans who couldn't vote for district attorney."

--http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/25357.html

[gopheraj]

mark

[Hogeye13]

Haven't seen this posted before. Freakonomics author, Steven D. Levitt writes about the statistical oddity of the selection of the three lacrosse players in the lineup.

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/category/1/

[Dukie07]

Stephen Miller is the person to contact for Duke Conservatives (email is probably stephen(dot)miller AT duke(dot)edu)- looking for the person for Duke Democrats. There are usually tables around campus registering people to vote. Or, Ryan McCartney is the Chronicle editor.

[Ken H]

Results of May 2 primary--

Mike Nifong- 11,168 45%
Freda Black- 10,269 42%
Keith Bishop-- 3,288 13%

http://abclocal.go.com/three/wtvd/election/race190.htm

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

It has more subplots than Dallas and Knots Landing combined.

[Dukie07]

http://www.duke.edu/web/dukedems/welcome/index.htm is the webpage for Duke Dems. Also, the Duke Political Union is a non-biased organization that may help to get the vote out.
http://osa.studentaffairs.duke.edu/studentorgs/stuorgs/directory/stuorgs-p/political_union.html

[JLS]

Here are a few facts on DA voting recently:

1. 2002 Primary 26,756 votes.

2. 2002 General 51,425 votes. [This was the vote total in an uncontested general election. There was a US Senate seat on head of the ticket to attract voters to the poll. The DA race race received almost 77% of the votes as the US Senate race did.]

2. 2006 Primary 24,725 votes.

3. Nifong received about 11,168 votes in the 2006 primary.

Now a bit of analysis and conjecture:

So I would say 10,000 signatures are a big shot across his bow. 20,000 votes might win the general. According to your numbers Durham has about 113,691 registered voters. A turnout of 40% would be about 45,477 votes, 77% of that would be 35,017 voters. There is no governors or US Senate race to top the ticket and so USUALLY turnout would be low.

Of course, if the people of Durham are unhappy with this office, the voter rolls could grow to 120,000 or 130,000 or more, the turnout could be 60% or more and the DA race could be the top vote getter.