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
I'm sure our magician Maggief does;>)
I'm going out on an un-PC limb here saying that his mannerisms, voice patterns and head movements look like every other transvestite I have known.
Didn't Jackie bounce and do the strippers' hair, LOL!
Paging you...do you have a pic of the cousin?
Ooooo--You know transvestites???
Can't have speakers on at the office, so please keep us posted.
You're probably right. Maybe he'll even attempt to use his wife's illness to his advantage. I think some of these NC politicians are cut from the same cloth.
In the meantime, NG says 'there is no indication whether or not any players will be present. We don't have any confirmation of that.'
Not up close and personal, but I have met a few in my life. Most of them have legs I would kill for, LOL!
Still haven't started. Stephens is taking Xanax
LOL!
What was the scandal? Couldn't find anything in a quick google.
Well, if you have any ideas on how we clean up this mess, I'm all ears. Unless you've been in court, or there has been a scandal(like this one), it's hard to tell which judges/DA's are good or bad. I remember being frustrated with voting brochures, combing through the information. I wanted to make an informed choice, but some of the statements of these people left me confused. Ended up voting no on all of them. Now we have the internet and Free Republic.
Oh brother, I'm watching FNC right now and they're discussing this case. We cannot sleep through the onslaught of the miscarriage of justice, however we need to keep up a concerted effort to keep them either honest, or unemployed.
Stephens has never worked this late in his life. He's probably napping.
Good Lord--we haven't had rain forever and now a storm is moving in...Satellite will go & will have to cut off laptop. Thank God I have my XM & battery is charged and ready to go.!
I'm covered.
I just started listening to the news. You can do so right where you are. My husband and I heard this case hit at Duke. We listened and read everything we could. I recognized the situation due to our own with our son. If you held the two up back to back in the light you'd see the situation of the accusation and the charges was the same -- maybe not the reason for them, but the changing stories, the I was in the room, I wasn't in the room. It happened, it didn't happen and then, whammy, the race card was played and it was off to the races. I knew then I just couldn't let people drift away from what was happening. I had to put a real family, a real mother's story in front of people and hope that my prayers would be answered. They have been -- more than I could have hoped for. If I believed for one second that the accusation was true, I wouldn't have opened up the door to our house so to speak, but you can't live each detail and not recognize it when you're seeing it again. Then put it out there for everyone to see -- it's the only way the boys will know there is support for them, and the only way the victim will get the justice she deserves -- for better or worse.
If the hearing is late enough, maybe NGB's show will go off, and we'll be spared her remarks. Of course, Catherine Crier will take up the remarking......liberal 'take'.
Remember, it's been reported that NC is the only state where the DA can pick his judge. JLS posted something in regard to this and it's true.
So, Nifong not only sets the Docket (scheduling), he can essentially pick the Trial Judge. That Judge almost always rules with the prosecution in every motion.
Judges have actually complained to the media in Durham, because they don't get any important cases, because the Durham DA is allowed to continually go back to the same favorable judge.
According to the case load and the public complaints by the Judges not selected, Judge Orlando Hudson gets the lions share of cases due to his prosecution favored rulings.
Some, system, huh?
Here's an old quote from the N&O:
"Judge-shopping is legal in North Carolina, the ONLY state in the country where district attorneys decide when and where a case goes to trial."
I want the NGB to stay on. I wanna see her melt on live tv...
"It" could be female; on the other hand...... (Thanks for the pic....the one I saw showed its full body. lol)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.