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
My major gripe is that Duke's own report showed the administration was at fault for not notifying Coach Pressler of disciplinary problems with the team. Coach Pressler addressed the problems he knew about. So why do those anonymous administrators get to keep their jobs while Pressler is hung out to dry?
Or daddies
Well I'm still forulating my reply but it's going to be along the lines of "Actions speak louder than words".
I watch those idiot shows occasionally. Morrey?? And I must say that the majority of these women (90%) are black or a mix. These chicks wanta know who the father is for sure. Sometimes they say it could be as many as 6 different dudes. (Varies).
Wonder how much Morrey pays these people to appear? You know darn well that unless there's some good bucks involved, they wouldn't be there.
Well I am sure they are paid. But many of them do it just to get on tv. Plus there is the whole "Baby Daddy" culture. I don't know who these kid's daddy is. But it has been said it isn't her ex-husband.
Well yeah he's dragging this out. He's defying the Constitutional protections regarding speedy trials. Next spring? BS! He doesn't have anything, and that is the reason for a big ol' paper dump. If there is any justice left in the world, those four players will own Durham when this is finally over.
As for the accuser, her lifestyle will kill her. She should be punished appropriately, but I don't think that's going to happen.
A poster on the CourtTV board says all the major cable networks will be carry this beginning at 3:00 pm.
Oh please. Oscar Mayer couldn't mass produce that much baloney. All he cared about was political correctness & pandering to certain factions in the community. He couldn't throw these boys (as well as the coach) under the bus fast enough. Broadhead will be a dark cloud hanging over Duke University as long as he is president.
The reason is simple... The SANE nurse is a material witness, whose identity is currently unknown to the defense. This individual's conclusions have been used to justify this witch hunt, but the person is not now subject to questioning.
If the prosecution wants to have this nurse as an "expert witness", then the defense gets to know who they are - if only because the person's identity will reveal the experience and expertise they do or do not hold.
Ah, but this is evidently a MALE nurse, which means it may be someone other than the "expert" cited by the prosecution (which means my original statements were bad - mea culpa).
This whole thing is confusing to me, in some respects. It is becoming more and more evident that the DA is working hard to maintain that veil of confusion in the public and in the defense - despite the legal requirement to turn over his friggin info!
Regarding Brodhead and his pattern of behavior re: accused innocents, here are 2 articles that should enlighten anyone. "Forget the Facts", is the 1st link in the article. Be sure to read it...it's is specifically about Brodhead.
3:00 pm? I'm on pacific time, so maybe that would be noon my time? I'd like to check it out.
It looks like the N&O has sent the AA reporterette Samiha Khanna, whose byline was on all the pro-accuser, anti-player early articles, to the dugout and turned the ball over to Joseph Neff, whose reporting sticks close to the known facts.
I think the N&O realizes they crossed the line in some of their editorial decisions, and may very well find themselves among those eventually facing civil suits.
That would be 6pm Pacific time, wouldn't it?
The NandO blogs are absolutely must read. It HAS to be a hell of culture shock for an Editor (whose word was LAW in the newsroom) to be questioned by readers like this...
I love it...
Some curly haired male Nifong mouthpiece from Durham said Nifong doesn't have to reveal his witness list till trial.
I thought it was Sgt. Shelton she finally refused to speak to when he tired of her changing stories at DMC.
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