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
WTF? MOM wasn't available for comment? When a DA needs a character witness either his case is weak or he's a wuss ... or both, IMO.
Yep, Sue, Mike gave up the big defense attorney bucks to protect the Durham citizens from the N&O, Duke, and "multimillion dollar defense" attorneys ... a traffic court "rodeo cowboy."
Good lord! I have learned that one is guilty until proven innocent, but if you run out of cash, forget the innocent part. You have to accept their plea bargain to avoid a long sentence.
My feeling is that the "system" analyzes one's financial capabilities. If they feel you have financial resources, they will mercilessly plow you under, just to feed the machine. The underbelly gets a slap on the wrist. Note the sentences that Ms. Crystal and Lil' Kim got for their offences. I saw a Montel Williams show yesterday morning, and a woman induced a late term abortion on her young teenage daughter. First jury came back "hung" on 1st degree murder(the baby was born alive, but died later that day-the girl is now sterile). Mommy then pleaded out to manslaughter, and got 6 years probation and a 5k fine. Talk about slap on the wrist, I'd hang her from a lamp post!
Are you saying that your son was accused of point fixing in a game? I'm not sure what he was accused of. Yeah, it's expensive. I'm starting to think that their goal is to turn every male into a felon. When you run out of money, your lawyer(unless you have a good one)will tell you to accept the plea bargain. The system stinks.
I think he was accused of rape.
It has crossed my mind that if someone DOES want to fix a sporting game a cry of rape from a woman of color against star white players would do the trick, so to speak.
Bright??? Bright is a word one finds on their child's report cards as in 'Mike is such a bright' student; he is capable of much better grades.' I bet Mikey was beat up alot when he was a kid. A school yard bully's dream.
... multimillion dollar defense team of the accused young men....
Mmmm, why am I thinking of the OJ trial? Is this little wussy-boy's OJ trial?
Make no mistake, when Mikey's sister comes out to beat up those nasty people calling you names, Mike is nothing but a wussy-boy.
... He is well respected by the legal community of Durham, and includes as his friends many judges and defense attorneys....
A little name dropping? Because he has many judges as friends we are supposed to be impressed?
Woooooo-oooo, I am so impressed....NOT
That was my impression of Suzanne Filan too. The way she was gushing about her day in the Durham court, you would think that she had never stepped foot in a courtroom before. She was positively giddy. Golly! Those men in suits and the black robe were serious! This is for reeel!
And yet every show, she reminds the audience that she was once a hard-nose prosecutor. Did she know that was serious too? What a silly woman.
So far, we have the "expletive filled tirade" Nifong publicly leveled at female defense attorney Kerry Sutton, then his angry email to Susannah Meadows he released to the public, and now his public confrontaton of Susan Filan. Are there instances of Nifong publicly challenging a specific male?
A charge such as this would only work for one game. Any bets for say a national title would probably be voided. Lacrosse is such a minor sport there probably wasn't many bets on it anyway. And lets just they someone able to get action on the game, it wouldn't be enough action to justify how much trouble they would be in if this plot was found out. I think this is nothing more than a crazy drunk ho getting arrested and crying rape to get out of going to jail. And a power hungry DA looking to secure his election by going forward with bogus weak case on only the word of a hooker.
Well, he did get a note from home from his sister. LOL
Interesting, he has challenged Abrahms yet, has he?
I think he lurks here on FR as one of those weird characters who post riddles.
I didn't mean to imply that happened in this case but could happen in another instance. Especially on the college level, the institutions seem fold under pressure from "civil rights" groups ... political correctness run amok.
..Mike Nifong, another assistant, says this is what makes a person of such seemingly rigid values excellent at plea bargaining. "Ron had this gift for making you an offer in a case that was a whole lot worse than you wanted but much better than you could get in court," he says. "The point of greatest stability, I guess you'd call it." ..
(snip)
...Not that Stephens can't get angry.
Nifong describes the only time he can recall Stephens nearly losing his temper. "I had a case where a man was charged with an assault on his ex-wife," he says, sitting in his little office, about a third the size of Stephens', and beginning to smile. "I had a chance to take a plea, a plea to the maximum sentencing allowable." He [Nifong] couldn't reach the victim, he says, so he took the plea.
"That is the maddest I ever saw Ron," he says. "He was mad not because of the sentence but because I had not contacted the victim."
Stephens recalls the incident. What infuriated him, he says, was that the system let the victim down.
"That woman had lost her leg" as a result of the attack, he says. "She came in the office as an amputee, and she asked when was she going to have her day in court. And she did not get her day in court.
"I was more upset than the victim was." ...
Doing what he wants, regardless of the consequences or effects on others is not new to Nifong.
I wonder if his sister told off that mean Ron Stephens who got mad at Mikey?
Not a bad idea. In fact, I know someone who is a conservative Dem who just moved to NC for a new job. My son in law :-D (of course daughter moved too, but I don't know how she votes) I think I'll email them today, and ask them if they've heard of the case. After I showed him the information about Kerry, he decided to just stay home on election day.
I wouldn't be surprised if he does. I would like to say something to him if he does. But I am afraid if I did the post would get pulled.
He may very well lurk here ... or he may have enlisted Linwoodites and siblings.
I don't believe he's the one posting riddles.
You could always *&%$ out the expletives.
Dear Mr. Nifong,
With all due respect, you are *&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$
In closing, I would like to add *&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$
Sincerely yours,
A FReeper
Let's see:
1. Yeah, I agree the strategy session claim is a decent grounds for appeal.
2. The big bombshell sitting out there is find the police and ask what was said when the recanted at Duke ER. When she recanted did some cop then say, ok back to Durham Access and then she recanted her recantation?
At first glance I thought that article was referring to Police Chief Chalmer's domestice violence charges filed by his ex-wife. Nevermind, those charges went away, TOO.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:tZsrTwR6vYYJ:listings.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content%3Foid%3Doid%253A18856+chalmers+durham+domestic+violence+wife&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4&client=firefox-a
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