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
That is going to be one of the most interesting things about this case. How the Powers That Be make it go away.
There is no way that we are going to see a black "victim of rape" torn to shreads on the witness stand on live TV. It's not gonna happen. This case is too explosive. Much more so than OJ and much more so than "Malice Green" -- a case from Detroit that resulted in the convictions of two white police officers and the end of the Detroit Recorder's Court.
Cheshire delivered a daisy cutter : )
Notice that none of the other three ladies were named "Kim"? Does Kim have other names?
I have a question about yesterday's hearing and the envelopes containing the cell phone data. Was this the report by the defense expert, and Nifong was receiving that info for the first time?
Wish they could just go to trial. We never got the chance. We'd have blown the whole dirty business out of the water with what little we had and the Accuser's story. Could have sued the school district and the local municipality, but it got "lost" in the system. They let us know that if we made trouble, it would get ugly -- just found that out a couple of weeks ago when we found to our complete surprise they hadn't sealed the record as was part of the deal. It was sealed and the final disposition is "Not Guilty of Arresting Charges," "No Conviction" "Case Discharged." Nothing else will be available to the public -- but it's already out there in a data base -- can't call it back now -- "We're really sorry, but there's nothing we can do." Yeah, right.
Shep FINALLY getting to story...
"And I have no idea what." Nuclear War? Just kidding.
To be fair.. the document Cheshire released today did not state that the AV claimed 20 guys raped her.
_________________________________________________________
I did not say today's document said 20. I listed the source after each claim. Abrams said 2 on his show. Nifong says 3. Mangum said 3.9 or 4 in one of her various photo arrays.
After 20 I said various reports. Here is a link to an AP story cite police reports for that number:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DUKE_LACROSSE?SITE=CTNHR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
I left of the Duke PD, indirect claim of 25. [Add one in each case if it is the one Ptitman aka Roberts participated in.]
BTW, the claim of the encounter with the "sink" come from the Monday Abrams report:
"ABRAMS: And also, I mean that‘s not the only contradiction. I mean depending on which story she‘s telling, depending on which time she‘s telling the story, it changes, meaning she went to the UNC Medical Center and there‘s a report about that from March the 15th, and the doctor there says she reports hitting her head on the sink and that that‘s how she may have had certain injuries."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13438728/
Eggsactly!
I hope Shep is favorable to the defense -- MSNBC was brutal to them last night.
Yes. The Nikki in the letter is Kim.
Let me know what Shep says, I am making up a final with no tv around.
Shep's pulling for our side now. Panel split...
Happy to have you. Feel secure, you are amoung friends.
Sure was hot at that ballgame.
Tammy Tammy Rose?
I have to go back and look. Tammy Rose was one of the arrangers for the strippers. It is in one of the earlier filings.
catching up....
What is the panel split on? The news of the day is the new claim of 5. Are some panel members saying the police report is a forgery?
Goslee is on the Abrams panel. I can't take this woman. She's saying that Nifong could get a conviction. And that she would take this case to a jury. Wonder if her answer would change if it's not a black jury.
I understand that, I didn't mean to imply that you did. I was just pointing out that this report does not validate that claim, nor does Ofc. Day's report as it has been verified as 2nd hand at a minimum...
Here is a link to an AP story cite police reports for that number:
I must be suffering Linwood Wilson Syndrome... I don't see it..
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