Posted on 07/12/2006 1:52:14 AM PDT by abb
Phone use spans time of team party
In the middle of a Duke lacrosse party where a dancer said she was gang-raped for 30 minutes, a call was placed from her cell phone to a Durham escort service.
The 12:26 a.m. call to the service, Centerfold, lasted one minute, according to a copy of her cell phone bill reviewed by The News & Observer. It is unclear whether the call was a request for another job, a cry for help or something else, or even whether the accuser made the call herself.
But the accuser's phone records add some details to the chronology of the March 13 party, a drunken spring break bash that spawned a national controversy.
Neither prosecutors nor defense lawyers would discuss the phone records Tuesday. Neither the accuser nor a second dancer at the party could be reached, nor could representatives of Centerfold. Police Chief Steve Chalmers was out of town; his spokeswoman said he would not discuss the case.
Three players have been charged with first-degree rape, sexual offense and kidnapping: Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J.; Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y.; and Dave Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md. Lawyers for the players have proclaimed their clients' innocence and said no rape or sex occurred at the house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.
District Attorney Mike Nifong, whose handling of the case has undergone national scrutiny, has been adamant that the woman was raped at the party. Nifong has not given a precise timeline of when he thinks an assault occurred.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
I can assure you the North Carolina Attorney General isn't going to do anything. This will take a special prosecutor, the SBI (State Bureau of Investigation), or a Federal prosecutor to do anything.
I agree with you, it is still too early to make a decision on the case in Fresno, but it proves the point people have been making in the Duke case, you shouldn't have a DA and a group of extremists out claiming guilt with no evidence to prove it. I think the guys in Fresno should be given the benefit of the doubt, just as the guys at Duke should have been.
Nifong's bio includes the astounding (to me) info that he is Phi Beta Kappa. His actions do not reflect good sense imo...only an inflated ego, cunning, and astounding ambition.
A 10 page paper. Yeah, that works.
I think Cooper issued the standard "the people of Durham elected Nifong (no they didn't) & he should be allowed to do his job..." type of statement. But it looks like Cooper has his eyes on a bigger prize.
Funny thing is, he has NOT been elected yet! He was appointed and still hasn't faced a general election. This shows how stupid the AG office is.
mark
Voice mail can be retrieved a long time after the message is left. I know of a case where a government agency was able to retrieve copies of messages left at a business more than a year earlier.
"A 10 page paper. Yeah, that works."
SPECULATION ALERT!
Finnerty gets the attention of two US attorneys and two days in court for a student misdemeanor brawl.
Six months' probation says, in effect, "We can still arrest you any time we want."
He has lived under virtual house arrest for the last three months to avoid any infraction (or being set-up?), and he still got hit by the judge for missing a curfew (which the judge's own office had given him permission to miss) and for the Wonkette episode.
Remembering that the AV's associates have all been arrested and were/are in jail; and the cabbie's arrest; is this just another example of a threat being placed over Finnerty to try and affect his actions/testimony?
I would believe it of Nifong; but if so, why are DC and Nifong cooperating?
Mutual acquaintances? Mutual benefits?
END SPECULATION ALERT
The above may all be WAY WRONG! But then again, maybe there is some connection somewhere.
More SPECULATION!
The bartender/bouncer was not allowed to testify at the Finnerty trial. He started to, and then the judge called the lawyers to the bench for a conference and then he was dismissed.
Speculation : could he have been threatend for selling alcohol to underage minors? Or with having his establishment closed?
If so, had the judge already decided on the verdict and was the trial just a show?
Now that is RANK SPECULATION! FANTASY!
But curious.
"It's this preppy arrogance that they will never be held accountable for what they've done -- that their daddies will get them out of it," -- Oh, God, I just felt my stomach turn when I read that. Those were the EXACT words our son's accuser said to the school authorities. She later said it to the police and threatened to bring in the race-baitors. We were then "visited" by the local black activitists. Sometimes, I have flash-backs in the case where I almost feel my knees go.
With Governor Easley himself being investigated for corruption, I'm sure he needs Nifong to be in the news more than himself. Even though Easley was eventually "cleared" he certainly leaves a dirt trail behind him.
Maybe help is on the way.
If DNA can be used to clear suspects in Fresno, then maybe the pressure will grow on Nifong and the NC judges to where someone will have to act.
And this can help the AA community accept the validity of DNA evidence (and maybe help them come to grips with how too often there is just an automatic knee-jerk response to
white suspects).
The timing/set-up couldn't have been better.
(So maybe a Big Hand is taking a hand in these things. Or maybe prayer helps. We'll see. . .)
Speculation : could he have been threatend for selling alcohol to underage minors? Or with having his establishment closed?
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I have read all over the Internet Anti-LAX player people decrying Finnerty's use of alcohol, even though he wasn't charged with anything along those lines. The Judge focused on the alcohol, the Wash Post focused on the alcohol. WHY HAVEN'T ANY OF THESE PEOPLE SAID ANYTHING ABOUT THE BARS THAT ARE SERVING THESE PEOPLE?
That seems very simple to me. IF these people were truly concerned with all the tussles, fracasses, and skirmishes in Georgetown by young people - why wouldn't the source be examined or scruntinized? MAYBE, because they really aren't that worried about 19 and 20 year olds drining and business is booming!
I agree with you in that something else is at play in the Finnerty case. If you Read post 369, you'll see that Finnerty was NOT given the same treatment of other like 19 year olds in Georgetown accused of the same thing.
We have DA's, Judges, and journalists pretending to be interested in things (like college age drinking) that could be easily addressed by targeting the bars - yet these people with the Power to address this issue have choosen NOT to.
To your point, why wasn't the bartenders unusual appearance
explained. Why didn't the Washington Post take an interest in the Judge raising concerns that he read on an notorious Internet rumor web-site?
Nobody knows about the Fresno Football thing!
Very few. I spoke to a friend and he hadn't heard of it.
I suspect only Newshounds have any clue about that case.
I really expected the News Media to run it out there and feign interest, but they haven't.
There's an AM Radio show and the listeners have been loosely organizing a movement to get O'Reilly to report on the case. For 3 days listeners have been e-mailing O'Reilly asking him to report on the story.
This whole thing has to be hard on you.
Take care
N & O is running almost the identical letter to the editor from Nifong supporter, Julie Linehan, that H-S ran yesterday.
http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/459894.html
Letter:
Published: Jul 13, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Jul 13, 2006 03:10 AM
Cheek shouldn't run
http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/
Nifong has handled the lacrosse case properly
Why am I smelling a rat? Does this Finnerty kid have a relative that needs to be strong armed? What's up with the AV's weak sauce sentence for her crimes? If you or I stole a vehicle and darn near ran over an officer, we wouldn't have gotten several weekends in jail!
Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me about the cabbie's arrest. How convenient for the prosecution.
First, I was disgusted that they were charged. Now I'm extremely worried that we get to sit here and watch them get railroaded. Just so our little pimped princess can get away with lying, and God knows what else.
TOPIC- Durham media and the black community.
"Herald-Sun is improving relations with the black community"
BY MOSI SECRET, JANUARY 18, 2006, The Independent Weekly. Durham, NC.
Black folks in Durham, particularly black elected officials, are getting the sense that the new management of The Herald-Sun is making a concerted effort to improve its relationship with the black community. Editor Bob Ashley has been seen at numerous events and meetings. "I think I'm the only editor of The Herald-Sun that ever sat through the entire annual meeting of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People," Ashley says. *(1)
His efforts seem to be paying off. People are taking notice. "In my 40 years, I have never seen an editor from The Herald-Sun or The News & Observer come to as many events as him," says city council member Howard Clement. "I appreciate it. It gives him a slant his predecessors couldn't get."
Ashley's presence is an outgrowth of The Herald-Sun's new focus on community news. "If you look at the paper now, you see community-type news on the front of the page--sometimes at the top of the fold, sometimes at the bottom, but it's not buried in the back sections of the paper," says Mayor Bill Bell. "It seems to focus more on the positive instead of the negative way of doing things."
Ashley explains: "As we have ramped up local coverage, we have just by the nature of that increased the coverage of the African-American community. And I think we've set out to make sure that we really pay attention, not just to things that are going wrong."
The paper's coverage under the old ownership was not well regarded among more than a few black public officials in Durham. Joe Bowser, a former Durham county commissioner who is suing the paper for defamation, says, "I don't think an organization could have been more biased towards the African-American community, and I don't think an organization could have done more damage to the Durham community than that paper did." Clement described the culture of the paper as set on pushing blacks down. In some instances, the poor coverage severed relationships. "I just said that I didn't have to pay anybody to read about what they were saying in a negative sense," Bell says. "I stopped my subscription." *(2)
-snip-
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A27102
*1- It is this author's understanding that reporters, ie, Herald-Sun, were historically
barred from attending the closed meetings of the Durham Committee. The paper
also had a longstanding policy of not making endorsements for candidates
in political elections.
The first act of the new Paxton management was a ruthless gutting of the newsroom
which to this date deprives the paper of institutional memory of the community. The paper's
best writer landed at the N&O, where "Wise" readers may find him.
*2- Likewise this former longtime subscriber-- it becomes tiresome to be reminded each
morning of the littany of failings your community endures.
IMHO, the current Durham circus may never have transpired had the old watchdog been on guard.
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