Call adds mystery to lacrosse case (DukeLax)

So, the powers that be run the local rag, too.

Great post.

Did that person who replied to you provide his name? His or her name and incompetence should be posted and revealed to the AG;s office.

That is hard to believe. Then again, some supposedly intelligent people have been known to do incredibly stupid things such as Clinton getting involved with a young, fat intern.

I didn't save the email. I deleted it like any other junk email. Maybe you should send an email to the AG office and see how they respond! Then you can post it here.

http://www.ncdoj.com/default_contactus_form.jsp?sectionid=ag&subsectionid=general

I'll say this about the response from the AG office: I had the distinct feeling when I read it that the person was a political appointee to meet a certain quota.

in a related post on another board....
At
http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/05/general-topics-5-full.html

9:20 PM, July 05, 2006, Anonymous said...

If I had to guess why the Durham PD has had Murchison and McNeill arrested and jailed, it is to put pressure on them to shut up about the rest of CGM's client list.

A list that is reputed to contain several high-level Durham officials (read Durham PD and city council members)

This is also likely the reason for the mass arrest last week of the majority of Durham's other prostitutes.

Of course that info will eventually come out. And Mark Gottlieb may even go to jail before it is over.

{There is at least one Durham Sun reporter who has hinted to me that they know the names and have not been allowed by publisher Bob Ashley to print them).

My thoughts are since no one in the local media seems willing to tackle this story head on, it is up to us. I am not posting unfounded rumor because I believe it is fact, far from it.

Perhaps we could confirm or deny some of these rumors-God knows most everyone else seems to have their heads in the sand.

The paper's best writer landed at the N&O, where "Wise" readers may find him.

That is the easiest hint you have ever given, LOL!

If most of the prostitutes in Durham had been arrested, who would run the city?

One more thing.
Mary Clements on Staff at the Herald-Sun Library.
Isn't she Howard's wife?

Durham Primaries
http://www.ibiblio.org/wunc_archives/sot/index.php?cat=15

Air Date: 5/3/2006

Host Frank Stasio speaks with Bob Ashley, editor of the Durham Herald-Sun, about yesterday’s primary election results, which included a victory for embattled district attorney Mike Nifong and defeats of some controversial School Board members. (5:00)

Listen Here:

http://www.ibiblio.org/wunc_archives/sot/audioarchive//sot050306a.mp3

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june06/duke_4-11.html

NEW QUESTIONS IN DUKE RAPE CASE

April 11, 2006

Why this is a big story

Gwen IfillGWEN IFILL: Now for more on this story, I'm joined by Bob Ashley, editor of the "Durham Herald-Sun." He's a 1970 Duke graduate and now covers the Durham community.

Welcome, Bob.

BOB ASHLEY, Editor, "Durham Herald-Sun": Thank you.

GWEN IFILL: Why is this a big story?

Bob AshleyBOB ASHLEY, Editor, "Durham Herald-Sun": Why is it a big story? I think it combines so many forces right now. It combines the question of race. It combines the question of, you know, 200 years of concern over exploitation of black women by white men of privilege. It contains the elements of an elite university and its surrounding community.

Many of the neighbors have long been concerned about raucous parties, so we have undergraduate party behavior there at issue. We have sexual violence against women.

It's really a perfect storm of events that have come together and causes that have come together.

GWEN IFILL: So we've now been hearing about this for -- we're in our second week on this story.

Why shouldn't -- we should point out these men have not been charged. Why is that? Why do we think that is?

BOB ASHLEY: Well, the district attorney says it's because he's continuing his investigation.

And I think as he pointed out in his statement to you and has said to us and others before, he's trying to be methodical about this. There's a lot of attention on what he does.

Bob AshleyHe's getting tremendous pressure really from both sides -- from the supporters of the players who really have been in full tilt today after the DNA evidence came out, was released by defense attorneys yesterday, and certainly by folks who feel that the victim is not being properly attended to by a failure to move forward more quickly toward a charge and ultimately some kind of justice.

GWEN IFILL: Elaborate on the pressure that's being brought to bear from both sides.

Is this a community where these have been concerns which have just been under the surface and now this is giving them an outlet?

Town - gown relations

BOB ASHLEY: Well, I think some of the concerns that have been under the surface here and sometimes not under the surface, on the surface, are not in some ways atypical.

Bob AshleyCertainly, the question of town-gown relations and the way neighbors feel about students off campus are not unique to Durham and to Duke.

The question of whether athletes are -- have a sense of entitlement particularly in some of the more esoteric sports like lacrosse, where I think that may particularly come into play, have been here and have simmering but they've been other places and been simmering.

This has clearly brought them to a bit of a boil. And a community such as Durham and, frankly, such as Duke where people are quite outspoken and quite eager to speak up on issues and to speak out on causes -- that's always been a tenet, a trait of this community, and I think that plays into this as well. We're not sure it's an unhealthy thing that people here do that.

GWEN IFILL: How much of this, then, however, is driven by racial tension?

BOB ASHLEY: Well, Durham has always been a city with some underlying racial issues.

There is no majority race here. I think it's 45 percent African- American, 44 percent white, 9 percent Hispanic and 2 percent other. And the Hispanic is probably undercounted.

So you've long had a tradition here of sort of jockeying for position to some extent.

I think, on the other hand, it's worth noting this is a city where racial dialogue is often quite open and quite often has been expressed positively at the ballot box and elsewhere.

Gwen IfillGWEN IFILL: You're standing there on the Duke campus.

How is the university responding to all this?

BOB ASHLEY: Well, I think they took some criticism and probably rightly so in the early days for not responding more quickly.

I think they would argue that they were trying to get a handle on a situation that they knew, I suspect, was going to be explosive. I think since -- particularly since the emergence of the e-mail last week, their response has been quite vigorous. And I think even some folks who were concerned about their response early on have felt they're being more proactive with the appointment of some study committees to look at the underlying issues.

At the same time, I know that they feel pressure from multiple sides themselves. I suspect, although I don't know know it, that if I were a parent of a lacrosse player I'd be feeling differently about the university's response than if I were perhaps the parent of an African- American student on campus.

GWEN IFILL: Remind us again about that e-mail, exactly what its contents were.

BOB ASHLEY: Sure, the e-mail that surfaced last week had been the result of a -- actually had been the reason for a sealed search warrant. And we had actually had gone to court or were prepared to go to court -- hopefully, won without it -- to open that file.

And what it displayed was they had searched a dorm room on campus because of an e-mail that had been brought to the authority's attention in which one of the lacrosse players who had been at the party only a half hour or so previous to this e-mail threatened to -- said he would have another party that night and threatened essentially to kill and to strip strippers who were there. And there were some other sort of graphic sexual references in the e-mail.

Duke and the Durham community

GWEN IFILL: How important is Duke in the community at large, in Durham and its environs?

BOB ASHLEY: Tremendously important.

In some ways, it's the reason for Durham being what it is. It's one of the reasons that the Research Triangle Park is in Durham County and it forms the research triangle of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. It's the largest employer by a factor of probably two and a half.

Bob AshleyIt brings national acclaim sometimes for basketball, sometimes for its academics and research to the community. It has -- its employees are involved in any number of areas.

It employs people ranging from Nobel laureates to folks who clean the floors and pick up the trash on campus, and many of those in the service jobs happen to be African-American. It's one of the reasons I think some folks in the African-American community sometimes look with concern on what they may see as labor practices they're not fond of.

GWEN IFILL: So as this begins to unfold, what has to happen next?

Or what is expected, the next shoe that is expected to drop?

BOB ASHLEY: Well, I think the next shoe is probably going to be some result of a second test of the DNA, which the district attorney first mentioned -- we reported first this morning, which the district attorney confirmed during their forum at North Carolina Central today.

We'll see what happens with that. He hinted, although it's unclear whether he said with absolute certainty, that they may have the identification of at least one suspect.

I think as those pictures emerge, if there is a second DNA report, if there is in fact the identification of one or more suspects, we'll just have to wait and see what the district attorney does at this point.

He's three weeks away from a primary election. I'm sure that adds to some of the sense of, if not urgency, at least some of the sense of pressure he must be feeling on this.

Gwen IfillGWEN IFILL: You say there's politics involved into some of this?

BOB ASHLEY: I wouldn't suggest that.

All I'm suggesting is that there is a primary election three weeks away. And I think that that's -- and anybody in his position has got to be, whether he's mindful of it or not, others are mindful of the fact that an election is just around the corner. That's got to be a difficult position. No matter what he does, I'm sure it's going to be scrutinized by at some point other candidates in the race.

GWEN IFILL: Yes, okay. Bob Ashley of the "Durham Herald-Sun," thanks a lot for joining us.

BOB ASHLEY, Editor, "Durham Herald-Sun": Gwen, thank you.

Is it Clement or Clements?

His wife is Dolores, I believe.

(no "s")

I was (gulp!) wrong.

"It combines the question of, you know, 200 years of concern over exploitation of black women by white men of privilege."

No need to go any further. Sounds just like what Je$$e Jack$on said.

Shakedown Alert!!

That's one! LOL

No agenda there. /sarc.

It combines the question of, you know, 200 years of concern over exploitation of black women by white men of privilege.

WTF???? Did he get his talking points from Jesse?

Oh, yeah, like we'd have access to THAT technology WAY OUT HERE in fly-over country and the money to pay for their time. Ours was such a low priority, I think jaywalkers were getting ahead of us on the docket, followed closely by parking violations.

That would have been too easy.

It's amazing that the possibility of a false allegation isn't even mentioned in that conversation. Even now as more and more exculpatory info comes to light, "hoax" never appears in the MSM.