C.Destine (Nifong's Assistant DA's myspace webpage!)

MySpace.com ^ | July 20, 2006 | C. Destine

[maggief]

Same class?

[Mad-Margaret]

You bet. The out-of-town player may have talked with one of the defendants about the party. Potential witness is a lucy-goosey concept. Nifong can say just about anyone remotely connected to the case is a potential witness. An attorney isn't obligated to call everyone on his potential witness list. And an attorney rarely does.

[maggief]

The out-of-town player may have talked with one of the defendants about the party.

That would be struck down as hearsay.

[I want to know]

I wonder if the 36 who were represented in court on Monday are the only players Nifong is interested in using as potential witnesses?

[Sue Perkick]

Doesn't look like it. She was convicted in 5/03 & he was sworn in as county prosecutor sometime in 2005. But that certainly doesn't mean he couldn't have used some influence in it somehow. If there's a connection I hope someone finds it.

[maggief]

Osborn mentioned the listed included 49 names, IIRC.

[abb]

new...

Duke Case: Blasting the Nifong Bunker with Ballots
http://johnsville.blogspot.com/2006/07/duke-case-blasting-nifong-bunker-with.html

[Mad-Margaret]

Not hearsay. An exception if the conversation is with one of the defendants. The against-the-interest-of-the-party exception.

[Hogeye13]

They should all go together and get a PO box in Anchorage, Alaska and immediately do a change of address with Duke. Appeal the judges order to allow time for the change of address to take place. That would scald Nifong.

[JLS]

I completely agree with Titus' decision.

I am not an attorney so let me ask you about why you agree:

1. Why is he due addresses of people, parents, who are neither witnesses nor accused? Many of his targets hqave graduated and likely to not live with mom and dad. My 23 year old daughter does not live with me, can the DA go to her college and get my address?

2. Why is this issue "ripe?" He likely in fact will not call any of these people as witnesses. The defense witness list is not due until the first day of jury selection. [If he can not find someone then, I could understand the need to get their last known permanent address from Duke.]

3. Why doesn't Nifong need to show a reason to get these addresses and that it is likely these addresses have something to do with the people he might want to get in touch with?

4. Why isn't it germane that all of these people are represented locally and he could contact them via their attorney? 5. What about the defense attorneys arguments that Nifongs documents were defectivie?

Again sorry for so many questions but I am not an attorney and so I wonder often. And in this circumstance, I don't trust the judges to be impartial actors.

[Sue Perkick]

I appreciate the work all of you do. These boys may avoid getting railroaded because of it.

[maggief]

True.

[abb]

Does not FreeRepublic rock or what? This is PRECISELY the type citizen journalism that Matt Drudge spoke of in his Encyclical of June 2, 1998.

See link here: http://www.libertyroundtable.org/library/essay.drudge.html

[JLS]

Mad-Margaret: The out-of-town player may have talked with one of the defendants about the party.

maggief: That would be struck down as hearsay.

Is not a statement against ones own interest an exception to the hearsay rule? If so, then a player telling another player who was out of town that player that nothing happened would be hearsay, but the same player telling the same player who was out of town that something happened would be admitted as an exception.

Again, I am not an attorney, but I seem to remember this is one of the exceptions to the hearsay rule. And to me it would be a logical exception.

[maggief]

I stand corrected.

Interesting comment by HarleyinVT on abc11 re: swipe cards


... Nifong needs to know the alibi evidence of Finnerty, though he could have had it voluntarily. Now he has to wait for the trial and look like a fool. Nifong has lost the ability to change the timelines - the cell phone records give an accurate indication as to when Precious arrived. ...

http://forums.go.com/abclocal/WTVD/thread?threadID=124426

[I want to know]

I used the myspace.com search. Not sure if you have to be a member to use the search function. Tried to post the link but it blew out the margins here and I didn't want to screw up the comments. Sent it to you in Freepmail. Let me know if it works.

[Mad-Margaret]

This isn't my area of law, but I did look at FERPA on the day of the hearing.

A student's address is directory information. Not a big deal. The student or the parent can ask the school not to reveal the information, but Nifong did make a viable argument to release the information about the addresses. That is, the potential witness argument.

1. The order is limited to the students' addresses. Not their parents' addresses. The order doesn't require Duke to release the last known address. Duke is not under an obligation to track its students (other than for fundraising purposes! LOL!) Duke can respond that it does not know the current address of a particular student who has graduated (if it doesn't really know).

2. The ripeness is probably the best argument for not releasing the address information now, but I don't see where FERPA prohibits it. Also, there is nothing in the order imposing a continuing obligation on Duke. IOW, by the time Nifong needs the information to send out subpoenas, the information may be incorrect. That's why I think that the address issue was a red herring. It's no big deal.

3. He did. His potential witness argument was sufficient for the judge. And notice that a gag order (a real one) was imposed with respect to the address information.

4. Well, that's where ripeness also comes in. The judge should have asked Nifong if he had even tried to get the information from the attorneys. Here in Michigan, an attorney has to certify that he did attempt to resolve a matter by contacting opposing counsel before he can bother the court with a motion. That's obviously not a requirement in NC. But the issue should have been raised by one of the defense attorneys and framed as an argument for costs and attorney fees. (I'm assuming that would be allowed in NC.)

5. IIRC the defective argument went to the place of delivery of the information. I thought it was a weak argument. Obviously Titus did too.

JLS, the addresses just aren't a big deal and Nifong didn't get what he really wanted.

[maggief]

It's okay to post the link. The margins are blown on the preview but won't be on your post.

[JLS]

JLS, the addresses just aren't a big deal and Nifong didn't get what he really wanted.

I agree the addresses are no big deal. I also think the swipe card data is not big deal. Nobody is trying to hide anything from Nifong.

But I hate to say it Nifong did get some of what he wanted, he got to harrass or at least threaten to harrass the families of all team members. Now maybe I am wrong, but the judge's order says home address which I take to be an outside of Durham address, ie parents address.

[old and cranky]

When this is finally ended and the hoax is up, do the parents have any legal action against AV, DA, etc if they are harassed by their addresses being released? I can not imagine what these parents are going through.