Posted on 08/15/2006 2:41:50 PM PDT by abb
DURHAM, N.C. -- A cab driver who has supported an alibi offered by one of the three Duke lacrosse players charged with rape had his own court appearance Tuesday for a larceny charge.
Moezeldin Elmostafa, 37, appeared briefly before a Durham County District Court judge who set a trial date of Aug. 29. Prosecutors also changed the charge against Elmostafa to aiding and abetting misdemeanor larcency.
Elmostafa was arrested in May after he surfaced as a potential alibi witness for Reade Seligmann, one of three players charged with raping a woman at an off-campus party the night of March 13.
The 2003 warrant accused Elmostafa of stealing five purses worth about $250 from a Durham department store. Elmostafa denies the charge, and has said he helped store security locate a woman after he picked her up from the store and drove her home. The woman later pleaded guilty to larceny.
Durham prosecutors said in May the warrant for Elmostafa's arrest was discovered in a routine background check of witnesses in the Duke lacrosse case.
Mostafa has said Seligmann, of Essex Fells, N.J., called for a ride at 12:14 a.m. on March 14, and was picked up five minutes later. The defense has argued those times help establish that Seligmann left the party without having enough time to participate in the 30-minute assault described by the accuser. Seligmann's attorney has also presented cell phone, ATM and dorm keycard records to help establish that timeline.
(Excerpt) Read more at dwb.newsobserver.com ...
Text of Mary Lacy's meeting with press
http://www.denverpost.com/jonbenet/ci_4199137
"You all have many questions that you want answered. John Karr is presumed innocent. We are rightfully constrained by the code of professional conduct and the presumption of innocence from answering those questions that you want answered this morning."
I thought so, no wonder Durham is such a mess. What is so tough about trying a traffic court case.
Good that you e-mailed that USAToday story to the N&O. And good for USATODAY for making that obvious and small leap in pring.
I guess we need to wait for some initial ruling to determine whether this Judge has what it takes to objectively assess this case.
Nifong could possibly push for an early review (and likely dismissal) so that the steam would be taken out of the ABN campaign. Am I dreaming?
"Nifong could possibly push for an early review (and likely dismissal) so that the steam would be taken out of the ABN campaign. Am I dreaming?"
No, that is his best chance. If the case is over, then
outside money will cease to flow in to ABN, and after a week, all but the most stalwart will figure "mission accomplished" and go on to something else.
The longer this case goes on, though, the more outside money will flow in, and the longer ABN supporters are going to keep on the job.
If it ends now, then by October news items about the case will be old, and being used to line birdcages.
Right, if this gets dismissed the coverage and money coming in dies down. Nifong will also be able to blame others for this case getting dismissed.
Person County is most rural farmlands.
It's where WILLIE PERSON MANGUM
was from. Remember him?
It's also where many Durhamites are
escaping to over the last 20 years.
Very good land investment.
This ranking is not nearly as useful and the ranking that incorporate student and, especially, graduating student ratings. If you look at the BusinessWeek rankings of business schools they include input from students. Yale, for example, plummets from 3 on the USNWR listing to 23 on the BW poll. Different program yes, but also very different methodology. Duke actually looks pretty good - but that is before the fall-out of this event.
Wow. Like night and day from Nifong. I wonder why? Oh, that's right he had a primary to win. Oh yeah, and he's corrupt and totally without scruples.
Be careful what you say about NC. You might get one of those special posts or freepmails like I've been getting! LOL!
On H&C they were discussing the JBR case. Can't remember exactly what was said, but thought that it was interesting that they were waiting for the DNA to determine if he was really the killer...that if the DNA didn't match they couldn't really proceed...well, I guess Durham can show them that you can, maybe you shouldn't, but you can. I just thought the comparisons of how they are talking about a case where someone has confessed, has a background of child pornography charges, is treated skeptically, but a case with no evidence was treated as the real deal....I will do as the DA in Boulder said, keep an open-mind, if they can prove that he couldn't have been in Boulder at the time it's over. Still wandering why someone would confess to something so gross if they didn't do it?
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/469139.html
A long time ago, I argued that the SBI lab must not have found any DNA on or in CGM. Defense attorneys were criticized for saying there was no DNA found on CGM after the first round of tests when it was revealed that her boyfriend's DNA was found in her in the second round.
I was told that there was no way SBI missed the boyfriend's DNA, and the lawyers must have been spinning.
Turns out the SBI lab apparently did miss the boyfriend's DNA.
"Nifong’s office filed a motion on court on April 5 asking a judge to order a private lab to conduct further DNA tests because “The tests conducted by the S.B.I. laboratory failed to reveal the presence of semen on swabs from the rape kit or the victim’s underwear.” "
How is this going to fly in court? One test finds no semen, and one test finds semen.
Either that, or Nifong lied to get the second tests paid for.
That would explain the Fong's cussing tirade the day the second tests came back and Cheshire and Co. held the Friday night news conference. He would have been mightily pissed to find himself skewered by the second DNA tests...
What kind of SBI lab can't detect the presence of semen in a woman who recently had sex?
New from Melanie...
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/editor/index.php?title=recent_reporting_on_lacrosse_case&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
No wonder Nifong brought out the condoms.
The SBI came up with absoulutely nothing.
And Ruth chimes in again, apparently referring to Jakki...
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/ruth/index.php?title=taken_to_task_for_insensitivity&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
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