Trial date set for Duke lacrosse witness (DukeLax Cabbie to be Nifonged)

Raleigh News and Observer ^ | August 15, 2006 | Staff

[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.

[pepperhead]

How is this going to fly in court? One test finds no semen, and one test finds semen.

Nifong will claim there is a conspiracy. He will claim these "rich kids parents" paid off SBI lab employees. He will then have Gottlieb go pick them up for jaywalking.

[I want to know]

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...

I agree. You know what I find puzzling. That on April 12 Nifong was moving full steam ahead on the case even after the first set of DNA tests came back negative (around April 9-10). He had gone to Stephens on the 12th to have the upcoming indictments sealed (the grand jury then met on April 17). Seligmann and Finnerty were arrested on the 18th.

And then on May 11 or 12 the second set of DNA tests come back negative (I'm talking about semen from the players in Crystal), and the defense team holds a press conference on Friday the 12th. Nifong presents his case to the grand jury on Monday, May 15, and Evans is indicted and arrested on May 16.

All three of these indictments come without DNA evidence. I just don't get it. Talk about a pattern of behavior.....

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

LOL! Talking about the justice system, not the people. I loved it when we lived in NC. I just thank God I never was caught up in the legal system.

Besides, you will note I put hubby's gene pool in there for cover.

[TommyDale]

;-)

[Dante3]

You are right. For some time now the media has ignored this story in favor of reruns and repeated of other events.

[ltc8k6]

http://www.newsobserver.com/100/story/427550.html

"There was no DNA found in or on her that would indicate that she recently had any sex," Cheshire said.

Nifong's motion is accurate, imo.

SBI did not find semen in her.

[bjc]

Ruth writes:
"Turns out, in my column on the Duke lacrosse mess' reverberations in the blogosphere, I offended some with my implicit suggestion that part of the weirdness of this case includes the possibility that one of the tangential players is a she who really turns out to be a he.
...the way your column reads, it seems to suggest that somehow she adds to the freak show atmosphere. ... Transgendered people are not freaks.
Apparently, the treatment of transgendered people was the subject of a film aired at the recent Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Durham."

In so far as the standard definition of freak includes "one that is markedly unusual or abnormal", transgendered types like Jakki, by their relative rarity fit this definition as would someone who is 7 feet tall. Ruth's PC response is, well, too predictable to be freakish just pathetic.

[Neverforget01]

Great link abb on Jakki. I particularly got a chuckle at the one reponse:

Comment from: Daryl Baker [Visitor] 08/18/06 at 14:49

As Chris Tucker says to Jackie Chan, "NOBODY can't understand da words dat be comin' outa yo mouff". WTF?

LOL

[TommyDale]

Here is the judge that was best suited for Durham:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1686041/posts

[GAgal]

Did Cheshire think that because the SBI only informed the defense/players the results regarding their dna samples, and not those of the yet-to-be-tested Matt/Brian/Jarriel?

Do we know the SBI didn't find the "single male source of genetic material" found on the vaginal swab?

[NeonKnight]

Of my 3 sons 2 were born in NC and one is (GASP!) a Yankee-born in Syracuse. Don't want to upset other NC natives, but guess what 2 sons lack a bit in the common sense department? Of course, it could be my husband's gene pool. I guess I will never know, LOL!

Ha! I was born and raised in Kansas. Kansans were eager for the civil war. It didn't have anything to do with slavery or breaking up the union. It was all about getting back at Missouri.

I now live in the south, but yes, yankees do seem to have a little more common sense(and professional plumbing.)

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Hey, we have professional plumbers in the South.

They are listed in the yellowpages under "Honeydippers".

(Can you tell I grew up in the country, LOL!)

[abb]

I'll be gone this weekend. Back Sunday. Y'all keep the heat on...

abb

[Mike Nifong]

Thanks

I read somewhere where Ed Bradley just shows up and does the shows, he doesn't do any background - it's all left to producers and assistants. Suppposedly, he doesn't like to stay around CBS offices any longer than what it takes to shoot the piece.

There's definitely an opportunity here for a Blockbuster - it's there for the taking.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Hopefully the producer is not another Mapes type....
But if the producer is after corruption instead of pushing an agenda, things might be looking good.

One of those "wait and see" things.

[pepperhead]

There's definitely an opportunity here for a Blockbuster - it's there for the taking.

Too bad it isn't Dateline NBC taking the opportunity. There could be years of reruns on MSNBC showing the corruption in Durham. Maybe A&E needs to do a City Confidential or something down there too.

[ltc8k6]

If the SBI found semen, there was no need for another lab. Swab the 3 men around her and have the SBI see if they match.

I think the private lab was called in regarding the traces on the fingernails, or simply because Nifong had to have something.

[ltc8k6]

OR Levicy did not do the swabbing properly.

[JLS]

If the SBI found semen, there was no need for another lab. Swab the 3 men around her and have the SBI see if they match.

I think the private lab was called in regarding the traces on the fingernails, or simply because Nifong had to have something.

I agree. Actually none of the semen was found by either lab. People constantly write as if they shipped Mangum to the labs. Using various techniques the SANE [in training] found possible DNA on Mangum and swabbed those spots. [Among the techniques I believe is other spectrums of light under which DNA will show up.

So ultimately it is a matter of the labs testing various swabs that might contain DNA. I think Nifong went to a second lab because:

1. If he understands DNA he was hoping to turn one of the inconclusives into a match by getting a lab with a lower standard for a match.

2. He did not trust the NC state lab.

Which ever it is I know I would subpeona Nifong as a witness if I were the lawyer for anyone in NC who was about to be convicted based on DNA evidence. Nifong could spend the rest of his life testifying as defense attorney after defense attorney from all over NC seek to plant reasonable dobut about the state lab DNA testing.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Every Saturday night for the rest of my natural life

MSNBC Investigation:
Corruption in the Bull City
with Forrest Sawyer

Oh, the thrill