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.

[darbymcgill]

CM:

Both groups have their beliefs based on how they see the case. Problem is, while the discovery evidence leans towards no rape occurring, it does not clear up those minutes she was in there by herself.

Did she argue with somebody? Was she pushed or grabbed? Did someone threaten her because they were all still very angry about paying $800 and not getting their two hours? Did the racial taunts and slurs either continue from the dance, or start immediately after, and then continue when she went back in BY HERSELF to get items she left, only to leave WITHOUT those items.

I'm not getting what Cash is saying. What does he think happened in those few minutes?

Sarah... The grossly misleading statments by Michaels are the kind that lead the uniformed masses to conclude that "something must happened"..

There is none, zero, zip, nada, no evidence that the AV ever was "back in the house by herself"... There is some evidence that she was alone for a few minutes when Kim left to dress in the car. But when she went back to get her shoe, the evidence is that she was not allowed back in.. (the back door was locked).. For Cash it imply that she went back into the house alone after she was attacked is beyond believable, so he must now "make up" that she was alone in the house and attacked after she went back in. But he has no evidence or statements to support his lie.

She went back to get her "shoe", not her stuff... She lost her stuff when she fell down the stairs and scattered it across the back yard. Even Kim stated she locked the AV in the car and went back in with one of the guys to look for the AV's stuff and couldn't find it.

Although some are giving Cash credit for putting a little pressure on Nifong, he is still positing B.S. theories to keep the black masses riled up and in his corner, JIC.... IMO...

[gopheraj]

mark

[xoxoxox]

-- This lady is on today's court calendar- five years later and still waiting.....

Durham's loan lessons (Editorial/Opinion)

News & Observer, The (Raleigh, NC), March 23, 2006

Charges lodged against four people in a small-business loan scandal in Durham signal a possible end to the embarrassing saga,* for City Hall and for Durham taxpayers. Anita Fenner Bennett of Raleigh, hired by Durham (and once, by Raleigh) to help manage a public loan program for low-income people, was the only person arrested by Tuesday, but her husband, a sister and a loan recipient are also charged after an investigation by the Durham police.

The four of course are presumed innocent and will have a chance to contest the allegations in court. But while the investigation was ongoing, city leaders properly put accounting and auditing safeguards in place to make it less likely that any fraud like the one alleged here could take place in the future.

As reported in this newspaper and elsewhere at the time, the loan program saw a large amount of money that seemed to evaporate. Durham was allocated $828,000 in federal funds, and much of it was spent. But by 2001, reports began trickling out that many of the 24 businesses that received loans didn't even exist. Others were listed under false names or addresses. Some recipients didn't meet eligibility requirements.

Bennett was paid -- under a no-bid contract -- to find businesses that needed a leg up, but the police say she took kickbacks for arranging loans. And legitimate businesses that could have used the money didn't get it.

City Council members seem intent that such blatant mismanagement won't occur again. The financial safeguards will help, but constant vigilance by the council is needed to keep things on the up and up.

* One saga after another.....Yes, Durham is a colorful town. Very criminal friendly, too.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

It was business as usual it seems for the Duke case, if not for that big fish in a small pond thing.

Two issues
1. A corrupt DA (regardless of what 'sissy' says
2. A corrupt governing body.

Memory Lane:

http://www.monkeytime.org/October2002.html

10.2.02 - Update on that Durham rape trial where the DNA from the man being prosecuted by District Attorney Jim Hardin's office didn't match the facts of the case. The Herald-Sun's John Stevenson followed up last week; the suspect, who'd spent a full year in jail awaiting trial, was completely acquitted of all charges.

That's not all. The jury foreman, Howard Williams, Jr., had extremely harsh words for the prosecution, describing the trial as "a waste of time":

"We all wondered what we were doing there," he said of himself and fellow jurors. "The evidence was nonexistent. We're very comfortable with the decision we made. I can't understand why that man spent a year in jail when there was no evidence whatsoever against him. It made no sense to us. Where's the justice?"

Surely something's wrong when a jury foreman calls out the D.A.'s office for locking someone up for a year with "no evidence whatsoever." Given the strange deal-making in the case, is it fair to wonder what on earth prosecutor Tracey Cline - who still insists she had the right man - was thinking? And is it fair to wonder - without engaging in moronic cop-bashing - how often this kind of thing happens in Durham, or in other Triangle jurisdictions? I think it is.

---

Note: "....prosecutor Tracey Cline - who still insists she had the right man -..."

So much for respecting the decision of a jury.

One would think after that trial caution would be the order of the day. But not to be. Hardin finds himself on the bench several years later.

Crime and non-punishment.

[GAgal]

Is Nifong trying to discredit another Seligmann alibi witness?

http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/2006/08/another-alibi-witness-discredited.html

[xoxoxox]

From the same site: Problems in Durham.

10.29.02 - You know, Durham officials don't even seem to care about the appearance of corruption anymore Yet another Herald-Sun front-page scandal, this one involving Marcia Conner, the city manager hired away from Austin to clean up just this sort of thing (register at the H-S already, it's free).

A company run by a former colleague of City Manager Marcia Conner informally has been given a city consulting job worth up to $30,000 for work the city never advertised or put out to bid...City policy requires a competitive bidding process, including advertising a "request for proposals," for city work valued at $10,000 or more...[I]t’s not the first time that Conner, who can approve contracts up to $30,000 without City Council approval, has been accused of steering work to people she has known or worked with in the past. Many are from Austin, where Conner was an assistant city manager for seven years before coming to Durham in June 2001.

Conner, whose personality and work style are analyzed at length half-way through this Austin Chronicle piece, denies ever seeing the contract. Durham's Housing Director refused to answer questions about who suggested the company. Instead, we're told the contract "slipped through the cracks" and "The process...should have been better."

That sure must be one seriously screwed-up "process" over there in Durham. Remember it was July 2001 when we learned of a massive scandal involving federal Housing and Urban Development funds being disbursed to non-existent businesses from within the city's economic development department. For background, check the 3rd story in this newsletter from Durham's Center for Economic and Environmental Justice (prettier pdf here). That scandal erupted a year after HUD attacked the city's inadequate record-keeping for "serious discrepancies." And now, more than two years after that warning, we still have the head of housing in Durham admitting "The process could have been better, should have been better"?

http://www.monkeytime.org/October2002.html

"Hardin finds himself on the bench several years later."

Remember the Hudson-Hardin-F. Black courthouse faction?

"We must not allow the criminals to rule Durham" was a
Freda campaign statement. Local observers suggest the
Committee prefers to own criminal friendly DA's. They also
diagnose the credibility problems as from being surrounded
by liars, thieves, cheats and murderers all day, everyday.
Maybe there is an osmotic transfer going on.

[JLS]

If you read between the lines some are saying that the boys are racist and they disrepected these two black mothers and something bad was planned for that night.

I disagree. I think certainly there are some people with sentiments like you discussed. I think Michael's view is slightly different.

Michael is making a lame attempt say well she may have lied but she was provoked by something. That is she was treated badly somehow. Not necessarily racism but maybe disrespected, maybe racism, maybe roughly treated, maybe not fully paid.

This is rationalizing for "supporters" of Mangum who will find it easier to come around slowly. His readership has sympathy for Mangum and he wants to lead them toward understanding this is a farce. Trashing her is not really the way probably. Soon this may morph into well if something did not happen, she has mental problems.

[JLS]

You have to wonder if the NC Bar has been deluged with complaints filed about Nifong?

[JLS]

Well the hounds sounded good to me, but my dog is two feet away looking out the window and she did not even turn around! I guess the hounds of justice are not real canines?

[darbymcgill]

Local observers suggest the Committee prefers to own criminal friendly DA's.

How about simply lawyer paycheck friendly DA's... We've seen 4 or 5, maybe more "proceedings" in this case so far, from the Duke 3, Kim, Mostafa, Matt, etc. and we've yet to see anything except postponements and legal delays...

I haven't been involved previously with a lawyer and a trial, but I can imagine the additional fees charged each time the trial is postponed.

It appears the whole system (1st, 2nd, 3rd settings) is basically a money machine for the lawyers... The first two hearings we've seen inside the court room accomplished absolutely nothing in my opinion except to generate legal representation revenue....

[Repub4bush]

Ok take this however you choose....

I have posted before that my husband's nephew was friends with Reade at Delbarton.

I spoke to him briefly last night at a family party, and this is what he told me.

1- Reade always had girls running after him in the community, because he is such a nice guy. He added Gorgeous ones at that..LOL

2- Reade was always doing community service projects, helping the young kids in the area.

3-Delbarton is firmly in Reade's corner.

4-Delbarton alum having been watching all this unfold and are in contact with the attys,working to help all these guys. He said, a lot of the alums are attys, prosecutors, some within the Gov't, and are exploring all possibilities to help in case they get railroaded.

He said most all do not think it will come to that, but are covering all possibilities.

[abb]

Good to know double inside information. Thx...

[CondorFlight]

Garry Frank
Davidson Couny
PO Box 1854
Lexington, NC 27293-1854

President of the NC District Attorneys Conference.

Pen him a nice note. . .

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

During the first televised hearing I made a comment about the billable hours sitting in the courtroom. I was 1/2 serious, 1/2 tongue-in-cheek.

I am sickened every time I hear "Let the jury decide" or "let the system do its work." Lis Weihl's (?sp) answer was telling one day. Someone mentioned the cost. She shrugged and said "that's the system we have." I was disgusted.

No Lis, that is not the way the system was set up.

These young men represent a small segment of our society in that their families can afford legal representation. More power to them. Of course, in the eyes of people like Barry Saunders, that is proof of guilt.

How many of us would lose everything we had if we found ourselves where those boys are. Worse, how many of us would feel pressured to make a plea just to end it?

This is why I cannot for the life of me understand the Nifong groupies who are so ignorant as to believe, truly believe, "If he didn't have a case, he would not be pushing this."

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

It's depressing enough that the legal system in this country has allowed this case to get this far but if anyone actually gets convicted I will drop out of law school and move to Tahiti.

You can't do that, we need people like you to go after the Nifongs. :-)

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

..the Hudson-Hardin-F. Black courthouse faction..

How did Nifong fit in there?"
Part of the "group"
Always on the outside
Part of another, antagonistic group

I was trying to get a read on the Hardin - Nifong relationship and forgot what I learned (if anything).

[darbymcgill]

How many of us would lose everything we had if we found ourselves where those boys are. Worse, how many of us would feel pressured to make a plea just to end it?

I think you've hit the nail on the head. It appears the NC system is rigged to string out the process to force the defendants to cop a plea...

Many people IMO think if you're arrested, you're probably guilty. And in most cases, that's probably true. But the system should be designed to protect the innocent, not railroad the guilty...

Just look at Elmostafa's "fare"... I wonder how many of her arrests where plea bargains... she pays a fee and moves out the revolving door...

[JLS]

Ms. Weihl is wrong, but understandable. It is not our system that a prosecutor is allowed to abuse his office and bring charges against someone on no evidence for political purposes. Mr. Nifong may well find this out in civil and hopefully criminal court.

It is understandable that a former prosecutor would want the rest of us to believe that a prosecutor can do anything he wants and never be touched. That is something all of us nonprosecutors need to put a stop to.

And fortunately this case is not the rule. Usually the police see a criminal based on less evidence than the prosecutor. When the evidence to win the case is not their the prosecutor usually will not file. That other and ex-prosecutors refuse to publically denounce Nifong should make us all realize we need a check on them.

[abb]

And fortunately this case is not the rule.

I hope you are correct, but just last week we saw again how easily a District Attorney can be stampeded into doing something stupid. Boulder County, Colorado DA Mary Lacy almost did a Nifong and rushed to get in front of a TV camera to accuse a hoaxter of a crime which he probably didn't commit.

[JLS]

Hope your weekend trip was good.

I disagree some. I think the Boulder DA was bound to investigate this guy after his admissions. I am not sure what caused the investigation of him to become known to the public, but it just an investigation.

The Boulder DA may be willing to grandstand a bit, but I see no indictment of someone likely innocent. I see no indictment with low chance of sustaining it in court. I see now illegal or against policy photo arrays or lineups. I see no lying on affidavits to get warrants.

So this DA was a bit of a grandstander and she may well pay for it. That is far different from being a criminal. Had Nifong merely grandstanded but did not indict when the evidence did not come through, he would be a Dim opportunist but not a Dim criminal.