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.

[Jezebelle]

I think Mangum's supporters/believers are just hanging onto whatever they can in order to avoid admitting the truth. "There are none so blind as they who will not see." These are the same kind of people who claimed OJ was innocent, although the case was awash in positive DNA evidence. Of course, in that case it was planted, you see. In this case, it just hasn't been discovered, as you noted in your quotations of those Mangum supporters. It just shows the lengths some people will go to to maintain the reality they want or need. Lol, perhaps I should restate my point as, "I think most rational people have a general understanding of how DNA works....."

[ltc8k6]

Well, I guess I have been banned from the CTV board.
A notification and a reason would be nice.....

The racists march on, though.

Pretty weird. I guess my occasional attacks on the racists were too much. Or maybe Coldwater just doesn't like parodies of racists? Who knows?

Likely, my strident support of the defendants as innocent until proven guilty was the real reason.

Otherwise, why delete all of my posts?

Court TV will lose out on a boatload of money if this does not go to trial, and the board is run with that in mind.

[Jezebelle]

Cash wants a trial? No matter that there's no evidence against these boys? A trial is "at risk" if the defense files routine dismissal or suppression of evidence motions?

So the concern is that the trial itself is in jeopardy, not these boys' lives. Again, there is no discussion from Cash as to the potentially heinous miscarriage of justice here and the "risk" to these boys' lives, only to the possibility that, boo-hoo, they may not get their white-boy lynching.

Despicable.

Some may think it's helpful or telling or whatever that a black writer, Cash Michael, is not supporting Nifong or at least has little or no confidence in Nifong's case, but the notion that Cash has seen the light and wants justice is just absurd. He's more worried that blacks were fooled into voting for Nifong than than he is worried about sending three promising young men to prison for twenty years over a crime that never occurred.

[abb]

I've lurked there all along, k6. The CTV board needs to die anyway - they're all for a lynching...

[FlowJo]

I was banned too! Congratulations!

I have been lurking over there for the passed two weeks and there is nothing going on other than four or five AV supporters making comments that are irrational, to say the least. Most of the posters that were on within the past few months are gone. What's left over at CRTV is a bunch of whiners who can't back up what they say with facts. Lotsa folks with chips on their shoulders. lol

[ltc8k6]

You can apparently just reregister and get right back on with another name, according to a post by CW.

Don't think I'll bother.

[CondorFlight]

"An honor graduate of an elite Catholic high school attending such a party surely should have left. A girlfriend who had graduated from an elite Catholic high school and was attending a Catholic college deserved at least that much respect."

Well, I thought they did leave--both Seligman and Finnerty.
I thought Seligman was reluctant to attend in the first place, and did so only so as not to seem rude.
I think if it was more or less a team party, then sophomores (like Finnerty and Seligman) would feel obliged to attend, out of team unity.
And then leave and get some fast food or head for a restaurant.

But what do I know?

[JLS]

I have not been banned there yet. What am I doing wrong I wonder.

Seriously, I can not imagine wy ltc8k6 would have been banned there. It is their loss anyway.

And that board does need to die. We have much better discussions here.

[JLS]

For now I am taking the view that Michael's says he wants a trial too so that the black community does not tune him out. Certainly wanting a trial does not fit with his recent coming to under stand the lack of a case.

[pepperhead]

O'Reilly mentioned DukeLax last night, if only momentarily in the context of the JBR case. He said he was going to "get to the bottom" of all the police/district attorney stupidity and mistakes that are ongoing...

I got a feeling he meant the JBR case and those police/district attorneys involved in the case. I also didn't find it surprising he made this all about the girl and how he was going to do it for her. Forget about the mother and father here I guess they don't matter. Of course I only watched the first segment, because that is about all I can stand from that blowhard.

[bjc]

I agree. Mr. Michaels seems to be totally unconcerned with what appears to be a blatant miscarriage of justice and prosecutorial misconduct. Mr. Michaels seems to have a knack of laying out the dots but then refusing to connect them. It is fine that he is upset that Nifong was manipulating the AA voters, but that is clearly only a part of the story.

[JLS]

I got a feeling he meant the JBR case and those police/district attorneys involved in the case.

He listed a number of cases where DAs had screwed up in his view. I was quite please that he included this hoax.

I too am not a fan of O'Reilly which made me more surprised that he included this case on his list.

[darbymcgill]

For now I am taking the view that Michael's says he wants a trial too so that the black community does not tune him out.

That would be indicative of both his code and that of his "community"...

[GAgal]

LieStoppers has started a message board:

http://z9.invisionfree.com/LieStoppers_Board/index.php?act=idx

[SarahUSC]

I think that whole Catholic business refers to Finnerty because he graduated from Catholic school and has a girlfriend at a Catholic college. And you're right - I think he did leave. We know Seligmann left too.

[abb]

http://www.drudgereport.com/
Further details emerge on rape accusations against members of Duke men's lacrosse team... Developing...

[TommyDale]

I saw this, but I cannot find anything ANYWHERE on the story.
Where does he get this, since he never responds to our tips?

[abb]

Dunno, TD. I find nothing, either.

[Guenevere]

What's this all about?

[abb]

You know what I know. Scanning all blogs and bb's even as we speak.