Ping
Elmostafa has already paid more than that for his legal representation and loss of work for these ridiculous court appearances. Why wouldn't they just let the guy pay restitution, like they did Kim Roberts Pittman? Oh, she didn't pay it did she? ;-)
yikes
the only graceful exit for Nifong now is a heart attack
What did the woman who committed the larceny get?
Maybe off subject but I can't help but wonder how many times a day this kind of stuff goes on all across small town USA.
How many men have lost their savings paying for atty's in cases where they were innocent. Plead guilty and get it over with. That's our justice system.
One of these days there will be internet "lists" for every crime done in America. Only because this is a high profile case is it getting the attention it's getting. Women charge innocent men all too often and the criminal system is used.
A letter sent to the Herald-Sun's reporters yesterday.
An interesting new figure is emerging in the Lax case. She is ADA Ashley Cannon. Cannon was the ADA pushing the bogus noise violation charge against Evans (after a charge threw out identical complaints) and now pursuing the absurd but malicious prosecution of the cabbie. Ashley Cannon appears to be a deeply unethical lawyer and Nifong's "right-hand man".
It is likely that this woman is the only in the DA's office who is as deceitful as Nifong. Maybe the only one who the famously paranoid Nifong can count on to push his fraud forward.
(well some ADAs like Destine Couch and Luke Bumm are a bit shall we say _compromised_ to serve as Nifong's Igor)
We should expect to see a lot of Cannon in the upcoming travesty.--------------------------To the Durham Herald-Sun reporters:Below we recount one of many actual stories you won't _ever_ read in the Herald-Sun and why
The story: Mike Nifong's office is preparing to frame a black immigrant cabbie for a 3-year old bogus charge of "abetting" shoplifting.
Why you paper won't do an actual investigation of this travesty: Bob Ashley is corrupt and desperate to be accepted by the Durham power-brokers. He will _never_ do anything to threaten the town's politicians, police or prosecutors.
Instead, Ashley's lackey John Stevenson will tomorrow write a lame four paragraph summary of the case, covering up the gathering factual evidence that the case represents overt prosecutorial abuse and the strong implication that Nifong and one of his ADAs will induce perjured testimony from a career criminal who Nifong has repeatedly failed to prosecute. Here is the real story, not covered by your newspaper:
Moezeldin Elmostafa is of course an alibi witness in the Lacrosse case.
Nifong's office, eager to discredit this witness, ran a huge series of employment, bank records, criminal and credit background checks on this poor guy that revealed only a 3-year never-served warrant apparently sworn by a security guard for some trivial $200 shoplifting of several handbags by a cab fare of Elmostafa.
The case was long ago resolved with a conviction of the thief- a career criminal with an interesting connection to Nifong, described below.
Nonetheless, without further investigation, Elmostafa was immediately arrested in May by...naturally, the chief Lacrosse police investigator and his henchman R.D. Clayton (who are both under investigation for threatening a black man in Raleigh and calling him a "N&*&") - The Herald-Sun has stopped covering the Clayton-Gottlieb case, for obvious reasons related to Stevenson's close relationship with one of the accused cops - This police investigator himself directly linked Elmostafa's May arrest to his alibi report in the Lacrosse case demanding as he cuffed Elmostafa "Is there anything you want to tell us about the Lacrosse case" An overt case of witness intimidation. Which Stevenson will omit in his report.
Despite the bogus nature of the charge against Elmostafa, Nifong's office did not drop it but today changed it to a patently ridiculous charge of "aiding and abetting" handbag theft. (Stevenson will spin this as charge reduction; a sign of Nifong's goodwill)
Remember that this bogus prosecution is for driving a cab fare to a mall 3 years ago where the real thief who he never met before or after stole a couple of handbags.
So who is the thief? Well she is Lisa Hawkins who has been arrested over 20 times for drug offenses, theft and minor violent offenses over the last 20 years.
http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/apps/offender/offend1?DOCNUM=0174277&SENTENCEINFO=yes&SHOWPHOTO=yes
Stevenson will not mention this.
[[Major aside: Hawkins is the tip of a very large problem related to the complete failure of Nifong's office to successfully prosecute in a timely or effective manner, the tiny minority of Durham's citizens who are horrific career criminals. These few have committed many murders, armed robberies and assaults while Nifong's office fritters away their time on bogus cases.
Now here is where any self-respecting journalist worth his salt would step in. But this glaring threat to public safety has been completely glossed over by your newspaper's corrupt crime reporter John Stevenson. And has been _intentionally_ edited out of your paper by Mr. Happy-Face Ashley]]Back to the case at hand:
To support the absurd "abetting" charge against Elmostafa, Nifong's office has now been widely suspected of applying pressure to this actual thief to change her story. This is not an unfounded accusation.Already in the Lacrosse case, Nifong has done this with convicted embezzler and 2nd Dancer Kim Roberts - who remains free without repercussions months after flagrant violations her prior convictions. And is now "cooperating with Nifong", according to her attorney, the most prominent Nifong support in Durham (a story completely unreported by the H-S) And Nifong has already done it with rape accuser {{name omitted}} boyfriend, who was arrested by Durham police following the March incident and then cut a deal with Nifong's office.
And what is Nifong's leverage over the career criminal Ms Hawkins?
Well turns out, Hawkins was rearrested again (the 21st time?) and convicted in April and then had her parole revoked at the request of Nifong's office in July.
This is strong indirect evidence that Nifong and his ADA Ashley Cannon plan on pressuring Lisa Hawkins with the threat of continued imprisonment to lie on the stand about the cabbie having advance knowledge of her intent to steal handbags. An absurdly desperate but entirely consistent act for Nifong and Cannon, who previously pressed bogus "noise" complaints against one Lacrosse player after a judge threw out identical complaints against another player.
If y'all don't think it's a problem to have a rogue DA operating an intimidation racket in Durham, that's your problem. But do your job.
Your Editor Bob Ashley is corrupt. He is so desperate to be invited to banquets by the Mayor, he wouldn't report a murder that happened in front of him since it would "harm Durham's reputation". But that doesn't excuse y'all from standing up and doing your jobs as reporters.Like Cash Michaels. Like Joseph Neff. Like anyone with half a brain and pride in their work.
In the 2 years since Ashley took over your newspaper, it has become a joke. Full of happy talk and intentional misdirection.You have nothing to be proud of.
1:36 AM, August 16, 2006
The Raleigh News & Observer made me an offer
[snip]
Somehow, Melanie, a lot of the public is getting the idea that Nifong started the witch hunt. We need to let the public know about all the N&O did before Nifong began his part of the witch hunt.
What about a front-page series:
"THE N&O LED AND NIFONG FOLLOWED?"
Thank you for your attention to my questions.
John
www.johnincarolina.com
http://www.newsobserver.com/145/story/471328.html
DEVELOPMENT
In other news, attorneys for the three indicted Duke University lacrosse players met with District Attorney Mike Nifong and court officials Tuesday afternoon to discuss having the case declared exceptional. The designation would attach a single judge to handle the pretrial matters and the trial. That judge would have the authority to set hearing dates and handle other scheduling issues.
After the meeting, Durham Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson said all parties had agreed on a single judge to nominate to state court officials, who must approve the choice. Hudson, who presided over the highly publicized murder case against novelist Mike Peterson, would not say who the nominee was but confirmed that he would not be handling the lacrosse case.
Former Atlanta Mayor Andy Young blames Jews, Koreans and Arabs for "ripping off" Blacks.
In an interview, Young was asked whether he was concerned that Wal-Mart causes smaller, mom-and-pop stores to close.
``Well, I think they should; they ran the ´mom and pop´ stores out of my neighborhood,´´ the paper quoted Young as saying. ``But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida.
I think they´ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it´s Arabs; very few black people own these stores.´
[excerpt]This sentiment, it seems to me, should have guided the NAACP's response to this case, especially as more facts have emerged about the prosecution's tactics. Instead, to its long-term detriment, the organization has taken the unfortunate approach of giving a pass to the Nifong-orchestrated lineup while adopting a hard-line victims' rights position.