Posted on 08/24/2006 8:01:43 PM PDT by Perdogg
Wade Smith's no comment on the NYT piece is exactly right at this point. The defense needs to wait until they have carefully assessed how to eviscerate Gottlieb and whether it is best to do it prior to the pre-trial hearings or on the stand.
If I were Nifong I would send Gottlieb on a long course out of town so he doesn't beat up any more innocent bystanders!
The NYT blog is getting hits ... many uninformed posters though.
http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=31
Abrams was on MSNBC earlier, says NYT ignored and/or glossed over the AV's inconsistencies, and those with Nikki's statements.
The facts the AV is diagnosed as bipolar and uses muscle relaxants that can create hallucinations in the presence of alcohol should go a long way toward discrediting 100% of her testimony at trial.
"and issued an order barring cameras and recorders from the courtroom for all pretrial hearings."
It's Judge Smith who is going to be on trial that Friday, not just the defendants.
And now matter how he tries to circumvent it, we can tell him that "The whole world is watching. . . "
Barring cameras is bad because then you have to rely on reporters to tell you what happened because you can't see it yourself.
I'm not disputing the manufacturers warning but that just means that combining alcohol and Flexeril CAN cause hallucinations, not that absolutely always does.
I think the accuser knows she wasn't raped.
Nifong absolutely has to prove his case with evidence other than the AV's testimony.
Well, then he has a problem because I don't think he has a thing besides the accusers testimony.
The bipolar diagnosis and the alcohol plus Flexeril help because both could affect the accuser's perceptions. I don't think she hallucinated a rape but I don't think she perceives things normally either. That probably helps explain why she can't keep any of her stories straight.
Given enough alcohol and muscle relaxant I'd bet good money that you can be induced to have an hallucination, and you will believe that it's real!
No cameras?
I wish I had hallucinated this - Georgia Goslee was just on MSNBC with someone else saying Nifong has been totally rehabilited by the NY Times piece. She says the public is starting to understand that the players are guilty. This is a real disaster in terms of public perception of the case.
They weren't getting anywhere with the "wait until the trial" line, so they ignored the gag and set up this story. They will work this as long as they can...
So new trial 9-22? My anniversary, good day for a "I can't believe you are wasting my time" from the judge...wishful thinking?
I think she knows it's a lie but I also think she's disturbed and her perceptions aren't normal. I think that's why she has trouble telling a consistent story.
I see that the good Reverend's post was there. I'm impressed.
A few thoughts:
1. Does the ban on cameras imply Mangum may have to testify concerning one of the motions, say the motion to supress the IDs?
2. Will the media sue to get access? Hard for me to believe CourtTV and FNC will not.
3. Is Judge Smith the third consecutive really really really stupid NC judge who is assigned a case that is clearly a hot potato and fails to understand what he has? The faith in the NC justice system is in the balance here. His role is to both oversee a fair trial and convince the public that it was a fair "trial." [I put trial in quotes because there may never be one, but the hearing must be seen as fair.] This includes those of us here and the Durham and broader black community that believes the woman for whatever or even no good reason. Banning cameras does not smack of someone understanding what they have gotten into.
4. Why is it Gottlieb not Himan lying. Gottlieb has been doing this for years and year. Surely by now he has seen all sorts of criminals lie. Surely by now he knows that while a criminal might be smarter than each police investigator alone, what trips someone up is nobody is smarter than four or five people. A group of investigators always finds the holes in your story if you lie. Yet Gottlieb spins out a pack of lies that will be examined by 100s or thousands or even millions of people. He had to know it would not work. I could see a rookie like Himan thinking he could get away with this, but an experienced investigator? It is shocking.
Be it Nifong or any other DA, he or she would be well aware of the deficiencies in the case. DAs analyze evidence and decide whether or not a case should be prosecuted or not based on that analysis on thousands of cases daily in the U.S.. What's different about this case is that it would never have been brought under normal circumstances. But when the elements of a "perfect storm" converge, as they have in this case, an anamoly occurs. The fact that Nifong would not meet with the defense to hear exculpatory evidence speaks volumes about Nifong's immediate determination to prosecute these white boys, come evidence of no crime, hell or high water. The evidence of no crime has already come to Nifong; next in store for him is hell.
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