Cab driver in lacrosse case acquitted (DukeLax cabbie escapes Nifongery)

Raleigh News & Observer ^ | August 29, 2006 | Staff

[abb]

The Durham cab driver who has surfaced as an alibi witness in the Duke lacrosse rape case today was found not guilty of a 3-year-old shoplifting charge.

Moezeldin Elmostafa is expected to provide an alibi for Reade Seligmann, one of three Duke lacrosse players indicted in the rape case, because he gave Seligmann a ride after the party that led to the rape allegations.

After authorities learned of Elmostafa's potential role in the rape case, they found an unserved warrant naming him in a 2003 shoplifting case at a Hecht’s department store at Northgate Mall in Durham. A security officer for the store testified today in district court that he saw a woman steal handbags from the store and then jump into Elmostafa’s cab, which sped away.

The security officer testified that the cab pulled away even before the woman had closed to the door. A store surveillance tape, played in court, appeared to show that the door closed first.

Defense lawyers in the lacrosse rape case have said that Elmostafa was charged because he is a favorable witness to the defense. Loflin put one of the lacrosse investigators on the witness stand this morning and produced typed notes from the lacrosse case that show District Attorney Mike Nifong wanted to be informed when Elmostafa was arrested.

Assistant District Attorney Ashley Cannon told the judge the shoplifting case has nothing to do with the rape case.

[JLS]

Very interesting that Sheehan implicitly calls for the case against Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann to be dropped but smears the three in the process. That is ultimately what Nifong will do. Sheehan is a lowlife to smear the players and the cabbie in her article.

One might think that not guilty would be 99.99% of the time not guilty in America. But not to the PC, I guess.

[Neverforget01]

Anyone else find this odd:

One of the security guards, Angel Altmon, told The Herald-Sun that when she called police, she told the dispatcher the woman was sitting in a car and was "intoxicated, drunk or something."

"Somebody must have slipped her something, because she wasn't drunk," Altmon told the newspaper. "If she was drunk, I would have smelled something."

Why is it if the accuser was drunk or drugged someone had to have slipped her something? Why isn't it possible she administered the drugs and/or alcohol to herself?

[TommyDale]

They were already in the process of setting the Duke boys up.

[Fido969]

Hey, for me this was the money quote in Ruth's article :

"There are some charges that, for the sake of the accused, the victim, and the community, it just might be better to drop."

Yeah, it was the money quote for me, too.

Notice "the victim".

Not alleged victim, etc.... but "the victim".

Roofie, your slip is showing.

Hey, Roofie - how about: "the false accuser".

[JLS]

Only a bunch of true leftist idiots would think false rape charges are a good reason to have a NCCU/Duke get together.

It is NOT like the lacrosse team set out to hire a NCCU stripper. It is NOT like this will cause anyone to become best buds who would not have a natural inclinnation to seek each other out.

The fact that Mangum CLAIMS to be a NCCU student is just an accident. It has no meaning. NCCU students ON AVERAGE live very different lives and have very differrent interests than Duke students ON AVERAGE. I am sure some meet each other and become friends every year. I am sure that number is very small. This case nor for show get togethers will not change that.

[Locomotive Breath]

I agree. In other words, let's all have a feel-good moment and the problem will go away.

[JLS]

This study demonstrates that a single exposure to GHB in a case of sexual assault can be documented by hair analysis when collected about one month after the crime.

I take this to mean that when he said no tox screen was available, Nifong:

1. was hiding that the was still scrambling for evidence at that late date

2. was hoping to spring a positive date rape drag test on the defense later.

I am a bit surprised they did not have her take the drug and then test positive for it. And a positive test that could not be dated fairly precisely would be meaningless since the drugs in question also have recreational uses.

[JLS]

This study demonstrates that a single exposure to GHB in a case of sexual assault can be documented by hair analysis when collected about one month after the crime.

I take this to mean that when Nifong said no tox screen was available, the hair was still at the lab and he was:

1. trying to hide that he was scrambling to get any evidence still

2. and hoping to spring at date rape drug on the defense at a later time.

I am bit surprised DPD/Nifong did not have her take a date rape drug and then test her hair. Of course since such drugs have recreational uses, a positive would have been meaningless.

[pepperhead]

Very interesting that Sheehan implicitly calls for the case against Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann to be dropped but smears the three in the process. That is ultimately what Nifong will do. Sheehan is a lowlife to smear the players and the cabbie in her article.

Your right, it is rather low of her. I think there is more evidence right now that The False One is guilty of giving false statements to the police than of any rape ever occurring.

[pepperhead]

This study demonstrates that a single exposure to GHB in a case of sexual assault can be documented by hair analysis when collected about one month after the crime.

Alot of these medical test are great but I think this one is begging for someone to abuse it. Someone could claim they were drugged and raped one day, then the next they could go take some GHB. If this got in as evidence in some rape case I hope they have more evidence to go along with it. If not, I don't see how evidence collected a month after the incident could survive a appeal.

[ltc8k6]

Well, an accuser could have taken GHB before she got to the hospital. It would then have shown up on the urine and blood tests. So the possibility of a frame is there anyway even without the hair test.

I'd like to know the timing accuracy of the hair test.

[Locomotive Breath]

How fast does that particular individual's hair grow?

[ltc8k6]

I don't know, but they must have some sort of way to figure the timing. The only question is how accurate can they get?

If they can't get it down to the day, then the value of the test in a date rape case would seem to be small.

[Locomotive Breath]

Sorry - I was being ironic. I know they have statistics on rate of hair growth, but I agree with your point that a test performed a month later would be unlikely to identify time of ingestion of a drug with the precision and accuracy needed in this case.

Therefore, a positive test would be very damaging because the general public would not understand that it means she had ingested the drug sometime/anytime and would jump to the conclusion that she had been given it within the very brief window in which she was in association with the lax team.

A negative test is very significant because it means that she had NEVER taken or been given the drug by the lax team, herself, or anyone else.

[Constitutions Grandchild]

To the extent that the guard said, "intoxicated, drunk, or something..." I don't find that particularly odd. To think she would assume someone had "slipped" the AV something, I find that a small leap. These days are different than those I grew up in and, from what I am hearing from my son, he has received a couple of phone calls from girls who claim they have been slipped something at parties. These calls have come in on his cell phone while he has been at home over the summer -- say, the day after the party, but I have been quick to warn him to never get involved (especially in light of what we and the boys from Duke have been through). I tell him to call 911 if someone asks for assistance and let (bite my tongue) the police sort it out.

The guard, I assume, had some knowledge of the folks in the community and is, perhaps, out in the social life more than most of us. It is going on, I'm told.

What I find disgusting is the total lack of investigation on the part of the police and the ER's in Durham. Somebody comes in a state like that and they'd have the entire battery of tests done -- permission, or not, I wouldn't want the possibility of a malpractice suit against the ER.

[Ken H]

This study demonstrates that a single exposure to GHB in a case of sexual assault can be documented by hair analysis when collected about one month after the crime.

From Mike Nifong's post #322:

Gottlieb was looking for a lab to do testing on 4/27 in his handwritten notes, but - get this - Nifong leads the Newsweek reporter to believe that he had tests showing she had a Date Rape Drug in her system before 4/24, when this piece was printed in Newsweek:

So the Herald Sun was being deliberately misleading when they wrote:

Negative results, he [Dr. Shannon Miller] said, don't necessarily mean no substances were used. That's because some drugs can wash out of the body quickly, he said, also citing the importance of the timing of the test.

Bottom line - the expert was refering to urine samples. A negative hair sample from CGM does indeed mean no date-rape drug was used. The Herald-Sun is busted.

[ltc8k6]

Yeah, they were misleading folks.

The hair test results are devastating to Nifong.

He still has his fingers in his ears, though.

[maggief]

FYI

I looked at voter registrations in Durham and the only Terry Mangum registered is Black/African American.

[abb]

http://www.postchronicle.com/commentary/article_21236864.shtml
Duke Case Lessons Should Be Learned -- And NOT Forgotten
By Michael J. Gaynor
Aug 31, 2006

[Neverforget01]

Ms. Crier of Court TV is going to have a Duke update right now!