Posted on 09/22/2006 1:20:40 PM PDT by Howlin
Three Duke lacrosse players took five to 10 minutes to sexually assault a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a team party, and not the 30 minutes she originally described to investigators, a prosecutor said Friday. "When something happens to you that is really awful, it can seem like it takes place longer than it actually takes," District Attorney Mike Nifong said.
Nifong's comments came as Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III denied a defense request that prosecutors provide a detailed accounting of the alleged assault, including the exact time, place and type of sexual act the accuser said each defendant committed.
A grand jury has indicted three lacrosse players _ Reade Seligmann, 20; Collin Finnerty, 19; and David Evans, 23 _ on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense. The accuser, a student at nearby North Carolina Central University, told police she was raped in a bathroom by three men at a March 13 off-campus party. Defense attorneys have strongly proclaimed the players' innocence.
Kirk Osborn, who represents Seligmann, said the defense needed the "bill of particulars" because the accuser has told several different versions of the alleged assault, and his client has a right to know which version prosecutors will present at trial. In search and arrest warrants issued early in the investigation, police stated the accuser told investigators she was assaulted for 30 minutes.
Nifong said he is not required to state the exact time of the alleged attack, but offered that authorities believe it took place between 11:30 p.m. on March 13, when the accuser arrived at the party, and 12:55 a.m. on March 14, when police arrived and found no one at the house.
Friday's hearing was the first since Smith was appointed to take over the case, and it was scheduled to continue Friday afternoon.
Before the hearing began, Nifong gave defense lawyers 615 pages of evidence, a compact disc and a cassette tape. He said it included much of what was requested by defense lawyers, who had asked for handwritten notes from police officers involved with the case, reports outlining procedures used at the labs that tested the DNA of the players and notes from a mental health facility where police took the accuser after the party.
Wow Mangum's medical information must be pretty awful. I am not an attorney, but why else would evidence in a public case be subject to such an order?
Sewage spill got played down, Durham report gave low volume
Michael Biesecker, Staff Writer, N&O Sep 23, 2006 08:00 AM -excerpts-
Earlier this month, state environmental officials fined the city $33,431 after an investigation determined that the 21-inch-diameter sewer line failed because of corrosion that should have been detected during required annual inspections. City records indicate it had not been inspected for nearly two years before the spill.
The ruptured line in a remote area on the city's north side spewed undetected for 17 days -- issuing 8 million gallons of sewage into nearby wetlands, a beaver pond and a small creek leading to the Eno. That amount of sewage would fill about 1,000 of the tractor-trailer tanker trucks commonly used to deliver gasoline to service stations. -jump-
Pullman said the city's reporting about the May spill makes her question the truthfulness of other information provided by the city.*
"It is appalling that number was reported," she said, referring to the 1,000 gallons. "That report was a feel-good document. More PR than anything else."
http://www.newsobserver.com/145/story/489783.html
* Lead contaminated drinking water; burning, smoldering dumps; and now massive sewage spills. Further evidence the Bull City is being transformed into a toxic waste cesspool, worthy of a third-world nation.
ANOTHER POSTPONEMENT!
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/490676.html
By Cindy George, Staff Writer
"Two former Durham police officers charged with assaulting a cook this summer at a North Raleigh sports bar had their court appearances postponed this morning."
(don't know who the judge was;will try to find out)
Kim gets 2 months under house arrest
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/490682.html ^
DURHAM -- Kim Roberts, a dancer who performed at a Duke lacrosse party that ended with rape charges, admitted five probation violations today and will serve up to two months under house arrest.. .
Roberts was convicted in 2001 of embezzling $25,000 from a Durham photo finishing company where she worked in the payroll department. . .
The probation violations that Roberts admitted to in court were:
-- She was behind on restitution payments.
-- She missed two appointments with a probation officer.
-- She left the state without permission.
-- She quit her job without notifying probation officers.
-- She moved without informing probation officers of her new address.
(Sigh) for the umpteenth time, do we have to ask who the judge was in this case?
(Doesn't anyone go to journalism school and learn the basics--like WHO, what, where, and when?)
This is the email I sent to Ben Niolet, Melanie Sill and Joe Neff of the NandO this past saturday.
"Liestoppers Blogspot is reporting this morning (9/23) that at yesterdays hearing, it was revealed that the Durham Police Department destroyed evidence. Tapes of radio transmissions on the night of the alleged crime have been erased, according to Liestopper's reporter who was at the hearing.
What do you all know about this? How could it happen?"
Walter Abbott
Ruston, LA
As of noon central time today, Monday, 9/25, I had recieved no response to the inquiry. So I phoned Ben Niolet (his number is at the end of his alleged news stories) and asked about DPD's destruction of evidence (audio tapes of police radio transmissions pertinent to the alleged crime) brought to light in Friday's hearing.
His response was, "I wouldn't phrase it that way." I made sure he understood that there was a motion outstanding to preserve that evidence, and that the DPD erased said tapes and while that motion was still outstanding. Niolet acknowledged he knew those facts.
I told him a lot of people who followed the case closely indeed DID consider it evidence destruction and that Liestoppers had a correspondent at the hearing. To which he opined that hearing are public and anyone can go and that news judgements are always made as to what is newsworthy.
Once again we find that we CANNOT depend upon the DriveBy Media to report what is happening in Durham. We must do it ourselves...
http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson142.html
Nifonging the Standards of Justice, Part II
"I made sure he understood that there was a motion outstanding to preserve that evidence, and that the DPD erased said tapes and while that motion was still outstanding."
Which means that Nifong should be held in contempt of court for destroying evidence (at the very, very least).
Kim will also have her probation extended three years. Wonder if a repayment schedule for restitution was agreed upon? Am also curious as to when the probation violations occured.
Oh please. I'm beggin' ya. Let it be so.
From the Chronicle article you referenced earlier upthread:
Other requested materials, including the original 911 tapes from the night of the alleged rape could not be provided, Nifong said. "The representation is that the tapes didn't exist or have been taped over," Nifong said.
Which is it? Did the tapes not exist or were they taped over?
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2006
Troops on the Field
[snip]
We will be patient, yes, but we will NOT give up. We must "work." There is SOMETHING very much in our power to achieve in this case: the defeat of Michael Nifong in the District Attorney's race. I am no political writer, but I will say this over and over till November. THIS is something we can make happen. Beth Brewer of RN-VC has the troops on the field. More voters signed Lewis Cheek's petition than voted for Nifong. This is one evil we can grab by the throat and throw into obscurity. It just takes each of us doing whatever we possibly can. Write, post, rabble-rouse... sign up new voters, drive to the polls. Put up a campaign sign, give what you can, All those of you who care, who are seething with outrage...PLEASE...get involved. Seldom in these frustrations in our lives, does life hand us a road map to satisfaction; to a possible resolution. This is one of those moments. I'm dreaming of a phone call for Nifong this November, the very one he most dreads: "Mike...YOU LOST." Are you dreaming of that too?
Let's make it happen. I can almost hear Nifong's phone ringing now.
According to the latest voter registration figures, Durham County has 27,070 registered Republicans, 24,566 of whom are white. The county has 86,621 registered Democrats, 46,586 of whom are black. So the demographic bloc supportive of Nifong's behavior formed a majority of the Democratic electorate, while those most likely to be alienated by his tactics couldn't vote in the primary. As the director of the Durham County Board of Elections noted the day after the primary, "We had a lot of irate, irate Republicans who couldn't vote for district attorney."
That is what I want to know.
"Other requested materials, including the original 911 tapes from the night of the alleged rape could not be provided, Nifong said. "The representation is that the tapes didn't exist or have been taped over," Nifong said."
Wow! What a guy!
The judge who postponed the trial of the two police officers involvd in the Blinco's incident is Wake District Court Judge James Fullwood.
He is a democrat, up for re-election in 2006.
This is so typical. No one will call Nifong on anything. No judge, no public official, no reporter, no one. Nifong knows this and obviously this is why he feels he can get away with anything he wants.
I keep waiting for one person to call Nifong out but no one ever does. And people wonder why this case is still going on........
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