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.
If those tapes are taped over, then they no longer exist, do they?
http://rdu.news14.com/content/your_news/triangle/default.asp?ArID=91451
Fired Durham police officer will fight for job
Updated: 9/25/2006 12:46:37 PM
By: Gretchen Bartelt
RALEIGH -- A former Durham police officer will fight to get his job back.
Scott Tanner was fired more than a week ago for allegedly getting into a fight with a cook at a Raleigh sports bar.
Tanner and fellow officer Gary Lee have been charged with assault.
They appeared before a Wake County judge who continued their hearing to October 30. So far neither has entered a plea.
According to police reports, the two off-duty officers were at Blinco's Restaurant and Bar on Glenwood Avenue July 20 for a "going away" party. When they were leaving, they encountered cook, Rene Thomas, who was taking a smoke break.
Thomas says he yelled, "Whoo-hoo!" after a truck carrying some of the officers peeled out of the parking lot.
He says a man in the truck in turn yelled a racial slur and then they fought.
After an internal investigation, Durham's police chief said his department has not been able to determine that any racial slurs were exchanged.
He is, however, satisfied that Lee and Tanner instigated the incident and fired them, saying his department doesn't see a need to wait for a verdict from the legal system.
Tanner's attorney says he will file paperwork with the city and appeal to get his job back in the next few days.
No word yet if Lee will do the same.
Ultimately the decision could fall into the hands of Durham's city manager.
Three other Durham officers have been cleared in the assault case, including investigators working on the Duke lacrosse rape case.
Unfortunately, Nifong would not have been the person who tape over or destroyed the 911 tape. The only way Nifong could be held in comtempt on this one issue probably is if he or his office willfully did notify the agency that had the tape of the order to preserve it.
I have a quick question about the erased/destroyed tapes. It is:
What tapes are we taling about?
At first I thought it was the tapes of the radio chatter among the DPD the early morning of the incident? I think what was destroyed the defense thinks was destroyed was all the chatter by various DPD officers about who Mangum is, that that the police thought her claims bogus etc.
Now I see people saying 911 tapes. Anyone know for sure which it is or if it is both.
We've heard and preserved snippets of both on this site..
That means someone had to make copies so the snippets could be created. I'll bet you a nickel someone (whomever edited copies of the originals for release) still has copies... And I bet they were edited on a computer. Even if they were deleted, there are smart people that can recover them...
Now if they've taken a magnet or hammer to their hard drive or done a super duper DOD scrub they may be gone, but otherwise... somebody's got copies...
Pagine Mssrs. Osborn, Chesire, Smith et.al.....
ooops...
pagine = paging...
Meanwhile, Tennessee shows N. Carolina the way :
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/state/article/0,1406,KNS_348_5020204,00.html
NASHVILLE — The state Supreme Court temporarily suspended a district attorney general from practicing law in an order released Monday while an investigation of professional misconduct continues.
William Gibson is the Cookeville-based district attorney general for Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Overton, Pickett, Putnam and White counties.
He is under investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for allegedly writing letters to an inmate without the knowledge of his attorney and discussing the man’s guilty plea.
(snip)
The court concluded that Gibson "poses a substantial threat of irreparable harm to the public."
I don't think we are talking about 911 tapes. I believe the tapes that were erased are regarding communications between officers themselves, not 911 tapes.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=local&id=4595520
The term of the original probation was to end in December, but will now run through December 2009. Mark Simeon, Roberts' attorney, said his client will begin the house arrest on Oct. 9 and will be allowed to leave her home to work.
Roberts is $1,400 behind in her restitution payments, Eason said. If she catches up, her period of house arrest will be cut to 60 days. She will move to unsupervised probation if she pays the remaining restitution balance in full before December 2009, Simeon said.
Thought I'd pass along some information from a former Deputy AG in NC. The story going around the NC legal community is that Nifong's case is built on air (yeah, yeah, we already knew that). At the beginning of this debacle in March, Nifong was convinced that something violent happened in the house but couldn't prove anything. His tried and true formula was to turn the screws ever tighter to get the players to flip -- it has worked before. The indictments were a last-ditch attempt to get one of hte players to flip. The most telling comment from Nifong was words to the effect that "once indictments come down, criminals start turning on each other." It simply never occurred to Nifong that there was no assault of any nature, let alone a violent gang rape. Nifong believed in his bones that once the indictments came down, at least one of the players would come forward with "the truth," except Nifong never accepted that the truth would be that nothing happened. Now he has no way out unless a court starts excluding evidence or a hury acquits. The NC legal community is embarrassed by this whole affair, making the good state of NC look like a banan republic.
What a dirtball to pursue this strategy.
He's spot on. And you can tell him for me that it's up to him and his collegues in the "legal community" to put the heat on Nifong and make this thing go away. The blog community in general and us here on Free Republic and Talk Left ARE NOT going away. We're in it for the duration...
I find it hard to believe that he thought she was telling the truth past, say, early April. If he did , he's dumber than dumb.
I wish the IRS would look into her and Crystal's employment.
"The NC legal community is embarrassed by this whole affair, making the good state of NC look like a banan republic."
Well, they have the power to do something about it. The AG can intervene. The Governor can intervene. The DA's of the state can issue a statement.
If you're in a letter-writing mood, you might pen a page to
Garry Frank
Davidson Couny
PO Box 1854
Lexington, NC 27293-1854
He's the President of the NC District Attorneys Conference. (sorry, no email)
Do it. One paragraph, one page, five minutes of your time, 39 cents. One hundred letters from all over the country will have impact.
(You may help these guys not have to spend 5 months in trial, or even worse.)
Sure does.
Governor Easley, if you are lurking, we will remember that you appointed Nifong.
Yes. Yes he is.
Still no answer from Melanie last I checked. See post #208 for some other follow up on this.
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