WHAT ARE THE ODDS?
Wade Smith, a lawyer representing Collin Finnerty, made District Attorney Mike Nifong crack a wide smile Friday as he defended the defense's use of polling.
Smith, who has rarely spoken during hearings about the lacrosse rape case, noted the irony: Of the 300 people called in a county with a population of 240,000, the pollsters just happened to contact Cy Gurney, the district attorney's wife.
"I know Mr. Nifong knows that we would not call his wife," Smith told the judge in his colorful, homespun fashion as he argued against the accusation that the defense had tried to taint the jury pool.
Smith assured the judge that she would not be called again.
"She actually wants to be involved in any future surveys," Nifong said with a laugh.
HOW MANY?
When one of the defense lawyers said that Nifong gave 50 to 70 interviews about the case, Nifong said he wanted to set the record straight. He checked his schedule and it showed that he actually gave more like 15 to 20 interviews. He said he had many conversations with reporters, some just to say that he would not comment on the case.
But the number 50 came from Nifong himself.
In a March 31 interview with a News & Observer reporter, Nifong was asked "How many interviews do you think you've given?"
"In excess of 50," Nifong said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/23/us/23duke.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
September 23, 2006
New Timeline by Prosecutor in Duke Case
By DUFF WILSON
DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 22 — The Durham district attorney said in court Friday that he believed there was no evidence that a reported sexual assault at a Duke lacrosse team party last March lasted 30 minutes, as the police had stated.
Instead, the prosecutor, Michael B. Nifong, said he thought the assault lasted 5 to 10 minutes.
Mr. Nifong made his statement at a hearing in which the judge rejected a defense request that prosecutors provide detailed accounts of the time and nature of each criminal act cited by the accuser.
“If I had to speculate,’’ Mr. Nifong said, “I’d say this whole event probably took about 5 minutes, 10 minutes at the outside. When something is happening to you that is really awful, it seems like it takes a lot longer than it actually does.”
J. Kirk Osborn, a lawyer for one of the three defendants, said Mr. Nifong kept changing accounts as the investigation evolved, a tactic that would make it harder to mount a defense.
“This is exactly what we’re afraid of,” Mr. Osborn said.
Mr. Nifong said the woman’s account would be subject to cross-examination and jury review after she testified at the trial. The three men, members of the lacrosse team, have been charged with first-degree forcible rape, first-degree sexual offense and kidnapping. All three have pleaded not guilty.
In denying the motion for a detailed account of the crime, known as a bill of particulars, the judge, W. Osmond Smith III of Superior Court, accepted Mr. Nifong’s argument that such specificity was not required in the pretrial stage and that defense lawyers had received all available statements and evidence, including 615 pages on Friday. That put the total at 2,465 pages.
The trial is widely expected to start in the spring.