Posted on 10/18/2006 2:45:47 PM PDT by zaxxon
The charges against the Duke lacrosse players should be dropped immediately, and the people demanding the dismissal the loudest and most forcefully should be the very people who have made a living allegedly fighting against racial injustice.
I've said this before, but it's worth saying again: Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should be in Durham, N.C., today, promising civil disobedience until the charges are dropped and prosecutor Mike Nifong resigns.
Ed Bradley and "60 Minutes" should never be mistaken for Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court. Bradley is just a TV reporter and "60 Minutes" is just a TV show, but you couldn't help but be moved by the story they aired Sunday night about the Duke lacrosse rape allegations.
The three accused players gave their first interviews, and two of them claimed they had airtight, documented alibis. The accuser's one-night sidekick, Kim Roberts, seems to have settled on telling the truth rather than trying to spin the story for fame or money. She contradicted several of the statements the accuser gave to police.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Okay, thanks JLS.
Normally we like James Woods pretty well, so we watched his show, "Shark", once. I think he overacts and is way over the top. He's just too "noisy", but I guess it's the role. Anyway, didn't like it at all.
Did he end up filing the charges against the three or not?
The defense attorneys said early on that there was a video cam running through some of those parts of the party.
I thought Crystal arrived with one shoe off.
I've wondered if her shoe came off and she got that cut on her foot from falling out of the car that dropped her off, then just went in with one shoe on, one off.
I understand that don't have runoffs. The person with the most votes wins, even if it's just a plurality.
Maybe she spilled stuff from her purse while she was standing there pawing through it. Then got down to pick it up and fell only slightly - more of a drop than a fall.
But I thought I'd seen a photo of her lying somewhat on her side, and that would indicate a fall to me.
It would have to be undertaken by members of the defense bar who have represented people they think were framed or hustled through the system like the lax boys because nobody at the state or federal level seems inclined to do it.
I think she fell too. I mean, at some point she was only wearing one shoe and those are like, 6 inch platform heels. It would be really tough to walk in just one. Then add in the alcohol - flexeril cocktail and a fall is just about guaranteed.
I never heard she got there with just one shoe. LOL. Does that mean she hobbled up to the house and into the living room with one shoe on and one shoe off? Man, I bet that was a sight.
That's what I remember from the early stories. It may have been Dan Abrams who reported it after looking at the photos. I'm almost positive she arrived only partially shod.
Yes, a sight, and perhaps clue one to the boys that this was no $400 "pro."
Those shoes have strappy ankles instead of a regular full top heel that covers the back of the foot - meaning the heel of Mangum's foot, not the heel of the shoe itself, like pumps do. If I tried to walk in those 6" platform heels, with basically no ankle or heel support, down steps, drunk or sober, the smart money would be on me taking a header by step #2.
Council wary of $2M Duke deal
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
Oct 19, 2006 : 10:19 pm ET
DURHAM -- City Council members are voicing qualms about a proposed deal with Duke University that promises the city $2 million, saying it looks like a quid pro quo that could set a bad precedent for future dealings with the school.
The complaints came during a Thursday work session from members Thomas Stith and Diane Catotti, who said they're worried about how the promised donation -- and what the city might do in return -- will be perceived by Durham residents.
Stith was bothered by the fact that Duke would hand over only $500,000 of the money up front, with the rest coming after city officials approve the university's plans for reconfiguring a stretch of Anderson Street so it looks and performs more like an on-campus road.
He and Catotti also said there's a timing problem because the donation -- the prospective capper of the financing package for a proposed $44 million downtown performing arts center -- is being offered while Duke is trying to secure a rezoning of its 128-acre Central Campus tract.
"With all due respect, maybe it passed the legal smell test, but the common-sense smell test says we're heavily leveraged with this other million and a half," Stith said.
Catotti also made it clear that she's skeptical of Mayor Bill Bell's claims that the county government will backstop the performing arts center's financing if the city has to turn down the Anderson Street plan. She warned that if things go badly, the council may have to break promises made to voters by using property tax revenue to pay for the 2,800-seat theater.
"If we didn't work it out, and the county a year and half from now is floating a bond for schools or something, wouldn't we have to go somewhere else, for the equivalent of a penny on the tax rate, and didn't we promise the taxpayers that we wouldn't put general-fund revenue in?" she said "That was a line in the sand. Right now, I don't think the money is there."
Bell, however, stood by the deal he and senior city administrators hammered out with Duke President Richard Brodhead and his staff.
"This is what we're elected for, tough decisions in tough environments," he said. "You have to vote your conscience on this, in terms of where we are and what we're trying to accomplish. I've said to Brodhead [and other Duke officials], 'These are separate issues and nobody can guarantee anything.' What they've laid out in terms of Anderson Street seems to me reasonable -- independent of anything else."
Bell and City Attorney Henry Blinder also indicated that the proposed agreement is a compromise.
Blinder said that early on in the talks, he warned Duke officials that "the council and the city cannot be contracting away consideration of issues like zoning or street configuration," and that in response Duke suggested changes to the deal to make that clear.
"We're OK with the legal defensibility of this arrangement," Blinder added, using the collective pronoun to refer to the attorneys in his office. "Having said that, it's certainly a policy issue for the council, whether the council is comfortable accepting the donation."
Bell, meanwhile, said an early draft of the deal would have required city officials to give back part of Duke's money if they couldn't agree to the school's proposal for the road.
Thursday's discussion set the stage for a series of Nov. 6 council votes that would finally green-light the theater. The financing is the major remaining obstacle, as state regulators want assurances that the city can pay for the project before they approve the necessary borrowing,
Stith and Catotti laid out their qualms even as the proposed deal was beginning to draw criticism on some of the many e-mail lists that focus on city politics.
"This arrangement smells fishy," John Schelp, an activist in the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association who's been the group's point man on the Central Campus rezoning, said in one such posting. "Taxpayers deserve a full explanation."
Schelp added that he believes city lawyers are "not very pleased" with the deal.
Another critic, Chris Sevick, said that if citizens want the theater, the county will eventually step up and help fund it.
"I find it quite interesting that the council would vote to restrain its total objectivity on any issue," he said. "Even if the council members maintain that they will be objective in the future, this sure looks like a bribe. It would be best for the council not to create an appearance of impropriety, and reject this deal."
But the proposal does have defenders.
"Partnerships are almost always a two-way street," said Reyn Bowman, president of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Duke has played a mayor role in making nearly every major adaptive reuse project feasible -- Erwin Mills/Ninth Street, Brightleaf, American Tobacco [and] West Village to name only a few. We shouldn't ever take that for granted."
Bell offered a firm defense of the swap, saying it's been clear for a while that Duke would like to control the configuration and maintenance of the portion of Anderson Street that cuts through its property. The university is taking a risk of its own by putting $500,000 into the pot without strings, he added.
Duke officials have also made it clear that "they could care less" where the city spends the money, and understand that subsequent negotiations with city administrators and the council over Anderson Street might not work out, he said.
Bell also voiced confidence that the County Commissioners would step in if necessary, though "given the other things they have on their plate, that's going to be a far stretch."
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-780231.html
* Why does Duke University, the largest employer in the county and the one that pays most of this town's bills, one way or another, continue to let Mayor Bell and his cronies on the Committee, push it around?
Why is Brodhead so afraid of Mayor Bell?
City OKs firms for work 'bundles'
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
Oct 19, 2006 : 10:29 pm ET
DURHAM -- A unanimous City Council voted Thursday to authorize officials to hire three construction-management firms to oversee almost $58 million of work financed by voter-approved bonds and other sources of capital. -jump--
The mayor also complained Thursday about the apparent schedule slippage of one project, the Walltown Park Recreation Center. The project was supposed to take 18 months to design, but the most recent timetable from city administrators says it could take up to 24 months.
The design work for the center is being handled by local architect George Williams, a former Durham County manager and the brother-in-law of City Councilman Howard Clement. The council hired Williams for the job last year, going against the advice of administrators who urged giving the job to a Charlotte firm they felt had more experience.
Council members said at the time they wanted to give the job to a local firm. Williams was also the favorite of Walltown residents, and his firm had designed projects for Bell's employer, the UDI Community Development Corp. -cut-
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-780239.html
* Mayor William Bell, Durham's version of Fidel Castro. He seems awful eager for a lacrosse trial.
Bond denied for homicide suspect
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun
Oct 19, 2006 : 10:57 pm ET
DURHAM -- No bond was allowed Thursday for a man charged in last year's execution-style murders of four people, and District Attorney Mike Nifong announced he would seek capital punishment against the suspect, 27-year-old Rodrick Vernard Duncan.
Nifong's announcement put Duncan in line -- if convicted on all charges -- to become the first person to receive multiple death penalties in Durham since Phillip Thomas Robbins in the early 1980s. Robbins, who has yet to be executed, received two death verdicts in Durham and one elsewhere.
Wearing orange jail coveralls, handcuffs and shackles around his legs, Duncan said virtually nothing on his own behalf during Thursday's brief appearance in Durham County Superior Court. He stared straight ahead or kept his head lowered and made no eye contact with relatives of the homicide victims, who sat in a nearby spectators' gallery and wept softly.
Superior Court Judge Kenneth C. Titus appointed the Public Defender's Office to represent Duncan.
Thursday marked Duncan's first court appearance since he was picked up earlier this week in Forsyth County, where he was jailed on federal drug charges. The Durham County grand jury indicted him Monday on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of robbery with a dangerous weapon.
The charges arose from a Nov. 19, 2005, incident at a townhouse in the Breckenridge subdivision off Hope Valley Road.
Those killed that day were Lennis Harris Jr., 24; LaJuan Coleman, 27; Jamal Holloway, also 27; and Jonathan Skinner, 26. All were from Durham except Skinner, who lived in Raleigh.
Harris and Skinner were cousins.
Ryan Taylor, Coleman's brother, said it was "not good" Thursday to sit behind the alleged murderer in court.
"I felt like I wanted to kill him," Taylor said. "Business ain't done. I wanted to jump up and beat his a--. But all I really want to do is move on and let the justice system take its course."
Lennis Harris Sr., father of another of the homicide victims, said his family was pleased with the progress of an investigation into the multiple slayings.
"It's very hard, very painful," Harris said of Thursday's courtroom experience.
"Bad memories came back. I urge any parent who has a child to take lots of pictures, lots of videos. Lots of hugs. Hug them [the children]. Try to understand them. The last thing my son and I said to each other was that we loved each other. I'll never forget that. It's in my heart forever."
Asked what it felt like to sit within a few feet of Duncan, Harris had no comment.
"I'm a Christian," he said.
Officers found the four murder victims lying on the floor of a second-story bedroom, each with a bullet wound to his head.
Twenty-two-year-old Allen Shuler was injured by the gunfire.
A sixth man, Nacoree Upchurch, 27, reportedly escaped the bullets by leaping out a window onto a patio.
In a news conference on Monday, Police Chief Steve Chalmers said he believed the crimes were "drug-motivated."
"Multiple individuals are involved in this," Chalmers added, hinting that more arrests might follow.
"In the 28 years that I have been in Durham County, this is by far the most egregious single act of violence that has occurred in this county," prosecutor Nifong said during the same news conference. "And I don't recall having heard or read about anything prior to my arriving here that in any way approaches this in terms of overall violence, destruction of human life."
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-780250.html
* The Durham DA's election surprise. Wonder what he has up his sleeve with today's discovery deadline.
Have Precious and friends been helping out on this case? Duncan may have lived near her old haunts.
I am not sure I understand the asterisked comment.
Excellent article.
I'm sorry I missed the 60 minutes piece.
You can still see thanks to NeonKnight.
http://www.resisttheurge.com/60/60.html
Danke schoen.
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