Posted on 10/27/2006 5:00:15 AM PDT by abb
Nifong to give up more documents to defense
By John Stevenson, The Herald-Sun October 26, 2006 9:44 pm
DURHAM -- District Attorney Mike Nifong today will give defense lawyers about 2,000 additional pages of information about the Duke University lacrosse rape case -- the largest single batch of documentation he has surrendered so far.
Nifong turned over some 1,800 pages of information in one previous court hearing and another 615 pages last month.
After they receive today's batch, defense attorneys will have roughly 4,500 pages of documentation about the case that has polarized Durham, brought intense national publicity to the community and sparked a movement to oust Nifong as chief prosecutor.
In addition to paperwork, defense lawyers will receive 3 DVDs from Nifong today. Among other things, they reportedly contain e-mails generated by Duke students and lacrosse players.
The information will be surrendered in a hearing before Judge Osmond Smith, who was specially assigned by the N.C. Supreme Court to shepherd the controversial lacrosse case to completion.
Three suspects in the case, Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans, are not required to be present today. They are free under $100,000 bonds as they await a trial that is expected to occur next year.
The three are accused of raping and sodomizing an exotic dancer during an off-campus lacrosse party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in mid-March.
All have professed their innocence.
Other than the surrender of information by Nifong, no major developments are expected during today's hearing.
"I don't think anyone knows exactly what will happen, but I don't believe there will be much to it," said one lawyer, asking not to be identified.
Critical defense motions in the case have yet to be heard, but they will not be argued today.
Among other things, those motions accuse police of misleading a judge to obtain a search warrant, and of devising an unconstitutional photo lineup -- a lineup that allegedly was too suggestive because it included only pictures of Duke lacrosse players.
Several national television pundits, along with a host of Internet chatters, have blasted Nifong for allegedly rushing to judgment in the case and getting the three suspects indicted on insufficient evidence.
In addition, the lacrosse incident is responsible for an anti-Nifong movement in the Nov. 7 election.
Voters are being urged to cast their ballots for County Commissioner Lewis Cheek as part of an effort to recall Nifong.
However, Cheek has said he would not serve as district attorney if elected, meaning the governor would have to choose a replacement for him.
Another anti-Nifong faction is led by local Republican Party Chairman Steve Monks, who is running for the chief prosecutor's seat on an unaffiliated write-in basis.
Monks said in an interview this week that a combined oust-Nifong effort would be better than two fragmented ones.
"It is probable that one of us has to withdraw," he said. "It has to happen. Someone has to be the frontrunner for the anti-Nifong movement. Otherwise, Mike will continue to be DA?. I can't scream from the highest mountain loudly enough that we need a combined effort."
And Charlotte Woods, a campaign leader for Monks, said she had told Cheek "a multiplicity of times" that Monks would withdraw from the race if Cheek agreed to serve as district attorney if elected.
"We have made it plain over and over again," she said. "We've told him and told him."
But Cheek said Thursday that, "Service as DA is not an option for me."
He said he made it clear earlier that responsibilities to partners and employees prevented him from leaving his private law firm
"Nothing has changed," he added.
Meanwhile, Nifong said Thursday that he continued to stand by the rape case, and he denied he was responsible for polarizing the community.
"This particular case has not divided the community," he said. "It has pointed to divisions that already existed. It is a signal to us that we need to address these underlying divisions."
Nifong would not be specific, but he apparently referred to town-gown issues and racial issues, among others.
The accuser in the rape case is black. The three suspects are white.
"Another prosecutor might make the case go away, but he can't make the underlying issues go away," said Nifong.
The district attorney, who has been a prosecutor in Durham for 27 years and head of his office since April 2005, said he wasn't withering under a storm of adverse criticism about the lacrosse incident.
"It's the difference between character and reputation," he said. "Character is what you are. Reputation is what people say you are. As long as you know who you are, you don't have to worry over what people say about you. ?
"I might be better off if I wasn't DA," Nifong acknowledged. "It certainly would be less stressful. But this is a path I have chosen to take in my life. I'm seeing some of the not-so-fun part of the job right now, but you can't take a job and just do it when it's easy and fun. URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-782289.html
Big headline on Drudge Report
OUTRAGE: 'Duke Lacrosse' Prosecutor Yet to Interview Rape Accuser 'About Facts of that Night'...
http://www.drudgereport.com
"I've had conversations with (the accuser) about how she's doing. I've had conversations with (the accuser) about her seeing her kids," Mike Nifong said. "I haven't talked with her about the facts of that night. ... We're not at that stage yet."
WTF?!?
I was raised in Richmond and my step-father (originally from NJ) was a stickler for Southern manners.
That made us an oddity when we went to see our weird Yankee cousins. (Wierd because they were just strange, being Yankees had nothing to do with it)
Stop saying M'am because my Aunt thought is sounded smart-assed? I don't think so. Who cares what she thought, my father would send us to bed if we left M'am and other Southern words of respect out of a conversation.
In my adulthood, we lived in CNY for 17 years. People are people, but there are regional differences. My friends used to laugh at me. They said I sounded like Sgt Carter when I would say to my kids "Yes, what?" (Answer: "Yes, M'am')
To this day, I Please, Thank you, Sir and M'am 95% of the time. I am 52. I also make use of those NY gestures of disrespect, LOL! I am diverse.
It all seems so long ago.
Didn't he say he spoke with her, looked her in the eyes, something along those lines as the basis for pursing this case?
I recall he said he believed her because:_______. But I do not remember why.
"Some (not all - SOME) of the northerners, and some from other parts of the country as well, including some of the students with whom I was associated all those years ago lacked a certain quality, highly valued in the south, known as tact. They were quite vocal about Durham's obvious deficiencies and rubbed everyone the wrong way including me. The New York wise guy just doesn't play well in Durham. I understand that nothing is really meant by it, and that said Yankee is expecting ridicule in return, but in Durham it still rankles to be ridiculed by a carpetbagger."
This is why the Triangle created Cary, NC.
Cary = Containment Area for Relocated Yankees.
Good grief.
It seems judge Smith is as bad as the rest of the judges in North Carolina.
That sure does sound familiar. I think it was said early on.
Found the answer to my own question.
http://www.nbc17.com/news/10176659/detail.html
Also at Friday's hearing, Nifong handed the judge several envelopes of what he called medical evidence.
The defense has yet to see that information. The judge will ultimately determine whether it will be allowed in the trial.
Barry Saunders was joking about moving Duke there. At this point, if they could snap their fingers and do it, keeping Duke Chapel, etc,. I'd bet that most of the Dukies would be in favor.
You know, I was thinking today he said he believed her because he'd looked into her eyes and could tell that she was telling the truth.
He told one of the PACs he was trying to get an endorsement from that of all the DA candidates he was the only one to interview the accuser. Now he says he has never interviewed her. Fortumately, that PAC didn't endorse him.
It just proves he'll say anything though.
Yeah it is not like everyone else hasn't reported Nifong to the bar. He talks like a guy who knows he will be disbarred and is just stringing this out.
On the other two issues:
1. As I said on the other thread we have had long discussions about that 1 October claim not to have talked to Mangum. I believe he is just lying. I wonder sometimes if he is doing it for sport to see if the old media will keep reporting what he says as if it is true. And they do lie after lie.
2. I expect nothing new in this "new" discovery. Remember he has already given the defense lots of duplicate pages.
I remember thinking it sounds like Bush and Putin.
More opinion
http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/2006/10/more-evidence-of-what-slime-mike.html
http://www.anklebitingpundits.com/content/index.php?p=1019
http://www.bullwinkleblog.com/?p=2557
Nifong: DA's office has not interviewed alleged victim about case details
Finnerty's parents say he would be proud to return to school, team
Saidi Chen, The Chronicle, 10/27/06
--excerpts--
"One of the most interesting things to me of course is Mr. Nifong did admit that he in fact has basically never talked to this woman and has absolutely no idea what her story is, and yet he has chosen to continue to go forward with this case," Joe Cheshire, an attorney representing Evans, said outside the courtroom. **"I believe there's other stuff coming out about [the alleged victim] at the time that will be interesting."**
Although the three indicted players were not at the hearing, numerous friends and family members-including members of this year's men's lacrosse team-were in attendance, some sporting badges that read "Innocent until proven innocent."
"I just had to be here and see what was going on," said Mary Ellen Finnerty, Collin's mother, about her first experience at a court appearance in the case. "I think it's good to be here and see the very formidable defense bench."
Both of Finnerty's parents said he would return to the University and re-join the lacrosse team if the charges are dropped.
"Collin would love nothing more than to be back on the field with his friends and teammates under [men's lacrosse head] coach [John] Danowski's leadership," his father Kevin Finnerty said. "Hopefully he'll get the chance.... It's hard to predict how this is going to turn out."
"If all the pieces fall into place he would be proud to be on the field with all his teammates," Mary Ellen Finnerty added.
Seligmann, however, said in a "60 Minutes" interview that he is uncertain whether he will return to Duke once the legal proceedings are resolved.
"I chose Duke to be my home for four years. And to see your professors go out and slander you and say these horrible, untrue things about you and to have your administration just cut us loose for, for, based on nothing," Seligmann told CBS News correspondent Ed Bradley. "I can't imagine representing a school that didn't want to represent me."
Kevin Finnerty said he and his family have been let down by the school, but they are hoping things will change.
"We're disappointed to date, but we'd like to think that the University will come in and save the day," he said. "That they'll find their way to support these boys and really announce the presumption of innocence, and we're patiently waiting."
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 15.
http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/
2006/10/27/News/Nifong.Das.Office.Has.Not.Interviewed.
Alleged.Victim.About.Case.Details-2407348.shtml?norewrite
200610272116&sourcedomain=www.dukechronicle.com
Monks says either he or Cheek should withdraw
Leslie Griffith, The Chronicle, 10/27/06
Durham District Attorney candidate Steve Monks asserted his electability but committed to withdraw if it would help defeat incumbent Mike Nifong at a press conference Friday afternoon.
Monks, who is running as a write-in candidate, encouraged the other Nifong opponent, Lewis Cheek, to withdraw and support his campaign. Cheek has said he would not serve if elected.
"I have concluded that it is improbable that either Lewis Cheek or I will prevail if both of us stay in the race," Monks said.
Monks added that he was unwilling to support Cheek but willing to withdraw if convinced Cheek could win.
Monks countered a recent poll in the Raleigh News and Observer that gave him 2 percent of the vote with another poll giving him 22 percent. Poll results were inaccurate, Monks said, because he had not yet begun his media campaign.
Representatives for the Cheek campaign said they would not withdraw and cancelled a scheduled meeting with Monks after hearing his statement.
"We are unequivocally not pulling out," said Brenda Brewer, chair of the "Recall Nifong, Vote Cheek" campaign.
"I've looked at his analysis, and I'm an accountant," she added. "Two percent, two weeks before an election? Add the numbers up yourself."
http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2006/10/27/News/Monks.Says.Either.He.Or.Cheek.
Should.Withdraw-2407118.shtml?norewrite200610272126&sourcedomain=www.dukechronicle.com
Let's see:
1. Gee Mr. Monks who is in the single digits? That is the person who should withdraw.
2. UNFORTUNATELY, my guess is that even if he withdraws Monks will remain a legal write in candidate and will still get some votes.
3. If he is to withdraw Monks needs to go ahead and do it so all his supporters can get the word NOT to write him in.
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