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
Thankfully, these families had the resources to hire attorney's who would demand justice.
Nifong thought wrong.
In the end he ought to be impeached if that is possible in Durham.
If thing are indeed how they appear, he deserves to spend many, many years in federal pound-me-in-the-a$$ prison.
I'll check in on your posts, abb. I'm so glad you're going to the hearing!
GAG ALERT!!
http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2006/10/27/Editorial/Bloggers.Get.Point.Miss.Complexity-2406768-page2.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dukechronicle.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com
Bloggers get point, miss complexity
Posted: 10/27/06
When the spring media storm descended upon Duke following allegations that members of the 2005-2006 men's lacrosse team raped an exotic dancer, Duke's reputation received a major blow.
And then the bloggers took off, many of whom now lambaste Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong and the mainstream media's handling of the case. They're not too fond of the Duke administration either.
Although bloggers have been able to push news coverage by focusing on a number of nuances in the scandal, they often miss-sometimes in a very dangerous way-the crucial complexities of the sentiments on campus.
When DNA results came back April 11, The Chronicle ran a staff editorial that called for national media to make the lacrosse story look less like a "made-to-be-Lifetime-movie special." The editorial asked journalists to maintain ethics and reclaim credibility by continuing to focus on developments in the lacrosse case.
During what has been a "lull" in media coverage, bloggers have retained their focus on the lacrosse scandal and have continued to shape public opinion.
When the lacrosse scandal first broke, bloggers had the luxury of watching the pieces come together from a distance as major media scrambled. By April, bloggers came into the game in a major way, and have made a number of very good points since. They have even scooped major media on several occasions.
KC Johnson and John in Carolina, among other bloggers, have noted many times that the fault with the mainstream media's coverage of the case has been its tendency to make the lacrosse scandal a "black-white," "good-bad" issue.
Correct, but now it seems the tides have turned and the bloggers themselves have gone down a similar road. They have villainized President Brodhead, major media and Nifong while making the lacrosse players themselves into absolute angels. Down here on the ground-from the campus perspective-things aren't quite that simple.
Most troubling, though, is the fact that sometimes such assertions are made from afar with little true reporting. An informed-complex-understanding of the situation requires in-depth conversations with administrators, lacrosse players, lacrosse parents, defense lawyers, hundreds of students, alumni and many more.
Without context, speculation can be a very dangerous matter. Indeed, such speculation can lead one to jump on a simple faux pas or take a professor's quote out of context. Doing so breaks the very ethical standards of journalism bloggers castigate major media for overlooking. And if you're in the game, you need to play by the rules. The best bloggers covering the case have dug deep and haven't been afraid to point out their own mistakes.
This said, there are no editors in the blogosphere and few checks to make bloggers consistently accountable for what they write. Indeed, some continue to remain anonymous. Visitors to such blogs should remember that bloggers are bloggers-many have interesting views but they are not reporters, they are not experts and they are certainly not objective.
Six months after DNA results came back negative, questions about major media, the administration and the controversial District Attorney Mike Nifong have certainly popped up. Most Duke students now show their unabashed support for the team.
Through it all, the lacrosse scandal has raised questions that strike at the very heart of what this University is about. But it's an injustice to this place to oversimplify matters.
It is indeed the media's job to get the full story. If bloggers want a voice in the discussion on the table, they-like the mainstream media-should set aside black and white conclusions and start focusing on the true blue and white.
That's the same line that jumped out at me. It's almost as if Nifong believes the Duke 3 must atone for the sins of the past, and that railroading these white boys will somehow bring peace to the community.
Actually, I think the truth is much simpler. Nifong used the case to win the primary, and after the general election, he may look for some face saving way to "make the case go away" himself and to hell with the "underlying issues".
I couldn't have stated it any better!
When the hate group New Black Panthers wanted to demonstrate on campus John Burness is the guy that said "come on down". But you knew that.
The "Get Point. Miss Complexity" piece is pathetic.
Lack of physical evidence couldn't be any less complex.
Where do these folks come from?
I wonder if the author feels "60 Minutes" missed the 'complexity' as well?
The "professional newsies," whatever that may mean, are embarrassed that the bloggers and BB posters are handing them their assess....
Not to mention incompetent!
Yes. It's calling "stalling."
perhaps to perpetuate the fallacy that the "DA must have something".
The "Get Point. Miss Complexity." commits the "where there is smoke there is fire" fallacy. The fundamental issue may be and, based on all available evidence, probably is very simple: Occam's Razor suggests that no rape occurred. The complexity comes from the myriad of lies, incompetence, misanthropy, agenda thumping, and plain criminality that has accompanied this case. The pounding that Brodhead, the Duke administration, the Duke 88, certain student and community groups, the DA and Durham LE are on the face of it well-deserved - unless you buy the incredible premise that justice is served by having these three young men bear the weightof past and ongoing injustices to which they are not a party. Such thinking reflects the corporate mind-set of fascism, where individuals have no identity beyond the group to which they belong. But then I believe the PC crowd are in fact fascists in poor disguise.
I believe you nailed it.
Stalling, or stonewalling?
October 27, 2006
The Ben Chavis example
Posted at 9:40 AM by Jon Ham
The lack of support the lacrosse team has received from Duke University was a theme at last night’s panel at Duke’s Bryan Center. Several questioners brought it up and specifically criticized Duke President Richard Brodhead’s actions in this regard. One of the last questions of the evening contrasted the treatment Ben Chavis received when he requested admission to the Duke Divinity School. At the time Chavis was not just an accused felon, he was a convicted felon who had spent 10 years in prison. But Duke, the questioner said, made strong statements about his innocence. The charges were later overturned. “Why can’t Duke, with all we know that has happened, make the same statement about these students’ innocence?” he asked. They did it for Chavis, he said, “and these kids aren’t even convicts.”
Teats on a boar hog
Posted at 9:03 AM by Jon Ham
One of my father’s pet phrases was “That’s about as useless as teats on a boar hog.” He reserved that oath for something he thought contemptibly useless, like the Durham Human Relations Commission. I’ve lived in Durham since 1981 except for 18 months in Richmond in the mid-1980s and I can’t remember a thing the Human Relations Commission has done to improve human relations, especially race relations, in this city. HRC Chairman Larry Holt upheld that tradition last night at a Duke panel discussing the Duke lacrosse case.*
In his opening statement Holt talked at length about the history of rowdy student parties in Trinity Park, pointing out that the evidence of this problem could be found on the area crime listserv. He called this activity “extenuating circumstances leading to the rape allegations.” As he continued in this vein, many of the 60-or-so people in the audience were looking at each other wondering what his point was. He ended his opening statement by pointing out that the crime listserv for the area had been “relatively quiet” since the lacrosse arrests. Was he saying a little injustice is OK if it keeps the listservs quiet?
One audience member asked Holt why the Human Relations Commission did nothing and made no comment at all after protestors threatened and used racial slurs against Reade Seligmann as he arrived for a court appearance. Holt’s response: “I didn’t attend that event. I personally wasn’t there.” Blogger KC Johnson, a Brooklyn College professor who was a panelist, pointed out that a death threat was made against Seligmann in the courtroom that day within feet of Durham DA Mike Nifong. Like the Human Relations Commission, Nifong did nothing.
In his opening statement, Johnson said he was disappointed that people and groups that usually mobilize to fight lack of due process and civil rights abuses have been silent in this case. I put the HRC in that category. Whatever we taxpayers in Durham are spending on the HRC is too much.
UPDATE: Prof. Johnson says he will be attending the hearing today before Judge Osmond Smith on the Duke lacrosse case. He says he’ll live-blog the event if he can get some wi-fi in the courthouse.
October 26, 2006
ACLU at Duke panel tonight
Posted at 10:06 PM by Jon Ham
I attended the panel sponsored by ACLU at Duke tonight at the Bryan Center. Prof. K.C. Johnson was brilliant, as expected. Man, that is one smart guy. Can he defend the lacrosse players if it comes to trial? He’d do a great job. Larry Holt of the Durham Human Relations Commission was also on the panel, as was the impressive Stephen Miller, executive director of the Duke Conservative Union. I also got to meet blogger John in Carolina, and spoke with Prof. Steven Baldwin, who wrote that great letter to the Duke Chronicle two days ago.
I was going to blog at length about the evening but with the World Series on one channel and the Hurricanes on another, I just haven’t been able to gather my thoughts. Let me just say that the guy who took it on the chin, other than Durham DA Mike Nifong, of course, was Duke President Richard Brodhead. I didn’t hear a kind word for the man all night. Oh, wait. Yeah, I did. The ACLU moderator said he heard Brodhead urge a hate-filled crowd last spring to withhold their judgement on the lacrosse team. Boy, that’s leadership. More tomorrow.
http://triangle.johnlocke.org/blog/
* Surprise, surprise- Mr. Holt is tight with the Committee; the PAC that just endorsed Nifong, sparing him
of any further campaign financial burdens (the Committee gets out your vote- no need to advertise) and practically
insuring his election. However the white candidates may finally get their act together if Monk pulls out today, so
it could still be a contest. Early voting will make or break ABN. They need to get those vans to the rest homes.
The News & Observer, January 18, 2001
DURHAM -- The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People will have its annual meeting at 5 p.m. Sunday at Peace Missionary Baptist Church.
The 65-year-old organization, which wields significant influence over elections in Durham, depends on volunteers.
Newly elected executive officers include Finesse Couch, Larry Holt, the Rev. Frederick Davis, Larry Hall, Beverly Washington Jones, Anita Smith, Geri Nettles and C. Ray Jones. Lavonia Allison, chairwoman of the committee, will begin the second year of her two-year term.
Doesn't get said better than that! IOW--Cash Michaels in reverse.
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