60 Minutes Followup? From Gaynor- Nov. 30, 2006 -excerpt-
Kirk Osborn, an attorney representing Reade Seligmann, boldly moved long ago to have Mr. Nifong removed from the Duke case, for good cause, but Judge Stephens, for whom Mr. Nifong had worked, and then Judge Titus, who on July 17 issued on his own initiative an unconstitutional gag order that the North Carolina NAACP wanted but lacked standing to seek, set aside that (and other well-founded) motions and let Mr. Nifong proceed with the discovery phase of the Duke case.
Fortunately, Judge Osborn Smith finally took over the Duke case and lifted that gag order, thereby facilitating the "60 Minutes" expose on the Duke case. But, given the failure of his two predecessors on the case to act on that removal motion, it may be too much to hope that he will dust it off and grant it.
So, "60 Minutes" will do a follow up (in part to defend the late Ed Bradley against the ludicrous charge that he was manipulated in his final illness for the sake of the Duke Three) and the defense lawyers will see the wisdom of making a well-founded motion to dismiss. (The North Carolina Criminal Procedure Act mandates that, on motion at any time, the court "must dismiss the charges stated in a criminal pleading if it determines that...[t]he defendant's constitutional rights have been flagrantly violated and there is such irreparable prejudice to the defendant's preparation of his case that there is no remedy but to dismiss the prosecution.")
http://www.webcommentary.com/asp/ShowArticle.asp?id=gaynorm&date=061130
Duke president gets panel findings
BY RAY GRONBERG : The Herald-Sun, Dec 1, 2006 -excerpt-
DURHAM -- A group assigned after the lacrosse scandal to examine Duke University's campus culture relayed its initial findings to school President Richard Brodhead just before Thanksgiving, but won't issue a public report until spring, Duke officials said Thursday.
Members of the Campus Culture Initiative Steering Committee gave their preliminary report to Brodhead orally, telling him and the members of a presidential advisory council also established in response to the lacrosse case, that they'd finished gathering data and comment from an assortment of interests at the school.
They intend to spend the winter interpreting those findings and drafting what Duke officials said Thursday would be "a limited number of recommendations." -jump-
No one's forgotten the impetus for the study: the lacrosse case, a debate Wells said the group has tried to avoid. -cut-
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-794505.html