Just a rotten case: As the prosecution of Duke's lacrosse players unravels,

The Plain Dealer ^ | 1/7/07

[Winged Hussar]

Then, just last month, the director of a DNA laboratory that tested samples taken from the woman testified that he and the prosecutor had agreed in May to withhold some of the findings. The exculpatory nature of the results - specifically, that the swabs included traces of semen from several men, none of them the Duke defendants - offer the strongest evidence yet that the prosecutor himself should be the subject of an investigation, and that he should have no further connection with this case.

[Jezebelle]

"Rape Shield" laws have nothing to do with not revealing the accuser's name. They have to do with using the accuser's sexual activities as defense evidence unless they relate to the allegation against the accused.

Not revealing the accuser's name is not prohibited by any law. It is merely a feminazi-driven "courtesy" the media provides as policy.

[Jezebelle]

Three cheers for our very own maggief!!!

Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!

:>

[Jezebelle]

Lord, let this be true.

[Jezebelle]

If the world was fair, and we know that will never be in Durham, Mikey would surrender his license after dismissing the charges, sign a waiver of the right to ever apply for reinstatement or for a license in another state, get sued by all three boys, using his own funds for his defense, surrender everything he owns except a toothbrush to pay off the judgments, be prosecuted for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury, and serve about ten years in state prison. Durham County, Duke University and certain media outlets would each settle suits in the high 7-figures with each boy, publish unequivocal apologies, and revise their policies. Duke would fire Brodhead and the G88, revise its policies and curriculum, and give Coach Pressler a huge settlement. The NC AG would examine the case and publish a full accounting of what was done to these boys and unequivocally state that there was no evidence of a crime ever being committed and that the charges should never have been filed. The NC legislature would revise its grand jury process and COMPLETELY revise its criminal procedures. Mangum would be prosecuted for filing a false crime report, drunk and disorderly, both of which would cause her probation to be revoked, charged with perjury and obstruction, and be sent to state prison for about five years, necessitating her kids being taken away. She would be sued civilly and have a big judgment against her which would prevent her from ever being able to borrow money or get any kind of credit whatsoever. Her criminal background would prevent her from ever getting a good job, so she would spend her post-prison life as a factory worker living paycheck to paycheck in some dumpy apartment driving a ratty old beater, drinking herself to death if she chooses, and cursing Nifong to her grave.

THAT would be justice.

[Jezebelle]

Whatever he's going to do, he's going to want to do it fast. The only card he has left to play is the dismissal. If Smith removes him, that card is dead.

Nothing he does with the bar is going to protect him, Durham County, DPD, or Duke from civil suits.

[Jezebelle]

It all depends on what state you're in. Most career prosecutors understand that they best serve their own career aspirations by best serving the people they represent. I have known many fine ones who take a great deal of pride in their work and in meeting ethical standards.

There are and always have been some dirty prosecutors out there, but Nifong really broke the mold. He's in a class of his own. NC law is such that this could happen again in that state. NC needs major criminal process reform, and they need it now.

[Jezebelle]

But...but...you mean....those lawyers on the state bar disciplinary committee aren't afraid to go up against the almighty Nifong, grand poobah of all prosecutordom?

[Jezebelle]

"I'm shocked that there have been so many leaks out of a bar's disciplinary committee."

LOL! I'm not shocked. Lawyers are the biggest gossips in the world!

[abb]

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...80349/1018/NEWS

VU professor was Duke lacrosse critic
Scholar hired after leaving job in protest
By KATE HOWARD
Staff Writer


Published: Monday, 01/08/07

A top academic recruited to Vanderbilt University last year to bolster the study of African-American and Southern literature was among six African-American professors who left Duke University in the wake of the lacrosse rape case.

Houston A. Baker came under fire by the lacrosse team's supporters, who thought he rushed to judgment when he called for the dismissal of the team and its coaches the day after the public learned a black exotic dancer told Durham, N.C. authorities she was raped and sodomized at a Duke lacrosse party.

As the case weakened last month, with the victim changing parts of her account and the prosecutor dropping some charges against the three players, Baker declined a request for an interview through a Vanderbilt spokeswoman.

Baker's work praised

Vanderbilt officials said it's Baker's many accomplishments, not the controversy he was a part of, that matter to them.

"He is a full professor and scholar at Vanderbilt, and I think that's what's relevant to what Houston Baker will be doing here," said university spokeswoman Princine Lewis.

- snip -

[Alia]

BTTT

[gopheraj]

mark

[Alia]

I cannot attest to the following response by Baker to a parent of a Duke student; but Howlin's usually got reputable goods:

[abb]

http://lashawnbarber.com/

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Lawyers, too?
Doctors love to gossip!

[Oberon]

What ever happened to tar and feathers, or being ridden out of town on a rail, or two rails, one for Nifong, one for the star slut of this story.

That's never going to happen in Durham, for the sad and simple fact that the majority of Durham citizens would rather having a lying Boss Hogg of a prosecutor in office than risk having a Republican on the job.

For the good citizens of Durham, it's not about Nifong's ethics; it's about which side he's on.

[sgtbono2002]

The headline in this Post says

"Just a rotten case"

IMO the case is not near as rotten as the prosecutor and the people involved in its prosecution.
Nifong is Rotten
Crystal Mass is rotten
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are rotten.

[abb]

http://z9.invisionfree.com/LieStoppers_Board/index.php?showtopic=1316&st=0&#entry7319936

For those of you who haven't seen this post from comments on Durham in Wonderland this morning. The stuff about this guy and his role was all new to me.
He is the guy who created the Durham Responds yahoo group. This "explanation" from him was apparently posted there recently.

Anonymous said...
For those that don't want to rejoin his group, Sam Hummel's explanation is below.

He more or less admits he made and distributed the wanted poster (he admits to making and distributing the "fact sheet" and to organizing the rallies in which the poster was distributed.)

A rich white boy aping Palestinian terrorists and 60's black panther in his heroic activism is always fun.

In this case, it is also likely going to cost Mr "UBUNTU" Hummel and his boss Duke EVP Trask a bunch of money.

---

"I don't have any apologies for how I participated in the weeks and months
following the first news about this case. And I don't have any apologies
for how I'm continuing to participate in the effort to end sexual violence.

Here's how I recall my participation...

I found out about the case on Friday morning when the first news article
came out about it, nearly two weeks after the woman made a report to the
police. As someone who works with a rape-prevention group here in Durham, I
know that reports of rapes rarely go more than 24 hours without being
reported in the local newspaper. This is particularly true when the
reported assailant is still at-large and/or unidentified, as was the case
here. So, immediately, I felt that special treatment was being given to the
case.

Similarly, I was angry that the University did not alert the Duke community
about the allegations. This is consistent with a long held double-standard
in which Duke de-emphasizes assaults committed by its own students while
punctuating nearly every assault committed by a non-Duke student with an
urgent community safety announcement.

I was also incensed to read comments by Cpl David Addison of the Durham
Police Department saying that the police approached the lacrosse team but
that all the members refused to cooperate with the investigation. While I
don't think anyone should have to cooperate and potentially incriminate
themselves, I was appalled that the team was working as a unit in refusing
to cooperate. Surely, some of them were in a position to tell what they
knew. The only explanation I could conceive for the entire team
not-cooperating was that lawyers had told no one to speak with the
investigators. That belief resulted in my taking a sign to the "Pots and
pans wake-up call against sexual assault" that read "Get a Conscience, Not a
Lawyer."

I also felt it was repugnant that the Lacrosse team felt entitled to hire a
stripper for a team party and remain Duke's representatives in
intercollegiate athletics. As for Duke, I felt that if it had taken
responsibility for the behavior of its students living off East Campus on
any of the many occasions when the Durham community asked it to, that
perhaps all of this would have been avoided. And, I believed (and still
believe) a neighbor's report that at least one of the people at the party
hurled hurtful racist epithets at the two women.

And, of course, I was extremely upset by the prospect that a woman had been
brutally sexually assaulted. And, yes, I choose to believe a person when
they report that they have been sexually assaulted. The number of instances
that a person falsely reports rape is miniscule compared to the number of
people who do report it and are not believed or who never report it out of
fear that they will not be believed. So, I choose to believe those who
report that they've been sexually assaulted. In every case, I hope that a
fair investigative and judicial process brings the truth to light.

Put all that together and, yeah, I was pretty outraged at what was going on.
I thought then and I think now that a "Pots & Pans Wake-up Call Against
Sexual Assault" was an entirely appropriate way to express that outrage.
[While we are on the subject of appropriate ways to express outrage, I think
it is far more honorable to protest on a sidewalk than to stuff someone's
inbox with personal threats, as some people who are outraged about my
participation in this whole affair have been doing of late.]

Was I out their proclaiming the Lacrosse players guilty? Well, yes. I did
and do think they are guilty of perpetuating the objectification of women.
I did and do think they protected the person that shouted racial epithets
from the porch. I did and do think they are guilty of having put two women
in a very unsafe position by lying to the escort service about their
identity and the number of men that would be attending the party. I also
believed they were guilty of colluding with each other to stifle a police
investigation aimed at determining the facts. [The defense now claims they
didn't, so it's the police's word versus the defense attorney's.] Was I
declaring them guilty of rape? No. While I always err on the side of
believing the survivor, that doesn't mean the accused is automatically
guilty. It simply means I believe there should be a valid investigation and
an unbiased trial. It's an unfortunate reality that many survivors don't
get a valid investigation and an unbiased trial because family, friends, law
enforcement or district attorneys decide not to believe them along the way.

Was I out there to demand their punishment? Well, yes. I did not and do
not think that the privilege of representing Duke University in
intercollegiate athletics should remain with a group of guys that held a
team party and invited women to perform without being honest about their
identity or their numbers and then banded together in order to stifle a
police investigation, protecting a person who shouted racial epithets and
possibly protecting three people involved in a rape. Was I out there
calling for castration? No. Did someone else have a sign that read
"castrate," yes. Am I responsible for that person's sign? No.

After the pots & pans protest, I met with several Duke and Durham community
members who felt like there needed to be a way for people interested in
responding to the situation to communicate. I set up the DurhamResponds
listserv to make that possible. Within a few days, it had 300 subscribers
and the traffic was getting heavy so I set up two more lists,
DurhamResponds-Discuss and DurhamResponds-Organizing. The first was for
those interested in analyzing and thinking about what all of what was going
on means. The second was for those interested in planning responses to the
case. The DurhamResponds list became an announcements-only list, and
included a daily digest of media reports on the case. No attempt was made
to vet people joining the lists or censor posts other than to ask that posts
not be graphic, aggressive or derogatory in nature. I feel good about my
role in creating the DurhamResponds lists as I believe they have facilitated
good communication, conversation and learning.

A further contribution I made was to take the next day off from work in
order to support a speak-out that Duke students were putting on in front of
the Allen Building. I picked up the sound system they rented and I helped
compile excerpts from media reports into a factsheet that could be handed
out to students who didn't know what was going on. I felt then and I feel
now like the speak-out was extremely valuable as it allowed students,
faculty and staff to speak about issues that have been under the surface for
years.

The rest of the week I participated, as usual, in Sexual Assault Prevention
Week on campus and then got involved with a group of community members that
ultimately came to call itself UBUNTU. Since that time, UBUNTU has
responded to the case by: hosting screenings of "No! The Rape Documentary";
holding healing events for survivors of sexual assault who have been
triggered by the case and the media deluge surrounding it; writing
commentaries on this case and other cases of sexual and racial violence;
putting on educational sessions on sexual violence and its intersections
with race, gender and sexuality; producing a booklet for those supporting
survivors of sexual assault; creating art and music; and many other
initiatives. All of these worthwhile contributions to the dialogue,
learning and healing necessitated by this case have been carried out in a
spirit of love and transformation, not out of a desire for revenge or the
persecution of any particular individuals. As is evidenced by the fact that
UBUNTU's work is not focused on this one case and will continue long after
this case is history.

So, no, I don't feel a need to apologize because I don't regret any of how I
participated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sam Hummel
e-mail: sam.hummel@...
cell: 919-475-8136
2:23 AM

[Fido969]

What ever happened to tar and feathers, or being ridden out of town on a rail

Oh, no, can't do that. It's "racist," don't you know.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Nice convoluted thinking, I'm sure it makes perfect sense to him.

[Fido969]

Wow, those are very heavy charges against Professor Curtis.

You think Broadhead will put her on "administrative leave" pending the results of an investigation?