Duke Lacrosse Case: America's Top Sex Crimes Expert Cites Serious Problems

ABC ^ | 3/31/07

[CondorFlight]

Duke Lacrosse Case: America's Top Sex Crimes Expert Cites Serious Problems Linda Fairstein Questions Whether Case Will Go Forward By LARA SETRAKIAN ABC News Law & Justice Unit

March 21, 2007 — - With the Duke Lacrosse investigation in its final weeks Linda Fairstein, the former head of the Manhattan District Attorney's Sex Crimes Unit and one of the nation's leading experts on sex crimes, told ABC News that she would be shocked if the case went forward.

Having investigated and prosecuted thousands of rape cases, Fairstein has a unique ability to evaluate the strength of the case. A pioneer in the field and an advocate of victims' rights, Fairstein points to serious flaws in the investigation and evidence that have surfaced to date.

[Enchante]

bad link!!

[proxy_user]

Easily fixed:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/print?id=2971265

[Oztrich Boy]

"Despite the best that has been done by everyone, the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage..." Emperor Hirohito Aug. 15, 1945

[Enchante]

Thanks.....

This part is easy to explain, LIEfong wanted to railroad these guys and it would not have been possible had he devoted the most miniscule due diligence to the case:

"For Fairstein, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong's biggest mistake in his handling of the case was a lack of tough questions — and a lack of effort to ask them. Nifong's first known meeting with the accuser was at least nine months after her initial accusations. "There's no excuse for the way this prosecution has proceeded," she said. "The shocking aspect of that to me is that Nifong only met with her once or twice. He himself had not done a sit down interview once he learned that the initial allegations seemed to be inconsistent."

[Enterprise]

bump

[Enterprise]

LOL - that about sums this up for the Fong.

[UglyinLA]

If I had to vote for the most despicable participant in this whole sham, it would have to be Nifong. What an ass.

Not far behind would be the accuser, Ms. Magnum.

and tied for 3rd would be these morons:

LIST OF INDIVIDUAL NAMES (The Duped 88)
IN SUPPORT OF THE “WE’RE LISTENING”

Abe, Stan (Art, Art History, and Visual Studies)
Albers, Benjamin (University Writing Program)
Allison, Anne (Cultural Anthropology)
Aravamudan, Srinivas (English)
Baker, Houston (English and AAAS)
Baker, Lee (Cultural Anthropology)
Beckwith, Sarah (English)
Berliner, Paul (Music)
Christina Beaule (University Writing Program)
Blackmore, Connie (AAAS)
Jessica Boa (Religion & University Writing Program)
Boatwright, Mary T. (Classical Studies)
Boero, Silvia (Romance Studies)
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo (Sociology)
Brim, Matthew (University Writing Program)
Chafe, William (History)
Ching, Leo (Asian & African Languages and Literatures)
Coles, Rom (Political Science)
Cooke, Miriam (Asian & African Languages and Literatures)
Crichlow, Michaeline (AAAS)
Curtis, Kim (Political Science)
Damasceno, Leslie (Romance Studies)
Davidson, Cathy (English)
Deutsch, Sally (History)
Dorfman, Ariel (Literature & Latin American Stds.)
Edwards, Laura (History)
Farred, Grant (Literature)
Fellini, Luciana (Romance Studies)
Fulkerson, Mary McClintock (Divinity School)
Gabara, Esther (Romance Studies)
Gavins, Raymond (History)
Greer, Meg (Romance Studies)
Glymph, Thavolia (History)
Hardt, Michael (Literature)
Harris, Joseph (University Writing Program)
Holloway, Karla (English)
Holsey, Bayo (AAAS)
Hovsepian, Mary (Sociology)
James, Sherman (Public Policy)
Kaplan, Alice (Literature)
Khalsa, Keval Kaur (Dance Program)
Khanna, Ranjana (English)
King, Ashley (Romance Studies)
Koonz, Claudia (History)
Lasch, Peter (Art, Art History, and Visual Studies & Latino/a Studies)
Lee, Dan A. (Math)
Leighten, Pat (Art, Art History, and Visual Studies)
Lentricchia, Frank (Literature)
Light, Caroline (Inst. for Crit. U.S. Stds.)
Litle, Marcy (Comparative Area Studies)
Litzinger, Ralph (Cultural Anthropology)
Longino, Michele (Romance Studies)
Lubiano, Wahneema (AAAS and Literature)
Maffitt, Kenneth(History)
Mahn, Jason (University Writing Program)
Makhulu, Anne-Maria (AAAS)
Mason, Lisa (Surgical Unit-2100)
McClain, Paula (Political Science)
Meintjes, Louise (Music)
Mignolo, Walter (Literature and Romance Studies)
Moreiras, Alberto (Romance Studies)
Neal, Mark Anthony (AAAS)
Nelson, Diane (Cultural Anthropology)
Olcott, Jolie (History)
Parades, Liliana (Romance Studies)
Payne, Charles (AAAS and History)
Pierce-Baker, Charlotte (Women’s Studies)
Pebles-Wilkins, Wilma
Petters, Arlie (Math)
Plesser, Ronen (Physics)
Radway, Jan (Literature)
Rankin, Tom (Center for Documentary Studies)
Rego, Marcia (University Writing Program)
Reisinger, Deborah S. (Romance Studies)
Rosenberg, Alex (Philosophy)
Rudy, Kathy (Women’s Studies)
Schachter, Marc (English)
Shannon, Laurie (English)
Sigal, Pete (History)
Silverblatt, Irene (Cultural Anthropology)
Somerset, Fiona (English)
Stein, Rebecca (Cultural Anthropology)
Thorne, Susan (History)
Viego, Antonio (Literature)
Vilaros, Teresa (Romance Studies)
Wald, Priscilla (English)
Wallace, Maurice (English and AAAS)
Wong, David (Philosophy)

A memorial with the names of the Duke 88 should be erected in the center of the McClendon Commons to serve as both a reminder that these faculty members failed to demostrate the most basic premise of our judicial system, innocent until proven guilty.

[rickdylan]

To my thinking the biggest villain in this whole picture is the ordinary racist idiot living in or around Durham NC who was part of the 95% black vote which returned the Fong to office after the parameters of this story were fairly well known. Duke needs to get rid of Brodhead and the 88 super losers, and then move. No parent in his right mind would send a kid to ANY school within 30 miles of Durham NC at this point.

[EyeGuy]

Yes, the race-baiting Magnum is correctly placed, just under Nifong in the cavalcade of corruption. Too many, for various weak reasons, want to give her a pass.

Well, well...not much hard science, business, mathematics or technology amongst those ProfessorLosers of the We-Hate-White-Christian-Males 88"

As expected.

[Howlin]

DukeLax Ping!!!

[the Real fifi]

You really need an expert to come to this conclusion?

[Howlin]

Evidently somebody does, really, really dense people, I guess..........LOL.

[Dante3]

Also President Brodhead is to blame.

[the Real fifi]

Duke University behaved very badly in this and I see no great changes there afterwards. Very shameful performance by a very overrated University.

[EyeGuy]

"To my thinking the biggest villain in this whole picture is the ordinary racist idiot living in or around Durham NC who was part of the 95% black vote which returned the Fong to office after the parameters of this story were fairly well known."


Bulls-eye.

I have been saying this all along. While Nifong grossly and repeatedly abused his power, and should not only be disbarred but jailed, his heinous actions were driven by his correct perception of the political capital to be gained by going after white boys....especially "rich" white boys from Duke. The racist environment of Durham is the fuel that made this whole thing go.


"Duke needs to get rid of Brodhead and the 88 super losers, and then move."

Won't happen, but if you want to see a weak, quivering academic melting under even a tiny bit of pressure, catch the coward Brodhead on a replay of his 60 Minutes appearance from a couple of months ago. I doubt he has been able to form a solid stool since.


"No parent in his right mind would send a kid to ANY school within 30 miles of Durham NC at this point."

For a variety of reasons, at this time, no parent in his right mind should send their child to ANY of the "elite" American universities.

[Parley Baer]

It would be interesting to see how ABC News handled the charges when they were first brought out and in the following months. I bet they were on the guilty band wagon and contributed to the hysteria.

[FreedomPoster]

Along with a notation that the President of the University at the time, Dick Brodhead, was exited from the scene for the lack of leadership he showed during the time.

[Alia]

Fairstein is batting 100% in her points in this article.

But she shoots herself and her points in the foot with this quote: "Whatever the outcome, Fairstein worries about the impact of the Duke lacrosse case on rape prosecutions around the country. Her concern is that the high-profile investigation will inhibit aggressive prosecution of sexual assault cases. "If there is a dismissal there will be many more people who encounter rape in the future with greater skepticism. It will reinforce the stereotype that many of these rapes are false reports."

Her overall is that Nifong didn't do his job; wouldn't do the hard work. 30 years, I've seen far too many prosecutors not do the hard work operating on the feminist agenda mantra of "two legs good, three legs bad and guilty".

Aggressive prosecution of sexual assault cases isn't JUST for those asserting they'd been raped.

I was frankly surprised at her closing sentences in this articles. It's so darned at odds with the very clear assertions she'd made previous.

[CFC__VRWC]

It would be interesting to see how ABC News handled the charges when they were first brought out and in the following months. I bet they were on the guilty band wagon and contributed to the hysteria.

You'd win that bet. Every single DBM outlet jumped right on the Fong bandwagon - according to them, we didn't need no stinkin' trial. Three rich white boys raped a poor black working girl trying to feed her family, so save the tax money and get the rope. To be fair, ABC wasn't the worst or shrillest of them - that would have been Nancy Grace at CNN and Kimberly Guilfoyle at Fox. But ABC was all too happy to follow the lead of these two shrews and pile on.