Doubts About Duke (Newsweek bails on Nifong)

Newsweek ^ | June 29, 2006 | Evan Thomas and Susannah Meadows

[tlb]

The prosecutor insists his rape case is strong. One big problem: the facts thus far.

...court documents in the case increasingly suggest that Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong had very little evidence upon which to indict three players for rape. Indeed, the available evidence is so thin or contradictory that it seems fair to ask what Nifong could have been thinking when he confidently told reporters that there was "no doubt" in his mind that the woman had been raped at the party held by the lacrosse team.

Nifong is described by some lawyers as an adversary who gets dug in—and won't budge. But Nifong's motives may have been political as well. He was six weeks away from an election when the Duke case came up. Durham voters are almost evenly divided between black and white. One of Nifong's opponents was black and the other was white, but the white lawyer was much better known in the community, thanks to winning a high-profile murder case. (That opponent, former assistant D.A. Freda Black, became a bitter enemy of Nifong's after, she claims, Nifong fired her.) Nifong promised black voters that he would not let the Duke case drop. He indicted two of the players two weeks before the election. He won narrowly, taking a larger share of the black vote than the other white candidate.

Meanwhile, the players and their families are lying low, trying to figure out how they can get their reputations back. Finnerty and Seligmann are underclassmen and may be able to transfer to another college and still play lacrosse if the charges are dropped. Evans has already started to pay a price in the real world. He was supposed to begin a good job after graduation, but the job offer was withdrawn.

[Carling]

Books in preparation

J. Di Bona and undergraduates, David Evans and Matthew Zash. "THE EDUCATION OF TERRORISTS." Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, December, 2005

Based on the actual books that this guy has written, which all seem to be titled in a way that would indicate that they are chock full of liberal claptrap, I have to wonder if Dave Evans and Matt Zash are actually rather liberal in their own socio-political ideology.

Imagine that?

[maggief]

Maybe Melanie should print more of the NO interview with the AV, or would that be "taking sides."

[abb]

LOL, she's prolly scared that she might get Nifongulated and called to testify...

[abb]

From Court TV Message boards
http://boards.courttv.com/showthread.php?s=3d5f161cd147e8dd81382d1718e1c779&threadid=267500&pagenumber=2

Susan Filan (MSNBC) providing further info. The AV said in one statement that the bathroom door was closed SLIGHTLY.

Filan said her story is full of holes and inconsistencies

[abb]

NPR story this morning on DukeLax...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5494824

[ltc8k6]

http://boards.courttv.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=267500

Wanted to get the first page of that court tv thread in there.

[abb]

Text of Nifong email to Newsweek...
http://www.wral.com/slideshow/9391482/detail.html?qs=1;s=1;p=news&dm=ss&tn=b

[MrCruncher]

NEWSWEAK is owned by the Washington Post Company.

Michael Isikoff (the Koran-in-the toilet fraud) writes for both NEWSWEAK and the Washington Post.

It was NEWSWEAK that published Isikoff's the Koran-in-the toilet fraud.

And he STILL writes for them--when he should have been fired.

[abb]

MUST READ: Nifong's press release and email. He's very very pissed. Even released Susan Meadow's phone number!!!

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" Someone on here suggested that Nifong was behaving like a cancer patient whose cancer had spread possibly to his brain. He did take a leave for cancer a few years back."

The primary site for prostate ca to spread is bone.
However, Nifong said he had " advanced " prostate cancer and he was so sick that he took a 2 yr leave of absence.
He was treated with a combination of surgery, radiation and hormone therapy.
The hormone therapy may or may not still be on going.
The hormone therapy involves suppressing testosterone- some take estrogen to suppress testosterone, others take androgen suppressing drugs.
The treatment affects men differently, but, many experience side effects such as emotional lability , foggy thinking and psychological disturbances.

[Ken H]

I liked one member's advice to Nifong:

Put everything in your wife's name. Retire to another country.

[Carling]

After misleading and perhaps outright lying to Meadows, who writes an article that gets LIEfong the national press attention he craved, and in which basically locked up his job for the next four years, this podunk DA is now waging a public battle with Newsweek and, by proxy, the WaPo? What an unbelievable train wreck this disgusting DA is.

Short of a confession from one of the indicted, any "evidence" that he concocts at this point will be viewed skeptically out of hand. Heck, even a confession will eventually be tossed if we are to believe the Central Park Jogging rapists.

Hey LIEfong, since you decided to share with us how you waste tax dollars by cruising blogs, I've got something for you.

YOU PROMISED DNA WOULD LEAD TO THE PERP, YOU CREEPY LIAR.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" He's very very pissed. Even released Susan Meadow's phone number!!!"

Nifong's response reads like a pouting teenager.
Meadow's email is equally " professional "- no capital letters and she pleads with Nifong to talk to her-
" As it appears now, it doesn't look good, but, I'm sure that's because we haven't heard your side."
No bias there.

[JLS]

Low-hanging fruit, mon.

Responding to the 911 call may have been low hanging fruit. Sending out the detectives on the Mangum complaint to serve an old bogus misdemeanor warrant on a witness for the defense was attempted intimidation pure and simple.

[JLS]

Low-hanging fruit, mon.

Responding to the 911 call may have been low hanging fruit. Sending out the detectives on the Mangum complaint to serve an old bogus misdemeanor warrant on a witness for the defense was attempted intimidation pure and simple.

[Locomotive Breath]

If so, this experience will damn well cure them.

[pepperhead]

Looks like a few of them may go into meltdown mode over there on the Court TV boards. How long before Coldwater locks everything up because there is too much Nifong bashing going on? Think I might have to remember to check out that place for a few days just too see the stupid stuff the Nifong supporters say.

[ltc8k6]

Nifong says that the defense claim that the DNA tests exonerated th eplayers, is preposterous!

How stupid can he get? He himself and his staff said the results would do that..... both in public and in PC affidavits.

[bjc]

Thanks for posting the text of Mr. Nifong's response. First, any characterizing of the response as being "angry" is clearly a matter of interpretation. Now "dissembling" is another matter entirely. It is worded very carefully, almost Clintonian. He does not make any outright assertions except that he still believes in his case. He carefully side steps Ms Meadows assertions that his initial statements were contradicted by the facts that he had at hand.
It would be well worth someone's time to deconstruct this statement and tease out exactly what he is trying to avoid saying.
Nifong clearly has someone monitoring the various blogs. especially like FR. We should try to make reading them as painful as possible by focusing on the facts of the case.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Susan Filan giving Georgia the what for, LOL!