Posted on 12/15/2006 12:00:48 PM PST by nj_pilot
The head of a private DNA laboratory said under oath today that he and District Attorney Mike Nifong agreed not to report DNA results favorable to Duke lacrosse players charged with rape.
Brian Meehan, director of DNA Security of Burlington, said his lab found DNA from unidentified men in the underwear, pubic hair and rectum of the woman who said she was gang-raped at a lacrosse party in March. Nurses at Duke Hospital collected the samples a few hours after the alleged assault. Meehan said the DNA did not come from Reade Seligmann, David Evans, or Collin Finnerty, who have been charged with rape and sexual assault in the case.
Meehan struggled to say why he didn’t include the favorable evidence in a report dated May 12, almost a month after Seligmann and Finnerty had been indicted. He cited concerns about the privacy of the lacrosse players, his discussions at several meetings with Nifong, and the fact that he didn’t know whose DNA it was.
Under questioning by Jim Cooney, a defense attorney for Seligmann, Meehan admitted that his report violated his laboratory’s standards by not reporting results of all tests.
Did Nifong and his investigators know the results of all the DNA tests? Cooney asked.
“I believe so,” Meehan said.
“Did they know the test results excluded Reade Seligmann?” Cooney asked.
“I believe so,” Meehan said.
Was the failure to report these results the intentional decision of you and the district attorney? Cooney asked.
“Yes,” Meehan replied.
At that answer, several people in the packed courtroom clapped. Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III warned the standing-room only crowd to be quiet or leave.
Meehan’s testimony differed from a statement Nifong made at the beginning of today’s hearing.
“The first I had heard of this particular situation was when I was served with this particular motion” on Wednesday, Nifong told the judge. After court, Nifong clarified his remarks to say that he knew about the DNA results.
"And we were trying to, just as Dr. Meehan said, trying to avoid dragging any names through the mud but at the same time his report made it clear that all the information was available if they wanted it and they have every word of it,” Nifong said.
Joseph B. Cheshire V, a lawyer for Evans, said he was troubled by today’s testimony.
“If any of the lacrosse players were excluded, they simply wouldn’t put it in the report,” he said. “It raises some troublesome questions about (Nifong), who has an obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence and turn it over to the defense.”
In a response to reports that the accuser in the Duke lacrosse case gave birth recently, UNC Health care issued a statement at about 1:30 p.m. saying that the woman is at UNC Hospitals for care related to her pregnancy but has not given birth.
I don't know about "generally" but certainly the North Carolina legal system.
All those snow birds driving south on I-95 will be verrry careful not to speed in that state. They could get Nifonged.
Time for the disbarment to start.
Nifong must have a plan or at least one more card to play other than a few phone calls to David Price.
I work for a Venture Capitalist in Durham that invests in biotech and life sciences. Legal types in the office seem to think that defense lawyers in the case have now found the deep pockets in this travesty by going after the lab for civil charges.
Nifong should literally be road out of town on a rail, but only after being tarred and feathered.
L
Your State may have, but the Feds didn't
See 18 USC 242.
If AG Gonzales wants to he can now put Nifong away for the rest of his natural life. Nifong f'ed up big time.
L
FWIW, not all blacks in Durham walk in lockstep with the Dems. A very nice church-going black woman in our office today, finally spoke out about this case.
We all work in Durham and it's been a hot cube topic for months. Someone reading a headline aloud from the web, "Dancer pregnant" or somesuch, elicitated the following response from our black co-worker.
"I wish they would quit calling her a 'dancer', she's a whore."
We were all stunned. This woman will not use the words 'damn' or 'hell'.
bump
This is brought to the DA's attention, especially after the body of the "murdered" child is exhumed, tested, and found to have the same genetic markers as the new baby. The DA refuses, saying that in the new baby's case the NPR substance is from genes, but in the dead baby's case, it was from abuse!
Eventually the conviction was thrown out, the woman got a few million dollars, which she used to mount a campaign against the DA when he came up for reelection. He lost.
And the Jacqueline Dowaliby case...and so many of the people prosecuted for child molestation back in the 1980s/early 1990s...
Bingo, depo's until the cows come home and they won't be friendly.
Back in 1998, an article about Sally Hemings' descendants mentioned one descendant whose Y chromosome had traits associated with men in West Africa rather than like Jefferson's DNA (it sounded like the wife of one of Sally's male descendants had a child by someone other than her husband)...the point is that it may be possible to determine the race of the men whose DNA was found on the accuser, but perhaps that requires fancier testing than has been done so far.
Hmmmm....too bad, eh?
Karma sux.
I don't believe this is limited to North Carolina. I've read about enough horror stories from other states to believe this sort of thing can happen everywhere. The lawyers and judgers perpetrating these outrages are all products of the same type of legal training.
The double jeopardy clause in the 5th amendment literally has to do with the actual punishment for convicted felons--"nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb..."
That meant if the rope broke in the course of a hanging, and the person being hanged was still alive, they couldn't get another rope and try again.
I believe the lacrosse players are innocent of the charges, and hope they get their names cleared, but I will really be surprised if Nifong or the accuser suffer any legal consequences for their lying.
"I forgot to end each sentence with the word 'Not!'"
The only positive result that can come out of this mess is if Nifong gets disbarred.
Last night on Greta's show Woody Vann, an attorney from Durham (who represented the accuser in her "hit the cop" case, was asked by Greta if Nifong informed the Grand Jury of the DNA, since it is obvious he was in possession of exculpatory evidence at the time the Grand Jury met.
Vann, who in all fairness has turned completely against Nifong as the case has progressed and gives every appearance of being a "good old boy" in the network down here, said he had no idea, whereupon Greta said something to the effect of "Well, can't we just listening to the recording of the Grand Jury."
Vann said, "We don't record Grand Jury hearings down here whereupon the panel, to a person and including Greta, gave audible GASP and SNICKERS. To put it mildly, they were stunned and it was almost like you could hear them thinking "This cannot get anymore out of control"
or "What the hell is going on down there?"
It's getting damn embarassing for this state and its legal system; and I am positive I'm not the only one who feels this way. The list of things I have found out we do NOT have is staggering, starting with the right to a speedy trial (Is there any doubt Nifong is stalling for a spring trial because she's pregnant or that the Rules of Procedure in NC allow this travesty?). The governor nor the attorney general can do a damn thing about this, owing, no doubt, to a rule written by a damn lawyer to cover his own a$$? Shocking!
And it's infuriating because you and I both know not one damn thing is going to happen to him.
That being said, these boys' parents are major players; and I don't mean players that come to town with a new administration; I mean Wall Streeters and lobbyists (if you don't know, Dave Evans' mother is head of the LPGA). They have brought Bob Bennett into this case to "consult" with the defense attorneys.
Now, Bob Bennett is a person who I absolutely LOATHE because of his past cases; but in my mind, he's just fine and dandy in this case and I hold out hope that he is quietly leading the charge to pulverize this guy when this has worked it's way through the courts.
I fear you're right.
I can tell you this: judging from what I'm hearing around at "holiday" parties, people in other "venues" are beginning to worry that we ALL are going to pay for this.
As we type, every attorney who ever had a case "experted" by DNA Security are rattling their staff's cages to review their files.
This is going to be monumental.
Then they can start looking at Nifong's "plea deals" he's so famous for.
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