Posted on 12/17/2006 4:30:53 PM PST by jern
Raleigh — The United States Attorney General suggested Sunday that his office might investigate the way District Attorney Mike Nifong has handled the Duke lacrosse rape case.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confirmed he received a letter asking for a federal probe into the investigation, in which an exotic dancer claims three lacrosse players raped her at a March 13 party.
"Well, that is a letter that we recently received," Gonzales told Fox News' Brian Wilson. "It's being evaluated at the (Department of Justice). I can't say anything -- anything beyond that."
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
I would LOVE to see that happen!!
While indeed Nifong deserves removal from office, disbarrment, and probably even a good stretch in prison......
There are more important things that Gonzalez is (apparently) studiously ignoring that should be prosecuted by him first; Leaks of secret material affecting national security; Senators, Congress people (and the Governor of New Mexico) in seeming violation of the Logan Act (+ treason, sedition and other little things like that).
I'd think that it should be the North Carolina Attorney General that should be investigating Nifong. The Feds shouldn't be involved unless the State of NC refuses to deal with it or is covering up for Nifong.
Course you can't blame Gonzalez completely for ignoring this stuff. If his boss particularly wanted him to deal with traitors and/or corruption, he would be doing it.
Well, he did talk with her in April, but he said she was too traumatized about the rape for him to ask her any questions about the night in question. He said he hadn't reached that stage of his investigation yet to where he could talk with her about the case!
It's an amazing admission, don't you think?
I can only hope this is true. This fool's political aspirations superceded his duty to objectively process those players. Shameful.
"Hillary Clinton: Outsourcing Blowj*bs since 1995"
Bumper Sticker/T-Shirt
http://www.cafepress.com/titillatingtees.43614456
If I am not mistaken, I think that good ole Jessie Jackson did show up at the very start of this farce. Since all of the cameras are gone, so is he.
I'm not big on making taxpayers pay for government employees' incompetence, but in this case it makes sense. They re-elected this creep when there was substantial evidence that he was lynching the boys. I hope all those kids drive out of town in Ferraris, waving goodbye to the poor town folk.
The country is certainly ill served, but the President is probably pleased with the A.G.'s inaction. Many around here have supported Bush no matter how far he wandered toward the center (read left). Even Rush, a man for whom I used to have great respect, has admitted to carrying his water to promote the lesser of two evils. We now can see how well that tactic has worked, a blown opportunity of monumental proportions.
Alberto gONZALEZ IS PATHETIC.
Her pregnancy within several weeks of the alleged gang rape should be some sort of circumstantial evidence (at the least) that this was all a hoax. If it had been out there before now, I wonder if Durham would've elected Nifong. How can the constituency not see the obvious? I wonder when the black leadership in town will realize that Nifong has taken advantage of them, by exploiting the situation for his own gain? They should be ready to pounce on him for selling them a bill of goods that he couldn't deliver.
Since Meehan's DNA showed up in at least one of the samples AND THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED, I'm guessing that Nifong's or one of the detectives did, too. Privacy concerns?? Yeh, right!
Justice - Nifong gets unwanted probe because the accuser didn't.
It's looking more and more like a conspiracy to thwart justice every day:
Editorial: Published: Dec 20, 2006 12:30 AM
Shaky Case
Questions about evidence and the investigation's handling lead to doubts about rape charges against former Duke lacrosse players.
EDITORIAL:
There's no question that members of last year's Duke University lacrosse team showed poor judgment in staging a rowdy spring break party that featured two dancers hired from escort services. But serious doubts continue to grow about the case that Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong has brought against three of the players who are accused of raping and assaulting one of the dancers.
Reports in The N&O concerning contradictory accounts by the alleged victim and flaws in how the case has been investigated have raised questions about Nifong's decision to press ahead with the prosecution. The latest such report cited court testimony Friday by Brian Meehan, director of a Burlington laboratory, to the effect that Nifong knew that DNA tests on evidence gathered from the accuser's body and underwear failed to implicate any of the Duke athletes.
Meehan said under Nifong's questioning that no one had asked him to conceal the lack of evidence from the players when other findings were released from the DNA testing that was performed last spring.
Yet Meehan didn't have to be asked to conceal anything if he and Nifong already had agreed that only certain information would be released, as Meehan claimed that they had. It was only in September, in response to requests by the defendants' lawyers, that the full report from Meehan's firm was made available to the lawyers.
Under state law, prosecutors are required to turn over to defense attorneys evidence favorable to the accused, who in this case are former Duke lacrosse players David Evans of Maryland, Colin Finnerty of New York and Reade Seligmann of New Jersey.
Biological evidence from the woman who says she was raped was retrieved within hours of the alleged assault at the team party. Nifong then obtained DNA samples from team members, asserting that the evidence would be pivotal. He went on to obtain indictments of Finnerty and Seligmann on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual assault, even though state tests of those samples showed no connection between the defendants and the accuser.
In view of that, it's not unreasonable to wonder if Nifong arranged for the more sensitive tests offered by Meehan's lab in an attempt to bolster his prosecution. The results clearly didn't help, yet he went on to gain the indictment of Evans and otherwise has plowed ahead.
Meehan maintained in court that the test results showing no DNA from any of the defendants were withheld out of some concern for their privacy. Nifong also said they were "trying to avoid dragging any names through the mud." but certainly the trio's greater interest has been in having their names cleared.
Meanwhile, notes from Durham investigators show that the woman changed her story repeatedly during interviews with detectives. And detectives violated the department's own photo line-up policy when they had the woman identify the three players. What is the basis for Nifong's sustained belief that sexual crimes were committed by the three?
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