Posted on 01/03/2007 4:17:40 PM PST by freespirited
The past nine months have been a very difficult time for our family. We are grateful and appreciative to those who have supported us during this time, and particularly grateful [for] the outpouring of support that we have received from Duke alumni.
We appreciate the recent comments by Duke University President Broadhead, questioning the basis for the remaining charges against Reade and Mr. Nifong's conduct in ever bringing these charges. We are also glad that Duke University has now made it clear that Reade is welcome to return to the University and look forward to the day that he can return to living a normal life and continuing his education as a full-time student.
By now it should be plain to any person who has any objectivity that the charges against Reade are transparently false. Reade is absolutely innocent and we will continue to fight this injustice. We are not going to rest until Reade's good name has been cleared and those who have been responsible for this injustice have been held fully accountable.
Reade Seligmann
Kathy Seligmann
Philip Seligmann
Brodhead was formerly dean at Yale. Like Duke, Yale is an island of mostly white and Asian students in the middle of a mostly-black high-crime area.
Because of this, Yale students learn that they are likely to be robbed, and every four or eight years one is murdered. The college is absolutely paranoid about media, and they NEVER EVER want parents (who write the checks or co-sign for the loans) to understand that their kids are at risk when they step off campus.
Accordingly, when a co-ed was murdered just before Christmas 1998, Dean Brodhead was very, very quick to join what Tom Wolfe has called "the search for the Great White Defendant." He found his man in a Yale lecturer (not a professor, not tenured, you see) and pretty much did the same thing with Mr Van der Velde as he has done with the lax players -- all but declare him guilty and demand his hanging! He cancelled Van der Velde's classes and then, his contract.
Meanwhile, following Brodhead's lead, the cops focused on Van der Velde. Guess what? Fingerprints weren't his, DNA wasn't his, the killer was someone else, the vehicle seen by witnesses was nothing like his, and by the time the cops figured that out they'd blown the chance to find out which of New Haven's vast population of career criminals and skells had committed the murder.
In other words, in 1998-99 at Yale, Brodhead followed the exact same MO as he has done as President of Duke: hang the honkey. The only problem is this: in the Duke case, three young men have been slimed, terrorized, and had to spend hundreds of thousands (and still haven't cleared their names). In the Yale case, it was only one guy -- and unlike Duke, where there was no crime, the focus on the wrong-but-the-right-color "suspect" meant that a criminal went free.
I can't overstate the case. If you send a kid to any school where this creep is an administrator (now, sadly, Duke), you are taking a real risk that you kid will be either the victim of a crime, or the victim of a frame-up. AND THE ADMINISTRATION WILL BE AGAINST YOU.
They say early admissions applications were down 20% at Duke. Only 20%? the other 80% must need their heads examined.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
I well remember that case and the insinuation that the professor was the murderer. Your further details just make me ill.
Thank you for giving me the real story. That parents would even consider sending a student to Duke is indeed pathetic.
Really?
Why would they appreciate anything that the Duke University President says or does? Where has the Great Leader been for the last year and a half? Why didn't Duke have a Lacrosse team last year? What is happening to the coach who was forced to resign? Isn't the University President responsible for any of this?
And why would they want their son to return to Duke?
ML/NJ (near neighbor of the Seligmanns)
"They're going to OWN that town when they are finished."
I hope they do. By someone's estimate on this forum, their families by now could have spent over $1 million each on legal fees. What this skank and DA have wrought is unbelievable.
There is the distinct possibility of the entire lib power structure of the university being eliminated at a single stroke.
..and don't forget to include those 88 Duke faculty members who signed that letter officially declaring those boys guilty.
My generation was divided into two camps:
One camp supported the country and volunteered for service in Vietnam, or served if called. Or, if they did neither, dedicated themselves to supported those brethern who did, recognizing their sacrifice.
The other camp retreated into Academia where they could avoid service and rationalize their cowardice with others of their ilk. They espoused Marxism and Communism, but in reality they were just self absorbed hedonists who carried about little save themselves. This camp are now in charge of Academia and their serious character flaws are in full bloom.
Parents, students, alumni need to rise up and rid our institutions of these vermin.
Duke will be paying a very hefty settlement because of their public statements concerning the "guilt" of these young men.
Excellent question. My guess is that this was written by their attorney because, like you, I can't imagine why they would say that. (It was on the law firm's letterhead). Why the attorney would think this in order also escapes me, but he may have his reasons.
According to info over on the Liestoppers blog, Collin Finnerty's father says that they are not making a decision about him going back to Duke until after all charges are dropped and the Seligmann family is still weighing the pros and cons of Reade going back.
Personally, I think they would be nuts to go back.
Yes, over at LewRockwell.com there is a professor from Frostburg State University who has been writing every week about the case. He says each of the families has spent 80K a month for the last 10 months on legal fees. At that rate in three more months, each family will have spent more than a million bucks responding to Nifang's trumped up charges.
I thought the comments were vague enough that I didn't understand where he wished to attend school, only that he looked forward to attending school again. I would be gracious and vague too, till my son was cleared and free of this.
Duke University would be at the top of my list.
However -- it was perhaps not too wise for the family to intimate that they will be pursuing Nifong in the future.
Here's why -- if their goal is getting Nifong to drop the remaining charges, they just gave him a reason not to do it. If he drops, he admits he was wrong, and sets himself up. If he persists and can con a jury into convicting, he has cover.
What's he likely going to choose to do, then?
Forget Al Bundy, he should meet the same fate as Ted Bundy.
ping.
Say, for instance, an agreement not to sue Duke?
He's a uniter. It's part of his plan for healing.
If I was Broadhead, I'd give everybody Stuart Taylor knows free admission full pay to get him off my back.
He's gonna pulverize that school and this state.
Why does he want to go back to that dump?
Even though I know that story, you're telling it just took my breath away.
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