Posted on 01/11/2007 8:13:33 PM PST by Howlin
CBS) The forensic expert hired by the prosecutor in the Duke rape case says he made a "big error" in judgment by not stating in his report that the only DNA he found on the accuser was from several men who were not on the Duke lacrosse team.
Dr. Brian Meehan speaks with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl in his first interview about the controversial case this Sunday, Jan. 14, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Meehan acknowledged that he has never omitted potentially exculpatory evidence before. "We haven't done that before," he tells Stahl. "In retrospect, I should have done a better job of conveying that information."
Meehan has stated that he told the prosecutor, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, about the other DNA for the first time in mid-April. Later that same month, Nifong indicted three Duke lacrosse players. Meehan has also said in court proceedings that he and Nifong agreed before the evidence tests were completed that his report should be limited to positive matches between the accuser and the players at the team party where she says she was sexually assaulted last March.
Meehan says writing an incomplete report violates his own firm's standards. "It was an error in judgment on my part. … It certainly was a big error," says Meehan. He says his firm wasn't trying to hide the information and that it released it when it was asked. But his client's behavior irks him, he says.
Nifong took six months to tell the players' defense attorneys about the other DNA, as required by law — and during that time, Nifong filed a court motion that stated he was not aware of any potentially exculpatory evidence.
The fact that Nifong withheld the information and knew it before he indicted their sons has outraged the parents of the accused. "You felt like someone hit you with a baseball bat. … It was almost too much to bear, as we sat there," says Kathy Seligmann, whose son, Reade, is among the three indicted players. "And [Nifong is] sitting 10 feet away from us."
It enraged Mary Ellen Finnerty, mother of Collin Finnerty, another indicted player. "I think [I felt] one of the strongest feelings of rage that I've had … I literally had to turn to my husband, because I was shaking from my head to my toe, and say, 'Hold me down,'" recalls Finnerty. Adds Seligmann, "And we had to hold on to each other because when you sit there and put two and two together and realize that it was calculated … set up to make these boys appear to be guilty of something they didn't do."
When asked what they would say to Nifong if he were in the room, Rae Evans, the mother of indicted player David Evans, says, "I would say with a smile on my face, 'Mr. Nifong, you've picked on the wrong families … and you will pay every day for the rest of your life.'"
Last month, after the results of the tests were ordered released by a judge and the accuser told an investigator she was no longer certain she had been penetrated by a male sex organ, rape charges were dropped by Nifong. The three players still face charges of sexual assault and kidnapping.
But that's NOT what I meant! I meant that it could have just as easily been about WHITE people/characters, who came from Georgia and lived in Manhattan.
I loved the show. No complaints here. Beat the heck out of Lum and Abner.
In the newest statement, the woman said she arrived at the house about 11:10 p.m., joining the other stripper and dancing briefly before they stopped when a man threatened them with a broomstick. She said that the two women retreated to a car, received apologies from three men, were enticed back inside and separated and that she was sexually assaulted starting about 11:40 p.m.
11:10???
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/us/12duke.html?hp&ex=1168664400&en=f8057e2ee384c426&ei=5094&partner=homepage
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And Bissey hedges:
“I’m absolutely certain,” Mr. Bissey said in a telephone interview Thursday. “I had looked at my cellphone, and I was sure they had gone into the house at 12. I had assumed that’s when they first got there. But I can’t say for sure that was the first time they showed up. It seemed to me that it was.”
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She was on the phone from 11:25 p.m. to 11:32 and 11:36 to 11:39.
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In the new statement, she said Mr. Seligmann stood in front of her while someone else sexually assaulted her from behind, but she did not say he made her perform oral sex. Instead, according to the statement, Mr. Seligmann stood there and refused to go back behind her “because he was getting married.”
The report says, “Both Finnerty and Evans were trying to get Seligmann to ‘do it’ but he kept saying NO.”
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The woman also said in the statement for the first time that the men had used a white towel to wipe her face, Mr. Evans’s penis and the floor where she said she had spit. Defense lawyers wrote that the new account of the white towel was an effort to explain why none of the defendants’ DNA was found on or in the woman.
>>Get the DVDs, I guarantee you, that you will laugh your socks off!
I'm sure he has seen them---he's kidding you!
Bissey has them arriving at 11:50!
Where the heck did that 11:10 come from?
And here's a question: she moves the timeline back to accomodate Reade's alibi -- and then she clears him?
Why?
Could they know what Finnerty's alibi is and be trying to cover that, too?
Is it someone named Joyner?
Yes, it sure is. I think I consciously block that guy!
One of these days I will learn to read to the end of the thread before I post.
However this case comes out, it should forevermore be a criminal offense to sell a shovel to an ambitious prosecutor.
I'm watching the rerun now, but they're talking about Rosie O'Donald (boring!!!). Isn't Woody Vann a lawyer who represented Mangum in some earlier run-in she had, and he said he found her very credible? What did he say tonight? I'm getting pretty sleepy. I guess I can record it and watch it tomorrow.
One and the same.
He was so upset he was almost shaking and was talking about talking to his wife about how awful it was and it had to stop.
Nifong needs to do the most honorable thing and dismiss all the charges immediately. There is absolutely no chance that any jury is going to convict these kids of anything now. None. And if by some strange chance they did, it would be thrown out on appeal.
A "Big Error"? You COVERED UP EVIDENCE. As a result of your "big error" people are looking at jail time.
This guy should be indicted himself...
The segment just ended. Wow! He was saying how damaged her credibility is, and how it's time to get this runaway train stopped! This from a man who has earlier represented Mangum!
Now that it's over, I'm turning in. Thanks to you and all the others who help keep the rest of us informed and caught up!!
as someone else has mentioned before, if the Nifongs of the world do this to rich kids, what does he do to poor or middle class kids, kids without parents or backing ????
I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know if this is possible ... but I *hope* this is grounds for a huge civil suit against Nifong. I'd love to see him living on the street in a cardboard box. Then let him scream "class warfare!"
Hmmm? Just wondering of Nifong could face a recall effort, from the voters, to remove him from office? This would deny him the 3+yrs plus he says he needs for retirement.
I am glad to hear her say that. Early on there was some discussion about what the families would do when the criminal case was over. I think that question has been answered. There is a lot of people in Durham that better start lawyering up.
The most honorable thing he could do is kill himself.
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