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.
I'm wondering if there's more to this than the expert making a "mistake".
This is North Carolina, where the political good-old-boy network is in force. Can we all say "kick back"?
What is the connection between this lab and Nifong?
That's a pretty darned efficient towel if it can remove ALL the DNA traces! Those boys must have really scrubbed her with it!
mark
Wonder if he'd say the same under oath...?
He already did - at the Dec 15 hearing.
..and will probably see jail time unless he continues to turn evidence against Nifong.
Do I have this about right?
Figures.
Understatement of the year (so far)!!! LOL!!
Yes, which his why his profession life deserves to be destroyed. He must be disbarred and stripped of any retirement/pension from the county.
Things like this aren’t isolated incidents … I guarantee he has done similar stunts like this in his past. Frankly, I would think this is grounds for re-opening many of his prior convictions –at least to reexamine. (Not saying all the prior convictions were of innocent.)
At the root of Liberals/Marxism is a state of denial which results in their use of "projection". It's how John Edwards promotes the war against poverty while living in multi-million dollar homes. How college professors railing against racism and sexism while collecting fat paychecks and perks. The protesting of the WOT while sleeping safely in their beds at night.
"I wondered, do you attack our sons, because you feel guilt for your own failures as a mother? Do you attack our sons because you are so selfish that you cannot stand the thought of our sons leading successful lives, when your son did not and can not? Do you attack our sons to justify your own short comings?"
Regrets message
Dowd's family is suing Duke and another professor, claiming Kyle Dowd received a failing grade because he was a lacrosse player. In a telephone interview, Tricia Dowd said she was caught up in anger and regretted sending the e-mail message to Holloway. "It was not my finest moment," she said. But she added: "I would have thought a mother who had suffered so much tragedy would not have prejudged the boys, and waited for the facts to come out."
"That's a pretty darned efficient towel if it can remove ALL the DNA traces! Those boys must have really scrubbed her with it!"
Oh, you don't appreciate the full powers of the towel in question. You see, it -selectively- removed all traces of the accused's DNA, but left the DNA of several other unknown men.
Which just goes to prove, once again, that the most incredibly useful object for any hitchhiker, or would be rapist, across the galaxy is a towel.
Qwinn
Yep it's Joyner.
http://www.nccu.edu/law/faculty/joyner.html
He must have run off with Jackson & Sharpton. Haven't seen them lately either.
OUCH!
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/531318.html
Published: Jan 12, 2007 04:30 AM
Modified: Jan 12, 2007 05:57 AM
E-mail exchange between Patricia Dowd and Karla Holloway
EXCERPT
Nov. 6, 2006
Dear Patricia Dowd,
Indeed, you should have held off sending it. Your letter reflects nothing so much as an impoverished spirit and intellect. What a shame, for you, and your family.
Karla FC Holloway
I love it! I hope she made the point clear enough for certain individuals to understand. They won't stop fighting & nobody's getting a dime.
Watch John Edwards try to contact you to sue the manufacturers. He might want to put an extra hot tub in that mansion he's building.
In other words, he lied in order to make it easier to convict innocent men
because he was afraid that the PC crowd would object.
The fact that Nifong and this forensic so-called expert are not in prison says that PC has won.
Nifong previously made the statement if your Innocent you don't need a lawyer ..... What A hyprocritical buffoon
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