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.
As I was, just hearing about this again!
Let the back stabbing begin.
And Nifong is STILL pressing on. Amazing.
Everybody is piling on; his own campaign manager dumped on him today, big time.
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/531192.html
DURHAM - The woman who ran Mike Nifong's campaign for district attorney before defecting to work against the prosecutor said Nifong was a political novice who should have told voters the N.C. State Bar was investigating his handling of a sexual assault investigation against Duke University lacrosse players.
"I think that he owed it to the voters to step out and say, 'Just so you know, there's a chance that I will get a complaint filed against me from the N.C. Bar,' " said Jackie Brown, a longtime Durham political activist.
It's a damn parade now!
Who was that "legal expert" black guy from NCCU that was on the local news? The guy has no clue, or he has been drinking some strong Kool-Aid!
We need a live thread for this one
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Absolutely.
Do the honors Howlin, come Sunday. :-)
I'll be there, snarkytart - I will even watch 60 Minutes to see if they justify this piece of crap.
Of course, knowing how much CBS likes evidence that is "fake but accurate" one never knows whose side they're going to take.
Thanks for the ping and the link.
Was it on WRAL? If so, I'll turn to 256 to catch the rerun.
Nifong knew from the get-go that his supposed vic was a flake. That's why he manipulated the lab to withold esculpatory data even before the tests were complete. He knew he'd find evidence of her pedigree.
All I've been able to find so far.
http://www.lawyers.com/North-Carolina/Winston--Salem/David-B.-Freedman-1414679-a.html?&co=
I think 60 Minutes did a great job with Ed Bradlee's story on this. I got the feeling Stahl was carrying on for him.
From Dave Evan's mother!!
Be very afraid Mikey!!!
>>"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.'" <<
No, it was on WTVD, ABC Channel 11.
No investigator seems interested in Precious' whereabouts prior to arriving at 610 Buchanan, which could explain the several DNA deposits.
This will be a must see.
I've never heard of any of them; but he's a past president of the N.C. Bar. I don't like that part.
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