Posted on 04/11/2007 7:46:54 AM PDT by Howlin
RALEIGH, N.C. — Three members of Duke University's lacrosse team could learn Wednesday whether state prosecutors will drop the remaining charges accusing them of sexually assaulting a stripper at a team party more than a year ago.
"I think it's likely that they will do that," said Wade Smith, an attorney for charged player Collin Finnerty. "We certainly hope that would be true. But until we hear it, we're not going to acknowledge that's the truth. We'll wait and see."
The state Attorney General's Office has scheduled a 2:30 p.m. news conference to discuss the case. It is unclear whether Attorney General Roy Cooper will be at the news conference at the RBC Center, which can accommodate the crush of national media interested in the case.
The Associated Press, citing sources close to the investigation, reported Wednesday morning that all charges would be dropped in the case.
The Attorney General's Office took over the case in January after Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong was charged with several ethics violations tied to his handling of the sensational case.
No notice of dismissal had been filed at the Durham County Courthouse by early Wednesday. But a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office told WRAL that the investigation into the case has been completed.
"We are relieved that this day has come,” Smith told WRAL. “There will not be a celebration because this has been a train wreck.”
The families of Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans arrived in Raleigh Tuesday. Officials told WRAL that the three lacrosse players would be present once a decision had been made as to how the prosecution would proceed with the case.
A grand jury indicted the three players on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense last spring after a woman told police she was assaulted at a March 2006 team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper. All three have steadfastly maintained their innocence, with Evans calling the allegations "fantastic lies."
Nifong dropped the rape charges in December after the accuser changed a key detail in her story. He recused himself a few weeks later after the state bar charged him with violating several rules of professional conduct.
Among the ethics charges, Nifong is accused of withholding potentially exculpatory DNA evidence from the defense and lying to both the court and bar investigators. Nifong faces a June trial before the bar and could be disbarred if convicted.
Nifong faces a Friday afternoon hearing in the ethics case, and he spent Wednesday morning with his attorney in Winston-Salem.
Nifong's recusal put the players' fate in the hands of Cooper, who promised "a fresh and thorough review of the facts" when he took over the case in January.
Smith said the players, their families and the defense attorneys were pleased that the special prosecutors took over the case, saying they brought "sanity to this situation."
“The special prosecutors have looked under every rock, and they have searched for evidence in places even the defense did not,” he told WRAL.
While Evans graduated the day before he was indicted in May, Duke temporarily suspended sophomores Finnerty and Seligmann in the wake of their arrest. Finnerty was also convicted in July in an unrelated assault case in Washington, D.C., and sentenced to six months of probation.
Finnerty and Seligmann were both invited to return to campus, but neither has accepted. John Danowski, the former coach at Hofstra who took over the Duke program last summer, has also said that both are welcome to continue their lacrosse careers with the Blue Devils
These Fox guests evidently never read our threads. We knew all about the stuff in the Fox article.
Cooper (the AG) basically implied that CGM was crazy. Or if not crazy, at least had some Very Serious Issues. That could be one reason not to prosecute her.
Either that, or they didn’t want to deal with the crapstorm that indicting her would cause here in Durham. I expect that they’ll still be building statues and memorials to CGM in certain portions of the Bull City, even after this.
}:-)4
I’ve thought all along that those TV folks who did know the facts got them right here and from all the blogs.
WPTF is saying that the defense press conference is at 4:30.
}:-)4
You are right. MSM still underestimating the pajama media.
I wouldn’t want to see that pig dancing.
Those Duke guys are guilty.....
.....of lousy taste.
It is wrong, to hire a stripper.
It is harmful, to everyone concerned.
The ho is considered a hero in most of the black community (or at least those few whom I heard interviewed). She stood up to the evil "rich white" boys. There is so much hatred and envy of those who work and accomplish by those who have nothing because they're lazy and think that the world owes them a living that truth doesn't matter to them. Envy and hatred of accomplshment is what fuels the democratic party's black vote machine, and this is why 88% of blacks will stay on the democratic plantation forever.
They didn’t get what they requested.
Some suggest it was a setup.
” I have never really followed a criminal case this close before, but the insight, research, and investigating that took place on FR surrounding this case was spectacular.”
It was.
I believe that the daily FR Duke thread and a mirror pro Duke blog drove this train.
The research ,analysis and sheer dedication to finding the truth -shamed the lazy MSM.
Very often the same comments were made on the nightly shows as were posted here hours and sometimes days, earlier.
It happened too often for it to be mere coincidence.
The Duke thread was amazing .
Kudos to those who kept it going day after day.
BTW-Has anyone heard from Wendy Murphy, Georgia Goslee or Susan Filan ??
I wonder if they still believe Nifong has evidence he hasn’t revealed, yet ?
I can't say I agree with your % because I don't know the level. But I do know that when a black person works hard and succeeds in life it is because they tend to be well educated and/or hard-working and they tend to become Republicans. Then they are considered "Uncle Toms" or not black because of it. That is truly what I find sad.
In my humble opinion..... this is way worse than any Imus sayings.............
White lib uses a biased case to ruin 3 boys lives forever.
the paper trail is going to go right back to the freaking dimo party!
Nah, false accusations can come from any situation unless a guy lives in a bubble and never leaves the house. Even then, some girl who doesn't want to get in trouble with her parents could still easily point to finger at you.
You’re going to love this. I surfed over to the News and Observer website, and they have this tease at the top of their homepage:
“Friday: The accuser was trying to get her life together, but she was derailed by psychological problems.”
Sure sounds like they’ve known she’s unstable for a while now. And yet they’ve maintained the fiction she was credible, as the entire case crashed down around them. One wonders just when The Fong found out that she might’ve had “psychological problems,” and chose to ignore it.
}:-)4
The Emperor has No Clothes........and the truth is starting to out, DESPITE the American media.
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