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LIVE THREAD: NC Attorney General Announcement at 2:30pm Today (DUKELAX)
ABC 11 WTVD ^

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: crystalgailmangum; duke; dukelax; durhamdirtbag; nifong
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To: Sue Perkick

It sad that some here seem to think the boys had it coming for paying to see some skank’s “dirty pillows.”


761 posted on 04/11/2007 2:11:23 PM PDT by TUAN_JIM (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: Sue Perkick

Who mentioned Georgia earlier? She’s on!


762 posted on 04/11/2007 2:11:40 PM PDT by Repub4bush (FWF.....Speechless!)
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To: unspun

Why don’t you save some of your derogatory and judgmental remarks for a woman w/children who deliberately strips and prostitutes herself instead of working at a respectable job? Isn’t she wrong to get into that’business’?


763 posted on 04/11/2007 2:11:42 PM PDT by Carolinamom (God is pleased to get knee-mails.)
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To: old and cranky

You’re probably right. You can’t make this stuff up.


764 posted on 04/11/2007 2:11:51 PM PDT by Sue Perkick (...what I was born to do, don't have to think it through.....)
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To: unspun

I am confused...are you saying the media has always said it is ok to strip and hire strippers? What media are you watching? All we heard at the beginning of this was the guys must be guilty BECAUSE they hired strippers. There were former DA tv hosts who were constantly making the case that hiring strippers was much worse than being one, I guess they have no others skills to feed their babies and drug habits. The whole team was vilified for underage drinking and hiring strippers.


765 posted on 04/11/2007 2:13:12 PM PDT by old and cranky (You! Out Of The Gene Pool - Now!)
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To: Sue Perkick; unspun; Chena
Re: Post 757

ROFL You were right, Sue.

The poster asks a question, posts a link then says not to ping him/her back to this thread. I suppose the poster isn't interested in hearing an answer to the question.


766 posted on 04/11/2007 2:13:32 PM PDT by El Gran Salseron (The World-Famous, popular DJ and FReeper Canteen Certified, Equal-Opportunity, Male-Chauvinist-Pig!)
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To: TUAN_JIM

There’s a “yeah but...” every time something like this happens. I don’t know if it’s a desire to blame the victim or to just stir up trouble.


767 posted on 04/11/2007 2:15:28 PM PDT by Sue Perkick (...what I was born to do, don't have to think it through.....)
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To: Neverforget01
How many late Sat nights did we share screaming at Kimberly? Singing a different song now!!

In fairness, she has been singing a different song for a while now. I sensed she was a bit PO'd that she'd been led astray by Nifong.

768 posted on 04/11/2007 2:18:08 PM PDT by murdoog
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"We respect the integrity of the Attorney General’s investigation and supported the involvement of special prosecutors. If his office believes the state lacks sufficient evidence to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that all the elements of each crime took place, then it is the state’s constitutional duty to dismiss the charges. ... Now, as we have repeatedly said, comes the hard part. How do we proceed toward the healing places in our communities and our hearts? Long after the television vans with their saucer antennas have pulled out of Durham, long after the bloggers have grown weary from typing, those of us who believe in freedom and justice can not rest. How do we work to ensure that the final decisions in this case in no way deter women of color from making claims of violations against them which violate their spirits and their bodies?" — statement from William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP

The NAACP speaks. LOL. They don't "get" it. Innocent is innocent and that is the word used.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/562932.html

769 posted on 04/11/2007 2:19:56 PM PDT by commonguymd
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To: commonguymd

The same group that believes after all this time that OJ didn’t do it, will believe forever that these three young men did.


770 posted on 04/11/2007 2:24:40 PM PDT by CedarDave
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To: commonguymd

They should have been listening to the other presser. Cheshire even spelled it for them.


771 posted on 04/11/2007 2:26:40 PM PDT by Sue Perkick (...what I was born to do, don't have to think it through.....)
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To: A Citizen Reporter
All of the producers have colluded to dump out of the presser at the same time.

Why do producers think that an audience interested in a subject would rather hear their commentators discuss an event rather than here the actual event. It's a frustrating mystery to me.

772 posted on 04/11/2007 2:27:03 PM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: old and cranky
I am confused...are you saying the media has always said it is ok to strip and hire strippers? What media are you watching? All we heard at the beginning of this was the guys must be guilty BECAUSE they hired strippers. There were former DA tv hosts who were constantly making the case that hiring strippers was much worse than being one, I guess they have no others skills to feed their babies and drug habits. The whole team was vilified for underage drinking and hiring strippers.

No, I've seen almost nothing at all in the media about it being wrong to hire strippers. The lacrosse players have been portrayed for the greater share of this media story as being tragic, innocent victims.

The lacrosse players were being wrongly prosecuted for an allegation of rape, by the hired stripper, herself. The false allegation was of rape, not of being hired to do her job. Presumably, hiring strippers is legal where they live, as it is just about anywhere else. Rape is not. This was a (false) rape case.

Logging off now, to do my work. I'll be off the site and I haven't been very interested in this story anyway, compared to what else is out there to focus on.

773 posted on 04/11/2007 2:30:02 PM PDT by unspun (What do you think? Please think, before you answer.)
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To: Freee-dame
"Why do producers think that an audience interested in a subject would rather hear their commentators discuss an event rather than here the actual event."

The timing was very interesting. They dumped out at precisely the moment that the press was getting a lot of heat from one of the attorneys.

They were getting exposed in the lies that they have been broadcasting, and getting beat up.

And wouldn't you know, and I checked it myself, every last one of them dumped out at the same time. FOX news, CNN, MSNBC, Court TV.

774 posted on 04/11/2007 2:30:52 PM PDT by A Citizen Reporter
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To: JeffAtlanta
The “experts” on CourtTV are such tools.

One of their (or CNN? I'm flipping channels) is still calling her the "victim." It wasn't a slip as she said it twice. False accuser would be more appropriate.

775 posted on 04/11/2007 2:34:03 PM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: Freee-dame

I prefer lyin’ ho. But these days the media gets into a snit.


776 posted on 04/11/2007 2:36:46 PM PDT by Sue Perkick (...what I was born to do, don't have to think it through.....)
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To: unspun

” Yet, aside from the fact that one gets closer to jeapordizing situations, it is wrong to hire a stripper.

It is harmful to all, to hire a stripper.

It degrades everyone concerned. It takes a God-given treasure and throws it in the dirt.

It desensitizes one to what is good and of lasting pleasure, for the temporary pleasures of misappropriated sexuality.

It coarsens. It defiles. It dysfunctions.”

//

What would you tell your son if he found himself in a similar situation. Leave?

Seligman left the party. Did he do the “right thing?”

How about Finnerty?

You are passing judgement, IMO.


777 posted on 04/11/2007 2:37:57 PM PDT by maggief
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To: Sue Perkick

Just don’t use the word “nappy”. It’ll get your comment pulled....apparently.


778 posted on 04/11/2007 2:39:47 PM PDT by San Jacinto
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To: commonguymd
They don't "get" it. Innocent is innocent and that is the word used.

The media uses the word innocent when discussing both pleas and findings in trials. In both cases, the correct term is "not guilty" which is why the statement INNOCENT is so powerful. One means not-able-to-be-proven. The other that no wrong was done. Media writers surely know this; just another example of their choosing to be muddy.

779 posted on 04/11/2007 2:40:46 PM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: San Jacinto

nappy... (just testing the waters).


780 posted on 04/11/2007 2:41:11 PM PDT by JFC
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