Posted on 06/20/2007 2:53:32 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets
Duke deal shields faculty
Some spoke out after rape claims
Anne Blythe and Eric Ferreri, Staff Writers DURHAM - Duke University's settlement with exonerated lacrosse players gives legal protection to faculty members, some of whom have been under siege for speaking out in the wake of the gang-rape allegations. Neither side would disclose the terms of the agreement, announced Monday, but Duke's faculty chairman, Paul Haagen, informed professors that one provision is that all faculty members have been released from liability related to the lacrosse case.
That news sparked another round of vitriolic messages from e-mailers and bloggers still exercised over a student newspaper ad signed in the spring of 2006 by 88 Duke professors, who decried a campus culture of racism and sexism.
As Duke shut the door on lawsuits by the players in the lacrosse case, the Durham County sheriff on Tuesday slammed shut District Attorney Mike Nifong's access to the courthouse where he has worked 29 years. Orlando Hudson, the county's chief resident Superior Court judge, entered an order suspending Nifong with pay.
Sheriff Worth Hill went to Nifong's house Tuesday morning, after a courtesy call to let him know he was on his way, and confiscated the district attorney's keys and access card to the courthouse. Arrangements will be made so Nifong can collect his personal belongings from an office he has occupied since April 2005.
Nifong was found guilty last week of ethics violations and professional misconduct in his handling of the lacrosse case by an N.C. State Bar disciplinary panel. The panel ruled that he should be disbarred. The disbarment does not take effect until 30 days after a written order is entered, and that could be several weeks.
Nifong on Monday submitted resignation letters to Hudson and Gov. Mike Easley, laying out a timetable that caused dismay among his critics. Nifong said he would step down July 13 -- not soon enough for people who worried that Nifong's being in office would do more damage to a court system struggling to restore its image.
In Nifong's absence, assistant district attorneys are handling the office's caseload.
"Everything is running smoothly," said Candy Clark, the district attorney's administrative assistant.
Once there is a vacancy, Easley must appoint a replacement. Easley began talking with potential candidates and others Tuesday about who Nifong's successor should be.
"He wants to do that as soon as he can," said Seth Effron, a spokesman for the governor. "Some of the limitations are based on what the law says."
In his order, Judge Hudson said Nifong's conduct in the Duke lacrosse case was "prejudicial to the administration of justice" and had brought disrepute to the District Attorney's Office.
Efforts to reach Nifong failed.
Duke's reasoning
Duke, too, is struggling to restore its image, and that, legal experts say, is one reason the university would settle such a case.
"This was an unprecedented situation, the likes of which we believe will not recur, and it was dealt with accordingly," said John Burness, Duke's chief spokesman. "The settlement covers all matters related to the situation to date involving Duke and its employees, including members of the Duke faculty."
The money came from a legal fund, not an endowment, Burness said, but he would not disclose how much money was in the fund.
Duke trustees, who approved the settlement, either declined to discuss it or could not be reached for comment.
The agreement with the families and the players is the third settlement stemming from the lacrosse case. The university settled with Mike Pressler, the head lacrosse coach forced to resign last spring at the height of the accusations against the players. Recently, the university also settled with Kyle Dowd, a former lacrosse player who complained of receiving a bad grade because of his association with the team.
Paula McClain, a political science professor who on July 1 becomes chairwoman of Duke's Academic Council, said Tuesday that she hopes the settlement allows the university to move forward. Removing faculty members from any liability likely just made good sense, said McClain, who was not part of the legal discussions.
"I don't know if any faculty really felt any liability," she said. "But in a very litigious society, anyone can sue for anything."
In March 2006, lacrosse players hired two escort service dancers for a spring break party that ended with one of the dancers making allegations of gang-rape.
The accusations triggered an uproar in Durham and on the Duke campus.
Word of the settlement apparently sparked an increase in the number of furious e-mail messages that McClain and some of her colleagues have received since endorsing an ad placed in the student newspaper, The Chronicle. The ad featured anonymous quotes from students who described a campus culture of racism and sexism, decrying "what happened to this young woman."
The ad did not mention the lacrosse team, but it was viewed by some as a condemnation of the players. It became a popular target of bloggers, a symbol of political correctness run amok.
The messages -- and the occasional fax -- range from critical to downright racist and threatening. McClain, who is black, reports the worst of them to campus police.
McClain rarely responds to the e-mail messages. "I'm not going to be intimidated into modulating speech," she said.
(Staff writers Benjamin Niolet and Joseph Neff contributed to this report.)
Staff writer Anne Blythe can be reached at 932-8741 or anne.blythe@newsobserver.com. Staff writers Benjamin Niolet and Joseph Neff contributed to this report.
Second bad move they made, IMHO.
Her whole existence is about her skin color.
Her bosom heaved.
And he knew her.
It's not about bodice ripper novels.
“The ad did not mention the lacrosse team, but it was viewed by some as a condemnation of the players”
That means the lacrosse players, minus three, can still sue.
I hope someone posts the stats on next spring's admission numbers vs. two years ago.
I can't imagine an alum contributing a cent to a crap hole that employs such brain dead trash, however good the school was when they attended.
The alleged perp was identified by partygoers, arrested, and has been released on $50K(??) bond.
Or is there a more recent rape allegation?
kjo - Is anyone nationally reporting the new Duke rape case? A young black man is accused of raping a white freshman a few days ago.
gridlock - I had not heard a report that the freshman supposedly raped was white. Don’t jump to conclusions.
This is a big problem.
You are right. Apparently Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek confirmed that the victim of the “Other Duke Rape” was white.
Not that it matters to me. A crime is a crime, I say.
Allow me to enlighten you,
She was white.
http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/309b87f6-b065-441c-a6aa-5b83130244d4
One of the sources is the Duke University Chronicle.
No one is jumping to conclusions.
Shucks: I was looking forward to being called Professor Bono.
Every time I see the number of professors, 88, brought up, it reminds me of one of the many meanings attributed to the number combination.
Neo-Nazi symbol
Eighty-eight is used as code among white supremacists to identify each other. H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, so 88 is taken to stand for HH which in turn means Heil Hitler. [1] This has caused controversy in the past, when trendspotters for the Target Corporation noticed the symbol and began its use on hats and T-shirts, unaware of its meaning. “ 14 is used similarly, referring to the so-called “Fourteen Words”, often found in combination with 88 (1488, 14/88, etc.). This form of the number has inspired the naming of the groups Column 88, Unit 88 and White Legion 88.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/88_(number)#Neo-Nazi_symbol
Ironic isn’t it?
Money in the bank today is worth more than what they might have gotten, if anything, in the future.
Cannot be said often enough, these Illiberal Institutions need to be defunded and massively reformed. Duke = another reason parents should stop putting their life savings into these left-wing, Marxist trash dumps posing as universities!
Right. That's why they chose to hide behind the skirt of Mommy Duke University.
Spineless, scum-sucking, self-righteous, judgmental liberals who don't have the decency to admit they were wrong and apologize to the players, the Duke University students, and the community for adding to the racial unrest.
Of course that's all that matters.
A mere coincidence that the ad "happened" to come out at the time of this rape controversy.
But let's give the "Gang of 88" the benefit of the doubt -- let's say the ad wasn't a condemnation of the threee players as they now say. Why didn't they say so back then?
They certainly heard the student's and the community's reaction to the ad -- why didn't they correct them at the time and say, "No, no, no. That's not what we're saying at all! The boys are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law!"
What is this with a chick dean?
“A crime is a crime, I say.”
You’re jumping to conclusions.
Send them to my school. I’ll teach them Accounting and capitalism.
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