Posted on 08/27/2007 2:36:16 PM PDT by maggief
DURHAM - The spectre of massive civil lawsuits has put the future of a special committee probing the police’s handling of the Duke lacrosse case in limbo.
The city’s insurance provider advised last week that continued investigation by the panel could provide ammunition for a civil lawsuit, Mayor Bill Bell confirmed Monday.
Falsely accused Duke lacrosse players David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann have hired powerful attorneys in anticipation of suing the city.
Seligmann has retained Barry Scheck, a prominent New York City lawyer whose high profile clients include O.J. Simpson and British nanny Louise Woodard. Evans and Finnerty have hired Brendan Sullivan Jr. and Chris Manning of Washington D.C.
The former players’ attorneys will meet with City Attorney Henry Blinder and other legal advisers next week.
Based on the outcome of those meetings, City Council members then will decide whether to allow the committee to continue or to suspend their activities indefinitely, Bell said.
“The nut of it is they’re suggesting we might want to stop right now,” he said.
Durham has a $5 million liability policy with The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania with a $500,000 deductible.
A clause in the city’s insurance policy says that there will be no coverage if the city “ elect[s] a third party to investigate, defend or settle such claims or suits.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
” The city can rightfully argue that the PC climate at Duke was probably the biggest contributing factor to Nifong’s misconduct. “
It had very little to do with it. Durham is a town with gigantic race and class issues. Duke is not liked by most of Durham and the Durham DA would not be receptive to them. This was simple election year politics. He was trying to get the black vote and he did. The person who wins the black vote wins in Durham, period. The black voters in Durham are generally poor, uneducated, and very race conscious. Racebating has always worked well with them.
It took a SCOTUS decision to allow plaintiffs to sue municipalities (at least a far as the CRA of 1871 goes).
OK, then these young men can also seek a monetary settlement with the state as well as the city. Pockets are getting deeper, it seems. <.i>
Boys go for $10 mil each now.
The city is already morally bankrupt, fiscally bankrupt would be just.. Revenge is best served cold...
So a private insurer (which knowingly insured a public entity) has the power to stop (or suggest) that a public investigation be HALTED?
'Nifong made me do it', aka the Nifonguremberg defense, does not matter. City officials, from Bell down, and DPD management, from Chalmers down, placed the city's imprimatur on the DPD's failings by approving the Apr 4 ID, and repeatedly claiming that the DPD did nothing wrong.
The city can rightfully argue that the PC climate at Duke was probably the biggest contributing factor to Nifong’s misconduct.
It could be in the policy, but I do believe that public law (including one’s basic civil liberties) trumps private contracts. This clearly “impinges” (as lawyers like to say) on someone’s civil rights (the students’) and on the public’s right to know about its government and its functioning.
Durham NC deserves some serious pain.
In the end, all of America will suffer.
Forces have succeeded in causing race relations in America to degenerate to a point where it will end up doing more harm to the nation that did slavery or the Civil War.
Leftist Political and Racial organizations have nurtured and inflamed the most ludicrous race baiting scenarios to shake down the public and to garner political power for themselves at great harm to the Republic...
The Communists knew what they were doing when they supported the NAACP, ACLU and other “Civil Rights” organizations...
Once the ignorant bastards have destroyed this bright shining city on the hill - where the hell do they believe they will get a better deal...
Stupid is as stupid does...
All haters of America, and dissatisfied citizens should be seriously encouraged to leave....and go where they believe they have a better chance of enjoying the “good life”...
But let's go ahead and address that elephant in the closet that you're ignoring - you don't honestly believe that the Whichard Comm was going to come up with anything meaningful in the way of a report, do you?
It could be in the policy, but I do believe that public law (including one’s basic civil liberties) trumps private contracts. This clearly “impinges” (as lawyers like to say) on someone’s civil rights (the students’) and on the public’s right to know about its government and its functioning.
The settlement is subject to a gag order. But of course that doesnt stop the rumors, specifically that the total Duke agreed to pay was on the order of 18 million.
Who knows what will be left after all costs are factored in. Each family had more than a million in legal fees.
Well if it was 18 million and the attorney took one-third, then the families were left with 12 million to be split 3 ways. That would 4 million each.
I don’t remember the estimates of the legal bills, but I know they were at least seven figures.
Deserve every second of it..
You are proving my point, Sir. If this type of interference is allowed then the “elephant” that I am supposedly ignoring will indeed come to fruition.
Assuming that interference with an investigation is excusable, but then saying the subsequent invesitgation’s hollow result is inevitable (nothing found due to a less than complete investigation) is peculiar logic.
Even a lawyer should understand the logical problems with that. No offense intended, but even I can figure out the problems with that logic.
And “elephants in the closet”? Your mixture of metaphors is more appropriate to a closeted homosexual who is also a Senator and a member of the party symbolized by, well, elephants. Perhaps you were confusing that matter and this one.
Nobody in North Carolina expects the public entities to do their job and nobody calls them on it?
Given Fred’s past experience with federal and state corruption, I would expect a Fred supporter to be more assertive of governmental and private actions to expose public corruption — not to dismiss those who point to clear wrongs and expecting public entities to do their job correctly.
Dismissing those who pointed to the truth in this matter has been the problem from Day 1.
You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone familiar with this case & Durham who thinks that the Whichard Comm was going to come up with meaningful reform. We're not talking about a criminal investigation. It's an investigation 'to see how Durham can do better'. Nothing against Whichard himself, who is a respected and admirable man, but the Committee itself is saddled with a large number of agenda-driven activists.
The lesson to be taken away from the AIG/Durham situation is that the city knew, or should have known, that the Committee was never going to complete its mandate. Whichard himself said that he had concerns about this all along. No one told their constituents, though.
You are proving my point, Sir. If this type of interference is allowed then the “elephant” that I am supposedly ignoring will indeed come to fruition.
Assuming that interference with an investigation is excusable, but then saying the subsequent invesitgation’s hollow result is inevitable (nothing found due to a less than complete investigation) is peculiar logic.
Given Fred’s past experience with federal and state corruption, I would expect a Fred supporter to be more assertive of governmental and private actions to expose public corruption
I don’t know if new lawyers came in to handle the negotiations. If the original lawyers negotiated with Duke, I don’t see why they would have taken a third. They apparently worked on an hourly basis throughout the case, running up bills of more than a million dollars per family.
But the families had plenty of other costs, such as repeated travel to Durham.
There is some serious dishonesty in the local government, and the insurance company is afraid that any investigations will only help the discovery process in favor of the Duke lacrosse players and against the City of Durham. If they only have $5 million in liability coverage, the insurance company may as well go ahead and prepare that $5 million check. The Duke players should continue to pursue the case against the County as well.
I watched the local news, and Durham Mayor Bell was being interviewed. It doesn’t take much to figure out what is going on behind the scenes! He had that “deer in the headlight” look.
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