Posted on 08/30/2007 5:09:23 AM PDT by abb
DURHAM -- Durham cabbie Moezeldin Ahmad Elmostafa is suing a department store chain and a security guard over a shoplifting charge that figured heavily in the now-ended Duke lacrosse case.
As it turned out, Elmostafa beat the shoplifting rap and was known among lawyers as the "hero of the lacrosse case" for becoming a defense alibi witness and standing up to former District Attorney Mike Nifong and Nifong's then-investigator, Linwood Wilson.
Nifong recently resigned and was stripped of his law license for misconduct in the lacrosse scandal. Wilson also lost his job.
Elmostafa's lawsuit was drafted by lawyer Tom Loflin and filed in Durham County Superior Court just before the close of business Wednesday.
The named defendants are Hecht's Company Inc.; May Stores X Inc, with which Hecht's is now merged; and Jonathan Massey, a former Hecht's security guard who originated the shoplifting charge against Elmostafa at Northgate Mall.
Attempts to reach the corporate defendants for comment were unsuccessful Wednesday evening. Likewise, someone at Massey's house said he was working and wouldn't be home until after midnight.
Defense lawyers had accused Nifong of belatedly bringing the misdemeanor shoplifting charge against Elmostafa as a pressure tactic in the controversial lacrosse case.
The alleged shoplifting incident was in 2003, but Elmostafa wasn't formally accused until May of last year.
The charge came shortly after Elmostafa signed a sworn affidavit saying lacrosse suspect Reade Seligmann was in Elmostafa's taxi around the time an exotic dancer claimed she was raped by Seligmann and two others during a party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in mid-March 2006.
Elmostafa said he drove Seligmann to a bank machine, a fast-food restaurant and a Duke dorm.
When the shoplifting incident came up in court a year ago this week, Elmostafa testified that he merely gave a cab ride to a woman who later pleaded guilty to stealing several handbags from the Hecht's store at Northgate Mall. He claimed he didn't know what the woman was up to and didn't aid or abet her thievery.
Elmostafa was acquitted.
Nifong denied there was any connection between the shoplifting and lacrosse cases.
But lawyer Loflin contended Nifong had used the shoplifting incident "to gain a tactical advantage over [Elmostafa], to try to pressure him into changing his evidence to favor the prosecution in the lacrosse case."
Massey, the former Hecht's security guard, was accused in Wednesday's lawsuit of obtaining the shoplifting warrant against Elmostafa "maliciously and without probable cause."
Massey knew the allegations he was making against Elmostafa were false but made them anyway, according to the suit.
The suit added that Massey's actions "were done willfully, wantonly, intentionally and with actual malice, or with reckless disregard and [indifference] as to the truth and consequences of said actions. ..."
Hecht's and May Stores are "vicariously liable" because Massey worked for them, the suit said.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
Rape charges against the lacrosse defendants -- Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans -- were dropped by Nifong in December after the accuser changed her story. All remaining felony charges were tossed in April by state Attorney General Roy Cooper, who declared the three men innocent and rebuked Nifong for prosecuting them in the first place.
Today, Nifong is scheduled to be the defendant in a contempt hearing that could bring him a 30-day jail term and a fine of up to $500, or both. He is accused of lying about DNA evidence favorable to Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans.
URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-876754.cfm
I personally know people in North Carolina who have been railroaded. Since I am not a member of the criminal community, one must automatically assume it is worse in that segment of society. The laws here suck. Any idiot can file a false charge or sue any other idiot for absolutely nothing, then tie their lives up for years at great expense. The only people who win are the lawyers.
That’s right. It sounds like the wrong target is being sued.
Sorry to hear you live in such a corrupt state. Maybe you should plan moving to a better state.
Exhibit A: John Edwards, North Carolina lawyer.
Knowing that it is corrupt is actually an advantage. I feel sorry for the poor saps who don’t know their rights, or are afraid to fight back. Many of us here knew what was going on at Duke long before it was a newsworthy story. Having the financial means to fight back is what saved them.
THANK YOU SUE!
But will it save Nifong?
Nifong should have never been appointed to begin with. All he had done was “fix tickets” in traffic court for the DA’s office. He is a weasel that deserves fines, jail and civil lawsuit judgments against him.
Maybe the Fong should consider a different career. Like driving a cab.
Why isn’t Nifong in jail?
Heck, I want to know why Crystal Mangum, a/k/a Precious, is not in jail. She started it all.
I agree. This case had previously been handled and the thief was in jail. It was not the store that revived it after the cabbie came forward as a witness in an important case.
You can bet your last dollar that the police, under Nifong's direct orders, used every trick and lie in the book to pressure the security guard to make his false accusation.
Yep. It couldn’t have been more obvious what was going on here. Maybe Elmostafa is just getting started.
“Unfortunately it isn’t the City/County of Durham that’s being sued.”
I’m surprised they aren’t. They should be!
“....Maybe Elmostafa is just getting started.”
Hope so. Weren’t we all in disbelief when this guy was arrested?
Wait a minute. This story, and the comments here, make little sense.
Don’t get me wrong — Nifong got, and is getting, everything he deserves, and the cabbie is a true hero. No question there.
But he suing Hechts here, not Nifong.
And where is the nexus, somehow implied in the comments here, that Hechts was somehow actively and intentionally ASSISTING Nifong by bringing the complaint to the police?
If Hechts thought they had a criminal case, and they did, their role was to bring the facts to the prosecutor. The prosecutor then determines whether charges should be brought.
If the prosecution was brought for malicious leverage, it was Nifong and the police who were exercising the leverage, not Hechts.
Of course, Hechts is the target because it has the deep pockets. Is that what is being applauded here, then? That’s misplaced, IMHO.
Absolutely. I remember thinking maybe now the media would start to get it. But they didn’t care. He got the same treatment from them as the boys. I was really afraid at that point they would all be in prison before this got worked out if it ever DID. It was scary.
LOL
Would that be Erniestafa?
jw
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