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
So Nifong is guilty of two counts of false and malicious prosecution. Why he isn’t in jail tells me that our “justice” system is broken.
I went to the site you referenced. it reinforces, not alters, the points I made above.
The store brought the facts about the cabbie to the prosecutor/police LONG BEFORE the Duke incident with the stripper. In fact, the Statute of Limitations is even alleged to have run out.
What Nifong edid was go back and find the stale/old allegations, unrelated in an way to the Duke stripper incident, and then brought these stale charges against the cabbie, in obvious retaliation for the cabbie assisting the accused student in exonerating himself.
So — my point — what did HECHTS do wrong here? They weren’t colluding or assisting Nifong’s wrongdoing.
Can you show me where Hechts has dirty hands in this?
His hearing is taking place right now on CourtTV. So maybe he will be soon. We can only hope.
No tears for Hecht's.
This is beyond belief! They tried to intimidate the cab driver by a false charge to get him to retract his witness statement?
IIRC the cab driver is a LEGAL immigrant and they threatened deportation.
Maybe someone from the DA’s office approached the security guard at the height of the rape situation and asked him to help revive the shoplifting charge. It’s obviously not out of the realm of something Nifong would do.
I still think he has a tough road ahead tying Hecht’s to this. The security guard seems to have done this, on his own accord, well after the shoplifting incident had been resolved in court. If he ammended his statement, and lied on the witness stand(which it appears he did), I don’t see how this is going to make Hecht’s liable. His employment does not matter if he perjured himself on the stand.
Oh you have GOT to be kidding me... Nifong is like the gift that keeps on giving...
Thanks for the ping!
Just found this news....
Duke Lacrosse Prosecutor Pleads Innocent
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070830/D8RBDU380.html
http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news/live_video.html
Thanks so much! I had no idea it was on. I just switched to CourtTV and it’s there, too.
Do you have any idea how long it will last? Darn, I have an appointment for a haircut and have to leave now. ARGH! Of all days...
Thanks again!
scheduled for 2 days
something funny is going on — a mike is open to a private conversation at
http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news/live_video.html
it’s still on, even though they’ve been alerted — too funny — it’s the prosecutor talking to his assistant.
they know they were on, but don’t realize they’re still on
Sooner or later, someone will put him behind bars for a very long time.
This suit is all about getting a quick settlement. the department store will not want the publicity of a trial and will settle quickly. then if they want they can use the money to go after the county. Nifong is going to cost Durham county millions before this is all over.
and was negligent in that they hired a dirt bag security guard who apparently had no one over seeing his corrupt actions. The fact he no longer works for them suggests he may have been fired over this. They are liable, just not as liable as Nifong and Wilson and their own dirty security guard.
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