Posted on 07/16/2008 4:51:39 AM PDT by abb
DURHAM -- After figuring in the Duke lacrosse case and becoming Reader's Digest magazine's Hero of the Year, former Durham cabbie Moezeldin Elmostafa has launched what his lawyer described Tuesday as a priceless and perhaps unprecedented court claim.
It involves his U.S. citizenship, which Elmostafa contends was delayed for two years by an old and bogus criminal charge that resurfaced in 2006 while the lacrosse debacle was in full swing.
"Citizenship is absolutely priceless," said Elmostafa's lawyer, Tom Loflin of Durham.
Still, Loflin wants several defendants to come up with a figure.
"If they don't agree to my number, we'll let a jury decide what it's worth," Loflin vowed. "We'll ask jurors what their citizenship is worth to them. The jury can put a number on it."
Elmostafa received judicial permission this week to add the unusual citizenship clause to an already existing lawsuit.
Loflin and Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Orlando F. Hudson said Tuesday they were unaware of any previous court claims of the kind.
A Sudanese immigrant, Elmostafa finally gained his U.S. citizenship in April of this year.
Now, he wants reimbursement from those who allegedly delayed the process by once bringing a misdemeanor criminal charge against him. They include a former Hecht's security guard named Jonathan Massey, Hecht's Company Inc. and Macy's Retail Holdings Inc., which has taken over the Hecht's operation.
Raleigh lawyer Dan Hartzog, representing the defendants, said Tuesday he could not comment on the allegation of delayed citizenship.
A warrant had accused Elmostafa of helping a woman steal $250 worth of handbags from the former Hecht's store at Northgate Mall in 2003.
The then-cabbie was acquitted in August 2006 after testifying that he merely gave the woman a ride and didn't know what she was up to.
By then, the handbag incident had been linked to the Duke lacrosse case, in which three student athletes were charged with sexually assaulting an exotic dancer during an off-campus party in March 2006.
Elmostafa became an alibi witness for one of the athletes, Reade Seligmann, since he drove Seligmann to a bank machine, fast-food restaurant and campus dorm while the alleged sexual attack supposedly was in progress.
The way Elmostafa saw it, the 2003 criminal warrant against him was resurrected three years later in retaliation for his anti-prosecution stance in the lacrosse proceedings.
In the end, Seligmann and two Duke codefendants were declared innocent by the state attorney general, and former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong lost his job and his law license over the affair.
Meanwhile, Elmostafa recently gave up his cab business and now operates limousines to and from Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Reader's Digest named him its 2008 Hero of the Year in March.
ping
Good for him! I wish him the best of luck.
Good!
Glad to read this! He was and is a hero!
Good...I hope he gets $10 mil.
Glad to see it.
And when is someone going to sue Nancy Grace? That woman is a menace. She had all of those boys drawn and quartered in the town square before charges were even filed!
I’m no lawyer, but I’m not sure he has a case here. What would Hecht’s and the security guard have to do with the original complaint getting resurrected by the Durham County DA’s office three years later, to intimidate the guy? If anybody delayed his citizenship proceedings, it was The Fong and crew, not a security guard and store personnel that filed a complaint.
That having been said, I’m really happy he’s finally a citizen, and that he’s doing well here in the Triangle. We need more Elmostafa-type immigrants, and less of the illegals that we’re drowning in here in Durham!
}:-)4
She is a lying menace, no doubt about it. She has a very faithful brigade on this website that lap up her insane accusations and lies though.
ping
Go here:
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Liestoppers_meeting/forum/201036/
for some of the most in depth analysis of the ongoing DukeLAX case and current lawsuit.
It’s most interesting and although closed to new members it’s a totally viewable blog of lawyers and such who have being all over the frameup of the young men and supporting the them from day one.
[Reader’s Digest named him its 2008 Hero of the Year in March.]
Hero? Very low standards. My feelings of RD just went to ZERO!
Excuse me...
All this guy did was stand up to a rouge prosecutor who had the power to put him in jail or worse.
You done anything like that lately?
He could have gone to jail and been deported for doing the right thing, with nothing in it for him except doing the right thing.
Can I ask you a question? Are you an idiot?
Good for Elmo!
Thanks, abb.
How tempting would it have been for a lot of people to just take the easy way out? I admire this mans courage & have tremendous respect for him.
A hero is someone who does something above and beyond. What this guy did was nice but he DIDN'T GO TO JAIL and he WASN'T DEPORTED. He was identified by the young Duke player and would have had to testify just the same. In fact, I would guess he was given better treatment because he did volunteer the information before trial.
There was a young soldier that threw his body over a grenade and saved his mates. He is a hero. Hero of the year 2 years later??? I think not.
I don't consider Pat Tillman a hero. I don't consider that gal that got lost and managed to her her pals killed in Iraq a hero either. Good people, certainly but hero?
Audie Murphy was a hero, Sgt. York was a hero.
If these views make me an idiot, so be it.
It’s no telling how large the peripheral damage is from this case.....and here is another shining example....
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