What an artless op-ed Skube wrote. An opinion piece that offers no opinion. What is the point Mr. Skube?
Is it that you are a knee jerk academic also and do not dare have an opinion on this case either since the only acceptable opinion to you ended up discreditted?
Top 10 stories of 2006 -- No. 1: The controversial Duke lacrosse case
BY JOHN STEVENSON, The Herald-Sun
December 30, 2006 11:39 pm
The story that defined the year in Durham emerged when 2006 was still young.
The Duke lacrosse team threw an off-campus party in mid-March and hired two exotic dancers. One, a black single mother and N.C. Central University student, told police three white players raped, sodomized and kidnapped her.
For the remaining three-quarters of the year, the case brought unprecedented national and even international publicity to Durham, polarized the community along racial and class lines, and ultimately threatened to end District Attorney Nifong's three-decade legal career in disgrace.
Three young men -- Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans -- initially were indicted on charges of raping, sodomizing and kidnapping the dancer during the party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. on the night of March 13-14.
But Nifong dismissed the rape charges this month after the accuser, reversing her own earlier accounts, told an investigator she wasn't sure a penis was used in the alleged assault. By definition, rape in North Carolina must involve vaginal intercourse. Sexual offense and kidnapping charges-- both felonies -- remain in place.
The three defendants have maintained their innocence and are free under $100,000 bonds as they await a trial that may occur next year.
In the latest development, the N.C. State Bar announced Thursday it would put Nifong on trial for making potentially unethical media statements while the case was in its infancy.
Among other things, he said during a rash of interviews in the spring that he believed the alleged sexual assault was racially motivated. He also characterized the Duke lacrosse team as "hooligans" who apparently took advantage of an underprivileged victim.
Nifong would face a broad range of penalties if the State Bar found he did, in fact, act unethically. He could receive anything from a warning letter to loss of his law license for five years or disbarment.
URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-804273.cfm