Duke To Reinstate Seligmann, Finnerty (DukeLax)

WTVD ^ | January 3, 2007 | Staff

[abb]

(01/03/07 -- DURHAM) - Duke lacrosse defendants Colin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann are both expected to be reinstated today as Duke students in good standing, two sources close to the case told ABC News. Also on abc11tv.com: Send us news tips | Desktop Alert | ABC11 AccuWeather | Pinpoint Traffic Defendant David Evans was allowed to graduate last spring, but underclassmen Seligmann and Finnerty were suspended from the University pending a resolution of the assault charges.

December 22, 2006, prosecutors dropped rape charges against the three Duke lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party, but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges.

According to court papers filed by District Attorney Mike Nifong, the accuser says she now does not know if she was penetrated during the alleged attack.

The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, has said three men raped her in a bathroom at a March 13 Duke lacrosse team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

The indicted players - Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann - all say they are innocent, and their attorneys have consistently said no sex occurred at the party.

Evans graduated from Duke in May, the day before he was indicted. Sophomores Finnerty and Seligmann were suspended following their April 2006 indictments.

The Duke lacrosse team was also suspended from play, but was reinstated in June on a provisionary basis.

A press conference from defense attorneys is expected this afternoon.

Stay with abc11tv.com and ABC11 Eyewitness News for the latest on this developing story.

[kalee]

I don't blame him, they really stood by him when he needed them, huh? rolls eyes

[supercat]

Now there, my friend, is the best idea I've heard so far this year!

I'm hardly the first person to suggest it. I do think, though, that the prosecution of Mike Nifong for his criminal malfeasance against the students would do much more to re-establish their reputations than anything that could happen in a criminal trial of the students.

Unless the students' lawyers are reckless, they'll whittle the prosecutor's case down to nothing with pre-trial motions. While this may be the responsible thing for them to do (as their first duty is to secure acquittals) it would leave some people claiming the students got off on "technicalities". By contrast, in going after Nifong, all such evidence could be readily admitted. If it's proven that Nifong deliberately framed the students, that would trumpet their innocense far more loudly than a mere "not guilty" in their own trials.

[DMZFrank]

Schadenfreude. I never really appreciated the nuances of this word until I beheld the burgeoning fallout from this incident. I LOVE to see liberals hoisted on the petard of Political Correctness, racial identity politics, gender determinint feminism and what I have coined as "Tawana Brawley Syndrome".

TBS exists when one takes a historical reality such as the marginalization of innocent blacks within a once overtly racist crminal justice syndrome or the past subjagation of women or any number of other offenses and attempts to apply that to a contemporary situation wherein the objective facts don't apply; ala OJ Simpson, Rodney King, Anita Hill etc.

Nifong was not only hoping to ride to re-election a wave of politically motivated outrage from the Black community over this contretemps, but I suspect that he was seeking to appropriate PC bonus points and obtain instant moral authority by championing the cause of the "other" (marginalized black exotic dancer) against racist male chauvinist members of the privliged white elite. A case of cultural Marxist Class warfare that boomeranged. GOD how I love it so!!!!!

[JLS]

WHO IN THE HELL IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WANTS TO SEND THEIR SON OR DAUGHTER TO A UNIVERSITY IN A STATE LIKE THAT!!!!

Some here naturally with a soft spot for the Duke they went to or who have children at Duke now are uncomfortable with this view, but it is logical to me. They way I have stated it is why on earth would you send your kid to a place where a significant number of the faculty hate them due to their sex, race or the money you happened to have earned in your life?

[secret garden]

First of all, thanks for the pings. Second, who is the gang of 88?

[secret garden]

Whoops, I meant who are the gang of 88?

[flaglady47]

These young men played with fire and got burned. Spare me the tears about their reputations.

Well, you are living up to the "geezer" part of your name. I guess you weren't ever young and foolish, or in a college fraternity, where since time immemorial, highjinks have been a part of frat life. So, you go to a party where a stripper is to perform at the age of about 20-21, and therefore your reputation for the rest of your life is destroyed, eh? Real proportionality there, I must say. Take the new off your name, and make it old geezer, who never made a youthful mistake.

[JLS]

In what state(s) do you believe that a major liberal university (and which ones aren't?)would act any differently?

I'm kinda anxious to hear.

Well this point has been raised over and over in defense of the Duke faculty. I will say I have taught a bunch of universities during my career and this is the difference. Lots of people are theoretically liberal or even theoretically radical. But when push comes to shove they would not stab their own students in the back. At many other universities the faculty theoretically would want to side with Mangum, but knowing Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann or just their students in general, they would see them as people they knew and have disbelief.

Heck even the worst southern bigot of the 1930s, while disliking blacks liked or so positives in the black people they new. Such bigots might ascribe all sorts of bad characteristic to blacks in general but not to the black people they hired or knew.

But not the Duke faculty or at least the Duke 88. They not only hate white male whose parents have a little money, they hate even the white males whose parents have a little money who they personally know. They are worse than the worst bigots of the old south, they hate so completely they can not see the individuals of the group they hate even when they interact with them.

[JLS]

On another thread someone offered the view that a DA need not be an attorney because it is mainly an administrative job. Nifong of course could not practice law, ie prosecute cases himself if disbarred, but he might be able, as that person suggested, to stay in office and run the prosecutors office. I wonder in fact if to run for DA in NC one must be an attorney?

[Jezebelle]

I don't think she's sipping the Kool-Aid. Just reporting. That doesn't mean the sources are right, and it doesn't mean that if it's true now, it will remain so. There may simply be a more advantageous time to take action. I think waiting until the boys are ensconced in their new school(s) and back on track is smarter than filing now while their educations are still in jeopardy. If they decide not to sue, I'm sure it will be because their lawyers said it would not be advantageous to their futures, even though they may well have a very good case. The considerations for suing Duke are very different than those involved in the criminal case.

[Jezebelle]

Exactly. That's what I've been saying to those who think the there needs to be a trial of the boys to prove their innocence. The better course is to expose the evidence, all of it, and the lack thereof, in a venue where your clients are not at risk. Putting Nifong on trial, either criminally or civilly, is the way to go. Besides that, in Nifong's case they'd be doing the public a service.

[nctexan]

I agree with you completely on the Duke faculty, especially the 'gang of 88', the president, etc. No defense there.

My point was that PC mania is rampant in most universities... not just those in NC.

[Jezebelle]

Not only would I not send a kid to Duke, I wouldn't send a kid to any college in NC unless and until the legislature moves their criminal procedures out of the dark ages.

[Jezebelle]

Well said; good example. :>

[nctexan]

Newgeezer... I'm in awe of you! With just a few goofy statements you have become a FreeRepublic celebrity.

Never have so few given so much to so many... (laughs that is)

[Old Professer]

They're still guilty of poor taste in women.

[JLS]

White farmers grow food for the benefit of the country,
are thrown out,
then asked back into the country.

White boys attend stripper party for the benefit of themselves,
are accused of rape,
then reinstated back into the university.

Yeh, I can see a lot of connection there.

I think you missed the analogy:

1. Farmers run out of country due in part to their race
2. Country suffers loss of production.
3. Farmers invited back.

1. Students run out of university due in part to their race.
2. University suffers decline in applications.
3. Students invited back.

Perhaps now you see the connection?

PS: If you understood capitalism you would know the white farmer grew their crops out of self interest not to benefit the country. But that is another issue.

[flaglady47]

"Maybe, now that he's in good standing, he can apply elsewhere and that's the day he's looking forward to."

They both are already going to other schools where they were accepted. This offer by Duke to return is not to put them in good standing so they can go elsewhere, they already are elsewhere.

[Howlin]

You remember this:

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:sn8ueKh1hpoJ:durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2006/10/checking-in-with-group-of-88.html+duke+gang+of+88&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

We all just cannot remember every single word!

[Locomotive Breath]

They are taking courses elsewhere but they are not enrolled as full time students. If Duke doesn't release their transcripts, for academic purposes, their Duke coursework doesn't exist and they cannot use it as a basis for transferring and enrolling as a full time student elsewhere.