Posted on 01/11/2007 3:37:41 AM PST by aculeus
The Duke rape hoax is redolent of past decades' phony child-abuse cases.
No one could have imagined, when the story began last March, how soon and completely that bit of shorthand--"the Duke University scandal"--would be transformed.
Scarcely 10 months after, the term is now almost universally understood as a reference to the operations of Michael Nifong, the Durham County district attorney (pictured nearby), whose abandonment of all semblance of concern about the merits of the rape and assault accusations against three Duke University students was obvious from the first. So was his abundant confidence while broadcasting comments on the guilt of the accused. He seemed a man immune to concerns for appearances as he raced about expounding on the case against the accused lacrosse players and calling them hooligans. He would hear nothing by way of concern from Duke administrators (seven months into this affair, the university president did find an opportunity to mention the accused students' right to a presumption of innocence)--and certainly none from the politically progressive quarters of the Duke faculty who lent their names to an impassioned ad thanking everyone who had come out to march in protest against the rape and assault of the exotic dancer; 88 faculty members signed it, among them such Duke luminaries as Alice Kaplan, author and student of fascism, and Frank Lentricchia, literary critic.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
In her latest statement to investigators, the accuser in the Duke lacrosse rape case changed her account again about when the alleged gang rape occurred, who attacked her and how.
Defense attorneys filed the statement in court today, arguing that it was more evidence that the woman is an unreliable witness.
The woman adjusted the timing of the assault to earlier in the evening, a time point preceding the well-documented alibi of one accused player, Reade Seligmann. The defense, however, introduced yet more alibi evidence for Seligmann: he was on the cell phone with his girlfriend during the height of the attack as the accuser now times it.
The new version of the events comes from a Dec. 21 interview by Linwood Wilson, chief investigator for Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong. The statement marked the first time anyone from the District Attorney's office discussed the case with the woman since charges were filed in April. The interview came less than a week after a private laboratory director testified that he and Nifong agreed not to report DNA evidence favorable to the three accused players.
It was the Dec. 21 interview that prompted Nifong to drop rape charges the following day against the three players after the woman said she was no longer certain that the men had vaginally assaulted her with their penises.
The three players, Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty, have called the accusations lies and said they are innocent.
The statement layers new and contradictory accounts over the woman's previous statements:
* In her latest statement she said the attack ended at midnight.
In previous accounts, the woman said the gang-rape ended shortly before she left in the car driven by Kim Roberts, the second dancer. Roberts called 911 as she was driving away at 12:53 a.m., according to police records. This new account leaves 50 minutes unaccounted between the end of the rape and the departure from the party.
The new statement runs contrary to time stamped photos of the party, which show the two women dancing between 12:00 and 12:04 a.m. in the living room of the house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.
* In the latest statement, the woman says she arrived at the party at 11:20 p.m. on March 13 and that the rape began at 11:40 p.m. Her cell phone records show that she was on phone with her father and others up to one minute before the rape allegedly started.
* The woman now said her alleged assailants used multiple names.
In previous accounts, she said she was assaulted by three men named "Adam", "Brett" and "Matt." She has given conflicting descriptions of the three men and contradictory accounts of how they assaulted her.
In the Dec. 21 interview, she said for the first time that the players used multiple names. "Dan, Adam and Brett was used by Dave Evans," Wilson wrote. "Adam and Matt was also used by Reade Seligmann. She does not remember a name being used for Collin Finnerty or if he was called by a name."
* The accuser has changed her description of Evans. On April 4, she viewed a photograph of Evans and said it looked like one of her assailants, except that the assailant had a moustache. In the Dec. 21 statement, the woman said the assailant had a five o'clock shadow, not a moustache. Evans has a visible five o'clock shadow in the photograph.
* In her recent statement, the woman said that Evans stood in front of her and made her perform sex on him. In past statements, she said that Seligmann did this.
Nifong could not be reached immediately for comment today.
Joseph Neff can be reached at 829-4516 or jneff@newsobserver.com
What boggles the mind is how conducting false prosecutions increases one's stature in the Democratic party.
Think about the for a bit.
Ping!
New thread?
How pathetic a line is this. Isn't obvious that Nifong and his faux Christian investigator are writing her new versions to match each twist in the evidence? Then they feed her this this story and make her repeat it.
yes, yes, yes...
Add a little dose of anti-elite, "evil-rich-folk" bias and the picture is complete. This case was never about the election.
jw
Believe it or not, Martha Coakley was just elected Attorney General of Massachusetts.
She not only hammered the Amiraults but also the nanny case. She is bad.
I have absolutely loved Dorothy Rabinowitz for years. Another MUST READ analysis.
The administrators of our institutions of higher learning, for the most part, have little to no backbone. They go with the flow of the strongest liberal group in that institution. I wonder about the
Like I said - DAs that prosecute false claims get promoted in the Democratic party.
Think about that.
I heard her on a radio show during the campaign. When the Amirault case came up, she just snapped, "He's guilty!" and wouldn't talk about it beyond that. It seems to me Harshberger had a letter to the editor printed in the WSJ after Rabinovitz's "expose," -- utterly self-serving and refusing to admit he was wrong. And Coakley was his protege, I think.
I like new words, don't you?
;*}
(I caught my error just as I hit the post button so I corrected it in the next post.)
Now, I must go back to my winter weather watch with freezing rain/ice accumulation for the weekend advisory preparations.
Scott Harshbarger, the head of Common Cause and a recent unsuccessful candidate for public office in Massachusetts, was the prosecutor who allegedly Nifonged the Amiraults: http://www.zpub.com/un/un-sh.html. Every potential donor to Common Cause should be reminded of this at every opportunity.
Per the Rabinowitz article,
"What did it matter that the child's testimony that resulted in Gerald's conviction had claimed rape with a large butcher's knife--one that had magically left not the slightest injury? The jury's most important duty was, the prosecutors informed them, to believe the children and show that they honored their testimony. The same young witness also testified that Gerald was accompanied by a green, silver and yellow robot, R2-D2, from "Star Wars."
A good defense attorney would have challenged Harshbarger to drop his pants, bend over, and have the proctologist of his choice show how it is possible to have a butcher knife put up one's kazoo without causing any injury.
Janet Reno was District Attorney for Dade County when Grant Snowden was Nifonged (he was later exonerated).
The verb "to Nifong" means, of course, to prosecute someone on criminal charges that one knows to be fraudulent, usually for personal political gain. It has not yet been proven that Mike Nifong Nifonged the Duke lacrosse players but, if it is, they should make sure the disciplinary action taken against him (e.g. disbarment) follows him around the country for the rest of his life.
Other examples of usage:
"The Spanish Inquisition routinely Nifonged people as heretics so as to confiscate their property."
"Several people were hanged in Salem Massachusetts after being Nifonged on charges of witchcraft."
"Despite the lack of decorum at Saddam Hussein's hanging, he was not Nifonged because he was actually guilty of the charges against him (and worse). He himself executed numerous political opponents after Nifonging them."
"Libya sentenced several Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death after Nifonging them on false charges of infecting Libyan children with AIDS."
"Australian tourist Schapelle Corby was allegedly Nifonged by corrupt Indonesian police and customs officials."
Another reason I despise MA and All its recent so-called Republican governors.
Spineless bastards.
Excellent point, that. Certainly a blot - serious blot - on Mitt Romney's record.
Janet Reno, or people under her supervision, allegedly Nifonged a decorated police officer on phony child molesting charges.
16 years ago, I sat outside the courthouse (along with 6 other people in news trucks) where "Tookie" Amiralt's trial was held for 2 weeks. Every day, we did what is known in the business as "gratuitous live shots" for the noon noozThe real villain is not the Lacross team, certainly - and it isn't even Nifong personally. The villain of the piece is Big Journalism. As Rabinowitz makes clear, all Nifong did was to follow the rules as Big Journalism laid them out.("...Well Jack, we're outside the courthouse waiting for the jury to return a verdict. Nothing has happened since yesterday, we don't know when anything is going to happen, but if something DOES happen, we'll be here to cover it! Back to you in the studio, Jack! ")The whole thing was a media circus because the media is too greedy, lazy, and stupid to do anything important and they smelled fresh, ratings meat. Beyond the witchhunt mentality that the propaganda ministry I worked in was all too happy to capitalize on, Scott Dirtburger, er Harshbarger, is one of the biggest parasites ever produced in Massachusetts - right up there with Teddy.
26 posted on 04/22/2002 7:00:31 PM EDT by agitator
The rules laid down by Big Journalism state that Big Journalism is what is important. If you make yourself useful to Big Journalism you will get the reward you asked for - good PR. If somebody else makes you useful to Big Journalism, well, tough luck - your name is Mudd, and his name is golden. That's all this is about, and that's all anything is about to Big Journalism.
In this case, Nifong has seen both ends. He came out with a clasic liberal case: "rich" white boys, "downtrodden" black woman, Evidence? We don't need no stinkin' evidence. And Big Journalism was happy, and smiled on Nifong.
Now Nifong himself is at risk of becoming the story, as he should have been all along.
But don't make the mistake of thinking of the editorial page of the WSJ as being "Big Journalism" - it's more like the Rush Limbaugh show.
BTTT
I followed those cases closely reading all her stuff, the Frontline programs (PBS did something right!) and books written by others.
Those cases remain a disgrace for 'the world's best justice system'.
bookmark for later...after dinner.
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