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Nifong has more charges against him
Fox News Alert | 1/24/07 | FoxRun

Posted on 01/24/2007 6:38:29 AM PST by FoxRun

Just heard via Fox News Alert that additional charges have been levied against Nifong. Charges are that he failed to disclose and/or hid the DNA evidence (that exonerated the 3 players charged).


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: dukelax; nifong
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To: Jezebelle

"That he's had a spotless record until now..."

True, but then again, John Wilkes Boothe was pretty clean too, before that little "incident" in the Ford Theater...


261 posted on 01/25/2007 3:27:22 PM PST by Guilty by Association (Stop the Durham FARCE perpetrated by the FRAUD Attorney!)
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To: Protect the Bill of Rights

"Come get some!"

:oD


262 posted on 01/25/2007 3:33:20 PM PST by maggief
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To: maggief

ROTFLMAO!!!!


263 posted on 01/25/2007 3:37:02 PM PST by Protect the Bill of Rights
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To: Guilty by Association

Thank you.


264 posted on 01/25/2007 3:41:30 PM PST by Enterprise (Drop pork bombs on the Islamofascist wankers. Praise the Lord and pass the hammunition.)
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To: hoosierham

Guilt by Association says it all and says it best.


265 posted on 01/25/2007 3:42:34 PM PST by Plains Drifter (America First, Last, and Always!!!)
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To: Guilty by Association

Many thanks!!!!!!!!!


266 posted on 01/25/2007 3:43:44 PM PST by Plains Drifter (America First, Last, and Always!!!)
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To: Guilty by Association

I don't understand your point. We were talking about what possible defenses or bases for mitigation Nifong could claim before the bar.

Maybe your point is that everybody who goes bad has to start somewhere, having had a clean record previously to going bad?


267 posted on 01/25/2007 4:05:49 PM PST by Jezebelle (Our tax dollars are paying the ACLU to sue the Christ out of us.)
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To: Carolinamom

Yes, I read it in one of the articles - that Nifong is trying to get the state to go his legal fees. I hope with all my heart that that fails. I will be watching closely to find out the answer to that.


268 posted on 01/25/2007 4:08:38 PM PST by Jezebelle (Our tax dollars are paying the ACLU to sue the Christ out of us.)
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To: Alia

Now THAT would not surprise me one bit.


269 posted on 01/25/2007 4:09:38 PM PST by Jezebelle (Our tax dollars are paying the ACLU to sue the Christ out of us.)
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To: Jezebelle; All
I would be VERY interested in reading the aggravating and mitigating factors re attorney discipline.

Here you go, Jezebelle (and anyone else who might be interested). Based on what we know about the case at this point, you can decide for yourself whether the aggravators outweigh the mitigators.

According to N.C. Bar Rules Subchap. 1B, Section B.0114(w):

If the charges of misconduct are established, the hearing committee will then consider any evidence relevant to the discipline to be imposed, including the record of all previous misconduct for which the defendant has been disciplined in this state or any other jurisdiction and any evidence in aggravation or mitigation of the offense.

(1) The hearing committee may consider aggravating factors in imposing discipline in any disciplinary case, including the following factors:

(A) prior disciplinary offenses;

(B) dishonest or selfish motive;

(C) a pattern of misconduct;

(D) multiple offenses;

(E) bad faith obstruction of the disciplinary proceedings by intentionally failing to comply with rules or orders of the disciplinary agency;

(F) submission of false evidence, false statements, or other deceptive practices during the disciplinary process;

(G) refusal to acknowledge wrongful nature of conduct;

(H) vulnerability of victim;

(I) substantial experience in the practice of law;

(J) indifference to making restitution;

(K) issuance of a letter of warning to the defendant within the three years immediately preceding the filing of the complaint.

(2) The hearing committee may consider mitigating factors in imposing discipline in any disciplinary case, including the following factors:

(A) absence of a prior disciplinary record;

(B) absence of a dishonest or selfish motive;

(C) personal or emotional problems;

(D) timely good faith efforts to make restitution or to rectify consequences of misconduct;

(E) full and free disclosure to the hearing committee or cooperative attitude toward proceedings;

(F) inexperience in the practice of law;

(G) character or reputation;

(H) physical or mental disability or impairment;

(I) delay in disciplinary proceedings through no fault of the defendant attorney;

(J) interim rehabilitation;

(K) imposition of other penalties or sanctions;

(L) remorse;

(M) remoteness of prior offenses.

270 posted on 01/25/2007 4:12:51 PM PST by Bitter Bierce
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To: Bitter Bierce

Aggravating factors, I see: B, C, D, F, G, H, I and possibly K, the question being was Nifong warned by the bar to cease making public statements about the case.

Mitigating factors, I see: A, G, and L, if he pleads it.

Looks like the aggravators outweigh the mitigators.

Thanks for posting the information. :)


271 posted on 01/25/2007 4:29:29 PM PST by Jezebelle (Our tax dollars are paying the ACLU to sue the Christ out of us.)
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To: Guilty by Association
"He's always very polished," said Aus, who has known Nifong for 22 years. "He doesn't rely a lot on notes or stuff. He just gets out there, gets to his point and moves on."

He doesn't rely on facts either.

That is something that can be said of just about any other snake oil salesman. Nifong is not unique in that regard.

More like the snake itself.

272 posted on 01/25/2007 6:07:52 PM PST by Sue Perkick (...what I was born to do, don't have to think it through.....)
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To: Constitutions Grandchild
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Don't even think about it Mike. You can't take it. I can. But I'm Jack Bauer. And you.......are not.

273 posted on 01/25/2007 6:22:08 PM PST by Sue Perkick (...what I was born to do, don't have to think it through.....)
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To: Bitter Bierce; Jezebelle

Nifong will claim:

Mitigating:

(A) absence of a prior disciplinary record;
(G) character or reputation;

(A) one is true unless the digging into his prior cases quickly lead to new charges in other cases. (G) he will get a bunch of Woody's to say what a great guy he is.

(B) absence of a dishonest or selfish motive;

I know, I know but he is a Dim. He will try it. He will say it was for the children. He will deny the election had anything to do with it. He will claim he believed Mangum.

(C) personal or emotional problems;
(H) physical or mental disability or impairment;
(J) interim rehabilitation;
(L) remorse;

Face it he is a Dim and that is what they do.

(D) timely good faith efforts to make restitution or to rectify consequences of misconduct;
(E) full and free disclosure to the hearing committee or cooperative attitude toward proceedings;

I will claim that he shut up early on in the case and eventually turned of the evidence. He will lie and claim his shutting up had nothing to do with the primary being over. He will claim he has cooperated with the bar. These two claims may well irritate the bar even more but he will make them unless his attorney threatens to quit over this.

(F) inexperience in the practice of law;

He will claim inexperience as DA. As a 20+ year ADA, it won't work but he will claim it.

(K) imposition of other penalties or sanctions;

He will claim that the scorn in the public eye has been great punishment for him. He may also claim this if he is forced to resign as DA before his hearing on these ethics charges.

So overall he will claim the all but (I)and(M)because there has not been much delay and he has no priors as of now.


274 posted on 01/25/2007 7:29:52 PM PST by JLS
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To: Bitter Bierce; Jezebelle

Sorry about the typos in the Nifong post, but I think you can still understand it.

The NC Bar should find:

Aggrevating circumstances:

(B) dishonest or selfish motive;

Clearly this is true although he will deny this. This was all about an election. This was all about Nifong and had nothing to do with anyone else, INCLUDING THE DEFENDANTS. Nifong did not really care which out of state Duke lacrosse student he charged.

(C) a pattern of misconduct;
(D) multiple offenses;

Clearly the volume of charges in this case and the continuing pattern comes into play. He did not make a single mistake or two. He continuously violated the ethics cannons since this case began.


(E) bad faith obstruction of the disciplinary proceedings by intentionally failing to comply with rules or orders of the disciplinary agency;
(F) submission of false evidence, false statements, or other deceptive practices during the disciplinary process;

The Bar has charged this. Surely they will find this aggrevating circumstance too.

(G) refusal to acknowledge wrongful nature of conduct;

If he follows his pattern this will be the case although he will claim differently as I said under mitigating circumstances.

H) vulnerability of victim;

They should find this. He picked on out of state temporary guest in a state with many many college that rely to some extent on out of state students. He picked on young barely adults who were not very experienced in the ways of the world. He picked on college students who would be suspended while the charges were pending. He spilled over onto 50+ people counting lacrosse player and coaches.

(I) substantial experience in the practice of law;

He has been an attorney and ADA about as long as you can.

(J) indifference to making restitution;

He won't be able to make restitution because of potential civil liability.

So that is all but A nd K since he has no priors right now. So the way I see it is that almost all the aggrevating circumstances are there.


275 posted on 01/25/2007 7:45:56 PM PST by JLS
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To: Protect the Bill of Rights

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-812597.cfm

Woman died minutes after call

BY BRIANNE DOPART : The Herald-Sun
bdopart@heraldsun.com
Jan 25, 2007 : 12:28 am ET

DURHAM -- New details about the discovery of the bloodied body of slain 25-year-old N.C. Central graduate student Denita Smith surfaced Wednesday.

Smith was gunned down outside her off-campus Campus Crossings Apartments unit on the morning of Jan. 4, allegedly by a woman whom Smith's fiancâ??© later told police had been stalking him.

Shannon Elizabeth Crawley of Greensboro has been charged with Smith's murder.

According to a death certificate still pending at the Durham County Health Department, Smith died at 8:30 a.m., approximately seven minutes after three officers were dispatched to Campus Crossings, 1400 E. Cornwallis Road, to investigate "the sound of shots," according to Durham police spokeswoman Kammie Michael.

The shots were reported to have been heard at the 600 and 700 buildings of the complex, Michael said. Smith's body was discovered at the bottom of the steps of the 1100 building "in a different area of the complex," she added.

According to Police Department call logs, Officer Lucas Wenceslao was first to arrive at the apartments and remained more than 30 minutes before radioing to say the call had been "cleared".

Michael declined to characterize efforts made by responding officers to investigate the report of shots heard. She also declined to answer when asked if officers stepped out of their patrol cars to investigate the initial report.

Call logs show that a man named "Mike," who identified himself as Campus Crossings' maintenance supervisor, reported at 8:19 a.m. that he had heard the sound of two shots fired. According to search warrants, "a groundskeeper" was the first to report the sound of shots, a call he made after arguing with a woman fitting Crawley's description whom, he later told investigators, was driving away from the building near which Smith's body was later found.

Reached for comment Wednesday evening, a man answering to the name "Mike" -- last name not known -- confirmed he was the groundskeeper who found Smith's body nearly two hours after reporting he heard shots.

He declined to comment any further, saying investigators had directed him "not to talk to anyone."

According to call logs, "Mike" reported a "girl dead at [the] bottom of [the] steps." Notes in the log indicate "Mike" was unsure of Smith's condition regarding breathing and consciousness at the time of the call. He told the dispatcher "her head is busted open and bleeding," and reported that her identification indicated the victim was Denita Smith.

---

TIMELINE

8:19 a.m. Caller reports "sound of two shots" to 911.

8:21 a.m. Officer Lucas G. Wenceslao is dispatched to Campus Crossings Apartments. He is the first of three officers dispatched.

8:30 a.m. Denita Smith's estimated time of death per pending death certificate.

8:56 a.m. Officer Wenceslao radioes in to pronounce the call "cleared."

10:01 a.m. Caller reports "girl dead at bottom of steps" to 911.

10:14 a.m. Officer Stephanie Wheeler arrives at Campus Crossings Apartments.






276 posted on 01/25/2007 8:56:08 PM PST by Protect the Bill of Rights
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To: Protect the Bill of Rights

Board likely gets strip club again after judge's ruling

BY RAY GRONBERG : The Herald-Sun, Jan 25, 2007 : 11:58 pm ET

DURHAM -- Durham's Board of Adjustment is likely to have to again weigh in on a local man's attempt to site a new strip club off South Miami Boulevard, thanks to a judge's ruling that a March vote by the board that went against the project didn't settle the matter.

Lawyers for would-be club owner Larry Jones are trying to schedule a hearing, and weighing the strategy they'll use to get a decision that either goes in their client's favor or that at least could prompt a judge to rule on the merits of the case.

Jones' Oxford-based lawyers, Thomas Currin and Lori Dutra, are trying to overturn a Board of Adjustment vote that sided with city/county planners in saying that Jones' club would be too close to residential property to comply with Durham's land-use regulations.

In October, they and Assistant City Attorney Karen Sindelar argued the case in front of Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand who, a month later, declined to rule on the merits of the case.

Rand -- a visiting judge from Wake County and the son of N.C. Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland -- said the case was "not yet ripe for review in Superior Court" because Jones hadn't exhausted his potential remedies with the Board of Adjustment and the city.

The judge's Nov. 21 ruling said there was no evidence "that the board has either officially approved or rejected" Jones' project.

The wording apparently referred to the fact that the adjustment board's March vote didn't address the plan for the club directly, but instead focused on whether City/County Planning Director Frank Duke interpreted Durham law correctly when he measured the required buffer zone for the strip club from the boundary of a residential lot, rather than from the more distant boundary of a residential zoning district.

The lot in question straddles a zoning boundary, and lies partly in a residential zone and partly in an industrial zone. Durham law requires strip clubs and other "adult establishments" to be 1,000 feet away from the "property line of a residential zone."

Jones' site is slightly more than 1,000 from the zoning boundary, but is only 768 feet from the property line of the lot that straddles the boundary.

Rand's decision surprised lawyers on both sides of the case because they hadn't thought there was a question about whether the board's vote was its last word on the matter. Neither side had argued the point, and the adjustment board has the power to hear appeals of Duke's interpretations of Durham land-use law.

"When we've had appeals of other interpretations, they've been considered final" and thus ready for a judge's review, Sindelar said.

Dutra said Rand felt the board needed to vote on Jones' plan, not just on Duke's reading of the law.

"Sometimes that happens in these more administrative proceedings," she added.

East Durham activists have opposed Jones' project because they believe another adult establishment in the area will contribute to its crime problems. Jones' lawyers, by contrast, have maintained that city officials are trying to suppress a business protected by the U.S. Constitution's free-speech guarantees.

Rand's service on the bench has drawn criticism from the John William Pope Civitas Institute, a Raleigh think tank whose vice president is Durham City Councilman Thomas Stith.

The institute's president, Jack Hawke, penned a newsletter article earlier this month that called Rand a "Friend of Mike's," a reference to Gov. Mike Easley.

Easley has appointed Rand to the bench three times, most recently after voters elected a different judge to Rand's seat. The governor and Rand's father, the Senate majority leader, are longtime friends.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-813002.cfm

* Jones is the owner of Diamond Girls, where Precious tried out and made off with the cab.
Rand and Easley-- well the governor does appear to be very strip-club friendly. Contributions anyone?


277 posted on 01/25/2007 11:18:20 PM PST by xoxoxox
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To: xoxoxox

Man convicted in mall shooting

By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Jan 25, 2007 : 11:27 pm ET

DURHAM -- Lamar Bass was found guilty of first-degree murder Thursday and sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing another teen outside Northgate Mall, prompting the prosecutor to call on clergy, city officials and others to take the glamour out of gang activity and drug dealing.

Jurors began deliberating in Durham County Superior Court Wednesday afternoon and continued into Thursday afternoon before convicting Bass, who was 17 at the time, of fatally shooting 16-year-old Lazarren Tyqwan McLean outside the former Hecht's store at Northgate Mall on Dec. 26, 2005.

Bass was acquitted on a charge of shooting and wounding another man during the same incident.

That victim, Guinzell Nahdee Williamson, still has a bullet lodged in his neck but was unable to identify the gunman. Nor did anyone else testify that he saw Bass shoot Williamson.

But in the killing of McLean -- unlike the assault on Williamson -- at least one witness pointed to Bass as the shooter.

Evidence indicated that Bass may have threatened to "snatch" McLean's sister, and McLean was standing up for her just before bullets began flying.

Prosecutor Tracey Cline had told jurors in a closing argument Wednesday that Bass fired at least five shots, and that the slaying of McLean was an act of cold-blooded, premeditated murder -- an assertion with which the jury agreed in its verdict.

"I don't think there's any winner in this situation," Cline said after the case ended Thursday.

"We have two families in mourning," she added. "One youth is dead and another is going to prison for the rest of his life."

Characterizing the homicide as an act of senseless violence, Cline called for affirmative action to help prevent such incidents in the future.

"This spotlights the fact that we in Durham need to get our youths back on track," she said. "We need to catch our kids while they are in preschool and elementary school and give them appropriate role models. We need to de-glamorize gangs and drug dealers. I think we can do that through education."

Defense lawyer Woody Vann agreed with that assessment.

"This may not have been clearly a gang-related action, but it definitely had gang overtures," Vann said of the Northgate shooting.

"That tends to pervade a lot of what happens in Durham," said Vann. "Sad, but true."

Vann added that Thursday's mixed verdict confused him.

"All the evidence indicated there was but one shooter," he said. "Yet, they found my client guilty of shooting one victim and not the other. That made the verdict inconsistent in my mind."

According to Vann, Bass accepted his life sentence with outward calm, declining an opportunity to address the judge and the murder victim's relatives.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-812982.cfm

* One more off the streets for awhile. Woody is keeping busy. Good work Tracey and the jury.


278 posted on 01/25/2007 11:26:15 PM PST by xoxoxox
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To: All

http://www.newsobserver.com/100/story/536409.html

Published: Jan 26, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 26, 2007 03:25 AM


Campus brawl brings FBI
5 Guilford football players charged

Kristin Collins, Staff Writer

Two more Guilford College football players were charged Thursday with beating a group of Palestinian students during a drunken weekend brawl, and the FBI is investigating whether a hate crime occurred on the small Quaker campus.
Five members of the Greensboro school's football team now face charges of assault and racial intimidation.

Three Palestinian students, one of whom attends N.C. State University, told authorities that, early Saturday morning, the players pummeled them with fists, feet and brass knuckles while calling them "terrorists" and shouting racial slurs.

The incident is prompting concern among Muslims all over North Carolina and drawing media attention from around the country. However, details of the fight are still unclear.

Aaron Fetrow, Guilford College's dean for campus life, said his staff has interviewed a dozen witnesses and several participants in the fight, which occurred outside a dormitory. He said school officials have gotten contradictory accounts, and still don't know what started the fight.

He said most witnesses agree on only two basic facts -- that there was a large fight and that racial slurs were shouted.


snip


279 posted on 01/26/2007 2:13:55 AM PST by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: abb

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/536271.html

Published: Jan 26, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 26, 2007 03:24 AM

Professors say Nifong mishandled Duke lacrosse case

Anne Blythe, Staff Writer

DURHAM - This was not a crowd in which you would expect to find an ardent supporter of District Attorney Mike Nifong.
It was Duke University, after all, the school attended by the three former lacrosse players charged in the sexual assault case that has stirred torrents of criticism.

Three law professors on a Duke panel Thursday afternoon dissected the actions of Nifong over the past 10 months, and they concluded that he is a prosecutor headed for serious sanctions by the State Bar.

"If everything's established, we're looking at a significant suspension," said Tom Metzloff, a Duke law professor who also serves on the bar's ethics committee, which had nothing to do with the charges brought against Nifong.

The bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission will weigh the ethical and misconduct charges. On Wednesday, less than a month after the bar accused Nifong of making inflammatory public statements about the case, additional charges were filed accusing him of withholding DNA evidence favorable to the defendants and lying repeatedly about it to judges and the bar.


280 posted on 01/26/2007 2:14:19 AM PST by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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