Posted on 12/04/2008 2:59:16 PM PST by abb
A federal judge on Thursday rejected the appeal of fallen prosecutor Mike Nifong to keep his case in bankruptcy court.
The ruling opens the door for the three exonerated lacrosse players to again pursue malicious prosecution allegations against the former district attorney.
In October 2007, Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann filed suit against Nifong, the city of Durham and its police department. The players claimed they suffered personal injury and emotional distress while the prosecutor, police and city pushed ahead with a gang-rape case that was flawed from the start.
In their civil suit, the players allege the concealment and fabrication of evidence, the utterance of false public statements, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.
In a hearing Thursday before James A. Beaty, the federal district court judge assigned to the case, Jim Craven, the lawyer representing Nifong, disputed the players’ claims of personal injury.
It was because of those claims that a federal bankruptcy court judge decided this spring to send the case back to federal District Court, where such issues are usually decided.
Nifong filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 15, a legal maneuver that put the players’ case on hold for months.
In the bankruptcy filing, Nifong listed assets of $243,898 and the potential debt of $180.3 million — including $30 million to each of the lacrosse players who had sued him at the time.
Bankruptcy rules would not have protected Nifong if a judge found that he willfully and maliciously prosecuted the players. So attorneys for the players argued that those legal matters should be heard first.
Only three members of the 2006 Duke lacrosse team have not filed suit.
The players spent nearly 13 months fighting charges that were dropped in April 2007 by state Attorney General Roy Cooper.
Cooper took the unusual additional step of specifically declaring them innocent of the crimes alleged by an escort service dancer hired to perform at a lacrosse team party in March 2006
You’ve missed the question entirely. Here, I’ll type real slow this time.
Is a stripper in the same class as a hooker?
Because there’s little doubt she is a hooker, as well as a stripper, as well as a perjurer.
One of the guys is not a stripper-watcher, as he left the scene before the girls arrived. And the other two aren’t Johns, though they may have watched the stripping.
There’s one simple question in all of the above, just to make it crystal clear.
He should be living in a cardnoard box under an overpass. I just feel bad for the family. They will be the ones really suffering.
Strippers are not necessarily hookers and hookers are not necessarily strippers. Most states allow legal stripping for pay but prohibit prostitution.
The guys at the party. and, sigh, yes I know, oh one with encyclopedic knowledge of the case, that one of the guys indicted was not even at the gig when the girls showed up. I happen to know the cab driver who was driving him around.
And the DA was white
NO KIDDING? REALLY???? He is WHITE??? wow, I learn something new every day!
....I don’t know that “the black political leadership” has to do with anything.
fixed it for ya.
The local black leadership here was in conniptions leading protests for "social justice". Want a list of their names?
We are now. You just put it on the table.
How would you rate your non-angellic behavior compared to the 3 players... more debauched, less debauched, or on the same level?
Where did you hear that? Good grief, you are misinformed.
See: http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/2007/01/finnertys-dc-conviction-set-aside.html
You remember wrong.
Oh, I fully understand that. There are some here that may not.
Excellent.
Thanks abb!
Remarks like some of those in this thread, are the reason those boys deserve to win big. For the rest of their lives people will be “remembering wrong” about what didn’t happen that night. It torques my jaws that people can come out and say hateful things about innocent people.
I sense some class envy. After all, the boys were rich.
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