Free Republic

This happened last month, but I just learned of the case because the trial court decision was just posted on Westlaw; Cline is appealing the removal. The decision is here; a newspaper article on the subject is here; the statute authorizing the removal, N.C. Gen. Stats. § 7A-66(6), provides that a D.A. may be removed by a court for “[c]onduct prejudicial to the administration of justice which brings the office into disrepute.” ... partly because it comes on the heels of the ouster of D.A. Nifong — Cline was the first D.A. elected following Nifong’s ouster, and had worked for...

The "Duke 88" consisted of 88 Duke professors who signed an ad which implicitly assumed that Duke lacrosse players raped a black stripper, an allegation that proved to be entirely fraudulent. The ad praised protesters who had put lacrosse players' photos on "wanted" posters, associated "what happened to this young woman" with "racism and sexism," and suggested that the lacrosse players were getting privileged treatment because of their race. The ad appeared almost four years ago. Stuart Taylor takes a look at what has happened since to some of the 88 thoroughly wrongheaded professors who signed it. First, according to...

DURHAM, N.C. — Duke University President Richard Brodhead apologized Saturday for not better supporting the men's lacrosse players falsely accused in last year's highly publicized rape scandal. "Given the complexities of this case, getting the communication right would never have been easy," Brodhead said. "But the fact is that we did not get it right, causing the families to feel abandoned when they were most in need of support. This was a mistake. I take responsibility for it and I apologize for it."

DURHAM - The spectre of massive civil lawsuits has put the future of a special committee probing the police’s handling of the Duke lacrosse case in limbo. The city’s insurance provider advised last week that continued investigation by the panel could provide ammunition for a civil lawsuit, Mayor Bill Bell confirmed Monday. Falsely accused Duke lacrosse players David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann have hired powerful attorneys in anticipation of suing the city. Seligmann has retained Barry Scheck, a prominent New York City lawyer whose high profile clients include O.J. Simpson and British nanny Louise Woodard. Evans and Finnerty...

Much clucking behind television anchor desks follows the airing of popular internet footage of girl fights. After repeated displays of adolescent girls slapping each other, pulling hair, and ripping off clothes, news anchors wonder out loud about the reasons for their popularity among YouTube and other internet viewers. It’s no big secret: This is a genre of pornography. The occasional tough-girl fight on school grounds that one came across with flinching embarrassment is now captured by a video camera for the titillation of millions of sick viewers. The violence factor and the authenticity of the fight are the draws that...

Accountability finally came to Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong last month, when he was disbarred as an attorney and forced to resign as a disgraced public officer. Last week he issued an apology and a full retraction of the rape accusations against three Duke University lacrosse players. Now, with students heading to Duke in just a few short weeks for the beginning of the fall term, the time is at hand to demand some accountability for Nifong's academic enablers. Eighty-eight members of the Duke faculty publicly promulgated a dreadful letter, enflaming a premature and prejudicial atmosphere against their own...

The “Duke 88″ (or Group of 88) are a group of faculty members who effectively joined ex-District Attorney Mike Nifong in prejudging lacrosse players who were falsely accused of raping Crystal Gail Mangum. There has been considerable discussion of the consequences these faculty members should suffer, both professionally and civilly, for their actions. Unluckily for them, “88″ is white supremacist shorthand for “Heil Hitler” (H being the eighth letter of the alphabet). As an example, if a white supremacist writes “14/88″ he means “The Fourteen Words” (a white supremacist slogan) followed by “Heil Hitler.” This can be verified from the...

The three lacrosse players have been declared innocent, Duke University has agreed to a multi-million dollar settlement, and Michael Nifong's law license has been yanked. But unfinished business remains. Three weeks after Crystal Gail Mangum made her false allegations of rape, 88 Duke professors ran an advertisement in the student newspaper asking, What Does a Social Disaster Sound Like? The rambling April 6, 2006 statement lamented, "...no one is really talking about how to keep the young woman herself central to this conversation, how to keep her humanity before us." But no mention was made about the humanity of three...

Sarge Speaks: The Duke 88 June 21, 2007 by Bob Parks Every now and then I get an email from a reader that puts a topic into words as good, if not better than I. This is one of those occasions. Sarge57 sent me an account of a message sent to the "Concerned Duke Faculty", now affectionately known as the "Gang of 88". His letter was impassioned, but never rude or obscene. The response he received was telling…. "I wish to offer my personal encounter with one of the Duke 88 after I sent them a group email. It is...

Every now and then I get an email from a reader that puts a topic into words as good, if not better than I. This is one of those occasions. Sarge57 sent me an account of a message sent to the "Concerned Duke Faculty", now affectionately known as the "Gang of 88". His letter was impassioned, but never rude or obscene. The response he received was telling....

A tragedy in black & white (http://www.suntimes.com/sports/telander/435353,CST-SPT-rick20.article) June 20, 2007 BY RICK TELANDER Sun-Times Columnist We now know the three former Duke lacrosse players charged with rape a little over a year ago not only were innocent, but also falsely accused. What might have gone down in the annals of jurisprudence as a certifiable mess now, after revelations of deceit and terrifying deviousness by the main servant of justice, can only be labeled a tragedy. The prosecutor in the case, former Durham, N.C., district attorney Michael Nifong, has turned out to be as cruel, reckless, self-centered and ambitious as a...

They are the Duke 88. Or Nifong 88. They are the leftists, feminists and fascists — professors all — who signed an ad in the student newspaper in April 2006 that condemned the culture of racism and sexism on the campus. They also bemoaned "what happened to this young woman" in the politically motivated lacrosse case. They have been conspicuously silent since the facts started to overtake the fabrications of sleazebag district attorney Mike Nifong. Nifong has been disbarred now, and the university has reached an undisclosed financial settlement with the three former lacrosse players wrongly accused of raping a...

Duke deal shields faculty Some spoke out after rape claims Anne Blythe and Eric Ferreri, Staff Writers DURHAM - Duke University's settlement with exonerated lacrosse players gives legal protection to faculty members, some of whom have been under siege for speaking out in the wake of the gang-rape allegations. Neither side would disclose the terms of the agreement, announced Monday, but Duke's faculty chairman, Paul Haagen, informed professors that one provision is that all faculty members have been released from liability related to the lacrosse case. That news sparked another round of vitriolic messages from e-mailers and bloggers still exercised...

As of now, the President of Duke has made numerous statements essentially chronicling the outcomes of this case as it moves forward. Absent is an apology to the lacrosse team for cancelling their season, to the lacrosse coach for firing him, and perhaps most glaring is the absence of a faculty statement offering an apology to the three students they branded as rapists to fit their own knee-jerk myopic world-view. If you are outraged by this, please let Duke know. Make them never forget the time and energy they had to spend dealing with this issue, or we can all...

We know about Mike Nifong, and it looks like he's going to get his comeuppance. Yet the question remains: Why would a seasoned prosecutor like Nifong flout the rules in so many ways in the Duke case? Why would he publicly describe the Duke lacrosse players as "rapists" before that had been established in a court of law? Why would he suppress DNA evidence that the defense was entitled to see? Why, in short, did he go so far before the facts were in? One of Nifong's public comments provides a clue. He says he wanted to protect the town...

A group of local lawyers all went to dinner least night. Topic was Nifong and the damages NC will pay to the accused. There are questions of sovereign immunity, of course, and other issues but we all agreed that this was only the tip of the litigious iceberg. In the civil litigation that is sure to follow, Nifong is one target, with few dollars, etc. The real targets will be the Duke 88. These are the professors who signed the now infamous letter adjudging the lacrosse players guilty and worse. That letter was then published as a full page ad...

Duke University officials, from the campus police to the highest administrative levels, failed to grasp the seriousness of an accusation that white lacrosse players raped a black woman at a party in March and did not respond quickly enough, said an outside report released yesterday. The report, by William G. Bowen, a former president of Princeton University, and Julius Chambers, a former director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., cited "a gap in communications that is extraordinary," noting that the Duke police force had failed to alert administration officials to the racial component of the case.