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Crystal Gale Mangum, progressive heroine and the accuser in the infamous Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, is in the news once again: Durham police arrested Mangum for attempted murder, arson, and identity theft after responding to a domestic disturbance call: Durham police arrested Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Gale Mangum, 33, late Wednesday after she allegedly assaulted her boyfriend, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him. Authorities charged her with attempted first-degree murder, five counts of arson, assault and battery, communicating threats, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, injury to personal property, identity theft and resisting...

For federal prosecutors, Rhonda Bays' case is particularly appalling. For defense attorney Kyle Fletcher, Bays is a sick woman used by her boyfriend for his own "evil exploits." Bays let her boyfriend molest her 4-year-old relative, videotaped the incident at an Orlando hotel and later offered a 2-year-old for potential abuse. Bays, who once ran for mayor of Umatilla, has pleaded guilty in federal court and faces up to 30 years in prison. Her boyfriend, Tanner Stickney, has a plea deal in place with federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., that calls for him to serve 15 years in federal prison....

Justice: Mike Nifong weeps at the consequences of persecuting three college kids for a crime they did not commit. Meanwhile, Scooter Libby enters prison for a crime that never occurred. With tears in his eyes, Durham County District Attorney Nifong on Friday announced he was resigning, saying the "community has suffered enough," three members in particular. They would be the three Duke lacrosse players vindictively prosecuted by Nifong for the rape and sexual assault of a stripper at a March 2006 party despite evidence they were innocent. But it was too little too late.

Members of the men's Duke lacrosse team: I am sorry. Surely by now you know I am sorry. I am writing these words now, and in this form, as a bookend to 13 months of Duke lacrosse coverage, my role in which started with a March 27 column that began: "Members of the men's Duke lacrosse team: You know. We know you know." That was when Durham police and District Attorney Mike Nifong were describing a "wall of silence" among the men who attended the now-vaunted lacrosse party at 610 Buchanan Blvd. Nifong, now described by the state attorney general...

See for example this thread first. By now it's all over the place No charges in the Duke Rape Case And so to Nifong We bid a "So long!" Will Al Sharpton shut up in disgrace?

We have three, politically-motivated, criminal prosecutions going on right now that remind us of the Fells Acre Day Care Case in Massachusetts where an innocent man, Gerald Amirault was charged with molesting 19 children, and his mother, Violet Amirault, who owned the center, was also charged. Gerald's sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, was charged with 10 counts of abuse. In the 1986 trial, Gerald was convicted and sentenced to 30 to 40 years in state prison. In the two subsequent trials, Violet and Cheryl were each convicted and sentenced to 8 to 20 years in a Massachusetts state prison. At both...

It has now become more and more obvious, even to some people who initially believed the "rape" charges against Duke University students, that there was never a speck of evidence to support the charges and a growing amount of evidence to the contrary. However reprehensible District Attorney Nifong's words and actions have been throughout this case, it would be a serious mistake to see in this tawdry episode just the vileness of one man. The larger tragedy is what this case revealed about the degeneration of our times and the hollowness of so many people in "responsible" positions in the...

See for example this thread first. We've finally got rid of Nifong The guy who got the Duke case wrong Taken off the case to prevent loss of face But what in hell took them so long?

DURHAM — A former Duke lacrosse player has filed a civil suit against Duke University and a professor, charging that the teacher unfairly gave him a failing grade after an escort service dancer said she was raped at a lacrosse team party. An attorney for Kyle Dowd, who graduated from Duke last year, filed suit in Durham Superior Court on Thursday. Dowd and his parents, Patricia and Benjamin Dowd, are suing Duke and Kim Curtis, who is listed on Duke’s Web site as a visiting assistant professor in political science. Curtis, who specializes in political and feminist theory, would not...

In the wake of recent bombshell revelations in the Duke University "rape" case, even some of District Attorney Michael Nifong's supporters have started backing away from him. It was not just that the head of a DNA laboratory testified under oath in December that he and Nifong both knew back in April that there was no DNA from any of the Duke University lacrosse players found on the body of the stripper who accused them of rape -- or even that the DNA of other men were found in her underwear and in intimate areas of her body. What was...

Given recent events in Durham, N.C., concerning the alleged Duke University lacrosse "rape'' case, it is now possible to declare parody dead. How does one parody a parody? All is not lost, however. We can celebrate the addition of a new verb to our American lexicon -- "to Nifong.'' When the moment calls for activities that need no elaboration, we already "Bobbitt,'' "Bork,'' and "Lewinsky.'' Now we can "Nifong'' someone when we want to trump up criminal charges based on flimsy evidence allegedly for political purposes. In short, when we want to screw up someone's life. Nifong would be as...

Granted, the coverage of the Duke rape matter on this morning's "Today" was heavily skeptical of the prosecutor's case. And yes, host Alison Stewart did preface her remark by suggesting that she "play devil's advocate here." Even so, it's hard to see any journalistic justification for a scurrilous suggestion Stewart made. Speaking with NBC legal analyst Susan Filan, Stewart said: "Why would she change her story at this point? She told doctors, nurses and police that she had been raped. Yet now she says she doesn't remember. Could someone have gotten to this woman?"View video of Stewart's suggestion here.Filan...

See for example this thread first. I don't know what took him so long Duke rape charges dropped by Nifong "He'd show them who's boss..." Though they played lacrosse-- and though he was just totally wrong.

Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party, but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges, a defense attorney said. Joseph Cheshire and attorneys for the other players have said for months the woman told several different versions of the alleged assault. Cheshire said Friday that the accuser now says she does not know if she was penetrated, which he said led District Attorney Mike Nifong to dismiss the rape charges. Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment. The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North...

In The Great State of North Carolina, the voters have recently reelected a District Attorney who has colluded with a forensic lab technician to exclude exculpatory evidence from a rape case. According to the Durham-In-Wonderland Blog, this violates two major points of law. These are North Carolina’s Open Discovery Law and The US Supreme Court precedent established in The Brady Case. While tampering with the DNA evidence, Nifong also tampered as heavily as possible with the media coverage concerning the incident as well. Even the Ultra-Left Wing 60 Minutes published a damning critique of his methods of handling the press....

Lacrosse players' defense: Documents being withheld   By William F. West : The Herald-Sunbwest@heraldsun.comSep 1, 2006 : 11:20 pm ET DURHAM -- Attorneys for the three Duke lacrosse players charged with assaulting an exotic dancer claim District Attorney Mike Nifong and police still haven't provided several vital documents in the case, as required by law. As a result, the defense lawyers have filed papers in Superior Court calling for Nifong to produce those documents. The request to Judge Osmond Smith comes after Durham County's chief prosecutor told Smith and defense lawyers at a recent meeting that a toxicology report...

by Mark Finkelstein August 25, 2006 - 18:42 The New York Times might be thankful that it is not on trial with Dan Abrams serving as prosecutor. The impassioned argument he made against the journalistic value of the Times' lengthy account of the Duke rape case in today's paper, Files From Duke Rape Case Give Details but No Answers, might have sent the paper to the Big House for years to come. Interviewed by Tucker Carlson, Abrams, who until taking over as head of MSNBC had his own justice-oriented show on the network, came out guns ablazin'. "I thought it...

Nifong press release and email...

The woman who accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her changed her story and appeared to fake being unconscious, according to a police report obtained Friday by Eyewitness News. We obtained documents from a new motion filed by defense attorney Joe Cheshire. His client, David Evans, is one of the accused players. Among the documents is a supplemental report, written by Sgt. J.C. Shelton of the Durham Police Department on April 9. "I was a few blocks away from 610 N. Buchanan," Shelton wrote. "I responded and was on scene first." After finding the house dark and quiet, Shelton...

by Mark Finkelstein May 16, 2006 For those who think that sports broadcasts might offer a respite from liberal media spin . . . think again. At least when it comes to ESPN [an arm of ABC] the same ESPN that fired Rush Limbaugh for expressing his views on QB Donovan McNabb. This time, ESPN let its liberal slip show in the matter of the Duke rape allegations. Yesterday, in the wake of his indictment, former lacrosse captain David Evans appeared before the press to assert his absolute innocence and those of his two co-defendants. To comment on Evans' press...