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Durham, N.C. — Duke University has fired an employee who faces federal child sex charges. Frank M. Lombard, 42, of 24 Indigo Creek Trail in Durham, was let go from his position as associate director of the Center for Health Policy at Duke, a spokesman said. Duke Vice President for Public Affairs Michael Schoenfeld said Lombard was placed on unpaid leave at the time of his arrest June 24 and was fired Monday. Schoenfeld added that the university was cooperating with the investigation. Lombard faces extradition to Washington, D.C., to face charges that he solicited an adult to have...

History and social analysis of the Duke lacrosse case, retold in part from original documents; compared and contrasted with the social history of the Scottsboro trials.

(AP) — OKLAHOMA CITY - A pharmacist who shot a would-be robber six times was charged with first-degree murder Wednesday, and the prosecutor said only the first shot was justified. A security video shows two men bursting into the pharmacy May 19 and one of them, 16-year-old Antwun Parker, is shot. Pharmacist Jerome Ersland then is seen chasing the second man outside before he walks past Parker to get a second gun, returns to Parker and opens fire. District Attorney David Prater said Ersland was justified in shooting Parker once in the head, but went too far when he shot...

The chancellor and provost at N.C. State have been ordered to appear before a federal grand jury meeting in Raleigh this week, according to federal records released Tuesday afternoon. Chancellor James Oblinger and Provost Larry Nielsen were asked to bring documents related to the hiring, promotion and salary of former first lady Mary Easley. The subpoenas follow reports in The News & Observer about the circumstances surrounding Easley's hiring at N.C. State in 2005 and the expansion of her duties last year, which raised her pay to $170,000. Mary Easley has come under pressure to resign her position from Oblinger...

Back in 2005, a WalMart worker in Pennsylvania reported 59-year-old Donna Dull to local authorities after Dull dropped off some film that included shots of her three-year-old granddaughter in and just out of the bath. Dull was arrested—roughly, she says—and charged with producing and distributing child pornography. The charges were dropped 15 months later when a Pennsylvania special prosecutor overruled the local DA. Only Dull, her attorney, and police and prosecutors have apparently seen the photos, which are now under seal. She's now suing. In this follow-up article from the York Daily Record, state officials seem to be trying to...

  At the Liestoppers forum, Walt-in-Durham has a detailed rundown of Crystal Mangum’s appearance tonight at UNC. As I have noted previously, it is mindboggling that an academic institution would invite someone who the state AG had, with copious evidence, deemed a false accuser and not allow her to be questioned on the myriad contradictions in her story. It is all the more mindboggling that the only reason for this refusal to allow questions was to prevent the false accuser from saying something that could open her to a lawsuit.I should note, in addition, that Mangum’s p.r. representative had similarly...

Folks, I just got the news from Thomas Loflin, III - attorney for Elmostafa. "I am at long last pleased to inform you that Mr. Elmostafa has settled his malicious prosecution action against Hecht's, its security guard, and Hecht's successor corporations, the main one of which is Macy's Inc." "The settlement came just before we were to go to court on cross-motions for summary judgment as to the issue of liability on December 1st, and before court-ordered mediation set for December 15th. We had a trial date of March 30th (2009)." The amount of money settled for can not be...

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...

Duke University is suing its insurance company for refusing to pay any of the settlement costs for the Duke lacrosse case. In federal court papers filed Monday, Duke is seeking financial relief from National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, an affiliate of insurance giant AIG. The case stems from gang-rape allegations that an escort service dancer lodged against three players after a lacrosse team party in June 2006. Before all the facts were gathered and any criminal charges were filed, Duke suspended the lacrosse team's season. The criminal case against the three players crumbled quickly over the next year....

ANTIOCH, CA (KGO) -- The city of Antioch and its police department have been slapped with a federal lawsuit by a San Francisco police detective who got Tasered in her home.One of the officers who raided the San Francisco Police detective's home was wearing a microphone, so it was all recorded.

The woman at the center of the scandal that rocked Duke University, Durham and the lives of the three lacrosse players plans to return to the city next week to promote her new book. Crystal Gail Mangum is scheduled to hold a news conference at the Know Bookstore on Thursday to promote, “The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story.” Magnum will donate $1 from the purchase of each book to help battered women, according to Vincent Clark, a representative for Fire! Products Inc., a film studio that is representing her. Mangum was a student enrolled at North Carolina...

Biden "Nifongs" innocent man's reputation, then complains about "smears" We received the following unsolicited fundraising letter from the Obama/Biden campaign. Given Biden's own documented conduct--from his Senate Web site and not from any Republicans or PUMAs--he has about as much right as disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong has to talk about lies and smears. The McCain campaign is on the ropes, and sadly it's no surprise they're responding with attacks and outright lies. I've heard some pretty unspeakable things in the past few days -- deeply offensive smears that we'll hear over and over again until Election Day. John McCain and...

The A&T Register ncatregister.com Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Woman behind Duke lacrosse scandal speaks out Accuser talks to Aggies about being a student again after controversy surrounding trial faded Alexandria Harper Contributor It was called a scandal but made into mockery. The Duke lacrosse case hit radio and television stations by storm in 2007. Reporters from media outlets around the country scrambled to provide day to-day updates on Crystal Gail Mangum, the accuser, and three Duke Lacrosse players; Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans, the accused. Mangum, a former exotic dancer and escort, accused these men of sexual assault...

DURHAM - Karen Daniel pushed up against the low courtroom wall separating her from her 21-year-old son Erick Daniels -- the young man who screamed "Mommy" nearly seven years ago as deputies led him away, convicted of a burglary and robbery he insists he did not commit. The two, who spell their last names differently, spent the day in a Durham County courtroom Thursday as lawyer Carlos Mahoney put witness after witness on the stand, trying to show that Daniels had ineffective counsel at his trial in December 2001 and was wrongfully convicted. Judge Orlando Hudson could decide today whether...

(Regarding) the phony inquiry being staged by Alaska Democrats concerning Governor Palin’s sacking of recalcitrant underling Walt Monegan. For anyone doubting that this whole ”investigation” is a partisan scam cooked up by a bunch of good-old-boy political hacks, here’s a smoking gun from the Obama-Biden campaign web site:

Former Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong wants permission to auction off three of his collector guitars. Court documents filed Wednesday list him as wanting to sell a Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, a Martin D-41 and a PRS Custom 24. According to bankruptcy proceedings in February, two of the instruments are worth about $5,000. If the motion to auction the guitars is approved, the auction will take place Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. at 361 Ja-Max Road in Hillsborough. Nifong filed for bankruptcy in January, listing a debt of $180.3 million. Almost all of that is estimated damages from pending civil...

In a scorching ruling today, the state Court of Appeals threw out the conviction of a man serving more than 60 years in prison on burglary, robbery and sexual assault charges, saying the Durham District Attorney's Office unfairly delayed his trial for nearly five years. The ruling could lead to freedom for Frankie Delano Washington, 47, an auto mechanic who was convicted of multiple charges last year in a 2002 invasion of a family's home in Trinity Park in Durham. Because the opinion was unanimous, the state has no automatic right to take the appeal further. The delay cost Washington...

DURHAM -- After figuring in the Duke lacrosse case and becoming Reader's Digest magazine's Hero of the Year, former Durham cabbie Moezeldin Elmostafa has launched what his lawyer described Tuesday as a priceless and perhaps unprecedented court claim. It involves his U.S. citizenship, which Elmostafa contends was delayed for two years by an old and bogus criminal charge that resurfaced in 2006 while the lacrosse debacle was in full swing. "Citizenship is absolutely priceless," said Elmostafa's lawyer, Tom Loflin of Durham. Still, Loflin wants several defendants to come up with a figure. "If they don't agree to my number, we'll...

DURHAM, N.C., July 1 (UPI) -- A Durham, N.C., Democratic official and her husband face criminal charges in connection with alleged satanic rituals. Joy Johnson, 30, a third vice-chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats, was charged Friday with two counts of aiding and abetting. Her husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25, was charged with second-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for incidents in January and May, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Tuesday. Mark McCullough, an assistant district attorney ...acknowledged that "part of the allegations are...

Durham, N.C. — Mike Nifong is appealing an order issued last week by a bankruptcy judge who ruled a civil rights lawsuit by three former Duke University lacrosse players can proceed. Nifong filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, which temporarily protected him from the lawsuit, which claimed he, the city of Durham and others conspired to keep a weak case alive as he faced an election. David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were cleared in April 2007 of all charges stemming from an exotic dancer's claims she was raped. Nifong listed a debt of more than $180 million –...