Over the past few months I’ve blogged about Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong’s overwhelmingly flimsy case, his uncanny ability to ignore exculpatory evidence and evidence damaging to his case, his inconsistent and contradictory statements to the media and subsequent regret about those statements, and his animosity toward us bloggers.
I even threw in a bit of North Carolina rape shield law analysis.
History News Network blogger KC Johnson recently started a blog dedicated to the Duke case, where he provides much more analysis. Johnson claims that Nifong misrepresented NC rape law when he race-pandered at a forum at North Carolina Central University. Johnson links to Stuart Taylor’s excellent, must-read article at Slate.com, “Witness for the Prosecution?”
If you’re following the Duke case, you may share news, views, and links in this thread.
Update (9/6): Frequent commenter Seahawk drops a link to LieStoppers, which links to a recent motion in the Duke case, a Joint Omnibus Motion To Compel Discovery.
I haven’t read it yet, but Seahawk writes:
Among the new details to emerge:
The AV was at Duke medical center from 2:42 am until 1:37 pm on March 14. (A long time–maybe she was sleeping something off?)
There are VHS tapes of at least two of the ID sessions– the one held for Kim (the second dancer) was not done until May 11– which is AFTER the indictments!
Lots of police internal emails about the case were collected, but then never turned over to the defense. (The defense found out about this email collection on their own while rummaging through the DPD files, but it still hasn’t been turned over)
Nifong (as of the date of the motion) still had not produced the tox report (although he told the judge that he would)
The AV was involved in at least four police probes:
DUI — 2000
Larceny — 2000
Family/Minor — 2000
Child Molestation — 4-26-2004
{ 37 comments }
Has ANYONE investigated NC’s laws regarding prosecutorial misconduct yet? There seems to be an enormous body of evidence to support prosecution of Nifong forthwith!
Nifong, the little DA who cried “woof.”
I’ve said it before.
What you have here is a fine example of the Peter Principal in action. You have a traffic court prosecutor promoted beyond his level of competence.
Add to that his obvious race-baiting for votes and you have a stain on North Carolina’s judicial reputation.
no matter how the duke case comes out, it’ll happen again. none of this will matter; nothing’s going to change until the clown nifong is successfully prosecuted for….oh, i dunno….civil rights charges, felony prosecutorial misconduct, or something similar.
it’s very much like the cases in which the swat team kills an innocent, law-abiding citizen while breaking down the door of the wrong house, because they got the address wrong. (see the recent wsj editorial about that very topic) without a successful prosecution, the law enforcement gang will sweep the thing into the memory hole and go on their merry way doing exactly as they please. oh, sure, sometimes they lose a lawsuit and have to pay out big bucks, but hey! it’s not like it’s their money.
so! who’s in charge of filing charges against bozo nifong? what’s that? what’s that you say? HE is??
uh-oh.
I’m still waiting for the Newsweek cover story about “MEDIA SPIN!” and how journalists are filled with swaggering hubris which leads them to make all sorts of pre-judgments in accordance with their biases.
You know, something like “Sex, lies, and the MSM”?
But I suppose I won’t hold my breath.
Classes have started at Duke, and the Lacrosse team is practing, without two players. Nifungu also “forgot” to tell the defense that he DID do a toxicly test on Cystal’s hair to see if she had taken a date rape drug. Guess what, it came back negative, but nifungu didn’t release the results till last week a full 3 months after Newsweek implied that nigfugu had proof that cystal had been given a date rape drug. This guy is not just bad, he is dishonest. HE will be disbarred.
My theory is that Nifong knew he was in very tight
contest to keep his job and saw this as a way to be reelected. From links from this blog found that the accuser had troubled past and so her truthfulnes could be in question. He could have reasoned that a Duke student would be defended and not found guilty. A very articulate black quy and white women meant this was three-way race.
James Barber
New motions filed to compel Nifong to release discovery info–
http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/
Among the new details to emerge:
The AV was at Duke medical center from 2:42 am until 1:37 pm on March 14. (A long time–maybe she was sleeping something off?)
There are VHS tapes of at least two of the ID sessions– the one held for Kim (the second dancer) was not done until May 11– which is AFTER the indictments!
Lots of police internal emails about the case were collected, but then never turned over to the defense. (The defense found out
about this email collection on their own while rummaging through the DPD files, but it still hasn’t been turned over)
Nifong (as of the date of the motion) still had not produced the tox report (although he told the judge that he would)
The AV was involved in at least four police probes:
DUI — 2000
Larceny — 2000
Family/Minor — 2000
Child Molestation — 4-26-2004
She may have been a complaintant in the child molestation probe.
(But what a great way to run an investigation–don’t turn over any of the evidence to the defense, and let one of the witnesses ID the defendants AFTER
(But what a great way to run an investigation–don’t turn over any of the evidence to the defense, and let one of the witnesses ID the defendants AFTER they have been publicly identified and indicted!)
Given Kim Roberts had previously said she felt the entire rape story was a “crock” and she was even implicated by the accuser, why did Nifong even bother having Kim Roberts participate in the rigged photo line-ups?
New motions filed to compel Nifong to release discovery info–
And thanks to another poster (Newport) at Talk Left for originally feretting this out.
The AV was involved in at least four police probes:
DUI — 2000
Larceny — 2000
Family/Minor — 2000
Child Molestation — 4-26-2004
————————-
Seems unfair to paint someone as being “involved” in child molestation without documentation. Even Seahawk, who picks and chooses facts, added that she “may have been a complaintant”
Further documentation/link, if it’s not more than speculation would be appreciated.
Further documentation/link, if it’s not more than speculation would be appreciated.
Parenthetical items– ( ) — added–
Item 34 of the motion :
. . . materials not provided to the defendants but discovered . . . during a review of the investigative file at the Durham Police Dept. on July 18, 2006 (by a member of the defense team), reflect that (the AV) was involved (as suspect, witness, or otherwise) in at least five other criminal investigations . . .
case no. 00-030547,driving while impaired, date of incident : 8-30-00;
case no. 00-032879, larceny, date of incident : 9-17-00;
case no. 00-037545, family/minor–other offenses, date of incident : 10-25-00;
case no. 02-060468, multiple felony charges regarding the larceny of an automobile and assault on a government official, date of offense : 6-21-02; and
case no. 04-011166, child molestation, date of incident : 4-26-04.
Note that she may have been a “witness”, “suspect”, or “otherwise” in the above; but I guess we can’t know more until if and when the DA hands over the files.
Slight correction–the phrase “suspect, witness, or otherwise” in the Motion is included in the original motion (despite being inside parenthesis).
(Sorry. . .)
It is certain that Precious was the accused on 6-21-02 when she performed a lap dance on a taxi driver,lifted his car and after a frantic chase turned on the pursuing officer and,laughing,attempted to crush him.
The three previous crimes occurred on a successive run of August 30th,September 10th and Oct.25th.,the first of these crimes is regrettably “driving while impaired”. Driving while impaired is also one of the offenses-the least of such- with which this murderous harlot was charged in 2002.
So that leaves us with April 26,2004,child molestation. Precious could have been the accuser or the accused. It is known that,on at least one occasion, she attempted to remove her children from her parents and place them in the care of one of her pimps.Situations like this could easily lead to charges of child molestation.
And though Precious is extremely active in “one on ones”(her own words in her one published interview) and(again according to her own words) she had grossed two thousand dollars by the time she reached the Duke house,she is not currently recorded as ever having been charged with prostitution.
In fact there is no record of police or judicial action against any of the establishments(Bunnyhole,Allure, or Centerfold) with which Precious or Kim(the second prostitute)is yet known to operate.
We can be quite sure that the Precious rap sheet is only the tip of an ice berg.
Thanks,as always, to Seahawk and Newport for their quick work.
Sydney Carton
she is not currently recorded as ever having been charged with prostitution.
In fact there is no record of police or judicial action against any of the establishments(Bunnyhole,Allure, or Centerfold) with which Precious or Kim(the second prostitute)is yet known to operate.
But then, there were no arrests for prostitution at all in Durham in 2004 or 2005 by the DPD; and only a few in 2006 (seemingly after criticism of their record in this field was made).
That, plus the scandal that the DPD was running a prostitution ring out of the police dept. in the early 1990s; and allegations that there might be one being run out of the DA’s office more recently,
make it seem “normal” for Durham that if anyone there was engaged in making a living as a prostitute, they would not have any arrest record for that particular vice. . .
I just read the Slate.com article and the NY Times article that Slate critiqued.
Aside from the spin, the only new important “leak” I saw after a quick read was that the too-wasted-to-know-own-address AV was asked leading questions (Did something happen to you? (Yes) Were you raped (Yes)) instead of volunteering this information.
Reminds me of the good old days when one could find a drunk white woman in bed with a black man and repeatedly ask, “Did the Negro rape you last night?”
At least it was the admitting person at the hospital that asked these leading questions (not a trained (dumb) cop, and the cop noted the importance to write down the exact leading questions.
Also, since it was leading questions that started the rape story, it’s a problem for these conspiracy planned-set-up theories.
link to that Black Newspaper and more spin
http://wilmingtonjournal.blackpressusa.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=72238&sID=4
Seahawk.
GOOD WORK!! Damn, the boy’s lawyers are good. Nifungu is TOAST. The more that comes out the more this sounds like Barney Fife, actually that is an insult to Barney, these guys are like Yankee mobsters. What the hell is Nifungu smoking? He’ll make a half assed para legal after he loses his license. Probably will have to search real estate titles to make a living. He’s be living in NJ and running for mayor of newark!!
We also learn from the motion that there are apparently hundreds of pages of the SBI report on the DNA testing that have not yet been handed over to the defense;
That Nifong, Gottlieb, and Himan travelled twice as a group to the private DNA testing lab in Burlington which did the second tests (on April 10 and again about ten days later) and there met with the head of the lab (what did they discuss? why would all three of them have to go? why would any of them have to go?);
And that the defense requests a chain of custody for the DNA evidence, plus an analysis of the software used in the testing; and various other info about validating the procedures;
And that the AV met with the DA and three law enforcement officers in April. The DA refused in court to turn over records of that meeting, saying it was not about the case and was “work product” (between an attorney and client); but the notes of Sgt. Gottlieb say that they met “and discussed the case”. In any event, since LE officers were present, it could not be considered a meeting between ‘attorney and client’, and therefore ‘work product’.
And so on . . .
After reading the comments in the article linked by UNK I am puzzled by those who believe something happened but the team is sticking together to hide the truth…OK..lets assume, only for the sake of argument, that something bad did happen, and it happened by three players. Based on various bits of evidence, Seligmann appears to be definitely not involved. Again–assuming something did happen, that would mean he is taking the fall for another teammate. The prosecution and his supporters claim this is a close, tight-knight group that is sticking together and refuses to talk about what happened. But if they are so close, how can this group allow one of their own teammates who is innocent to take a fall for a guilty one?? Out of 40 players, there isn’t one moral, righteous teammate who would come forward to protect the innocent Seligmann–assuming something did happen? How does the third guilty-but-uncharged teammate aloow this to happen? It just does not make sense to me…..unless of course there is nothing to come forward on. At the D1 level of ahtletics and with a championship team, there must be a powerful relationship among the teammates that would not allow the innocent teammate to take such a serious fall while they let the potentially guilty teammate walk free.
What happened to Crystal’s girlfriend that was willing to talk about Crystal for +/- $10K (which isn’t a crime) but instead was arrested. Is she still in jail?
What happened to Crystal’s girlfriend that was willing to talk about Crystal for +/- $10K (which isn’t a crime) but instead was arrested. Is she still in jail?
Her girlfriend was arrested for 2 bad checks; there is no indication of how long ago she wrote these checks. (Considering how the cabbie was treated, it may have been a long time ago.) Linwood Wilson, also active in the lacrosse case, runs the DPD Worthless Check program.
Her ex-husband was arrested; his trial has already been postponed once (not sure, but I think until after the election). Not sure if he’s still in jail or not.
Her (former?) boyfriend Matt Murchison was arrested. He was on probation and had it revoked for driving with a bad licence. His trial has been postponed at least twice.
Elmostafa the cabbie was arrested, charged, and tried (fortunately a security video tape saved him).
Then there is Kim, who embezzeled $25,000 from a former employer and hasn’t made restitution; who missed appointments with her probation officer, and left the state to go to California without the court’s permission. But she isn’t in jail
and had a favorable bail deal personally arranged by Nifong;
and Judge Stephens (who used to eat lunch once a week with Nifong, and who signed the initial
warrants in the lacrosse case, and then wouldn’t quash them even though he found out they were based on falsified information) has postponed her trial until after the election.
So it seems that all these people are being kept hanging (despite an overcrowded Durham court docket, which recently underwent ‘reforms’ designed in part to end endless postponments of trials) until the lacrosse case is settled; and with the disposition of their cases–most of them have extensive previous criminal records–resting in the hands of the DA.
“Jail-house witness”, anyone?
Blugold,
What the hell are you talking about?
No team member has ever been linked to any rape, so how can they be hiding something? Don’t smoke that stuff and try to post
A great deal more now emerges about officer Gottlieb and his abuse of Duke students–
http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2006/09/11/News/Students.Criticize.Lax.Cops.Behavior-2265465.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dukechronicle.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com
(excerpted example) :
At 3 a.m. on the morning after the concert, Gottlieb and nine other police officers raided the students’ home and arrested Tomovich and his six housemates for noise ordinance and open container violations.
“I was still half asleep, and he put me in handcuffs,” Tomovich said.
Tomovich and others said the police dragged his sleeping housemate Justin Bieber, Pratt ‘06, off of his bed, causing him to fall on the floor, before dragging him down the stairs.
Gottlieb and the other officers led the housemates outside.
“[Gottlieb] said, ‘You’re going to be in the biggest trouble of your life,’” Tomovich said.
After they were taken to the station, Tomovich–a U.S. citizen of Serbian heritage–said that Gottlieb threatened to deport him for breaking the law.
“He took me to a back room and said, ‘Do you need to speak to your consulate? We can deport you.’ I said, ‘Why would I need to speak to my consulate?’…. I’m a U.S. citizen. I have a different last name, but I’m a U.S. citizen,” Tomovich recalled.
All seven housemates were arrested and taken into custody.
Did anyone else notice that Andy Roddick looked like he was wearing a Duke lacrosse “innocent” wristband when he played at the US Open yesterday?
There’s something I’ve wondered and haven’t seen anyone else comment on anywhere else. What does the esteemed group here think? Most folks I’ve seen have cast Nifong as a political opportunist who did this to get elected to a position to which he’d been appointed. Actually, I think it was something more desparate than that.
Nifong had spent his whole legal career as a prosecutor in the Durham DA’s office. Twenty-something odd years, to be inexact. Election, schmelection. I always kind of figured if he lost, he’d just go right back to doing what he’d always done, which didn’t seem like enough to motivate someone to do what he’s done with this case.
I recently read, though, when he was appointed DA, he had fired Freda (?) Black, his primary rival, whom he beat by something less than 1000 votes in the democratic primary. I suppose about the time he became aware that she announced her candidacy for his seat, he knew that he needed to beat her in the election or he probably would meet the same fate she met at his hands (payback is an angry female dog).
In other words, if she won, he probably would NOT be able to go back to prosecuting traffic offenses. And where else is a guy like him going to find employment? That’s right. This was all-or-nothing for Mad Mike, which explains the kind of limb he finds himself out on now.
Kemp,
I think you misread Blugold’s post. He’s expressing doubt that an innocent guy (Seligman) would take a fall for a guilty teammate, which, given Seligman’s alibi evidence, you’d have to assume he’s doing IF “something happened” in that bathroom. But, since’s it’s extremely unlikely that an innocent guy would just take a fall for a guilty teammate in this kind of situation, it’s all the more reason to doubt the allegations.
In other words, he’s got an alibi, and rather than take the fall himself, he’d have turned on his guilty teammate IF there’d really been a crime. The fact he hasn’t (and no one else has stepped in to keep Seligman from taking the fall) would tend to show that there wasn’t a crime to cover up. I think that’s what Blugold is trying to say.
I’m too lazy to go grab links but go to Liestoppers and you’ll also find discussion about a News & Observer story on Chief Detective Gottlieb. Seems Gottlieb has had a penchant for arresting Duke kids and throwing them in the can.
During the period May ‘05 to Feb ‘06, there were 4 supervisors working the area that includes Duke. Gottlieb made 28 arrests during that time. 20 of them were Duke students and 15 were taken to jail.
During that same period, the other 3 supervisors combined to make 64 arrests and only 2 of them were Duke students. The N&O story also says that most of those Duke arrests were for the kinds of things for which most people just get issued citations and sent on their way.
#29. Thanks Greg…that was my point. I was simply trying to add some strong evidence that no cover up of any type occurred by these boys and that a rape or anything related did NOT take place.
Would a parent of a falsely accused player, knowing another teammate was guilty, let his/her son take the fall?? Would the innocent player’s parent(s)–knowing who was involved–sit by quietly while all this unfolds, just hoping the trial for their innocent son turns out OK?
Again my point: The actions of the players and players’ families provide some very compelling evidence nothing happened.
Greg and Blugold,
I found the post confusing, sorry I misread it.
I see where Sgt. Gottlieb enjoys harrassing Dukies. Here is his email address, if anyone wants “Write” him. Have fun!! I am sure he will enjoy hearing from his new friends!!
mark.gottlieb@durhamnc.gov
Kemp,
I know … I had difficutly trying to explain it myself, and I thought I understood it. Maybe the best way to describe it is that there’s a sort of negative presumption. The absence of something expected would tend to argue against that which lead you to expect it. Like “If A, then almost certainly B; no B, therefore almost certainly not A.” It probably takes someone who’s a better wordsmith than me to explain clearly.
Greg,
When I read the post, I was over served and really did not make much effort at it, but I still think the post, to be polite, was oblique.
It’s a “collective action fallacy†that people who believe in group behavior (race, class, crime groups) often make.
The fallacy is believing that people will sacrifice their own self interest (go to jail, work) for the interests of their group.
Also applies to economics, but look in Wikipedia for a more detailed explanation.
Also the odds of getting the truth from one person, such a drunk whore, is hit or miss. The odds of not getting any one of 20, 30, 40 people to talk is the same as going to Vegas and winning 20 times in a row. Only an idiot could not get one, if not five to talk.
Kemp,
I think that’s a fair way to describe it.
Greg
P.S. Did you see that KC Johnson picked up on my point from #28 above. I might not have been the first to connect those two dots but I hadn’t seen it published anywhere until today.
Oops! Didn’t know this post was still open. I usually close comments on posts once they’re off the front page (spam issues). I’ll update with a new Duke post soon.
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