A prosecution merely to persecute.

I always have been skeptical of this case and now can clearly state that this was bogus to start with. I am expecting that the charges will be dropped in next week's hearing.

jesse the jackson, where are you???

If all is true that has been reported so far, with no silver bullets appearing on Nifong's behalf, he should be charged both civilly and criminally. Blowing up all these charges before the election and indictment while ignoring evidence to the contrary should be sufficient for his removal from office

This case has always failed the "smell test". From the beginning it looked like a politically motivated hit job. To be honest, I expect that the only reason charges haven't already been dropped is that Nifong has been hoping to figure out a way to let it die, and the family is probably pushing hard for him to prosecute since if he drops the charges for "lack of evidence" it will ruin their chances to get a big civil verdict.

Maybe it is true that a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. Considering the harm that can cause someon who may well be innocent, it shouldn't be. Perhaps it's time to raise the threshold for indictment.

Heh, heh... i'm certain that stripper also failed the 'smell test' given her busy activities that week....

I think she underwent a "lacrosse-examination" but no rape.

jesse the jackson, where are you???

There's not enough money in the pot. Jesse and Big Al have taken to fleecing large corporations lately. That's where the money be.

Nifong isn't the only one who shouldspend some time in the defendant's chair. Duke University cut these guys and their coach off leaving them appearing guilty in the court of public opinion. I hope Duke pays big. It's got deeper pockets than Derm.

Mrs Davis

While I truly believe Nifong should be removed from office and disbarred, I believe Duke was actually correct in making the coach resign.

Why? Not because of this travesty of a case, but that from what I've read, he was well aware of his team behaving in sanctionable ways... wild parties with underage drinking ... and did nothing to curb it.

The boys were acting like typical unsupervised jocks and when the adults in direct supervision of them deliberately failed to live up to THEIR responsibilities, then it is they who suffer the consequences.

Duke should be held accountable for failing to police its campus when the posters with pictures of the LAX players went up. That was an incitement to mob violence, tacitly sanction by an administration that sat on its hands.

There is enough blame to go around.

Duke should have waited till all the facts are out before taking permanent action. A suspension would have been fine. A firing and an abandonment of the team when serious charges like these are in the air? Some alma mater.

Her name is actually "Himan"? My guess is that hers has been missing for a long time.

Listen to me.... you have to hear both sides of the case and not just the defense's spin. We have NOT heard Mike Nifong's evidence therefore, it is stupid to form an opinion without it. Only vile ignorant people with no CARE for the real truth will accept this kind of dirty, vile tactics from the defense. We have a legal system here in America and it is not one-sided. The OLD SOUTH'S way of justice is over. It seems to me that YOU people want (you know who you are) this case to disappear because it's a poor black woman and rich wealthly white guys, so you have chosen to only hear their side and DAMN to the rest of the story..The attorney's want you to believe that it's not about race and that's a bald faced LIE. This is one of the reasons that RACE RELATIONS is so terrible here in this country. Don't even try to tell me otherwise, remember I live here. Mike Nifong is fighting for justice and I give him praise for it. I'm for justice done the right way and not some high priced, vile, dirty, disrespectful tactics of low-down defense lawyers.

I don't need evidence. I just got re-elected!

Now, listen to me, justice58. In the USA, a party is innocent of a criminal charge until proven guilty in a court of law - even if that party is white.

Furthermore, it is possible for a black person to make a false charge against a white person in attempt to get out of legal or political trouble.

IMHO, it an act of racism to assume that the accused in this case are guilty because they are white. - Yes, a black person can be guilty of racism.

In this particular case, the accuser was foolish to work as a stripper at a private party, and the accused were foolish to hire their accuser to strip for them.

Their behavior was not due to the race of any of them. Their behavior was due to the fact that they are creatures of flesh, and all creatures of flesh do foolish things, whether they be black or white.

Listen to me.... you have to hear both sides of the case and not just the defense's spin. We have NOT heard Mike Nifong's evidence therefore, it is stupid to form an opinion without it.

Let's look at what we DO know:

1) The line-up had ONLY lacrosse players. No chance of her picking a non-lacrosse player, which makes her identification of the accused inadmissible in court.

2) One of the charged was definitively NOT THERE at the time of the lie...I mean alleged crime. That ATM camera footage is a problem.

3) The DNA tests came back negative. Repeatedly.

4) She was smiling in pictures less than a full
minute after she was allegedly attacked.

5) Her story changed repeatedly...THE DAY OF THE EVENT. She told the police she wasn't raped. She told the nurse she was. She then told the police AGAIN that she was not raped.

6) The nurse was completely unaware of her "activities" earlier in the day and simply went with what the dancer said --- that she was raped.

7) One of the charged she said had a mustache --- yet nobody has ever seen him with a mustache.

8) Strippers NEVER go to parties without bouncers. Period.

Only vile ignorant people with no CARE for the real truth will accept this kind of dirty, vile tactics from the defense.

How dare they --- DEFEND THEMSELVES! Those bastards!

We have a legal system here in America and it is not one-sided.

Which is a bit of a problem for Nifong, since this case is, easily, the weakest prosecution I've EVER seen. Nothing approaches it.

The OLD SOUTH'S way of justice is over. It seems to me that YOU people want (you know who you are) this case to disappear because it's a poor black woman and rich wealthly white guys, so you have chosen to only hear their side and DAMN to the rest of the story.

Seems to me that you are listening to her because she's black and those evil white boys did it because, darn it, a stripper wouldn't lie.

You seem to have the racial hang-up about this. If the races were reversed, you'd be going nuts about this abuse of prosecutorial power.

The attorney's want you to believe that it's not about race and that's a bald faced LIE. This is one of the reasons that RACE RELATIONS is so terrible here in this country.

Civil rights leaderships are race hustlers. Yeah, we know. You're watching Tawana Brawley II.

Don't even try to tell me otherwise, remember I live here. Mike Nifong is fighting for justice and I give him praise for it.

So long as he persecutes whitey. Goes after a black guy on a case as remotely weak as this and you'd see the problems.

But let race be more important to you than justice.

I'm for justice done the right way and not some high priced, vile, dirty, disrespectful tactics of low-down defense lawyers.

The 8 points I mentioned are FACTS. Any ONE of them kills the entire case.
-=Mike

justice58,
Your remember all those 3000+ documents that Nifong gave to the defence? This information came out of those documents. Also do you actually think the defense lawyers would lie in a court document they filed about this? Read over this latest information it was from a Court motion filed by the defense. WHy would they lie in that in a nationally known case that everyone is watching closely.

Besides that your complaining about the defense doing all this...
"Only vile ignorant people with no CARE for the real truth will accept this kind of dirty, vile tactics from the defense"
Nifong started this not the defense, go back when this first came out and before the election.

"reporter Shae Crisson asked him [Mike Nifong] early on if he had any doubt that the woman was assaulted, strangled and raped.

"There's no doubt, as far as I'm concerned," Nifong said."

other quotes from nifong
"The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done. It makes a crime that is by its nature one of the most offensive and invasive even more so."

"This is a case we felt we needed a quick turnaround," Nifong said. (waiting a year now)

circumstances of the case are not suggestive of the alternate explanation that has been suggested by some of the members of the situation. There is evidence of trauma in the victim's vaginal area that was noted when she was examined by a nurse at the hospital. And her general demeanor was suggestive of the fact that she had been through a traumatic situation."

"My reading of the report of the emergency room nurse would indicate that some type of sexual assault did in fact take place," Nifong said. (use of a vibrator and the boyfriends seaman in her)

"The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done," District Attorney Mike Nifong said. "It makes a crime that is by its nature one of the most offensive and invasive even more so."

"There was a feeling that Duke students' daddies could buy them expensive lawyers and that they knew the right people.

"even if DNA results, which are expected as early as next week, do not match team members, no one is necessarily exonerated. The attackers could have used condoms or might not have been team members, Nifong said. (in the Sane Nurse report the Accuser said NO Condoms were used)

"He also said he would neither announce the DNA results that were expected back from a State Bureau of Investigation lab next week nor announce any evidence before a trial."(wait!!! he announced what he said the Rap exam revieled)

and this from another lawyer

"He seems to want to proceed as far as he can, whether the evidence is there or not," said Arnold Loewy, a criminal law professor at the University of North Carolina's School of Law, who added that Mr. Nifong's early public comments on the case seemed to be unorthodox.

So before you start making comments like you did about the defense you might want to look at all the facts first.

I practice law in this part of the world, and I can tell you with certainty, other lawyers here do not think highly of Mr. Nifong, or his legal acumen.

This investigation was way more rushed than any similar case, due to the obvious: the politics in this racially divided city.

He should be disbarred based on what we now know.

Oh and how could we forget this one
April 10, 2006
News & Observer
In interviews March 27 and 28, Nifong made several statements that helped transform the case into a national story. Elaborating on the accuser's description of the attack, he compared the incident to the quadruple homicide in an Alpine Road townhouse and multiple cross burnings that outraged the city last year. Nifong said all three cases were serious enough that he would prosecute them personally.
He implied that members of the lacrosse team were engaging in a conspiracy of silence.
"I would like to think that somebody [not involved in the attack] has the human decency to call up and say, 'What am I doing covering up for a bunch of hooligans?' " he said.
Nifong expressed confidence that the DNA would be important to filing charges. "By next week, we'll know precisely who was involved," he said shortly after the samples were taken. "I'm trying to be as honest and as straightforward as I can without jeopardizing the case, without being unfair to any person," Nifong said.
As far as the election goes, Nifong said two weeks ago that the rape investigation was taking away from his nights, the time he has been using to campaign.
"People expect me to do my job with respect to the cases and not to run for office anyway," Nifong said. "Publicity, like anything else, is a two-edged sword. It can help in certain respects, and it can hurt in certain respects. Personally, I could live without it."
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/427243.html

I can honestly say Nifong went beyond rational when he said all these things which really got it to be a national story.

For all those who think Duke University should not have expelled the LAX players accused of rape, let's look at this another way.

What if your daughter attended a university where a male student was accused of a violent rape? Would you want that student to remain on campus? Would you want that guy sitting next to your daughter in class, or walking down the sidewalks behind her? If that accused rapist then raped your daughter, wouldn't you ask why he was still on campus? Wouldn't you hold Duke University responsible and try to get some financial justice from the university?

Let's be realistic here. Sure, there is the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing here, but we're not talking about three guys accused of public urination. We're talking about three guys accused of a brutal rape and physical assault. And one of the guys had attacked and beaten a random man a few months prior to the alledged rape.

Duke University didn't have any choice but to suspend or expel the students.

Only vile ignorant people with no CARE for the real truth will accept this kind of dirty, vile tactics from the defense

Well, geez, I guess then I work with a bunch of vile ignorant Deputy District Attorneys who all are embarrassed to hell by Nifong's unprofessional behavior.

Darleen.... I guess they're embarrassed because Mike Nifong is prosecuting those 3 rich white DUKE UNIVERSITY students on the word of a black stripper... HOW DARE HIM!!

Having consenual sex is legal. Rape is a crime!! You know, couples do have sex together and a person can have sex with anyone they choose to. It doesn't matter whether a person take their clothes off and choose to**** ten men a day, but when you say no, damned no means no. So, don't come with the attitude "she's just a stripper", like she can't be raped. No one deserves to be raped.

justice58,

I see you have no comment but to play the race card now.

Lets see why other attorneys might be ashamed of Nifongs actions. actually lets hear from lawyers that have spoke out.

http://johnsville.blogspot.com/2006/05/duke-lacrosse-scandal-da-mike-nifong.html
" Without getting into too detailed of a bill of particulars, he (Nifong) has violated, not one but likely, several ethical rules. There is little doubt at this point as to his egregious and systematic violation of the rule against publicly commenting on matters likely to be tried in court. Not only is he tainting the jury pool by trying the case in the media, he is using the opportunity to do so to make arguments to the jury pool that he could not make in court. Calling the defendants 'hooligans', suggesting that innocent people do not need lawyers and inviting the inference of guilt from the silence of the accused are things that would bring instant and vigorous rebuke if uttered in open court and could potentially be grounds for mistrial or contempt of court.
[...]
Nifong also likely violated the rule against directly contacting persons represented by counsel when police went to interview the team members at their dorm. A basic legal principle is that a person cannot do through the use of an agent what he himself cannot do personally. Caselaw I have seen suggests that this is the principal applied where a prosecutor uses or encourages police to question suspects represented by counsel. The circumstances suggest that Nifong sent officers to get information he desperately needed in order to go forward with his indictments. Indeed, Nifong himself has been quick to tell us that he is the one directing the investigation, not police. This conduct is a serious matter and typically leads to reprimand or sanction in the state where I live.
[...]
Nifong, also likely violated the rule that requires prosecutors to pursue charges only were they personally believe that the accused has committed a crime and not simply because they believe they can secure a conviction. Many prosecutors try to avoid this duty by being agnostic or simply not thinking about it. However, Nifong went beyond that and took a position of willful ignorance by refusing to consider or even look at the exculpatory evidence presented to him by defense attorneys. Willful ignorance is not a defense to any guilty act and, even if the defendants did commit a rape, Nifong violated the rule by consciously shielding himself from any evidence that might have made him think twice about his decision to prosecute."

and that was just from one lawyer they have several others that have said basically the same thing.

Now about this racial/monitary comment you stated.
Nifong turned it into that not the players. there was a comment yelled out AFTER insults were yelled out at the players by the accuser and the other "Escort". and as far as that email It was not a racial comment it was an quote from a movie that was in the curriculum at the school. It was in bad taste but it was not racial. So the only people i see making it racial is Nifong (see my previous post) and you and a few other extremious.

justice

Uh, why do you assume that the DDA's I work with are all white??

First off, the photo-lineup was botched. Secondly, the DNA tests came back negative to any of the LAX players. Not ONE of my issuing DDA's would have filed without some definitive circumstantial evidence to substantiate the complaintant's claim.

Just a few months ago, one of my DDA's who HAD filed a sex assault case against a man dismissed the charges when the DNA sample came back and WAS NOT A MATCH to the defendant. That's what honest DDA's do.

Stop getting your idea of how the day-to-day criminal justice system works from Nancy Grace.

What if your daughter attended a university where a male student was accused of a violent rape? Would you want that student to remain on campus?

No. But since the university has to worry about BOTH parties' rights and not just one party's rights, it's a more than mildly irrelevant point.

Would you want that guy sitting next to your daughter in class, or walking down the sidewalks behind her? If that accused rapist then raped your daughter, wouldn't you ask why he was still on campus? Wouldn't you hold Duke University responsible and try to get some financial justice from the university?

You'd have no grounds to do so, since --- last I checked --- punishing people based on an accusation is considered to be bad.

And since there is less than no evidence behind the lie espoused by the dancer, your point is even LESS relevant.

Let's be realistic here. Sure, there is the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing here, but we're not talking about three guys accused of public urination.

"Screw the facts. It's the ALLEGATION that matters".

Hey, Over, I accuse you of killing people. You should be punished based on that. Sure, there is no evidence and all, but still...it's the ACCUSATION that matters.

Darleen.... I guess they're embarrassed because Mike Nifong is prosecuting those 3 rich white DUKE UNIVERSITY students on the word of a black stripper... HOW DARE HIM!!

They're embarrassed that such an absurdly weak case was actually brought to this point and has yet to be dropped.

Having consenual sex is legal. Rape is a crime!!

The ironic part is that some of the few people who DIDN'T leave DNA inside her were the accused. You can't even prove SEX occurred --- much less rape.

It doesn't matter whether a person take their clothes off and choose to**** ten men a day, but when you say no, damned no means no. So, don't come with the attitude "she's just a stripper", like she can't be raped. No one deserves to be raped.

How about prove she had sex with somebody at the party first before going to proving she was raped.

But, hey, nice of you to assume that all DA's are white. Not too racist.
-=Mike

It seems to me that this is now a case of trying to let go of the tiger without being eaten. The DA made a big mistake/miscalculation on this and has to get out without being disbarred or personally taken to the cleaners by the players.

I think the only thing saving the DA is the probation situation of one of the players. I think the DA has convinced the player that the probation violation can be turned into something very big if he won't go along with letting/getting the DA out of this.

Wonder if the defense lawyers are going to "rope a dope" this to get the DA to overplay his hand even more to make a malicious prosecution case easier to prove? It'd be risky to toy with a case like this, but let's see if the defense actually does its best to get it dismissed, or just maneuvers aroung the edges. Have any of the motions been a request to dismiss?

Overworm:

Would you stand by your claims, if the accused were black?

Here's a thought---what if a group of black males had been accused of violent crimes on campus. Would you stand by your position that the only thing that the university can or should do is expel them, on the grounds of public safety?

Somehow, I think not.

Well, justice58 is living proof that race hustlers like jesse and sharpton will always have a captive audience, even after tawanna brawley.

before this is over, your darling of human rights nifong should be out of a job and the right to practice law.

Sharpton doesn't do rape cases anymore, not since he was burned by the Brawly case. Jesse came and made promises he'll never keep (as usual)So who does thsi girl have left supporting her, The New Black Panther Party, and their man Shabaz. I almost feel sorry for her, but she brought this on herself, with the help of Nifong, who if you look at, looks more like a person looking for a book deal and an early retirment, and maybe even a permanent spot on Nancy "Never believe a defendent" Grace's shoutfest.

In the NYTimes they had another article on the case. I thought this was interesting in it.

"Mr. Vann said Mr. Nifong could drop the case, but the political price would be high. "He'd have hell to pay from the African-American community," he said. "They'd say, 'Give her her day in court. What do you have to lose? If you lose, at least the jury made the decision.' So he's kind of stuck.""

Who is mr. Vann?
"H. Wood Vann, a lawyer in Durham who once represented the woman(accuser) in a joy-riding case and has also done general legal work for her parents."

Where to begin? The "spin" spouted by the defense is whirling straight out of the documents turned over to them by Nifong. I will grant that some are going out on a limb with their seeming assumptions that the accuser is a stupid, drug-addled whore who is so beaten down by the sad state of her wretched existence that she can't distinguish any one of her real, self-imposed violations from those that she has imagined to have been done by upstanding young me. However, the limbs of that sapling are quickly turning to tall, strong oak. Where is Mr. Niffong now? I guess he's learning what happens when you get into bed with stupid whores.