It's A Crock

Two weeks ago when I quoted Dan Abrams as saying "Drop the charges" on the Duke rape debacle, I thought the prosecution case could not get any weaker.

I was wrong - it could get a lot weaker:

New court filings in the Duke lacrosse rape case suggest that a second exotic dancer initially told Durham police that the alleged victim's rape claim could not be true and that it was "a crock."  According to the 32-page motion filed on Wednesday by defense attorney Kirk Osborn, the second dancer, Kim Roberts, told police that she was with the alleged victim the entire time at the March 13 party except for a period of less than five minutes.

But in Durham police search warrants made public earlier this year, the alleged victim told police she had been raped, beaten and sodomized for a 30-minute period by three Duke lacrosse players in a bathroom.  Roberts also initially told police, according to the motion, that the alleged victim never went back in to the house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., even though authorities have said in court documents that the two left the party and later returned at the urging of some of the partygoers.

Instead, the motion says, Roberts -- also identified as Kim Pittman -- locked the alleged victim in Roberts' Honda Accord while she proceeded to the back of the house to look for some of the accuser's personal belongings.  Osborn, who filed the motion on behalf of 20-year-old Reade Seligmann, also argues that investigators deliberately omitted information as they moved forward with the case. 

Wednesday's motion also claims that the initial examination performed on the alleged victim did not reach a conclusion as to whether she was raped and that the only trace of physical trauma included a scratch on the alleged victim's knee and heel.  Osborn writes that the alleged victim said she was hit, kicked and strangled, but that the investigator in the case, Benjamin Himan, omitted that "the examining physician … at 3:14 a.m. [on March 14] found no neck, back, chest or abdominal tenderness." 

He also writes that the investigator's probable cause affidavit omitted that the sexual assault examination found that "no condoms, fingers or foreign objects were used during the alleged sexual assault."  The motion also states that the nurse who did the examination was not technically certified as a sexual-assault nurse, but that she was still "in training."

...The motion also states that prior to going to the lacrosse player's party that the accuser "had a function at a hotel room with a couple where she performed using a [sexual device], which clearly could have caused signs or symptoms of vaginal penetration."

...In an April interview with The Associated Press, Roberts, 31, said she does not know if an attack actually happened, but said she has "to wonder about their character," referring to the suspects in the case.

"I was not in the bathroom when it happened, so I can't say a rape occurred -- and I never will," she said.

Now I understand that this is a defense motion and they have cherry-picked the most favorable bits of the evidence disclosed to them.

However, given his already weak case, I can't begin to imagine how the DA hopes to skate past all this at trial.   Well, there isn't going to be a trial, so why wonder.

ABC News is stronger on the objective of the defense filing:

Defense attorneys in the Duke rape investigation are aiming to cut the heart out of the prosecution's case — they want the alleged victim's photo lineup identification of three lacrosse players thrown out of court.

In motions filed Thursday, defense lawyer Kirk Osborn argued that Durham police withheld key facts contradicting the alleged victim's account when they obtained a court order to photograph and take DNA samples from the Duke lacrosse team members.

If that evidence is tossed, well, hard luck for DA Nifong.  But this filing also works well in the court of public opinion - it will be interesting to see the prosecution response.

It is also encouraging to see that the NY Times has regained interest in this case.

UPDATE:  The NY Times has taken a whole new tack here!  On Sunday, Nick Kristof slowly eased the Times readership back into low earth orbit - let's excerpt his bonding  attempt with the (presumably) liberal times readership:

As more facts come out about the Duke lacrosse scandal, it should prompt some deep reflection.

No, not just about racism and sexism, but also about the perniciousness of any kind of prejudice that reduces people — yes, even white jocks — to racial caricatures. This has not been the finest hour of either the news media or academia: too many rushed to make the Duke case part of the 300-year-old narrative of white men brutalizing black women. That narrative is real, but any incident needs to be examined on its own merits rather than simply glimpsed through the prisms of race and class.

Racism runs through American history — African-American men still risk arrest for the de facto offense of "being black near a crime scene." But the lesson of that wretched past should be to look beyond race and focus relentlessly on facts.

Interesting - I would have thought that the "reality-based community" was well represented amongst the Times readers, but Mr. Kristof seems to be speaking to the "narrative based community".  Do these people really need to be reminded that facts matter?

Well.  Mr. Kristof then highlights the many flaws in this case and commences to demonize the DA:

Granted, traumatized victims and witnesses can be terrified and confused. We don't know what happened, and we should avoid stereotyping the accuser because of her job — but we should also avoid stereotypes of lacrosse players as "hooligans."

That's what the district attorney, Mike Nifong, called the Duke athletes. As I see it, he may be the real culprit here. For starters, his many public statements seem to violate the North Carolina rules of professional conduct; Section 3.8f bars prosecutors from "making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused."

Mr. Nifong may have had a motive for prosecuting a case that wouldn't otherwise merit it: using it as a campaign tool. Heavily outspent in a tough three-way election race, he was the lone white man on the ballot, and he needed both media attention and black votes to win. In the end, he got twice as many black votes as his closest opponent, and that put him over the top.

Works for me - we may have a bipartisan consensus that Nifong is the villain of this piece.  And even the narrative based community ought to be able to rally against a politically ambitious white Southern prosecutor.

Meanwhile, the Monday Times takes a long look at this story (buried deep in section A):

Prosecutor's Silence on Duke Rape Case Leaves Public With Plenty of Questions

By DUFF WILSON   and JONATHAN D. GLATER

DURHAM, N.C., June 9 — When a woman hired to dance at a Duke University lacrosse team party claimed that members of the team raped her, Michael B. Nifong, the district attorney for Durham County, responded with an aggressive, unflinching and very public investigation.

"There's no doubt in my mind that she was raped and assaulted at this location," Mr. Nifong said on national television after the case surfaced in March. Mr. Nifong called other lacrosse players "hooligans" who had aided, abetted or covered up for the rapists. Local police officers seemed equally certain that they had a horrific crime to solve.

But in the intervening months, the case has come to appear far less robust. Three players have been indicted, but evidence that has surfaced, much of it turned over to defense lawyers by prosecutors and then filed in court with defense motions, has thrown the woman's claims into doubt. Mr. Nifong, so vocal at first, has refused to speak publicly about the case since the beginning of April.

The result is a growing perception of a case in trouble. Increasingly, the onus is on the district attorney. People in Durham are asking what Mr. Nifong is up to, whether his prosecution was influenced by politics — he was in the midst of a campaign when the case began — and what other evidence he might have.

"I have no doubt that Mike believes her," said H. Wood Vann, a lawyer in Durham who once represented the woman in a joy-riding case and has also done general legal work for her parents. Mr. Vann said that he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt but that few other people in town do, and he added that many wonder why Mr. Nifong persists.

"At some point in time he's going to have to get to a tipping point," Mr. Vann said. "His case is going to hell in public opinion. He's suffering death by a thousand cuts." 

If we can cite Fox and MSNBC, as noted above, then the cable coverage turned against Nifong several weeks ago; now the stronghold of conventional lefty wisdom in the print media seems to have turned as well.  It will be interesting to see whether Nifong can sustain this charade past his November election - the accuser's father has already hinted at an exit strategy (from the Friday Times):

The woman's father said in an interview Thursday that she was seeing a psychiatrist and was in no condition to testify. "I don't know how long it'll be before she gets back in her right frame of mind," he said. "It could be years."

Her father said he believed his daughter's account of the matter and hoped the district attorney would move ahead with the case. The woman, who is no longer living with her parents, could not be reached for comment.

The strain on the accuser was too great, Nifong mishandled the press, he was outlawyered - folks who want to believe the accuser will still have plenty of excuses for endorsing a dismissal of the case.

MORE:  A baffling analysis of the white/black vote in Nifong's race.  After a quick read I reach exactly the opposite conclusion of the author:

Durham voters did not vote along racial lines in DA contest, says VU professor 6-12-2006

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The district attorney prosecuting the rape case against three of Duke University’s lacrosse players received significant support from both black and white voters in the recent Durham primary, according to a voting analysis by Vanderbilt University political scientist Christian Grose.
   
“Given that about the same percentage of blacks and whites supported Michael Nifong, the results do not suggest a racially divided city,” Grose said. Nifong obtained felony indictments against white student-athletes accused of kidnapping and raping a black dancer hired to perform at a team party. Grose’s precinct-by-precinct analysis showed that Nifong received 44 percent of the black vote and 46.2 percent of the white/nonblack vote.

Just over half (50.6 percent) of the total number of white voters cast their ballots for Freda Black, the other white candidate in the race. She also received support from 25.2 percent of the black voters. Meanwhile, the only African-American candidate in the race for district attorney, Keith Bishop, received 30.8 percent of the black vote and 3.2 percent of the white/nonblack vote. “Bishop was endorsed by the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, a powerful African-American group for endorsements,” said Grose, a Duke University graduate. “Many times, although not in this DA election, the committee can guarantee much black voter support.”
   
Nifong received a larger percentage of the black vote than the other two contenders, but he did not get a majority of the black vote. His percentage of the white vote was slightly less than 50 percent. “Nifong basically did well among both blacks and whites, demonstrating that Durham voters do not seem to be polarized along racial lines, at least on this issue,” Grose said. “In addition, the voting results suggest that Nifong’s high-profile attention to this case could have helped him with black voters.”

So the black candidate had roughly zero appeal to whites.  Nifong had much more crossover appeal to blacks than his other white opponent.  Might the case have helped?  By the last sentence (which seems to be at odds with the headline), the professor and I agree.

(SIDEBAR:  Didn't Kristof say Nifong had two black opponents?  Not so fast - per Kristof, "he was the lone white man on the ballot", but his other white opponent was a woman.  What a clown - is Kristof communicating or obfuscating?)

Comments

[clarice]

Isn't this an outrage? Matched only by the pusillanimous reaction by the Duke Administration.

[Rimand]

I don't understand. Can prosecutors really conceal evidence, file misleading motions, construct charges without evidence, and make public statements without ever being called to account (except at the inevitable election fixed by their party)?

[richard mcenroe]

See: Ronnie Earle

[vnjagvet]

I believe this evidences a profound misunderstanding of the purpose of a prosecutor's office, which is to do justice.

Doing justice includes doing justice to the accused and the accuser.

You are not doing justice to an accuser by bringing a case with this kind of objective evidence. Shifting and improbable stories, ambiguous medical evidence, lack of corroborative evidence all cry out for prosecutorial courage and discretion not to prosecute.

And you are not doing justice to an accused holding off the ultimate trial with this kind of evidence which, by its nature will not improve with time.

This case may result in very serious civil liability for Nifong and the County employing him.

I suspect NC tort lawyers are salivating at the opportunity to take on Nifong and company.

[eric]

Hey Tom, no comment on the Coulter brouhaha this week?

[Carol Herman]

The Lacrosse team is back in play at Duke. Whatever the Duke administration's first reaction was; it seems to understand that it "lost" when it stopped the team from playing.

And, like every silver lining; this story, because the INTERNET stayed on top of it, has given the DEFENSE a mechanism to be heard.

At first, it just seemed like a contest that if NiFong got elected, then he won; and the players were gonna get tortured.

Now, there's a shift.

WHich means the public is well aware that prosecutors aren't justice seekers. And, the excesses that have been in play for a long, long time need to be addressed.

Once lost, reputations aren't so easy to regain, again. And, while I feel bad for the players getting caught in this; exoneration is on its way. Let alone, the learning curve for the public who are quite aware, now, of what the railroad tracks look like when prosecutors think they can push their cases along on them. What would stop this stuff without calling a "crock" a "crock?" Fitz is paddling his boat in the same waters.

(Like Iraq, the terrorism will get worse before it gets better. But the bad guys are falling like flies.)

[Tom Maguire]

Hey Tom, no comment on the Coulter brouhaha this week?

It is very unusual for me to get drawn into Ms. Coulter's publicity stunts, and she enjoyed a bipartisan thumping from much bigger people than me.

I did want to mock the coverage provided by the NY Times - they noted Coulter's comments and Hillary's reaction, but only part of the Coulter riposte.

[Patton]

Why would anyone be shocked that the Lamestream would attack Coulter for attacking left wing activists?

Is that really news. Did anyone REALLY not know what the medias reaction would be?

Now if Coulter was a liberal she would be screaming she's being censored and her patriotism is under attack.

[Specter]

The Duke case is exactly what I was talking about in the other thread. While it used to be the prosecutor's job to weigh the evidence to determine if there was probable cause a judge would sign off on, it is that way no more (apologies to any "good" prosecutors out there - I am painting with a broad brush).

Nowadays - expecially in sex assault cases, there is a rush to judgement. Probable cause standards are actually lowered. It doesn't matter if evidence shows a person might be innocent - prosecutors don't drop charges because they will be beat up in MSM over - "Look at that - they let another one go...." Rather than look weak, they actually do things like hide evidence, lie, invade attorney-client privelege, etc. - anything to get the "perp" - innocent or not - to accept a plea deal.

And the thinking among the defense for quite a few years has been - go along - take the plea - it's how the system works and you don't want to go to court on these types of cases.

Now with false allegation cases skyrocketing, more people are starting to fight the issue - and they are winning.

In our society this is analagous to the rise of civil law suits - they became a "get rich" tool and people used them to their advantage. These cases are a tool used for revenge, advantage, or money. And people know they can use them for that. All it takes is a single accusation and there doesn't have to be proof. The accused has to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to clear their name - and even at that it is never really cleared because people will believe what they believe and they have been told for years now that if someone is accused then they did it. Baloney.

Don't get me wrong though. Even though the number of false allegations is rising, there are still true cases of assault out there. And justice must be done in them. There are real life true victims that have been hurt - and sometimes - often - very badly. Those types of cases need resolution with the actual "perp" doing time and getting help.

But in the other type of case - the false one - just who is the actual victim? If the investigators and prosecutors did their jobs the way they used to instead of just trying to clear cases, there would be more justice in the world.

[verner]

Just read this from a posted article at Sweetness and Light:

"Osborn says the accuser gave conflicting accounts of what happened. The motion says medical records indicate she told a doctor that she used no alcohol or drugs. The accuser told the sexual assault nurse that she had consumed one drink of alcohol and was taking Flexeril, a prescription drug used to treat muscle spasms."

Well, there's your date rape drug. She took flexeril--a muscle relaxant--followed up with alchohol. She may have been "coherant" when she got to the house, but as soon as that little cocktail reached the proper level in her bloodstream, she would have been falling all over the place--and likely blacked out for a time. That would explain her behavior with the police officer at the Kroger parking lot.

That's probably why the accuser didn't have her blood drawn--I bet she REFUSED to do it, as was her right, because she would have known that they would have found the flexeril and who knows what else. And she was on probation. Add that with what we now know--she was a prostitute (dancer indeed) who had a little party just before she went to the LaCrosse job.

That's it. Nifong needs his law License pulled. I have no doubt that the LaCrosse players were rude brats, but there is no way that woman was raped.

[Gary Maxwell]

I would be very interested to hear Squiggler's take on this latest, given a very unpleasant exchange we had several weeks ago. Not really interested in I told you so, I just want to see if you are convinced yet. If the Defense cant get you, some of the moonbats will never ever be convinced then, and Durham has more than its share of them.

[sammy small]

Specter,
The 24 hr courtroom news cycle, dramatization of selected cases, and the OJ trial all conspired to lower the definition of probable cause. Run of the mill prosecutors can now become media stars with a book and TV movie deal if things go right. It's their chance for 15 mintes of fame.

I hope cases like Duke will help to move the pendulum back towards a more reasonable position.

[Bob]

OT

Good article clarice!

"Haditha: Is McGirk the New Mary Mapes?
June 9th, 2006

Evidence accumulates of a hoax in Haditha. The weblog Sweetness & Light has done an estimable service gathering together the articles which cast substantial doubt on the charge of a massacre of civilians at Haditha . Because the blog is too busy gathering and fisking the news, I offered and the publisher accepted my offer to put what he has uncovered in a narrative form.

Having done so, I can tell you that the story has a whiff of yet another mediagenic scandal like the TANG memos or the Plame “outing.” While the Marines quite correctly will not comment on the case pending the outcome of their investigation, I am not bound by those rules, and I will sum up the story for you."

Read more here, but can't we discuss this here Tom?

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5566

[richard mcenroe]

But they have dicks! And testicles! They must be punished, for the sins of everyone who ever had dicks and testicles before them!

[Gary Maxwell]

If you have not seen the latest Scappleface go take a look. Scott Ott at his satirical zenith. "Democrats vow to Fight on After Zarqawi Loss".

[maryrose]

With tongue in cheek Scot Ott is telling it like it is.
Yesterday: Bad day at Black Rock for dems.

[Sue]

The GJ used to be where a prosecutor got to see how strong his case actually was. And by that I mean they would want the exculpatory evidence in the GJ room. Nowadays, especially in high profile cases, they want the indictment.

[Gary Maxwell]

OT Madagascar the animated movie is a favorite of my 11 year old. She must have seen it at least 4 times, and has memorized most of the funny lines of Ben Stiller and Chris Rock. She especially likes the monkeys and their lines about "flinging poo."

Apparently Democrats in Colorado like the movie too. A Democrat official was caught delivering a package filled with dog feces to a Republican congresswoman's office. She left her 9 digit zip code on the envelope which allowed them to trace it to her street and block. She has admitted it. To top it all of she is a Professor Emetrius at NCU. No shit.

[Joel]

Haha. Very funny. Sounds like a fishy case:)

[Gary Maxwell]

Different smell entirely Joel.

[Sue]

Wow...a meteor hit Norway. I hope Seixon is okay.

[Specter]

same ... uh....stuff, different day. Shows once again the sheltered life of academics. Ti imagine - someone could actually trace her through her zip code....nine digit one at that. LOL. I wonder what she teaches.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

'Hey Tom, no comment on the Coulter brouhaha this week?'

Coulter is hardly the only person to have noticed the partisan purposes of the Jersey Girls. Debra Burlingame, the sister of one of the pilots of the plane crashed into the pentagon called them Rock Stars of Grief.

[Dave in W-S]

Specter: She taught French. Go figure.

[Semanticleo]

Way OT, but it seems mildly important, Maguire, since 'drop the charges' is what
Specter is pursuing in the compromise proposal to the NSA wiretapping bill.

From today's WAPO;

"Another part of the Specter bill would grant blanket amnesty to anyone who authorized warrantless surveillance under presidential authority, a provision that seems to ensure that no one would be held criminally liable if the current program is found illegal under present law."

A pardon before charges have even been filed?

Nice capitulation to Executive power, Specter!!

Tip to Greenwald.

[Carol Herman]

The SYSTEM creates the NiFong's!

Start with an old, obvious one. Getting one's name into the newspapers was always considered a plus. You became "famous." (Of course, Marshall McCluen identified it as the "15 minutes of fame" syndrome.) But it's powerful!

Then add local politics. How a good headline can boost the reputation of a prosecutor; where you get to see how far some go. GUILIANI KNOWS.

And, by this I mean the bait is there! If you can get the case that makes you famous, your career is on a role.

Then add that today kids are taught to "take the test." NOT THINK. And, you get a few, starting in the school age years, who learn how to use the system so they get the stars. When there's nothing with star quality about them.

Have we taken a turn for the worse?

Would Hugh Hewitt be able to write a book,nin 2004, spelling out how the democrats are losing voters, and how they intend to regain their majority BY STEALING IT. And, you discover their robbers are all lawyers. They write the laws that feed the elites.

And, Congress is OUT OF CONTROL. Are the congress critters a bit scared? Well, they want to keep their seats! (Even though a smart one like DeLay moves aside; the basic thrust is to take what they can, and the public be damned. Until they see the voters shifting gears.) This is more of a problem, now, for the donks. But the MSM set up is to benefit them; and hence we're embroiled in ugly, unseemly, court cases, where judges are NOT doing their jobs! And, one reason they're not, is that our Supremes gave them the pass. Do you know what it is? It's the "little comedy" that the "trier of fact" gets it right. (In Martha's case you couldn't even Appeal the injustice.) Blind justices, indeed. But not without price tags.

And, not without direction.

This mess will only get cleaned up with the Internet finds ways to focus on better judges, just as they did for Roberts and Alito.

Yup. The MSM didn't give these two men, or Kavanaugh, either, boosts to being confirmed.

Only the INTERNET did this.

And, only the INTERNET will get to watch what happens to the NiFong's and Fitzgerald's down the line. While the cases of merit are the ones where the juries set the victims free. Not good enough!

[clarice]

Thanks, Bob.

[noah]

I believe it was Andy Warhol who first opined about everyone eventually getting their "fifteen minutes of fame".

Clearly hyperbolic tho since the math doesn't work considering the size of the world's population. A nanosecond perhaps.

[Gary Maxwell]

Hey look Leo back flinging his own poo. At Arlen Specter no less. Fling away buddy, got little use for the guy myself.

[Specter]

Tic,

Really got to laugh if you actually thought any of that would ever get to court anyways. It would be the death toll for the Dems to push the issue. I mean clearly the majority of the country - by a wide margin - supports the NSA programs. And by 78-15 the Senate confirmed Hayden the architect of the program. Cry all you want - but that has been a done deal for months. The only thing left it to indict Rocky and a few NYT reporters and toss them in jail. That's coming.

[cathyf]

I wonder how much of this is an out-of-control plea-bargaining system. Where you dispense with all of the fact-finding functions of the judicial system and skip directly from police investigation to sentencing. The problem with the "who cares who's guilty, we'll split the difference" approach is that either way it's an outrage. The accused is guilty, and the punishment is outrageously low; the accused is innocent and it is and outrage that he is punished at all.

"The People" have an interest in the justice system, and it is to see that justice is done. When the police and prosecutors shift their interest to getting convictions no matter what the facts are, The People are getting screwed.

cathy :-)

[Specter]

It's not just that cathyf...it is the fact that the "business" of the court is to clear the docket. If they actually took all the cases that come in to trial, we would have trial lists that are 10 years long. You are right though that the investigative/prosecution side has become way to overzealous. And most people don't know or will never know how the system actually works here.

[Javani]

""Nowadays - expecially in sex assault cases, there is a rush to judgement. Probable cause standards are actually lowered.""

I discount the co-dancer's statement, they may have hated each other. And what about her leaving and the "victim" going back inside?

If she prior was with Mr. And Mrs. Kinky Couple and using toys on herself, forget, write her off, there goes away the plausible poor girl just stripping on the side, really a student first story. Jury verdict innocent in 10 minutes or less.

[Dave]

Clarice, think maybe the "It's A Crock" headline for this thread will be able to be reused for a Haditha discussion?

[Gary Maxwell]

Javani

The only corroborating evidence that I had always heard to support the rather wild account of the accuser gang rape tale consisted totally of : the testimony of her fellow "dancer" and the SANE nurse rape examination. Now we have a written statment in the record ( the Defense is saying this was withheld for some time which might put some investgators in hot water along with Nifong) in the 2nd dancer's own handwriting that debunks the whole timeline and calls the accuser's story a "crock". Think she might be more likely called by the Prosecutor or the Defense?

2ndly the SANE nurse is only a trainee and Dr. notes show no evidence of bruises on the neck ( no chocking ) and little evidence of anything else except edema ( or minor swelling of the vagina). Absolutely no evidence of any anal trauma or any foreign objects being used ( I would say sex toys specifically excluded ). Consistent with rape was the term the Prosecutor used. I would guess it also consistent with "girl made up wild story to get out of being put in drunk tank while on probation."

The clincher is the accuser admits to taking muscle relaxers and the 2nd dancer saw her drink at the party. The exact drug escapes me at the moment. Want to guess what the effect of a mixture of muscle relaxers and alcohol is? Stumbling around incoherent sound about right?

[Tom Maguire]

If she combined Flexeril with alcohol, good luck staying coherent.

Has anyone seen the actual defense motion and exhibits posted? I have been using PACER for federal stuff, but I have not probed the mysteries of the NC state system.

Finally, these latest stories point to two ways to end this case:

(a) a judge grants the motion, retroactively quashes the subpoena, and throws out the line-up. I would think the DA would have to drop the case at that point - how could he have another line-up now?

(b) per the dad, from the Times:

The woman's father said in an interview Thursday that she was seeing a psychiatrist and was in no condition to testify. "I don't know how long it'll be before she gets back in her right frame of mind," he said. "It could be years."

See, Nifong did his best to get her justice, but, regrettably, the strain and trauma were too much for her, she won't be able to testify, and the charges will have to be dropped. Another victory for the Man!

Well, that will be the Al Sharpton / Susan Estrich spin anyway. But the charges will be dropped, and I think that most of the public will consider the lacrosse guys to be cleared (some dead-enders will never believe they are not guilty regardless of the evidence, but most of those folks live in the reality-based community).

[Gary Maxwell]

Glad to help Mr. Maguire. here is the motion all 31 pages courtesy of WRAL

motion to suppress

[drjohn]

It was a crock until Nifong threated to revoke her probation.

If there is a crock here, it's Nifong.

[Javani]

Thanks Gary. Seems she offered up the sex toy couple first.

I didn't think the couple would offer thta to the police!

[Javani]

"I would guess it also consistent with "girl made up wild story to get out of being put in drunk tank while on probation."

I hadn't thought of that until I read the brief, she wasn't taken straight to the hospital but the drunk tank first. Yep. She could have lied to get out of there.

[Javani]

Gary and Tom

I just read Kim's statement, which is in her own hand.

Clear, fairly cogent...that the DA rushed to file with this witness statement is not so far from amazing.

[clarice]

Yes, Tom, that appears to be the scenario..

[Gary Maxwell]

Javani

He had all the boys saying form the start that NOTHING happened plus the false accuser inconsistencies plus the only possible sympathetic witness calling her account a "crock". Yet he assailed the "Blue wall of Silence" and indict two and then in a fit of absolute madness a third who did not have the moustache she said the third guy did.

Idiot is far too kind a word for this. And maybe its unfair but right now it seems to me, all the judges and prosecutor playing fast and losse with the system are Democrats. One more reason to make sure they can not control the process any longer.

[maryrose]

clarice:
Great article, I enjoyed reading it. Mary mapes is some piece of work. Personally I feel she needs psychotherapy.

[clarice]

Thanks,maryrose..I think Tim of Arabia may be another piece of wrok, too.Checking up a bit on him--we was one of the first "wedding party" reporters. You know, every time we blew up a Taliban picnic is turned out to be a "wedding party".

[clarice]

**He(not We)***

[windansea]

accuser had sex with at least four men and sexual device before party

on drudge

[maryrose]

the fat lady is singing and it is an aria from La Traviata.

[Neo]

I think the fat lady sounds more like Wagner.

[Carol Herman]

I think the Internet was faster on this story, that the media had been on Tawana Brawley. (And, still to this day, Al Sharpton gets their pass!)

Tawana Brawley accused White Cops. And, the press corp didn't let up against them, until Brawley's story collapsed on its own.

The Internet is the new monitor. NiFong's career won't careen into "power politics" like Sharpton's, though.

When things change, they don't stay the same.

Duke's already put the team back into play. In Lacrosse,Duke's almost unbeatable. For an obscure game, the team will be building school spirit. WOn't go quietly into the night the way the white cops got no recognition following the Black hate crime of being attacked by Brawley. Worth considering those lessons in the public's mind.