Duke Rape Charges Dropped

[Zamtuk]

Turned out to be a big money grab by the dumb whore afterall.

DURHAM, N.C. - 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.

According to court papers filed Friday by District Attorney Mike Nifong, the accuser told a prosecution investigator on Thursday that she now does not know if she was penetrated during the alleged attack.

Nifong had previously said he could rely on the woman’s account because of a lack of DNA evidence against the players.

Lacking any “scientific or other evidence independent of the victim’s testimony” to corroborate that aspect of the case, Nifong wrote, “the State is unable to meet its burden of proof with respect to this offense.”

Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday, and a sign posted on his office door read, “No media, please!” The county sheriff’s department said no one from Nifong’s office would comment Friday.

Both rape and sexual offense carry the same possible sentence of up to 40 years in prison, while kidnapping is a lesser felony punishable by up to 17½ years behind bars. Under state law, a rape charge requires vaginal intercourse, while sexual offense covers any sexual act.

The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, has said three men raped her — vaginally, anally and orally — while holding her against her will in a bathroom at a March 13 Duke lacrosse team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

Dec. 22: Butch Williams, an attorney for one of the Duke lacrosse players, says the prosecutor did the right thing by dropping the rape charges against the three men.

The indicted players — Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann — all say they are innocent. Their attorneys have consistently said no sex occurred at the party and cited a lack of DNA evidence as proof of their clients’ innocence

“It’s highly coincidental,” said defense attorney Joseph Cheshire, that the charges are being dropped a week after the director of a private DNA testing lab acknowledged that he initially, with Nifong’s knowledge, withheld from the defense test results showing none of the players’ DNA was found on or in the accuser’s body.

Testing also showed that genetic material from several males was found on her undergarments and body.

“The reality is, what else could the DA do?” said Stan Goldman, who teaches criminal law, evidence and criminal procedure at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “Once the DNA evidence came out last week, I can’t imagine how they could sustain a rape charge.”

But Wendy Murphy, a former prosecutor who now teaches at the New England School of Law, said the decision could actually help Nifong by keeping any discussion about the results of the DNA testing away from the jury.

“It may be that this is a strategic move to insulate the trial itself from a sideshow that certainly would have overwhelmed all the other evidence,” Murphy said. “A sideshow about her sex life.”

Even so, the changing story hurts Nifong’s case on the other charges, Goldman said.

“It strikes me that a case based on this particular complaining witnesses’ credibility appears to be in jeopardy,” he said.

Defense attorneys have said for months that the woman has told several different versions of the alleged assault, and Seligmann’s attorney has said she has given investigators at least a dozen different versions of the alleged attack.

The defense also has argued that the woman misidentified her alleged attackers in a photo lineup and they have asked the judge to prevent the accuser from identifying the players from the witness stand.

Evans graduated from Duke in May, the day before he was indicted. Sophomores Finnerty and Seligmann were suspended following their April indictments. A Duke spokesman said school President Richard Brodhead would comment later Friday, and the players continued to get support from the university’s new lacrosse coach.

“We still believe in the truth and we believe the other charges are false,” said John Danowski, who replaced former coach Mike Pressler, who resigned in the wake of the rape allegations. “We’ll stand by these kids and their families until the whole thing comes to a conclusion.”

As much as I hate Duke sports, I am really glad that they are dropped. Now that her credibility is completely shot, they will get out of the other charges as well. Jesse Jackson and company also looks like a bunch of dumbass's as well for jumping on the bandwagon too early.

[Ashur]

I'm dying from Not Surprised.

[kyoukan]

did anyone see the thing about this on SNL last saturday? amy pohler did it. it was fucking hilarious, but it was so shocking that the audience was kind of stuck on whether they thought it was funny or not.

I'll try to find it on youtube.

[Canelek]

Please do...I cannot sift through SNL skits without going 'naners.

[kyoukan]

NBC had it pulled off YT. Fucking lame.

It was basically amy poehler as nancy grace, who's been using this woman as a stepping stone to keep her ugly fucking mug in the spotlight, switching gears over from defending women's rights to a fair trial for being sexually assaulted to her rights to a fair trial for being the victim of a fabricated sexual assault. she beat on it a bit too much, but I guess that is just SNL. it was very funny.

[Boogahz]

hmm, I don't see the actual video for that one on the SNL site either

[masteen]

And now the poor black folks of Durham are about to watch more of their public money siphoned away to rich whites as the parents of the lacross kids sure the city/county for wrongful prosecution and legal misconduct.

Stop rallying behind trash just because they share your skin color.

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

And now the poor black folks of Durham are about to watch more of their public money siphoned away to rich whites as the parents of the lacross kids sure the city/county for wrongful prosecution and legal misconduct.

Stop rallying behind trash just because they share your skin color.

??? A little pissed off they didn't do it? I guess it would be okay if it was a basketball team who was found innocent against raping a white stripper. You make me sick.

[Vaemas]

Stripper? You mean lying whore, I believe. If I recall correctly, she's pregnant with some guy's kid, the semens stains on her underwear didn't match any of the "rapists," and she's changed her story a few times.

Given all that, the lacrosse kids were stupid to hire strippers for the private party. Alcohol + college kids + strippers = high potential for problems. Now don't construe that to mean that strippers, alcohol, or college kids are bad. More power to the people and all that.

But come on, if you don't want trouble, don't go looking for it.

[Sueven]

??? A little pissed off they didn't do it? I guess it would be okay if it was a basketball team who was found innocent against raping a white stripper. You make me sick.

This is one of the stupidest misinterpretations yet.

Masteen is criticizing the general black community of Durham for rallying behind a liar. He's pointing out that this tactical choice (if it could be called that) has backfired, as not only will the lacrosse players be acquitted, but the city of Durham will lose money (thus negatively affecting the black community of Durham) when the rich white lacrosse players obtain civil settlements.

His last sentence was directed at the black community of Durham generally. It's pretty self explanatory.

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

??? A little pissed off they didn't do it? I guess it would be okay if it was a basketball team who was found innocent against raping a white stripper. You make me sick.

This is one of the stupidest misinterpretations yet.

Masteen is criticizing the general black community of Durham for rallying behind a liar. He's pointing out that this tactical choice (if it could be called that) has backfired, as not only will the lacrosse players be acquitted, but the city of Durham will lose money (thus negatively affecting the black community of Durham) when the rich white lacrosse players obtain civil settlements.

His last sentence was directed at the black community of Durham generally. It's pretty self explanatory.

Oh. Sorry bout that.

[Tyek]

Interesting article that I think asks some great questions. Personally I think the prosecutor should get jail time for illegal conduct in his handling of the case, but it only came to light because it is so high profile. How many other prosecutors got away with the same scummy techniques?

On wrongful prosecutions, the right engages in selective outrage



David Hawpe


The contempt heaped on District Attorney Mike Nifong over his handling of the Duke University lacrosse team legal fiasco was predictable.

Conservative pundits have had a fine time, luxuriating in the collapse of a stripper's charges that she was beaten, raped and sodomized by three of the school's athletes.

Right-wing talk shows have depicted the accused as victims of the leftist mob -- the hysterical do-gooders who rush, unthinking, to any place where a black woman claims to have been victimized by a white male, no matter what the evidence really suggests … the liberals, who take special delight in condemning a lineup of elite white male athletes at a socially and academically precious Southern school, before the facts are in.

The critics cite, as a prime example, my Male High classmate, distinguished scholar Houston Baker Jr., who was on the Duke faculty at the time and who demanded to know, "How many more people of color must fall victim to violent, white, male, athletic privilege before coaches who make Chevrolet and American Express commercials, athletic directors who engage in Miss Ophelia-styled 'perfectly horrible' rhetoric, higher administrators who are salaried at least in part to keep us safe, and publicists who are supposed not to praise Caesar but to damn the unconscionable … how many?"

There is a particular kind of rage on both sides of this argument, which is both understandable and regrettable.

But what amazes me is that you don't see the same kind of fury when other people are definitively proven innocent of crimes for which they were sent to prison.

Where was the right-wing rage last week when DNA testing showed that James Waller was wrongly convicted of raping a 12-year-old boy in 1982?

Where was the indignation when it proved that the white boy's description of his black assailant -- 5-foot-8 and about 150 pounds, with the lower part of his face covered by a red bandana -- didn't apply to the 6-foot-4, heavyset Waller?

Where was the outcry against the prosecutors who put him in prison for 10 years, and on parole after that, and made him register as a sex offender, despite discrepancies in the boy's account, and despite the witnesses who said Waller was at his own home when the crime was committed?

Where was the condemnation of a process in which, despite all the holes in the prosecutor's case, it took the jury only 46 minutes to convict?

Last week, as reported in The New York Times, a new prosecutor shook Waller's hand and told him, "I'm sorry it happened to you, man." And in an act of grace that I can't begin to comprehend, Waller said he wasn't angry, "because the Lord has given me so much."

He broke down only once, when telling the judge how his wife, Doris, and their unborn daughter had died in a car crash on the way to a 2001 court proceeding.

This is the 12th instance since 2001 in which DNA testing has overturned a Dallas County, Texas, conviction. But, thanks to the Innocence Project and other advocates, similar things are happening across the country.

Given the obvious conclusion that wrongful convictions are not uncommon, where is the public outcry against capital punishment?

In the years since it was reinstituted, Kentucky has executed two men, but public support for the death penalty has fallen off. According to a University of Kentucky Survey Research Center report earlier this month, 68 percent of Kentuckians prefer prison over death for a convicted murderer.

Indiana has executed 17 people in that same time period, and the Hoosier death penalty debate was roiled again last week, when state Supreme Court justices stayed the execution of convicted murderer Norman Timberlake.

How many will be subjected to irretrievable justice, before we decide to end the death penalty …. how many?

[Zamtuk]

Good news is that the state is pressing charges on Nifong. That guy only took that case as a means of getting re-elected, which was successful. Hopefully is taken out of office and stricken from the bar, which probably won't happen.

[Leonaerd]

Good article, Tyek.

[Tyek]

The Duke LaCrosse players cases were officially dropped today on all charges.

I read that Jesse Jackson had given the girl a scholarship to college. I wonder if he is feeling a little silly tonight.

Frankly this girl should be facing potential jail time. She filed a claim knowing she could be sending these kids to jail for a long time, she had plenty of time to recant and did not. She also hurt the cause of women who actually were raped, all for a few bucks. I hope she gets real jail time.

I also hate that the news continued to block out her photos, yet the accused faces are everywhere. I undertand the concept and agree with it, until the accused are found innocent as in this case, then the world should be able to see her photos as well.

[Nick]

Frankly this girl should be facing potential jail time. She filed a claim knowing she could be sending these kids to jail for a long time, she had plenty of time to recant and did not. She also hurt the cause of women who actually were raped, all for a few bucks. I hope she gets real jail time.

Yep.

[masteen]

Her face should be a matter of public record, as she was arrested several times before this whole thing happened.

[Kilmoll the Sexy]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04122007/ne ... horetz.htm

April 12, 2007 -- HER name is Crystal Gail Man gum.

She is the woman who falsely accused three Duke University students of rape. Yesterday, the attorney general of North Carolina came forward and flatly declared the three young men "innocent of these charges."

That means their accuser is a liar.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum.

It is the policy of the news media not to publish the names of rape accusers on the grounds that they should not have to fear public shame for coming forward with word of a horrifying personal violation.

That is a noble policy. But it needs a codicil. The codicil is that if a rape accuser is revealed as a liar, her name should be spoken loudly and often - as loudly and often as the names of those whom she falsely accused have been over the past year.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum.

She must be denied anonymity because she makes a mockery of the very policy of granting anonymity to rape accusers. We do not publish their names so that they will not fear public exposure. But people who are tempted to do the monstrous thing Mangum did should fear public exposure.

They should be terrified of it.

They should have nightmares about it.

They should be given no encouragement whatsoever to believe they can launch a nuclear weapon at someone's reputation and escape unscathed.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum, and she should not escape the world's scorn because she is poor, or because she is black, or because her life circumstances led her to work as a "stripper."

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum, and she does not deserve to lick the underside of the shoes of hardworking and honest people of color and modest means who somehow manage to get through life without attempting to destroy and defile the lives of others.

At his press conference yesterday, Attorney General Roy Cooper said something odd about the liar Crystal Gail Mangum. He said she would face no charges for her false accusation.

and a link to where they have her pic...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Duke_ ... am_scandal

[Sylvus]

[Dregor Thule]

Did anyone watch Daily Show last night and the segment on Nancy Grace? That shit was hilarious, I need a youtube of that, stat!

[Winnow]

I wonder if all that hair pulling back your scalp is like having a free facelift.

[masteen]

It's a chav thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croydon_facelift

[Soreali]

Gotta love Karma.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/7068705/?hpt=T2