Associated Press – Oct 27, 2006:
The district attorney prosecuting three Duke lacrosse players accused of raping a woman at a team party said during a court hearing Friday that he still hasn’t interviewed the accuser about the facts of the case.
“I’ve had conversations with (the accuser) about how she’s doing. I’ve had conversations with (the accuser) about her seeing her kids,” Mike Nifong said. “I haven’t talked with her about the facts of that night. … We’re not at that stage yet.
Actually, it gets worse, no one from the prosecutor’s office has interviewed the victim…
Nifong said none of his assistants have discussed the case with the woman either and only have spoken with her to monitor her well-being. They have left the investigation of the case to police, he said.
Update: Lauren points out that a video has been found showing the alleged victim dancing at a club at the same time she was allegedly being raped.
News and Observer – Oct 28, 2006:
A woman identified as the accuser in the Duke lacrosse rape case performed an athletic pole dance at a Hillsborough strip club at the same time that the accuser was visiting hospitals complaining of intense pain from being assaulted.
A time-stamped video shows a woman at The Platinum Club on March 26. The club’s former security manager, H.P. Thomas, identified her as the accuser.
The video, reviewed by The News & Observer, shows a limber performer. The same woman told doctors at UNC and Duke hospitals around that time that she had been beaten and assaulted and was racked with pain.
DA = political spring board
“DA = political spring board”
Well, this isn’t working here. I wouldn’t vote for this guy to wipe my ass.
Fracking lawyers!
This whole case has been about one thing, getting the black vote for Nifong. If justice is to be really served, Nifong should be charged with malicious prosecution.
Nifong is in a race for the DA’s office, and he has shown that he’ll throw the book at a ham sandwich if it’ll get him more votes. The guy is truly an amoral scum-sucking pig.
Now this, from two days ago:
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/503820.html
UPI and the locals got it, but the PC crowd would rather not hear about it, or so I assume, considering I find not a peep on CNN or NYT – just like the DNA tests and the “victim”s testimony that she screwed three different guys that day, and that testing showed THEIR DNA, and none from the accused players.
Three different guys. Can you say “2-bit whore”? Better yet, can you say “Tawana Brawley II”?
There’s a reason why the accuser has not been interviewed. Not a good one, but a reason. Her story has changed several times since the alleged event took place. As in, she cannot seem to be consistent in her recollection of the events. If the DA interviews her, that interview becomes part of the evidence that can be brought up by both sides in court. If her story changes (which it likely will), then the DA will be in the uncomfortable position of diminishing even further the credibility of the accuser. Fun, huh? Nifong got himself in a really fun spot.
I’ve known about this dubious case since its inception, but never saw a pic of the DA. He looks like a dumfuck.
“A time-stamped video shows a woman at The Platinum Club on March 26. The club’s former security manager, H.P. Thomas, identified her as the accuser.”
Hmm, not sure I believe that. However, this entire case is a perfect example of how the legal system can be used to persecute the innocent for malicious reasons. The DA should be disbarred.
The DA should be disbarred.
Disbarred? How about prosecuted. Regardless of the outcome of the trial, these young men’s lives are ruined by some asswipe with an agenda.
#9 If he broke a law, then yes, put his ass behind bars. But I doubt he broke a law. Public officials are largely shielded from retribution, which is what makes the power they wield so worrisome.
The American Justice system is just like every other endeavor nowadays: it is only about WINNING. (at all costs).
#10 – Some (many?) states do have criminal sanctions against willfully and knowingly initiating / continuing prosecutions where the prosecutor is aware of the accused’s factual innocence…
Then there’s the Federal S1983, I think it is, ‘Deprivation of rights under color of law.’
The problem lies in finding anyone willing to commit professional suicide by going after prosecutorial slime. Prosecutors and judges (and law enforcement) are too goddamn cozy with each other to give a shit about corruption in their ranks, and they go to extreme lengths to exact retribution against anyone who dares to call them out on abusing their offices…
I should know, I live in Republicanville, USA – Houston, where our local DA, Epsilon-Minus Semi-Moron Chuck Rosenthal most recently refused to recognize a factually innocent man (who even had a pardon from our “tough-on-crime” GOP Governor!), claiming that, despite DNA evidence proving another man did it, “The eyewitness says she’s sure we got the right man.”
Just imagine a DA so effing dense as to not know that eyewitness ID is the least reliable evidence – and to claim that that overrides conclusive DNA evidence. Now imagine the kind of boneheads who support this dain-bramaged weasel, to whom every single person charged with a crime is automatically 100% guilty (unless they’re connected to a prominent local Republican, of course).
Maybe a get-together is in order: “Chuck, I’d like you to meet Thomas Nifong. Tom, this is Chuck Rosenthal. I’m sure you guys have a lot in common.”
12: yep. That is why his office hasn’t interviewed the victim, and never will get around to it. If he had, then he would have been aware of the dubiousness of the testimony, and he would be liable, if it is possible to make him so. But lacking the knowledge, he can plead… lack of knowledge. Just a lack of procedure being followed rather than malicious prosecution. It’s about keeping his butt clean, not justice. If all had gone well for the DA, the players would have pled guilty to a lesser charge to avoid being hit with a bigger won — self-incrimination through prosecutorial blackmail.
This is why we’re building so many prisons. How many innocent people are rotting and being assaulted through the paid-for witnesses, the plea bargainings, the straight-out blackmail by prosecutors? In a he-said-, she-said rape trial, the accused has damned little chance and the DA knows it.
#13 – In a he-said-, she-said rape trial, the accused has damned little chance and the DA knows it.
Sure, happens all over Amerika, every day (and don’t get me started re false accusations – OR pros misconduct) – but this addlepated smutbucket, desperate to bag that election, blinded by his lust for power, overreached. He didn’t anticipate the massive credibility issues his complainant keeps adding to the mix – and I also have a strong suspicion that the defense has some additional unwelcome surprises awaiting Nifong… may he go down in well-earned flames.
Nyahahahaha!
So Gloateth The Ghoti
oh, this is nothing.
Friend of mine, her son was arrested for armed robbery. Could not bond out, so he spent about a year in the local jail awaiting trial Trial date approached and the assistant prosecutor who was going to litigate the case finally talked to the witnesses, whose stories promptly fell apart. The prosecutor dismissed the case – turns out, my friend’s son was being framed for the robbery by some gang-bangers because he would not join their gang.
A year and a half of an innocient young man’s life spent behind bars because some damn prosecutor did not bother doing his job until the last minute.
Of course my friend’s son was not some white, middle-class college boy with the national media on his side, so there was no uproar.
why does this not suprise me
Sometimes I forget there are quite a few racists here, including some of the bloggers. Then, sure enough, an entry like this will come along to remind me.
The fact that DA Nifong himself did not interview the victim that is even true) means absolutely nothing. Other senior prosecutors are equally qualified to do the job.
Nor is it remotely true that the victim has changed her story. It has been quite consistent from the time rape crisis counselors and investigators interviewed her. What has changed is the various false claims the defense attorneys have made about her. That is particularly true regarding the nonsensical allegations made by a campus cop who had no contact with the victim the night of the alleged rape. The defense tried to build a case for not prosecuting the alleged perps based on his babbling only to have it fall apart as it became clear that he simply made things up.
Nifong has been a prosecutor for decades. If he were politically ambitious, there would have been evidence of that long before now. This case came along after he decided to run for DA, not before. It is telling that so many of his detractors get the chronology backward.
The alleged victim in this case is just as entitled to justice as any other. Supposedly, the passage of the civil rights laws of the 1960s made that clear, but it is apparent from reading these comments that those laws might as well not exist as far as the SNs, Ghotis, catbellers, etc., are concerned. If lynch mobs were still in existence, these are the kind of people who would be eager to get their hands on the rope.
Last, but not least, the persons on this thread making abusive comments about the alleged victim are not only racists and misogynists, they regularly prove themselves to be some of the most stupid I have encountered in the blogosphere. The bigotry comes out when they are given permission to parade it on threads like this one, but the ignorance is always apparent.
Correction: “The fact that DA Nifong himself did not interview the victim means absolutely nothing. Other senior prosecutors are equally qualified to do the job.”
Again, this parade of bigotry is disgusting.
#7 welcome to the legal system..
you think your cheesed off now
try toying with it sometime and see how you feel.. it’s 90% lunacy
‘cept for the judges.. they have a pretty good grip on things..
maybe 80% of the time
#17/18 –
On behalf of everyone who has posted to this thread, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your kind efforts to enlighten us with your idiotic spew of Politically Correct drivel.
Others will be reading this and saying to themselves, “Oh, no, doesn’t he know to not respond to such obvious trolling??” Ya, I do – but I still am unwilling to suffer fools gladly. PC horseshit such as put forth here by this protegé of Al Sharpton needs to be uprooted and destroyed when- and wherever found. Having to put up with listening to an endless litany of mindless parroting of laughably false and illogical accusations of racism is the sole reason that millions of Americans who would otherwise support the people and goals of the Democratic party have instead abandoned it has a hopeless case and gone over to the GOP.
So, Podesta, old friend, let’s examine your particular brand of Logic-Free Reasoning©™ shall we?
Sometimes I forget there are quite a few racists here, including some of the bloggers. Then, sure enough, an entry like this will come along to remind me.
Now idn’t that terrible? Racists! KKKers! White-sheeted lynch mobs! Oppressors of the always-100%-innocent-of-everything minorites!
Having just reviewed the entire thread, twice, I find not one instance of anyone either stating outright or implying that (a) the accuser is lying because she’s black, or that (b) the defendants are innocent because they’re white. So, my friend, with that fact in mind, it’s quite easy to see exactly why you make a lot of meaningless noise in order to create a diversion to cover up your conspicuous failure to cite one single instance of anything that could be construed as racist.
You are full of shit. The only thing your post makes clear is how you have leaped to the totally unsupported assumption that, because the accuser is black, anyone who criticizes her is a racist. What an effing crock.
Let’s continue to examine your tissue of lies, innuendo, distortions, non sequiturs and ideologically-prescribed assertions of opinion as fact:
The fact that DA Nifong himself did not interview the victim that is even true) means absolutely nothing. Other senior prosecutors are equally qualified to do the job.
Sez who? Nice of you to state that OPINION of yours as though it were a fact – but it ain’t. Nifong personally injected himself into this case. He has taken the lead. He has made it his case. If he actually were a honest man following his sworn oath of office, he would be certain to personally interview her, to get the story straight from the source, unfiltered. There is no plausible, honest reason for him to NOT do so. Therefore, his not doing so, particularly in the context of other numerous things he has said and done – on the record – the likeliest reason for him to fail to personally interview her is to create plausible deniability for himself, which he would only need to do if she were a liar and there was a chance that she would be exposed as such.
So, your opinion is just that, an opinion. And it ain’t worth a shit.
Nor is it remotely true that the victim has changed her story.
Wonderful! So you live with her, go everywhere with her, you have been present at every medical, media and legal interview, right? Because that’s the only possible way you could make that statement. Unless you meant to say, “I DON’T PERSONALLY BELIEVE that the victim has changed her story.”
Yawn. Another contrary-to-all-evidence opinion asserted as incontestible fact. Equally worthless.
Nifong has been a prosecutor for decades. If he were politically ambitious, there would have been evidence of that long before now. This case came along after he decided to run for DA, not before. It is telling that so many of his detractors get the chronology backward.
So you say. Others think differently, perhaps not blinded, like you, by the racist motive of saying anything, no matter how absurd, in order to preserve the PC principle of “no member of a minority group has ever done anything wrong / the white man is guilty of everything.”
Spare me. This case came along after he became worried that he might not be reëlected.
The alleged victim in this case is just as entitled to justice as any other. Supposedly, the passage of the civil rights laws of the 1960s made that clear, but it is apparent from reading these comments that those laws might as well not exist as far as the SNs, Ghotis, catbellers, etc., are concerned. If lynch mobs were still in existence, these are the kind of people who would be eager to get their hands on the rope.
Smear tactics. Bullshit. Baseless accusations absent all evidence. What you’re doing here is an exact parallel to what your hero Nifong has done to some American citizens who are every bit as entitled to justice as the so-called “victim.”
Where is the mention of race you persistently keep hinting at?
I jst realized something; I’ll bet anything that you’re one of those PC-brainwashed racists who deny OJ’s guilt!!
Oh, and your last little bit there? Racists. Misogynists. Stupid.
Pathetic little PC ideologue, with nothing to offer but groundless opinions and unsupported insults.
Run along now, Sonny, and let the grownups talk. This is all over your head. Come back when you learn a drop of logic, instead of robotically parroting racist PC bullshit.
A drunken, drug-abusing prostitute who tells an ever-changing and highly implausible story – no matter what her race, despite your unoriginal smears to the contrary – would come in for exactly the same treatment. Y’see, Sonny, she isn’t a lying, drunken whore because she’s black, and nobody said she was! She’s a lying, drunken whore because that’s what she has shown herself to be.
Now behave yourself, and maybe someone will feel sorry for you and explain the big words!
“Other senior prosecutors are equally qualified to do the job.”
Before you start playing the race card, you should at least read the article! No one from the prosecutor’s office has interviewed the so called victim: “Nifong said none of his assistants have discussed the case with the woman either ”
“If lynch mobs were still in existence, these are the kind of people who would be eager to get their hands on the rope.”
Who’s in favor of lynch mobs? Not me. I want justice. You are the one who wants prosecution with no evidence.
“they regularly prove themselves to be some of the most stupid I have encountered in the blogosphere. “
Any person who wants to send innocent people to jail based on no evidence are stupid in my book.
And one last thing, exactly where did I even mention race?! At no point do I ever mention the race of the alleged victim or the alleged perpetrators.
Podesta, I dismantled your PC diatribe like a cheap watch, and don’t delude yourself for a minute that everyone attending this thread hasn’t noted your pathetic attempt to evade my charges. Maybe you think you’ll get farther with your weak-as-water comeback to SN.
Well, while we await that worthy’s response, should he decide to dignify your line of PC crap with any response, I’ll just set your mind at rest on a couple of points you feebly attempt to raise.
His “continual posting of race-baiting entries,” eh? No citations, just unsupported hot air. What you and other brainwashed PCers don’t get is that people who can use their own brains (instead of parroting partisan propaganda) have grown weary of the endless litany of “Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad” that flows uninterrupted from the far-left ideologues who have made careers out of championing the rights of professional victims.
She reported a crime. The crime was investigated and probable cause was found to file charges. Bullshit. The whole point is that the crime was NOT investigated, but Nifong simply saw an opportunity to play the race card for his personal benefit. If the alleged crime had in fact been properly investigated, the accuser’s history of false accusations, her history of substance abuse, the contradictions in her various accounts, her companion’s statements’ contradiction of her allegations, the utter and total absence of DNA from any of the accused along with the presence of semen from three other men, the fact that the photo lineup was deliberately, unethically and possibly unlawfully improperly conducted, the fact that one of the accused has a ton of solid evidence to demonstrate that he was nowhere around – these facts, taken individually are enough to make ANY competent, ethical prosecutor have sufficient doubt to investigate further before deciding to proceed with charges. But Nifong did not do so. He charged these guys, despite the mulitple sources of evidence contradicting the accuser’s account, the accuser’s exceptionally poor credibility, and the high relative credibility of the accuseds, not to mention the absence of evidence against them and the considerable evidence for their version…
Mike Nifong is the racist. The accuser is a drunken, drug-abusing prostitute. And those not wearing the blinders of racist anti-white ideology see it quite clearly.
We’ve already heard the exact same line of shit you’re now spewing in this thread, in the infamous Tawana Brawley case.
This is nothng more than Tawana II, and you are nothing more than a dollar-store Al Sharpton wannabe.
Pathetic.