Duke LAX case discussion continued.....;)

Parent Cafe
541

<p>Do you think he has been really messing things up all along, and no one has noticed, because his other “victims” have been of far lesser means, and therefore they couldn’t adequately defend themselves?</p>

<p>It is strange that someone has an apparently clean slate, a decent CV, no problems and no black marks on his record, and then suddenly he does this…I wonder if the power of the office of DA just simply got to him and he just HAD to win the election, or, if perhaps there is some mental illness that manifested, or… (???)</p>

<p>I wonder if there will now be lots and lots of inquiry into his past cases…</p>

542

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<p>Someone, I think (it might have been calmom), suggested this possibility several thousand posts ago (back in the old thread). It’s certainly possible. But I think it’s unlikely, given the number of cases Nifong worked on, the number of years he served as a prosecutor, and the number of defense lawyers who, until this, thought highly of him.</p>

<p>And while I think that these defense lawyers did a great job, I don’t believe that, at the end of the day, this case fell apart because of the $3 million (or whatever) that was spent on defending these young men. What ultimately brought this case down was that this young woman told a number of different stories that contradicted one another - and none of those stories had any meaningful corroboration, physical or otherwise. These contradictions weren’t revealed by dogged lawyering; they were right there in the discovery materials. This was a case that any number of defense lawyers, well-funded or not, would ultimately have won.</p>

<p>Which brings up another point: say what you will about Nifong - and I’m not about to try to defend him here - but with a really diabolical prosecutor, such significant contradictions in the complaining witness’s story would never have seen the light of day.</p>

543

<p>But epistrophy - you missed my point - likely I expressed it poorly. He had a very nice CV and reputation before this event. And there aren’t any weird things coming out of the woodwork, even now. No one else appears to be coming forward and saying “Nifong did the same thing to me, years ago”…and so on. So presumably his professional behavior, judgment, skill set, etc. prior to the Duke situation was exactly what it appears to be - competent, above reproach, and, he’s an older man, nearing the end of his career. Plus there don’t seem to be any mitigating personal circumstances that might tend to send one off the deep end - he appears to be in a stable, long marriage, etc.</p>

<p>What makes a person suddenly do something so completely (apparently) out of character, so self-destructive? And so obviously wrong?</p>

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<p>To get back to something you said a few posts back (539), these are the sorts of questions that, in my view, make Nifong’s story an “interesting” one. People who always act consistently, who are all of a piece - they may be good (or not), but they also tend to be dull. Whether in fiction or in real life, what makes an individual interesting - what gives their story texture and depth - are the contradictions.</p>

545

<p>to paraphrase the awful wendy murphy–</p>

<p>just because there’s apparently no evidence nifong did anything wrong in the past doesn’t mean there isn’t. something must have happened in those cases!</p>

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<p>Well, that’s certainly what we’d like to believe. We want our villains to be villainous all the time, just as we want our heroes to be heroic all the time. We want, in other words, consistency: it makes things a lot simpler, a lot less unsettling.</p>

547

<p>OT, but more good news:</p>

<p><a href=“Drug Charges Dropped Against Duke Student”>Drug Charges Dropped Against Duke Student;

548

<p>Keep in mind that this was an election year. Nifong viewed this incident as a way to galvanize votes in his bid for DA. I also believe that he grossly underestimated the strength (in numbers alone) of the defense teams that the families were able to assemble.</p>

549

<p>NewAtThis: 17 pounds of pot? I’ve never been a drug user, but isn’t that an awful lot of pot? Certainly more than a personal use quantity, right? Insufficient evidence???</p>

550

<p>Here is the view from a third year Duke student. Has this “incident” impacted the other students on campus? Absolutely. Has it made them cynical? Perhaps…</p>

<p>This was from a routine email from S. Not a long dissertation, but certainly a powerful one. </p>

<p>“We are all glad they finally dropped the charges, and hope Nifong and the accuser serve prison time. I wish Brodhead would step down as well, he is a weak puppet of the hyper-liberal faculty, and I’ve lost a lot of respect for him and the administration.”</p>

551

<p>The N & O is running a 5-part series on the case, based on research and interviews that Joseph Neff (one of the better reporters who has covered the case) has done over the last several months.) The first part was published today, and it is just stunning in some respects.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.newsobserver.com/1534/story/564100.html[/url]”>http://www.newsobserver.com/1534/story/564100.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I said back in April, in the original Lax thread, that I thought the false accuser probably cried rape to avoid getting in trouble for her drunken/strung out state–and that Nifong took the case and ran with it. She probably never gave a thought to pursuing it, just as she hadn’t followed through on the first report she gave about 3 men raping her some years ago–with Nifong at the helm, she was completely stuck.</p>

<p>What I didn’t know was just how despicably this man acted throughout the course of this ordeal. He is truly the personification of evil in this case. He, of all people, deserves to serve jail time for what he has done. Maybe he thought that they would plea out, as had happened in most cases he prosecuted–boy did he guess wrong!! Stupid man!! He had many chances to dismiss this case, but his arrogance and stubborness won out. I have frequently thought of two quotes in the last few months of this case:</p>

<p>“Pride goeth before a fall” and “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”. </p>

<p>I am so relieved for Reade, Collin and Dave, and their families. But I have absolutely not one iota of sympathy for Nifong and others who enabled him along the way in this hoax!</p>

552

<p>AG - you started out my day with a very good laugh!! - thank you LOL :D</p>

553

<p>My WAG, supported by virtually no real data: Remember, Nifong had a health problem of some kind, and was doing traffic cases for a couple of years, as I remember, before being named head DA. So it’s not like he went straight from trying felony cases to taking over the office - he had some serious personal issues in between the bulk of his real trial work and taking over the office, which was followed shortly by this case cropping up. </p>

<p>Then consider the fact that he’s tried at least one previous rape case with no corroborating evidence, and his lead investigator’s serious attitude towards Duke students, and his initial embrace of the case actually isn’t that surprising. I have no doubt he believed that a rape had occurred at that point. Then the press stuff happens, a development way outside of his past experience and expertise, and he’s suddenly dug himself into a hole. At that point, he had a real need for the case to be legit - at any time after early April last year admitting that he was wrong about the case became a personally disastrous option for him professionally. So he clung to hope that somehow the evidence would turn “his way.” Except it never did.</p>

<p>As for the things I’ve criticized about the way the case was handled? The drumbeat of “wall of silence”, “nobody talks, everybody walks” which accompanied the early part of the investigation? If the rape had occurred, it probably would have been just good prosecution/police work, as it probably would have smoked a “stoolie” out of the group (probably more than one in this group of middle class kids.) The bad lineup? Probably just sloppy work - unprofessional, not intentionally unethical. Not disclosing the “other men” DNA test results promptly? Same thing. (Remember, they were disclosed to the defense well ahead of a trial date, so Nifong didn’t try to bury them.) </p>

<p>So, my conclusion: Nifong believed in the case, dug himself in, then walled himself off from anything which contradicted that belief. The more beset he became, the more entrenched he was. This case became the defining event of the “second half” - post illness - of his life as a lawyer. And when it turned to **** in his hands, he couldn’t see a way out. So he just dug in and hoped for a miracle. A strong, ethical person would have stood up, dealt with the issue, and let the chips fall where they may. Nifong isn’t strong.</p>

<p>Like it or not, many people would have acted like Nifong did in this case. Many prosecutors would not, but for most prosecutors it would have been just one in a string of cases, not the defining event of their life. It’s sad all around.</p>

<p><a href=“Note:%20%20I%20wrote%20this%20before%20reading%20the%20N%20&%20O%20story%20by%20Neff.%20%20But%20that%20story%20doesn’t%20change%20my%20opinion.%20%20It%20did%20remind%20me%20of%20the%20very%20sympathetic%20newspaper%20story%20about%20the%20accuser%20published%20right%20at%20the%20beginning%20-%20painting%20her%20as%20a%20struggling%20Mom,%20working%20her%20way%20through%20school,%20%20etc.%20-%20and%20set%20the%20stage%20for%20what%20followed%20even%20before%20Nifong%20got%20involved.”>I</a>*</p>

554

<p>After reading the link posted by irishforever, I disagree with you Kluge. I think this whole thing was a deliberate tactic used by Nifong to secure his retirement at all cost. Unfortunately for him, it backfired!!! :mad:</p>

<p>I was shocked at this disclosure (from the N&O) link):</p>

<p>""He said, ‘I really don’t want this job; I was the last one on the list. I just need three years and seven months for retirement. You won’t have to worry about running another campaign for me.’ "</p>

<p>Brown was taken aback: Did Nifong, then 55, really want to go through the hassle of a campaign? "He said, ‘I know nothing about politics. That’s why I need you to be campaign manager.’ "</p>

<p>Four more years would make a big difference for Nifong’s retirement. If he served five years as a district attorney, his 29 years as a regular state employee would apply to the more lucrative retirement plan for a district attorney; overnight, in April 2010, his annual pension would increase by at least $15,000 a year.“”</p>

555

<p>I respectfully disagree with your analysis of Nifong, kluge (and you know that I have really appreciated your posts since this whole thing started!) Read the N & O article, and KC Johnson’s unbelievably thoroughly researched and written blog (Durham in Wonderland) to get some further information.</p>

<p>Are you really buying the “no harm, no foul” argument with regard to the DNA evidence of the multiple-males?? Katherine Jean, the counsel arguing for the NC Bar at the motion-to-dismiss hearing yesterday, pointed out that the vast majority of cases do not go to trial–how many have been pleaded because the prosecuter has withheld exculpatory evidence?? Were those defendants not supposed to have a chance to see that exculpatory evidence before they accepted a plea bargain? If there is no “timely” production of discovery, how is a defendant been given the civil rights to which he/she is due? </p>

<p>Jim Cooney, one of the defense attorneys in the case, participated in the Liestoppers Discussion Board last night for the first time. He said they were so lucky that Brad Bannon (another of the attorneys) locked himself in a room with 2000 pages of documents turned over by the DNA Securities lab (which did the further testing ordered by Nifong) for hours and hours, trying to understand the science of it all) It was pure luck that he was able to have figured it all out before Meehan testified at the hearing on the case in December. They did not know he was going to be there in person. If another defendant did not have the means to have these lawyers, who would have found out about that most damning (to the prosecution’s case) of exculpatory evidence?</p>

556

<p>Actually, I do buy that story. 2000 pages? Yeah - so what? That’s a lawyer’s job. I’ve waded through ten times that much stuff - it’s exactly the kind of thing we do. And in this case there was no way there wasn’t going to be a good lawyer looking the stuff over, and Nifong had to know that. This case wasn’t going to plea bargain - by last July that was clear. I think it’s true that Nifong didn’t want the results in the press, but I can’t imagine that he thought that the defense wouldn’t know about it by the time the case came to trial. Keeping it out of the report summary was just another way of hunkering down until the magical evidence of guilt flew in the window, making everything all right.</p>

<p>There’s a long and ugly history of lawyers actually burying evidence - not turning it over at all, even destroying it - that anyone in law is aware of. By turning over the 2000 pages of documents, Nifong had to know it would come out eventually, and certainly at any trial.</p>

557

<p>Lest you all forget - the Durham newspaper ran this story on March 25, written before Nifong had taken over the case: </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/421799-p2.html[/url]”>http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/421799-p2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Excerpts:</p>

<p>The woman who says she was raped last week by three members of the Duke University lacrosse team thought she would be dancing for five men at a bachelor party, she said Friday. But when she arrived that night, she found herself surrounded by more than 40.</p>

<p>Just moments after she and another exotic dancer started to perform, she said, men in the house started barking racial slurs. The two women, both black, stopped dancing.</p>

<p>“We started to cry,” she said. “We were so scared.”</p>

<hr>

<p>The accuser had worked for an escort company for two months, doing one-on-one dates about three times a week.</p>

<p>“It wasn’t the greatest job,” she said, her voice trailing off. But with two children, and a full class load at N.C. Central University, it paid well and fit her schedule.</p>

<p>This was the first time she had been hired to dance provocatively for a group, she said. There was no security to protect her, and as the men became aggressive, the two women started to leave. After some of the men apologized for the behavior, the women went back inside, according to police. That’s when the woman was pulled into a bathroom and raped and sodomized, police said.</p>

<p>She hesitated to tell police what happened, she said Friday. She realized she had to, for her young daughter and her father.</p>

<p>A hurt that would last</p>

<p>“My father came to see me in the hospital,” she said. “I knew if I didn’t report it that he would have that hurt forever, knowing that someone hurt his baby and got away with it.”</p>

<p>Jason Bissey, who was on his porch next door during the party, saw the victim that night. He said Friday that he wishes he had called police at the first sign something was wrong.</p>

<p>He saw at least 30 men go into the white three-bedroom house, which Duke officials say is rented by three lacrosse team captains.</p>

<p>Bissey saw two women arrive and, after they were in the house 20 minutes, come out. As they got into a car, men shouted, Bissey said.</p>

<p>"Some of them were saying things like, ‘I want my money back,’ " Bissey said.</p>

<p>He recalled the racially charged statements at least one man was yelling at the victim.</p>

<p>"When I was outside, one guy yelled at her, ‘… Thank your grandpa for my cotton shirt,’ " Bissey said.</p>

<p>Nifong wasn’t the only one who bought into the story at the start. It’s the way he handled the case falling apart that was the main problem from the legal side. From the press side? I’m not sure that any outcome other than what happened would have had the effect of publicly exonerating the students the way they have been exonerated now. Still waiting to hear from Nancy Grace…</p>

558

<p><a href=“Detroit Local News - Michigan News - Breaking News - detroitnews.com”>Detroit Local News - Michigan News - Breaking News - detroitnews.com;

<p>This is a well written commentary comparing the Duke case and the Rutgers case. A poster on the Imus (Rutgers) thread stated that she was sick of the comparisons. She might like this one. That particular poster may even agree with this statement from this commentary:</p>

<p>“Those who have performed most honorably throughout this disgraceful season of sexual spin and racial one-upmanship are the athletes from both teams. Mature and dignified during their respective news conferences, they’ve put the grown-ups to shame and offer reason to hope that the rising generation of young Americans will put this corrupt house in order.”</p>

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<p>^^ ooo that quoted statement really says it all - and I totally agree with it :)</p>

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<p>Actually, thinking about it, both the article and Kluge are right - it’s not an either/or scenario. I think Nifong specifically set out to win the election and used the accuser as the catalyst to general media, etc. I also think he did so initially because he did believe her (either because he was literally that dumb, or, perhaps because he vey desperately needed to believe her because it suited his agenda - or perhaps she was literally very convincing, in the way that sociopaths tend to be), and then, just like Kluge said, he waited and hoped for the condemning elements of supporting evidence to magically appear on his desk. I can see it happening. Just because no evidence arrived on Wednesday didn’t mean it couldn’t magically appear on Thursday, etc. </p>

<p>Of course, at some point he’d dug a hole so deep that it was not going to be possible for him to dig out. (He either never learned, or forgot, “the first rule of holes: when you’re in one, stop digging”.) But in any case he totally lacked the strength of character to step up to the plate and say “I’ve made a mistake, I am in error.”</p>

<p>Now that I think about it, this manifests in financial fraud issues all the time - a person with an otherwise nice CV, stable life, solid professional reputation makes a serious error in judgment, and then takes incremental steps into crime, digging themselves deeper and deeper with each successive action. Most of them never actually fully form the intention to commit multiple felonies, but. before they know it, they’re in too deep, but, on some level they convince themselves that the avenue of correction is just around the corner - the embezzeler (sp) imagines or convinces themselves that the big payday will magically arrive; when it does they will be able to pay everything back and cover their tracks, and everything will be just fine and no one will ever know, etc. It’s easy to think all will be forever normal when one is going through day to day respectable activities - taking the kids to school, going to work, etc. Of course, they get caught, or the scheme implodes, etc. Or the fraudster does something wrong “just this once” to get out of a tight squeeze, but of course one event becomes a growing habit and they end up committing multiple frauds, and so on.</p>