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SaltyDog
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Posted: Dec 23rd, 2006 02:52 am |
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It is frightening to me that a DA can bring such serious charges against citizens without a shred of credible evidence. What happened to the checks and balances in the legal system that should protect us from this kind of abuse of power?
The only thing DA Nifong has that incriminates any lacrosse players is the woman's allegations. On the flip side there is a mountain of evidence that contradicts those allegations, much of it from the accuser herself. She has given multiple contradictory accounts of what happened at that party. There is simply no dispute that she is a liar. The only question is which, if any, of her statements are true. There is no forensic evidence that supports her story. All the evidence - DNA, Cab Driver, ATM Records, Photographs, Eyewitness testimony either does not support or directly contradicts the accuser's story.
Rape is a horrible crime. False accusations of rape is an equivalently horrible crime. I'm confident that eventually all the charges related to sexual assault and kidnapping will be dropped as well but what I fear is that this DA and this false accuser will not be held accountable.
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S. Smith
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Posted: Dec 23rd, 2006 02:12 pm |
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mstone wrote: I don't want to be offensive to anyone here, but can someone explain how you can't remember if you were raped or not? Either you were raped by 3 men or you were lying. I'm pretty sure I know where that one falls.
The other troubling thing is that Nifong isn't dropping all of the charges - just the rape charges. They are still charged with kidnapping and sexual offense. That's gonna be hard to prove as well. Since it's been discovered that Nifong knew the DNA evidence didn't link the players, but hid it from the defense and public during his election campaign, the wheels are falling off this bus very rapidly. His credibility is GONE, and anyone in Durham hoping for any justice had better hope that they don't have to depend on the DA to prosecute a real crime.
Well, unless someone was on drugs or extremely drunk or had some other circumstances that would explain it, I can't imagine anyone "not remembering." This is something that, as a woman, I can tell you would be incredibly disturbing and something you wouldn't just forget.
Why is he not dropping all the charges? The election is over, for goodness sake. What is he trying to prove at this point? Is he still trying to play the race card or the "rich, white, privileged kids" vs. the "poor, minority, impoverished victim"? Is he trying to impress or save face with the NAACP, ACLU and other groups? I just don't know what he's trying to prove, and the citizens are stuck with him for another 4 years.
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S. Smith
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Posted: Dec 28th, 2006 10:11 pm |
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| I just saw on TV that an ethics complaint has been filed against Nifong by the N.C. Bar Association. Do you think he should be censured by the Bar Association? What kind of punishment does he deserve?
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Waytago
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Posted: Dec 29th, 2006 02:06 am |
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Waytago to the NC Bar, holding this DA accountable.
He has abused the legal system badly, the same system that is supposed to seek "justice".
I hope he gets disbarred, and County has to reimburse the families for their legal fees plus some more.
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S. Smith
Moderator
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Posted: Jan 4th, 2007 01:38 pm |
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Now I see Duke has offered to let the charged players (other than the one who already graduated) come back to school there.
How magnanimous of them! Besides Nifong's atrocious behavior and obvious political posturing (and pitting the "have nots" against the "haves" in Durham County), I'm also really disappointed in Duke's response to this whole thing. I know they were trying to cover their butts, but this seemed to be more a case of "guilty until proven innocent" instead of the other way around.
If I were these young men, I'd tell Duke to forget it and find some other university (if they haven't already) to attend. Then, if I had the money (as the families of these students may), I'd probably sue.
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mstone
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Posted: Jan 6th, 2007 02:27 am |
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Let the lawsuits begin! Report tonight states that a Duke lacrosse player not implicated in the legal mess was given an "F" by a professor. The student claims that he has always made a "C", but the professor stated his displeasure about the Duke lacrosse players, the rape case, and their bad behavior. The family is suing the university and professor for $60,000. Isn't that about enough to cover a semester?
I think this is just the first crack in the dam. Nifong doesn't have enough fingers to plug the holes and prevent the upcoming flood.
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Starcatchr
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Posted: Jan 6th, 2007 06:40 pm |
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| Hopefully a lesson can be learned here. It seems that we are all too ready to point the finger of guilt before we know all the facts. The sad thing is that the defendants lives are forever tarnished even though they are proven not guilty. There are always those who turn a blind eye to the truth.
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ff12
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Posted: Jan 10th, 2007 03:37 am |
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The end result of all of this is the lives of 5 people have been changed forever. This will follow them wherever they go from now on. Everything cannot be blamed on Nifong though, if the players had not had a party and hired the dancers , and if she had found a different line of work....................this could go on forever.(not really forever)
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SaltyDog
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Posted: Jan 10th, 2007 01:06 pm |
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I think that the vast majority of the blame does go to Nifong. He made this a national news story early on by giving more than 70 interviews with local and national media in the first 3 weeks after the charges became public. He made inflamatrory statements that were based on nothing more than the accuser's statements and he chose to ignore the inconsistencies of her statements. At that time (and still today) he had not one shred of physical evidence to support the accuser's claims. He stated categorically that rape was committed and that the DNA evidence would prove it. When DNA tests only proved that the accuser had had multiple partners, none of which were lacrosse players, he chose to downplay the tests and suppress evidence. He made completely unfounded statements accusing the entire lacrosse team of "a wall of silence". He injected race and priviledge into the equation that was pure speculation. He reduced the sentences of witnesses that he thought would bolster his case (see Kim Roberts, the second dancer, probation for embezzlement) and trumped up charges against witnesses who could hurt his case (see Reid Seligman's cab driver and a 5 year old shoplifting charge).
I'm not claiming that the Duke Lacrosse team is as pure as the driven snow but think about what would happen if every college student who participated in underage drinking or hired a stripper was charged with rape.
Nifong's gross abuse of power in a transparent attempt to get re-elected is the only reason that any of us has ever heard of this incident.
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macca
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Posted: Jan 16th, 2007 11:33 am |
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| Interesting that Nifong finally asked for a special prosecutor in this case. Did he have to initiate this, or could the state have stepped in earlier?
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Steve Adkins
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Posted: Jan 16th, 2007 02:53 pm |
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Did anybody see 60 Minutes Sunday night?
Had an interview with the parents of these students, needless to say they were not happy campers. They didn't use the word "revenge", but it was fairly apparent Nifong won't get a Christmas card from them anytime soon.
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macca
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Posted: Jan 16th, 2007 03:20 pm |
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I did catch that, Steve-o. I thought it was really well done, and thought the parents contained/controlled themselves very well. Speaking as a parent, I know they are seething.
I think you are right.... As one of them put it, Nifong will be dealing with this for the rest of his life, just as these families and their sons will.... These parents are going to make sure they aren't the only ones who are forever linked to this infamous case.
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A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. Herm Albright
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SaltyDog
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Posted: Jan 16th, 2007 07:58 pm |
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In the "60 Minutes" piece one of the Moms brought up the point that all parents with sons should be concerned about this case - all it takes is a rape accusation with no other supporting evidence and your son could be arrested, indicted, threatened and dragged thru the muck for a year or so.
I am amazed at the lack of checks and balances in the legal system. I naively thought that grand juries were supposed to stop DAs from obtaining indictments on such flimsy evidence - but I guess it's true as the defense attorneys said "you could indict a ham sandwich"
This certainly makes me want to take a closer look at who I vote for DA next time around.
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mstone
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Posted: Jan 16th, 2007 08:27 pm |
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Did this case go to a grand jury? I can't remember. If it did, all they heard was the Nifong version. Does this mean he suppressed evidence from them as well?
Your final point is the one we should all take to heart. I think folks too often simply skip over the DA and judges up for election, or they vote for the one they saw on the TV ad. These positions are critically important to our civilized society. Judges and DAs that don't reflect high morals, values, and standards of law have no place in our justice system. Voters MUST become informed about those seeking office and vote accordingly.
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Jim Flynt
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Posted: Jan 16th, 2007 10:07 pm |
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| Edited by Poster. Last edited on Aug 5th, 2007 11:29 am by Jim Flynt
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