Rape Charges Dropped in Duke Case
Rape Charges Dropped in Duke Case
Rape Charges Dropped in Duke Case (Hmm…I’m sensing a pattern here….)
Rape charges against Duke lacrosse players dropped
DURHAM, N.C. - The district attorney dropped rape charges Friday against the three Duke University lacrosse players after the stripper who accused them changed her story again. But the men still face kidnapping and sex charges that could bring more than 30 years in prison. A lawyer for one of the athletes bitterly demanded that District Attorney Mike Nifong drop the remaining counts, accusing him of offering shifting theories of the crime in an attempt to win the case at any cost….In dropping the rape charges, Nifong filed court papers that said the accuser told an investigator Thursday that she is no longer certain whether she was penetrated vaginally with the men’s penises, as she had claimed earlier. Nifong previously said he would 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, the district attorney said in court papers, “the state is unable to meet its burden of proof with respect to this offense.”
Frankly, I can think of no one more richly deserving of TPRS’ landmark 500th DUMB@$$ AWARD than Durham (NC) County District Attorney Mike Nifong. After manipulating the media and apparently constructing a rape case out of whole cloth, smoke, and mirrors, and after ruining the reputations of men who deserved better, Nifong has stepped aside with a sorry “Oops…my bad!” He’s clinging to the thin thread of hope for redemption with some lesser charges that require lower burdens of proof, but the reality that Nifong’s credibility is toast. He’s had to admit (though not in so many words) that he doesn’t have a case, he never HAD a case, and this was reality all about Mike Nifong.
While no one except the people allegedly involved really know what, if anything happened on the night of March 13th, Nifong apparently saw this case as a means to both ensure his re-election as District Attorney and to make a name for himself on a national stage (You know, if I play this right, I could be the next Roger Cossack!!). Instead, through his ham-handed, insensitive, and self-superior bungling of this case, he’s revealed himself to be a world-class DUMB@$$ and an insenstive tyrant of the first order.
It would be one thing if Nifong had conduct a vigorous investigation and perhaps had merely bitten off more than he could chew. Rape allegations are serious, and the political effects and the impact upon a community is no small thing. If Nifong had conducted his investigation with even a modicum of honesty, some of the divisiveness that affected the Durham and Duke communities might have been avoided. Instead, Nifong seemed far more concerned with his own self-aggrandizement and career advancement.
Beyond merely being a DUMB@$$, Nifong’s prosecutorial misconduct borders on the unethical, if not the criminal. Frankly, Mike Nifong should be the one up on charges, not Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann. While I’m not about to defend the sort of sexist and misogynistic behavior Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann appear to have been involved in, they did not deserve to have their names and reputations ruined by a DA looking to grab the brass ring.
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.
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….
The defense has complained that the stripper has given authorities at least a dozen different versions of her story. Among other things, she has given conflicting accounts of the number of attackers - anywhere from three to 20 - and the ways in which she was supposedly assaulted.
Last week, it was learned that DNA testing arranged by the prosecution at a private laboratory found genetic material from several men on the stripper’s underwear and body, but that none of it came from the players.
Great, so you have a complete and total lack of any sort of DNA evidence, or ANY physical evidence, for that matter. All Nifong has is a women who’s provided multiple stories, and no longer has a shred of credibility. Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann may well be Grade-A misanthropes who regard women as objects who exist to give them pleasure. They may not be sympathetics characters in this tragicomedy…but does that give the DA the right to ruin their reputations in a transparent effort to advance his own career?
Mike Nifong built a house of cards, and though it’s long since crumbled around him, he has taken his sweet time in admitting to his mistakes and, by implication, his twisted motives. IF there had been any credible evidence connecting Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann to any sort of sexual assault, don’t you think this would have come out long ago?
Nifong’s actions nearly destroyed the Duke lacrosse program, and it did destroy the success and career of the team’s coach, Mike Pressler, who deserved better than to be made a scapegoat by the university for something he had no control over. Duke University’s President, Richard Broadhead, needed a sacrificial lamb to demonstrate that he was taking this matter “seriously”, so he tossed Pressler, who frankly deserved better, to the wolves.
Besides Nifong’s incompetence and self-interested pursuit of this case, careers and reputations have been laid to waste. IF Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann are in fact guilty of rape, then why hasn’t Nifong laid out his case instead of allowing things to drag out? Why weren’t their attorneys made aware of the evidence that would be used against their clients?
The first two words that come to mind regarding Nifong’s actions are “prosecutorial misconduct”. At a minimum, Nifong ought to be brought up on charges before the North Carolina bar, and if he’s in fact guilty of prosecutorial misconduct, he ought to be disbarred. Frankly, if I were the defense attorneys involved, I’d be suing Nifong until he was left with nothing but a frayed jockstrap and a deck of cards…and then I’d go after the jockstrap. After this travesty of justice, it’s the least he deserves.
