Criminal Law
Durham-in-Wonderland 
All about the Duke Lacrosse Player / Mike Nifong case.
Post Frequency: 0.7/day Last Entry: November 09, 2009 at 14:43:00 Recent Entries: 253
By K.C. Johnson
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"Alleged"
Posted on November 09, 2009The media generally does not withhold information as a matter of official policy. But, to my knowledge, every major newspaper in the country has an official policy of not reporting the names of accusers in rape or sexual assault cases. (I?m not aware of any paper that has a policy of refusing to report the name of suspects in sexual assault cases...
News & Notes
Posted on November 02, 2009Few journalists performed as poorly in the lacrosse case as Samiha Khanna. Virtually every statement in her N&O interview with false accuser Crystal Mangum turned out to be wrong. Khanna seemed not to have even bothered to do a basic reporting task?checking her interviewee?s name in the N&O database?which would have uncovered not only Mangum?s criminal conviction but would have proved that Mangum had lied to Khanna in claiming that she was a newcomer to the world of exotic dancing...
In the Can
Posted on October 26, 2009I recently received an email from DIW reader and commenter ES Class of 1990. He reports:I got a fundraising call from a Duke Freshman this evening. This is a tried and true Duke event, in which living groups raise money for Duke and get a slice for their group or cause...
Pottawatamie County & Nifong
Posted on October 19, 2009In 1978, in Iowa?s Pottawattamie County, a retired police officer working as a security guard was murdered. Police and prosecutorial attention rapidly focused on Curtis McGhee and Terry Harrington. The two suspects were tried, convicted, and imprisoned for more than two decades...
Academic Free Speech
Posted on October 17, 2009An excellent essay by Peter Berkowitz on the topic. Here's his perceptive summary of the Duke case:In 2006, even as the police had barely begun their investigation, Duke University President Richard Brodhead lent the prestige of his office to faculty members' prosecution and conviction in the court of public opinion of three members of the Duke lacrosse team falsely accused of gang raping an African-American exotic dancer...
More from the Group
Posted on October 12, 2009While Wahneema Lubiano?she who wrote, without any citation, that ?many whites . . . might not ever be persuaded by appeals to reason, to what we ?know? and agree to be ?truth??that all men/women were created equal, for example??is busy tending to all Duke undergraduates through her position as a departmental director of undergraduate education, three other Group members made news last week...
A Treat for Duke Students
Posted on October 07, 2009At most large universities, the position of undergraduate deputy serves as the department's ambassador to the undergraduate student population. He or she is the professor to whom students will come with questions about the department's courses, or rules and regulations, or faculty members...
Updates, Including Bob Steel's Latest
Posted on October 05, 2009If I were looking for the identity of someone least likely to be named trustee for a major hospital, former Duke BOT chairman Bob Steel would be high on the list. Leaving aside Steel's ill-fated performance at Wachovia, Duke under Steel's leadership paid out millions of dollars in settlements and legal fees from lawsuits stimulated, in large part, by the dubious conduct at Duke University Hospital...
More from Yale & Hofstra
Posted on September 28, 2009Writing at cbsnews.com, legal analyst Andrew Cohen expressed concern about the legal impact of the massive publicity in the Yale murder case. Taking note of the breathless reporting from ?anonymous? sources, Cohen noted that ?it?s no wonder that [defendant Raymond] Clark?s attorneys now are talking about opening a legal ethics case into the way prosecutors and the police have trampled upon Clark?s fair trial rights, and his constitutionally-protected presumption of innocence...
The Times, the Post, and Hofstra
Posted on September 23, 2009The name ?Crystal Mangum? only appeared on the news pages of the New York Times after Mangum published her ?memoir.? Carrying its policy of not naming sexual assault accusers to an absurdist extreme, the Times refused to use Mangum?s name when reporting on Attorney General Cooper?s announcement that Mangum?s myriad, mutually contradictory claims were wholly false and without any evidence...
From the Newsdesk
Posted on September 21, 2009Two issues in the news over the past week have brought to mind lessons of the lacrosse case. The first, of course, came at Hofstra, where a freshman student named Danmell Ndonye falsely accused five men of raping her. Four of the men were arrested, solely on the basis of Ndonye?s claims; the only one of the four who was a Hofstra student was immediately suspended by the university...
A Note from Hofstra
Posted on September 17, 2009Doubtless Wendy Murphy will be appearing on some news program to demand that the "secret" evidence from this case be released as well.The County DA stated, "Late this evening, during the continuation of the Nassau County Police Department's investigation of the allegation, and under questioning by my office's chief trial attorney and chief sex crimes prosecutor, the alleged victim of the sexual assault admitted that the encounter that took place early Sunday morning was consensual...
A Final Word on Lisak
Posted on September 14, 2009As I noted in my previous posts, Duke women?s center director Ada Gregory, in her damage-control letter to the Chronicle, cited the work of researcher David Lisak to bolster her . . . provocative . . . claim that elite universities face a particular threat from potential rapists because these institutions house more intelligent people than the general public...
On Gregory and Lisak
Posted on September 10, 2009Duke Women?s Center director Ada Gregory came under justifiable criticism for her preposterous recent assertion to the Chronicle: ?The higher IQ, the more manipulative they are, the more cunning they are . . . imagine the sex offenders we have here at Duke?cream of the crop...
Updates
Posted on September 07, 2009I?ll have a more substantive post up tomorrow; for today, however, a few loose ends: 1.) For those interested, I have an article at Minding the Campus looking at the transformation of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) from an organization committed to upholding academic freedom into a group whose leadership is obsessed with protecting the majority viewpoint in the contemporary academy...
Simply Extraordinary
Posted on September 01, 2009Three Duke University students were the victims of the highest-profile fraudulent rape claim in modern American history. That fact alone should make the University particularly sensitive to the dangers of false rape allegations, and the need for a firm commitment to due process in handling any allegation of sexual misconduct...
August Events in the Case
Posted on August 31, 2009No major developments in the civil case; blog posts looked at the following items:a California case of a wrongfully convicted man, but which also illustrated that the conviction of the innocent doesn't necessarily suggest prosecutorial misconduct;the Gerst Program at Duke, which provides an oasis of liberal arts learning amidst the race/class/gender dominated sea in Duke's humanities and social sciences departments;a letter from two Duke graduates, noting the striking contract between the response of the administration and faculty "activists" to the Lombard and lacrosse cases;a low-work proposal from Group of 88 stalwart Cathy Davidson, who will allow students to grade themselves, even as she admits she doesn't much like grading;a reminder of the contempt through which Davidson views those with whom she politically disagrees...
The Gerst Oasis
Posted on August 24, 2009Despite the many problems in contemporary academia, working within the system is almost always preferable to seeking solutions imposed by legislators. A good example of the unintended consequences of outside intervention came a few years ago, when legislatures in several states (Ohio and Florida most prominently) considered an academic bill of rights...
Four* Items
Posted on August 17, 2009Forbes is the latest national publication to produce a college ranking list, and I doubt that this item will make Duke alumni mailings. Duke is ranked 104th, behind Hendrix College (Arkansas), Berea College (Kentucky), St. Mary?s College (California) and conservative favorite Hillsdale College in Michigan...
The Lisker Case
Posted on August 12, 2009A few years ago, TalkLeft?s incomparable Jeralyn Merrill (one of the first high-profile legal commentators to raise questions about Mike Nifong?s misconduct) flagged a Los Angeles Times magazine article about a convicted murderer named Bruce Lisker. The lengthy article is well worth reading: it?s impossible to come away from it without believing that an innocent man has spent more than 20 years of his life in jail for a crime he didn?t commit...
A Bit More from Davidson
Posted on August 10, 2009On a few occasions over the course of the blog, I?ve mentioned the 2004 Duke Conservative Union survey, which revealed that an 18-1 majority of Duke humanities faculty members were registered Democrats. Surveying professors? political registration is, at best, a blunt instrument in determining the intellectual atmosphere on campus...
Davidson Does Grading
Posted on August 04, 2009Cathy Davidson occupies a unique place in the history of Duke?s response to the lacrosse case. Widely perceived as among the more moderate of the Group of 88, Davidson humiliated herself by penning the first apologia for the Group?s action. In her January 2007 op-ed, the Duke English professor invented a past that never existed, claiming that in the first two weeks after the case broke?a time when both local and national coverage was overwhelmingly slanted against the lacrosse players?the media was in fact ?rampant? with ?racist and sexist remarks,? with those intent on ?defending David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann ...
July Events in the Case
Posted on August 03, 2009All three sets of attorneys provided a forceful rebuttal to the Duke/Durham claim that the recent Iqbal decision justifies dismissal of the civil cases. In one of the briefs' better passages, "In supplemental briefs, the wrongdoers behind the Duke lacrosse case?one of the best-documented episodes of police and prosecutorial civil rights abuses in modern history?contend that their misconduct can never be the subject of a federal action because the pleading requirements of Rule 8(a) present an insurmountable barrier...
Who Were the Sociologist Signatories?
Posted on July 27, 2009At this stage, nothing should surprise me about this case. But I admit that even I was a little taken aback at reading the May 1, 2006 Sociology professors/graduate students letter that was uncovered in the Campus Cultural Initiative archive. (I summarized the letter here and reprinted it here)...
No Comment
Posted on July 27, 2009I recommend sitting down as you read the identity of the lawyer "representing" the 911 caller in the Gates case.What's next? Crystal Mangum as a PR consultant?
I Don't Recall . . .
Posted on July 24, 2009Vanderbilt University professor Houston A. Baker being so concerned with the importance of protesting police misconduct when those whose civil liberties were being violated went to school at his then-institution. Nor do I recall Distinguished Professor Baker being so concerned about the importance of avoiding racial profiling when he elected to comment on the case involving his own institution's students, acting as he did solely on the version of events presented by the police and the prosecutor...
The Players' Iqbal Briefs
Posted on July 20, 2009All three sets of attorneys for the lacrosse players have now filed their response briefs on the Iqbal issue. (I discussed the University?s and the city?s briefs here and here.) Here are their main points:1.) The Defendants Misread IqbalVirtually all of the defendants strongly implied that Iqbal made it much harder for the plaintiffs to survive summary judgment...
Checking in with the Group
Posted on July 13, 2009A recent issue of Duke Magazine featured three members of the Group of 88 showing that critical self-reflection is not a hallmark of Group scholarship. The first essay?coupled with a bizarre photograph?came from Karla Holloway, identified as ?James B...
A Troubling Case
Posted on July 09, 2009A disturbing, and compellingly written, ESPN article that I strongly recommend. The lacrosse case shone a light on the guilty-until-proven-innocent nature of rape law: the idea that someone can be, theoretically, convicted solely on the basis of an accuser?s testimony and ID?even in the face of evidence of actual innocence?is chilling...
More from the Comments Thread
Posted on July 08, 2009At View-from-Wilimington, Chris Halkides summarizes what I consider unfortunate recent behavior by the blogger John in Carolina--whose work on the lacrosse case I had admired (with the exception of what seems to me his unfair unwillingness to consider the N&O's work after early April 2006 in evaluating the N&O's overall performance in the case)...
Nifong & Gottlieb
Posted on July 06, 2009Two additional items worth noting from the recent civil suit filings. First, the changing views of disgraced ex-DA Mike Nifong on the merits of the case that cost him his career:April 12, 2007:To the extent that I made judgments that ultimately proved to be incorrect, I apologize to the three students that were wrongly accused...
The Iqbal Briefs: The Falsely Accused Players
Posted on July 01, 2009As I noted Monday, several new filings in the lacrosse case have come in, all dealing with the Supreme Court?s recent decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, described by one commentator as ?an unexpected gift for the business community.?Today?s post summarizes the filings in the three falsely accused players? lawsuit...
(Yet Another) Comment re Comments Policy
Posted on June 30, 2009I continue to be amazed at how, despite my having written more than 1300 posts totaling more than 1.3 million words on the case, a few readers continue to attempt to discern my attitudes not by examining any of those 1.3 million words but instead by ruminating over comments I have or have not cleared--despite the unequivocal wording of the blog's stated comments policy: "My clearing a comment implies neither that I agree nor that I disagree with the comment...
The Iqbal Briefs: The Unindicted Players
Posted on June 29, 2009Friday?s Wall Street Journal profiled the recent Supreme Court decision Ashcroft v. Iqbal, which is now at the heart of the lacrosse case. At the request of Duke?s attorneys, Judge Beaty allowed all parties to the case to file briefs regarding Iqbal; offerings from Duke, various Durham entities, and DNA Security have arrived...
From the CCI Archive: More Documents
Posted on June 25, 2009A few more documents from the CCI archive.After Karla Holloway resigned her CCI subcommittee chairmanship via a mass e-mail containing fifth-hand, unsubstantiated gossip about Duke students, the Chronicle asked CCI head Bob Thompson for comment. You?d think that the head of a committee ostensibly devoted to improving ?campus culture? would have been outraged by a senior faculty member behaving in such an intemperate fashion...
Pearlman Defends Roberts
Posted on June 24, 2009One striking element of the reaction to the lacrosse case has been the general willingness of those who rushed to judgment (i.e., the Group of 88, Selena Roberts) to attempt to cover up what they did in spring 2006?rather than simply apologize for their rush to judgment?and the willingness of their apologists (Charlie Piot and Robert Zimmerman are the best examples here) to accept their after-the-fact rationalizations even when those rationalizations directly contradict contemporary documentary evidence...
From the CCI Archive: Documents
Posted on June 22, 2009It seemed worthwhile to post some of the actual documents from the CCI archive; the first batch will come today, a second batch will appear Thursday. First, some items from Group of 88?er Anne Allison?s Gender and Sexuality Subcommittee. This summary document from the Allison Subcommittee contains many of the key elements of the Group of 88 approach?from anonymous, random quotes from alleged Duke students to blind acceptance of desired assertions from ideologically preferred groups...
CFN Conference
Posted on June 18, 2009For those interested, I'll be speaking this evening at the Campus Freedom Network conference; a live-stream is available.
From the CCI Archive: Voices of the Extremists
Posted on June 18, 2009As his committee began to take shape, CCI head Bob Thompson received a number of e-mails reminding him that the coterie of extremists that swarmed the Duke campus in spring 2006 extended beyond the Group of 88. In early April 2008, a Duke student named Tsahai Tafari (who described herself as an African-American woman) told Thompson that ?I have been afraid of the young white men on campus at Duke for a very long time, and the racist assault and ...
The CCI: Closing Months
Posted on June 15, 2009(This post is the third in a series using documents from the CCI's own archive, which I recently read.)By the time the CCI took up its work in fall 2006, the case to which President Brodhead had inextricably linked its mission had all but collapsed. Mike Nifong had become a national laughingstock; the Group of 88 was busy revising history; and Duke students were registering to vote in unprecedented numbers to try and effect change through the system...
The CCI: Summer 2006
Posted on June 11, 2009During summer 2006, the CCI?s four subcommittees went to work. The initiative?s directors, Bob Thompson and Larry Moneta, made no pretense of balance in selecting subcommittee chairs, instead handing three of the four over to figures on the extremist fringe of discourse about the lacrosse case: Karla Holloway chaired the race subcommittee, just as she was analyzing the case through a take-no-prisoners lens: ?White innocence means black guilt...
Note re Roberts
Posted on June 10, 2009It appears as if the National Mendacity Tour failed to pay off for Selena Roberts. The AP reports: Published in early May by HarperCollins with an announced first printing of 150,000, "A-Rod" has sold just 16,000 copies so far, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 75 percent of industry sales...
The CCI: Spring 2006
Posted on June 08, 2009The Campus Culture Initiative was among the most outrageous examples of the Duke administration?s response to the lacrosse case. Launched in the same message in which President Brodhead canceled the 2006 season (and on the same day in which he sent his guilt-presuming ?letter? to the Duke community), the CCI functioned as a caricature of what?s wrong with higher education today...
Bowen on Sotomayor
Posted on June 08, 2009Few high-profile figures who involved themselves in the lacrosse case embarrassed themselves more than did William Bowen. The former Princeton president, invited with the NAACP?s Julius Chambers to review the Duke administration?s response to the case by Duke President Richard Brodhead, produced a report that could have passed as a parody of political correctness...
Civil Suit Delay
Posted on June 05, 2009ORDER signed by CHIEF JUDGE JAMES A. BEATY, JR on 6/4/2009 that within 20 days of the date of this Order, any of the previously-designated Defendant groups may file a Supplemental Brief, not to exceed 20 pages, addressing the impact of the Supreme Court's decision in Ashcroft v...
On the Schedule
Posted on June 04, 2009A quick announcement: I have obtained the archive of the Campus Culture Initiative, the Brodhead-launched undertaking which had as task force chairs Karla Holloway, Peter Wood, and Anne Allison. The archive includes internal committee documents and a handful of e-mails...
Selena Roberts National Mendacity Tour
Posted on June 01, 2009Selena Roberts appears have concluded her appearances to promote her new book on A-Rod. The interviews doubled as a National Mendacity Tour regarding Roberts? writings on the lacrosse case. As the Mendacity Tour comes to a close, I thought it would be useful to compile the range of Roberts? distorted, misleading, and outright false statements about her work on the lacrosse case...
May Events in the Case
Posted on May 30, 2009As part of her A-Rod book tour, Selena Roberts offered misleading and outright false statements about her writings on the case. On Monday, I?ll be providing a comprehensive summary of the Roberts National Mendacity Tour.[I should note that I previously suggested "some slanders are too outrageous even for Selena Roberts," and that Roberts had dropped her ludicrous claim that her rush-to-judgment columns were justified because the players placed "pornographic" photos of false accuser Crystal Mangum on the internet...
"Diversity" and Duke Admissions
Posted on May 28, 2009These are quite striking totals, courtesy of TaxProf Blog. The level of detail in this data is unusual.Duke Admissions and Academic Performance: Race and Ethnicity Variable White Black Asian Latino Admissions office evaluations --Achievement 4...
The Next Generation
Posted on May 25, 2009This blog has often noted how?in the race/class/gender groupthink atmosphere that dominates many humanities and some social sciences departments?it is likely that the academy will become more extreme in the foreseeable future. Since department members control new hires, those likely to challenge the status quo can be screened out at the stage of the job description or, if the candidate somehow makes it past the screening committee, at the campus interview...
Roberts: The Art of Deception
Posted on May 21, 2009Selena Roberts continued yesterday her National Mendacity Tour, this time speaking to WEEI, where she again lied about what she wrote in her infamous March 31, 2006 column on the lacrosse case. Roberts began by again claiming that she wrote merely about the ?culture? and not the ?crime?; later in the interview, she all but taunted her hosts to look at her guilt-presuming March 2006 column...
Three Updates
Posted on May 20, 20091.) For those who missed it, the Duke men's lacrosse team will be heading back to this year's Final Four, after defeating UNC in the quarterfinals. This year's team is the last one in which several key members were at Duke at the time the case began; the list of stars includes Brad Ross, whose ability to show that he never was even in Durham the night of the party played such a key role in demonstrating Crystal Mangum's lying ways...
From the Wires
Posted on May 18, 2009Two . . . intriguing . . . items crossed my desk Friday.The first came from Durham mayor Bill Bell. WTVD ran a lengthy story noting that Durham officials, including Bell, have complained again about Duke students? off-campus partying?and some of the student behavior in Tamara Gibbs? story is disgusting (although, I suspect, not exactly unheard of in any college or university town in the country, not just Durham)...
Why Love Is Bad Law
Posted on May 11, 2009?The Duke bulletin is not a valid contract.? Of Duke?s hundreds of pages of filings in the lacrosse case civil suit, that sentence is perhaps the most striking. Duke?s official publications and website tell students that they will not be harassed on the basis of race, class, or gender; and that professors will treat all Duke students with respect, as fellow members of the academic community...
Chass: Roberts "Queen of Innuendo"
Posted on May 09, 2009Selena Roberts' former Times colleague, Murray Chass, has read the A-Rod book, which he describes as a " journalistic abomination," with Roberts fulfilling the role of "Queen of Innuendo." In devastating detail, Chass dissects Roberts' thin arguments and takes her to task for her lack of understanding about baseball history...
The Roberts National Mendacity Tour Continues
Posted on May 07, 2009In a recent appearance on the Jim Rome radio show, former New York Times columnist Selena Roberts continued her campaign of distortions and outright lies about her writings on the lacrosse case. In some ways, her remarks?part of a desperate bid to retain her credibility, so readers and the media will trust the anonymously sourced conclusions in her A-Rod book?are worse than her initial columns at the lacrosse case...
Selena Roberts & Journalistic Credibility
Posted on May 04, 2009Today, Selena Roberts? exposé of Alex Rodriguez hits the bookstores. We already know that Rodriguez is a bald-faced liar with what could charitably be described as a host of other character flaws. But what about Roberts? In a recent interview with the MLB Network?s Bob Costas, Roberts affirmed that her obligation as a journalist was to ?find the truth...
Whitlock on Roberts
Posted on May 03, 2009I am not a fan of Alex Rodriguez, to put it mildly. But I agree completely with Jason Whitlock's column:When since-disgraced district attorney Mike Nifong whipped up a media posse to rain justice on the drunken, male college students, Roberts jumped on the fastest, most influential horse, using her New York Times column to convict the players and the culture of privilege that created them...
The Group Apologist, in Action
Posted on May 02, 2009Several days ago, the most aggressive apologist for the Group of 88, Duke Music professor Robert Zimmerman, published a post leveling against me a serious allegation: that I had exercised a ?moderator?s veto? against him, refusing to clear a comment he had offered at DIW, which he interpreted as a disinclination to debate him...
T. Cline, Esq., Paragon of Ethics
Posted on April 27, 2009No one can say that Durham voters didn?t know what they were getting when they chose Tracey Cline as their next ?minister of justice.? In the past three years, Cline has made her contempt for ethics known in virtually every way possible. Consider:During the campaign, Cline at best misled voters and at worst outright lied about her role in the lacrosse case, most notably by denying the written record that she developed the idea to initiate the legal case through a procedurally preposterous non-testimonial order against all 46 white lacrosse players...
Steel On Way Out
Posted on April 27, 2009The Chronicle reports that Bob Steel will step down as chairman of the Duke Board of Trustees at the end of this academic year, to be replaced by former N.C. Democratic legislator Dan Blue.Blue has what could most charitably be described as a mixed record on the lacrosse case--most troublingly, he chaired the committee that recommended a new five-year term for Richard Brodhead--but regardless, the first step toward meaningful reform at Duke is the departure of Steel, who had a personal, vested interest in maintaining the pretense that the Duke administration handled the case well.
Suggested Panels for the Stone Center
Posted on April 25, 2009As noted below, on Wednesday, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center hosted an address by Crystal Mangum who spoke about ?the harsh realities of minority treatment both in the justice system and the media.? The event sponsors?Theta Nu Xi Inc. sorority and Alpha Phi Alpha Inc...
Mangum at UNC, Audience Questions To Be Censored
Posted on April 22, 2009In what is nothing short of an extraordinary decision, UNC?s Sonja Haynes Stone Center has chosen to host serial fabricator Crystal Mangum at the University of North Carolina tonight, at 6.30pm, in a gathering devoted to ?social injustice? and ?the harsh realities of minority treatment both in the justice system and the media...
The False Accuser Speaks
Posted on April 22, 2009At the Liestoppers forum, Walt-in-Durham has a detailed rundown of Crystal Mangum?s appearance tonight at UNC. As I have noted previously, it is mindboggling that an academic institution would invite someone who the state AG had, with copious evidence, deemed a false accuser and not allow her to be questioned on the myriad contradictions in her story...
Lubiano: "Why Do I Think Young People Matter?"
Posted on April 20, 2009A reader tracked down for me what Group of 88 leader Wahneema Lubiano lists on her Duke webpage as her most recent scholarly ?publication??an interview in an obscure journal called e3w.And what is it that passes for ?scholarship? among this Group of 88?er?Information about Lubiano?s drinking habits, among other items: ?There are so many half-remembered stories and pieces of stories that they jostle each other in my mind into a kind of rich but incoherent mass that?s hard to untangle?late night discussions at each others? houses over food and drink...
Up & Down
Posted on April 16, 2009Sometimes doing the right thing is rewarded.A PPP poll shows that Roy Cooper, one of the heroes of the lacrosse case, continues to lead incumbent Senator Richard ("Silent Dick") Burr in what appears to be an increasingly likely Senate bid.And who doesn't like Cooper? The Nifong true believers...
Nifong & Stevens: Follow-up
Posted on April 14, 2009Ironically, on the very day that the post below came out, a major report from the Justice Project appeared, using Nifong and the Stevens prosecutors as the two specific examples of prosecutorial misconduct in recent years.I agree completely with the report's recommendations--especially its sympathic view toward open-file discovery--although its description of the lacrosse case seems a bit off the mark...
Nifong & Stevens
Posted on April 13, 2009Two weeks ago, Attorney General Eric Holder asked the court to dismiss all charges against former Alaska senator Ted Stevens. Holder cited the performance of the prosecutors in the case, who had been repeatedly excoriated by Judge Emmet Sullivan for withholding exculpatory evidence from Stevens? attorneys...
Weekend Reading
Posted on April 10, 2009Last week, I noted that Wahneema Lubiano had published virtually nothing since arriving as a tenured professor at Duke more than a decade ago.Her latest "publication"--a 3-page interview in an obscure journal called e3w--isn't available in any scholarly databases to my knowledge, isn't available at the Columbia, NYU, or CUNY libraries, and whose website was last updated in 2007, but below is a taste of what the Group of 88 leader has published...
March Events in the Case
Posted on April 06, 2009A major theme of this blog has been the importance of ethics in the legal profession. In late March, the Volokh Conspiracy, the nation?s leading legal blog, invited Prof. Richard Painter, to guest blog about his new book, Getting the Government America Deserves: How Ethics Reform Can Make a Difference...
Some Swaggerers Are More Equal Than Others
Posted on April 03, 2009Four items involving groups of men at Duke and the media:1.) ?Team has swaggered for years? --headline, N&O, 9 April 2006 2.) ?The charges track the noisy passage of a championship lacrosse team with a reputation for a swaggering sense of entitlement and privilege...
The Group Tightens Its Vise
Posted on April 01, 2009Election returns have come in for Duke's Academic Council, the body tasked with implementing Duke's principle of faculty "self-governance." The body is already run by Group of 88 stalwart Paula McClain.Indicating just how much the Group's pedagogy dominates Duke's Humanities departments, four of the five vacant Humanities positions went to Group of 88 members, led by extremists Wahneema Lubiano and Karla Holloway...
Checking In with Drs. Bowen & Farred
Posted on March 30, 2009There were a few high-profile instances in the case in which events conspired to prove a figure of authority unequivocally and publicly wrong. The most spectacular example of the pattern involved the New York Times August 25, 2006 front-page article, which asserted, ?By disclosing pieces of evidence favorable to the defendants, the defense has created an image of a case heading for the rocks...
Grisham on Public Memory
Posted on March 26, 2009From page 43 of John Grisham?s latest novel, The Associate: Each fleeting thought was chased away by the next, and he found it impossible to concentrate, to think rationally, to focus on what should and should not be said. Decisions made at this ugly moment could reverberate forever...
North Carolina Poll: Cooper Ahead
Posted on March 25, 2009The second consecutive poll on the 2010 North Carolina Senate race shows one of the heroes of the lacrosse case, Roy Cooper, with a narrow lead over incumbent Senator Richard Burr--who joined his former colleague, Elizabeth Dole, in refusing to endorse Cooper's request for a Dept...
From Burch to the Bohemian Lubiano
Posted on March 23, 2009Last week, Durham resident Michael Burch pled guilty to two counts of attempted rape, for which he received a sentence of between 48 and 67 months in prison. The Burch case provided an unusually clear illustration of the hypocrisy of the Duke administration and faculty ?activists...
Wendy Murphy, Esq.
Posted on March 18, 2009The astounding Wendy Murphy is at it again. In this morning?s edition of the Patriot-Ledger, a small paper in suburban Boston, the person who seemed to have no trouble spewing demonstrable falsehoods in the lacrosse case writes the following:For example, I?d like to see full disclosure of the file in the ?Duke Lacrosse? rape case...
The Group of 88 Convenes a Conference
Posted on March 16, 2009In most professions, credibility matters. Imagine how seriously people would take a seminar on best principles of corporate governance conducted by John Thain (or Bob Steel, for that matter). Or a speech from Bill Clinton on the importance of personal morality for elected leaders...
The Iowa Way
Posted on March 09, 2009Two articles that crossed my desk in the past week attest to the grip that race/class/gender-based political correctness exercises over college and university campuses. The articles also give a sense as to why so few administrations have chosen to use what happened at Duke to address similar problems of faculty groupthink on issues of race, class, and gender on their own campuses...
The Nifong Conspiracy Theorists
Posted on February 25, 2009I largely have avoided commenting on the strange ?Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong? organization, put together by a self-described ?lay person,? Sidney Harr. The group, which demands restoration of Mike Nifong?s law license, portrays the disgraced ex-DA as a victim of a conspiracy involving Attorney General Roy Cooper, the North Carolina Bar, various defense attorneys, Judge Osmond Smith, Moezeldin Elmostafa, the North Carolina legislature (for enacting the law, which Nifong ignored, requiring prosecutors to turn over all test results from NTO?s), and (perhaps) other, unnamed co-conspirators in Durham, in North Carolina, in other states, and in other countries as well...
Learning from Lacrosse
Posted on February 22, 2009Two cases showing how the lessons of the lacrosse case can apply more broadly:1.) The Supreme Court has agreed to hear District Attorney's Office v. Osborne. The issue: should people convicted before modern DNA standards were developed have the right to DNA tests now, which could prove their innocence?2...
Old "Friends"
Posted on February 16, 2009A variety of figures whose performance in the lacrosse case drew widespread condemnation surfaced in the news over the past week?with scant, if any, suggestions that they had learned any lessons from their misbehavior.--------- In a race to the bottom for lack of integrity, it?s hard to choose between Selena Roberts and Alex Rodriguez...
Law and Contemporary Problems Article
Posted on February 10, 2009My article from the most recent edition of Law and Contemporary Problems, on the role of the blogosphere in the lacrosse case.
Bryant's Ron Machtley Speaks Out
Posted on February 07, 2009Former Rhode Island congressman Ron Machtley, president of Bryant University, becomes (to my knowledge) the first college or university administrator to publicly criticize how Richard Brodhead and the Group of 88 responded to the lacrosse case.For the full video, on Bryant's move to Division I, including some excellent footage of Mike Pressler, see Lax Power.
On Other Blogs
Posted on February 06, 2009Two items not to miss on other blogs:Bill Anderson calls for ending the practice of civil suit absolute immunity for prosecutorial behavior in light of Nifong's misconduct.John in Carolina takes the Chronicle to task for a peculiar passage in a recent editorial baldly asserting, on the basis of neither actual evidence nor any original reporting, that the lacrosse case didn't affect Duke fundraising.
January Events in the Case
Posted on February 02, 2009A summary from a quite busy January:Duke's decision to sue one of its insurance carriers boomeranged; in an explosive filing, National Union revealed that the University has already spent more than $5 million on its defense--and that it notified its carrier of possible civil liability not when Crystal Mangum first made her allegations but instead the day after Nifong received DNA evidence almost certainly proving that Mangum's fanciful claims were wholly false...
Responding to Nifong
Posted on January 31, 2009The falsely accused players? attorneys have filed a response to the 11-line motion to dismiss penned by Nifong attorney Jim Craven. It makes two major points. First, while Craven and Nifong asserted (in lines four and five) of the 11-line masterpiece that the players had not stated a claim against Nifong for which relief could be granted, the players? attorneys note that the allegations against Nifong include the disgraced ex-DA?s ?involvement in the fabrication of false inculpatory evidence, the concealment of evidence of Plaintiffs? actual innocence and the lack of probable cause against them, the intimidation of witnesses, and the making of false and inflammatory public statements regarding Plaintiffs? supposed guilt?all of which resulted in the wrongful seizures of the three innocent Duke students and caused them to suffer substantial economic, emotional and physical harm, irreparable reputational harm, and millions of dollars in legal fees...
Radio Appearance
Posted on January 30, 2009For those of you in the Chicagoland area, I'll be appearing on WGN's "Extension 720" tonight, from 9-11 Central Time, in a panel discussion about the state of American universities. An internet streaming link also is available.
Another Group of 88'er Promoted
Posted on January 27, 2009Srinivas Aravamudan has become the third member of the Group of 88 to be promoted to a deanship since signing the Group's statement. Aravadudan joins Lee Baker and Sally Deutsch as the Group's representatives among the ranks of Duke deans. And, of course, 88'er Paula McClain currently serves as chair of the Duke Academic Council, the highest-elected faculty position on campus...
Review: Race to Injustice
Posted on January 26, 2009The newest book on the lacrosse case is now out. Edited by University of Florida law professor Michael Seigel, Race to Injustice: Lessons Learned from the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, in many ways captures the conventional wisdom of the case?s effects:in the law, a willingness to address the shortcomings that the case exposed, coupled with a renewed emphasis on the dangers of prosecutorial misconduct and civil liberties violations;in the academy and academic culture, an almost complete unwillingness to reconsider the dominant assumptions about race, class, and gender; or to ask hard questions as to how dozens of professors at a major university could have both rushed to judgment and then refused to reconsider their perspective as facts emerged undermining their initial assumptions...
Steel Under Investigation
Posted on January 24, 2009The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation of Duke Trustees chairman Bob Steel.Over the summer, struggling Wachovia Bank had named Steel as its CEO--preposterously citing his ability to lead institutions in a ?time of turmoil? as a criterion for the selection...
Setback for Durham?
Posted on January 23, 2009The dragging out of the civil suit briefing process?caused largely by Mike Nifong?s ultimately unsuccessful attempts to use bankruptcy proceedings to get out of the civil suit?has resulted in some bad luck for Durham.On Wednesday, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that could weaken the Durham defendants? efforts to use a claim of qualified immunity to avoid liability...
Duke's $5M Defense?
Posted on January 19, 2009National Union, the insurance company sued by Duke, has filed its response?and the brief makes for interesting reading.Among the claims:1.) Since December 3, 2007, according to National Union?s filing, Duke?s lacrosse case legal expenses have exceeded $5 million...
Dershowitz on UPI
Posted on January 17, 2009Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, discussing books on momentous legal cases in this week's WSJ:"Until Proven Innocent," an account of the Duke lacrosse case, should be ranked high among works that disprove the notion that those charged with serious crimes are invariably guilty and that those who are acquitted somehow beat the system...
Is Nifong Paying by the Line?
Posted on January 16, 2009In one of the stranger filings of the civil suit, Nifong attorney James Craven demands that the suit against his client be dismissed--in an 11-line brief.Under the law, the disgraced ex-attorney had absolute immunity for all actions taken as DA. But how does Craven address in these eleven lines the police notes and actions showing how Nifong also acted in a police supervisory role--for which he doesn't have absolute immunity?Craven simply ignores the material--and then, incredibly, urges the judge to incorporate into his brief the arguments of ...
Keohane's "Root of the Problem"
Posted on January 12, 2009I have an essay at Minding the Campus, discussing former Duke president Nan Keohane's recent defense of her successor, Richard Brodhead. An excerpt:"The lacrosse thing was kind of a zinger out of the blue," Keohane recently told the Yale Daily News. "It was the accident of timing that it came on Dick's watch and not mine...
Cline: Was Nifong Right?
Posted on January 08, 2009Durham County's new "minister of justice," Tracey Cline, continues to display an utter indifference to pursuit of truth or ethical responsibility in office. In an interview with ABC-11's Tamara Gibbs, Cline boasted of her decision to invite to her inauguration a figure disbarred by the State Bar and deemed a "rogue prosecutor" by the state Attorney General...
News
Posted on January 07, 2009Two pieces of news: The Herald-Sun reports that taxi driver Moezeldin Elmostafa has settled his civil suit against the department store chain whose bogus allegations of shoplifting were used by Mike Nifong and the DPD to pressure Elmostafa to change his story in the lacrosse case...
Cline: Symbolism and Prosecutorial Ethics
Posted on January 06, 2009Newly inaugurated Durham County district attorney Tracey Cline--fresh off a campaign in which she at best misled and at worst lied to Durham voters regarding her position on the lacrosse case--sent a powerful message about the role that ethics will (or, in this case, will not) play in her office...
December Events in the Case
Posted on December 31, 2008New developments in the civil suit, and old names up to no good dominated December.A Duke filing issued a blunt warning to parents of prospective students at the institution: the Faculty Handbook might require professors to teach students with respect, and the student bulletin might state that Duke students should not experience discrimination based on race, gender, or other personal status, but ?the Duke bulletin is not a valid contract...
Alternate Realities
Posted on December 22, 2008p class="MsoNormal"As John in st1:place st="on"st1:city st="on"Carolina/st1:city/st1:place a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/11/duke-magazines-crime-happens-lax-case.html"has noted/a, i style=""Duke Magazine/i (the journal sent to all Duke alumni) recently published a a href="http://dukemagazine...
Tracey Cline: Purge Ahead?
Posted on December 18, 2008p class="MsoNormal"Employees of the st1:place st="on"st1:placename st="on"Durham/st1:placename st1:placetype st="on"County/st1:placetype/st1:place district attorney?s office received a letter recently from the county?s soon-to-be ?minister of justice,? Tracey Cline:/pp class="MsoNormal"br //p p class="MsoNormal"o:p /o:p/p a onblur="try {parent...
Ten Questions for Rev. Barber
Posted on December 16, 2008Perhaps I?m naïve, but I think that most people expect ministers to tell the truth. But the head of the North Carolina NAACP, Rev. William Barber, seems to have a lot of trouble with that qualification. In a WRAL on-line forum, Barber was recently called to task for his organization?s guilt-presuming approach to the lacrosse case...
Durham's Punctuation Thesis
Posted on December 15, 2008Durham attorneys have made another filing?in the process, of course, upping the ?defense costs? under which the city?s insurance policy kicks in and Durham loses its qualified immunity?reiterating the city?s demand to toss out all state claims. The filing is a peculiar one...
Durham's Vanishing Comma
Posted on December 10, 2008A few weeks back, Durham attorneys filed a motion requesting summary judgment regarding elements of the civil suits dealing with state law. They cited a recent decision, Pettiford v. City of Greensboro, to contend that they had immunity. The basic argument: the city has immunity from state-based tort claims, since Durham?s insurance policies were written in such a way not to pierce the immunity the city enjoyed...
Alternate Realities
Posted on December 07, 2008As John in Carolina has noted, Duke Magazine (the journal sent to all Duke alumni) recently published a long article detailing efforts to improve campus safety. Nothing in the article was in any way objectionable, and much of it was commendable. The head of the volunteer Duke student EMS?an organization once under Student Life but now, more appropriately, under the jurisdiction of the Duke Police?discussed his positive experiences with the Duke Police, who he praised for their professionalism and dedication...
New Civil Suit Filings
Posted on December 07, 2008Late November featured several filings in the civil suit?some from the plaintiffs, mostly repeating previously advanced arguments, and an explosive filing from Bob Ekstrand, raising serious questions about the Durham legal team?s veracity. Today?s post will look at the defendants? filings; Wednesday?s will examine the Ekstrand filing...
November Events in the Case
Posted on December 05, 2008November was a relatively light month in the case, with politics taking center stage:North Carolina's senior senator, Republican Elizabeth Dole, lost her bid for re-election. Ten weeks after AG Roy Cooper declared the players innocent victims of a rogue prosecutor, Dole had preposterously claimed that the lacrosse case was still ?an ongoing criminal investigation and pending judicial proceeding...
Nifong Loses Ruling
Posted on December 04, 2008Unsurprisingly, Judge James Beaty has upheld the ruling of a bankruptcy judge denying Mike Nifong's efforts to use the bankruptcy law to get out of the civil suit.
Asking Questions
Posted on December 01, 2008Two figures whose performance in the lacrosse case left much to be desired are taking on-line questions:New York Times sports page editor Tom Jolly (the person who supervised Duff Wilson);NAACP head William Barber (the person whose organization posted the guilt-presuming 82-point "memorandum of law")...
Crime & Punishment
Posted on November 30, 2008The Chronicle reports that Michael Burch was recently arrested on charges of rape. Burch is the same man arrested for rape after a February 2007 party at a house rented by members of Duke?s predominately African-American Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. The Chronicle reminded us that ?police had found marijuana, cocaine and Oxycontin in the house? at which the February 2007 party was held...
Duke As Plaintiff: Sues Its Insurance Company
Posted on November 26, 2008Both the N&O and the Herald-Sun are reporting that Duke is suing its insurance company, National Union Fire Insurance Co--who Duke accuses of acting in a manner "willful, wanton, malicious, without justification or excuse." The H-S reports,Sources close to the case say National Union is refusing to pay because it believes its policy is capped at $5 million for legal expenses and Duke has submitted legal bills -- alone -- of about $11 million to date, and that Duke refuses to accept the $5 million cap...
Amazing
Posted on November 24, 2008For those who thought that nothing left in the case could shock them, guess again. The Charlotte Observer revealed that Board of Trustees chairman Bob Steel has become a . . . movie investor. (Steel, of course, has additional time on his hands, having presided over the collapse of Wachovia...
Odds & Ends
Posted on November 17, 2008The shameless Wendy Murphy is back, this time spouting off in a Boston Globe letter to the editor. Conducting an investigation and presenting physical or DNA or witness evidence in court? Not a requirement, it seems, to Murphy: ?There's nothing inherently difficult about prosecuting rape...
Durham: "State Law Can't Touch Us"
Posted on November 10, 2008In its most recent filing, the city of Durham claims absolute immunity for the portions of the civil suit dealing with North Carolina law. In some intriguing legal reasoning, Durham?s attorneys concede: A city may waive its governmental immunity under North Carolina law by purchasing liability insurance or participating in a local government risk pool that covers losses arising from tort claims for which a city would otherwise be immune...
October Events in the Case
Posted on November 03, 2008October in the case was highlighted by release of serial fabricator Crystal Mangum?s ?memoir.? Among other things, Mangum: Invented a whole new version of the ?crime,? this one in which she implicitly admitted that she had falsely accused Collin Finnerty (without of course, issuing any apology to Finnerty); Lashed out at the special prosecutors, whose job she seemed to believe was to accept anything she had to say at face value, not seek the truth; Suggested that ?hidden? DNA evidence existed?even though the DNA evidence was publicly discussed, at great length, in the Dec...
The Least Surprising Endorsement
Posted on October 31, 2008In January 2007, just after Mike Nifong turned the case over to Roy Cooper, the Wilmington Journal (the paper best known for pushing the bizarre theories of "Cousin Jakki," a/k/a Clyde Yancey) published an op-ed on the case. The column contained a thinly veiled threat--that if the Attorney General wanted the votes of North Carolina blacks, he needed to push forward with Crystal Mangum's fantastic lies...
Reflections on the Mangum Opus
Posted on October 27, 2008As could be expected from the work of a serial fabricator, Crystal Mangum?s memoir is little more than a tissue of lies. 1.) The book restated one of Mangum?s most transparent lies?that she was consistent in describing the ?attack.? Mangum writes, ?My account of what happened next is the same as I have described all along...
Mangum Takes on the Special Prosecutors
Posted on October 25, 2008While she praised the unethical efforts of Mike Nifong, Crystal Mangum had nothing but contempt for the special prosecutors who took over the case after Nifong recused himself. She especially seemed not to like Assistant Attorney General Jim Coman. In her first meeting with the new prosecution team, she recalled, Both Mary Winstead and Jim Coman struck me as professional people, but I was a bit nervous...
Crystal's Many Enemies
Posted on October 24, 2008The Mangum Opus is an oddly structured book. After introducing her invented reminisces of the party?drawn, seemingly willy-nilly, from her April 6, 2006 and December 20, 2006 stories?Mangum then provides a long section in which she criticizes her father, her mother (who was admitted to hospital for psychiatric problems), and her brother, while providing page after page of jealousy toward her sister...
Crystal Does the Party
Posted on October 24, 2008Mangum opens her ?invent-all? memoir with her latest story about her introduction into the world of exotic dancing; and then a wildly non-credible recapitulation of the party. Here?s the serial fabricator on how she allegedly got into exotic dancing...
The Fantastic World of Vincent "Ed" Clark
Posted on October 24, 2008After leading off with the almost laughable Shird preface, the Mangum Opus segues into a chapter from Mangum co-author Vincent ?Ed? Clark, the figure who the N&O delicately described as ?a self-employed publicist.? Clark recalls for readers his first reaction upon hearing news of the Mangum?s fantastic charges: I hated anything related to Duke sports...
The Shird Preface
Posted on October 24, 2008The preface to the Mangum Opus was penned by a North Carolina A&T professor named Myra Shird?perhaps best known on campus for abruptly resigning her department chairmanship in the middle of the semester last year. Shird?s preface is . . . eye-opening...
Shameless
Posted on October 23, 2008A few things in the lacrosse case have been certain. Former lawyer Mike Nifong would violate the Bar?s ethics rules whenever presented with the opportunity. Group of 88 leader Wahneema Lubiano?s ?forthcoming? books will still be ?forthcoming.? And serial fabricator Crystal Mangum?the woman who could never tell the same story twice?will continue to fabricate...
Emory Talk
Posted on October 20, 2008For DIW readers in Atlanta, my talk at Emory will be on Wednesday evening, at 7pm. The talk will be in White Hall, Room 110. And my thanks to everyone in Rye for the enjoyable event yesterday.
Updates
Posted on October 17, 2008I'm going to be offline most of the next three/four days, so comments will be updated on only an irregular basis. For DIW readers in the Metro North area, I'll be speaking Sunday afternoon in Rye. For DIW readers in Atlanta, I'll be speaking Tuesday night at Emory University...
Amazing
Posted on October 14, 2008?Take Back the Night? events are a mainstay of contemporary college campuses. Although they originated from a debunked theory (the idea that one in four women will be victims of sexual assault while in college), they are the sort of undertakings that can?t really be criticized: who, after all, wants to be attacked as ?pro-rape?? That said, the lacrosse case offers an example of how easily the cause can be overtaken by extremists...
Ekstrand Filings
Posted on October 13, 2008Last week, Bob Ekstrand?on behalf of lacrosse players Breck Archer, Ryan McFadyen, and Matt Wilson?filed a lengthy series of responses to Duke, Duke Hospital, and various Durham officials. Ekstrand urged a broad view of case, with events the unfortunate if likely outcome of the Duke/Durham policy of treating Duke students as second-class citizens in the city: ?It was,? he wrote, ?not the natural consequence of a false allegation made by a drug-addled woman who, at the time, was in the midst of an apparent psychotic break, in police custody, and in the process of being involuntarily committed...
Nifong's Guitars
Posted on October 11, 2008The N&O reports:Mike Nifong might have to part with his cherished guitars.The trustee overseeing his estate in federal bankruptcy court has asked a judge to order a public auction of the instruments Oct. 12 at 361 Ja Max Drive, Hillsborough.This all is a result of the bankruptcy filing employed by Nifong in a thus-far unsuccessful attempt to escape from the civil suit filed by the three people he unethically prosecuted...
Attorney McSurely
Posted on October 08, 2008In the lacrosse case "hall of infamy," few figures are more worthy of inclusion than state NAACP attorney Al McSurely. This is, after all, the man who authored the August 2006 guilt-presuming, error-laden 82-point "memorandum of law," [scroll down] which stood as the NAACP's legal "analysis" of the case...
The Lacrosse Case & the Khalidi/Ayres Controversy
Posted on October 07, 2008A few years ago, I testified before the Senate Education Committee about the diminution of the academy?s intellectual diversity. I spoke as a registered Democrat, and contended that the issue should concern Democrats as much as Republicans, since neither party has an interest in an academy dominated by race/class/gender groupthink...
Mangum's Alternate Reality
Posted on October 04, 2008In an interview with the Herald-Sun, Vincent Clark, who describes himself as Crystal Mangum?s ?publicist,? refused to say whether Mangum would admit that she lied about the case in her ?tell-all? memoir. ?I?ll leave that nugget for the press event,? Clark teased...
Update on the Mangum Opus
Posted on October 03, 2008The p.r. firm handling Crystal Mangum's memoir can't even spell its client's name correctly: a press release announcing the book's (now) late October availability indicated that "Crystal Magnum[sic] is donating one dollar from the purchase of each book to help battered women...
UPI Paperback
Posted on October 01, 2008The paperback version of UPI is now out; it contains a new chapter, updating events since April 2007, as well as a few new items in the text, based on recently released information. The sourcenotes for the book are here.
A Craven Filing
Posted on October 01, 2008Nifong attorney Jim Craven has filed a reply supporting his appeal of a lower-court ruling, which denied the disgraced ex-DA an opportunity to use bankruptcy protection to bow out of the civil suit. Even by the standards of Nifongesque legal theory, this was a bizarre document...
Cooper Ad
Posted on September 30, 2008Few political leaders distinguished themselves in the lacrosse case, but one of the heroes of the affair was Attorney General Roy Cooper. His office conducted an impartial investigation, free from political pressure, and allowed the facts to dictate the outcome...
September Events in the Case
Posted on September 29, 2008September was a light month legally; here are the case-related highlights: As the new chairman of its African-American Studies Department, Duke has hired a professor best-known for his anti-Israel screeds and as an apparatchik focused on enforcing campus political correctness...
Matory to Duke
Posted on September 24, 2008Here?s how Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz reacted to the news that J. Lorand Matory is leaving Cambridge: ?I think it?s the best thing that?s happened to Harvard in a long time. Privately, there?s a real sense of exhilaration and relief that this man is no longer a blot on our community...
Group Members Discover Civil Liberties
Posted on September 22, 2008Wahneema Lubiano. Her authorship of the guilt-presuming Group of 88 statement (something ?happened? to Crystal Mangum; ?thank you? to protesters carrying ?castrate? signs; the signatories would hold firm ?regardless of what the police say or the court decides?) didn?t exactly identify her as a friend of civil liberties...
Words To "Stand By"
Posted on September 16, 2008As noted below, when asked about his inflammatory remarks on the case, anti-lacrosse extremist Tim Tyson recently announced, "I stand by every word of it." Four clips of the words that Tyson stands by, in his own voice, are below.First, Tyson recalled his time in the potbangers' March 25, 2006 candlelight vigil, outside the lacrosse captains' house...
Tyson Hunkers Down
Posted on September 15, 2008The coach that Duke saw fit to fire (before an investigatory report concluded he had done nothing wrong) was recently honored by the lacrosse community. Mike Pressler has been named head coach of the U.S. National Lacrosse team for 2010. Said the chair of the selection committee, ?We were certainly very impressed with Mike?s professionalism and more importantly, his excitement and enthusiasm for the position...
New Case "Scholarship"
Posted on September 08, 2008The latest academic publication on the case has appeared, courtesy of Barbara Barnett, who earned her M.A. degree from Duke?s Group of 88-topheavy English Department. The University of Kansas professor produced an article in Communication, Culture & Critique, in which she advances the all-but-incredible theory that Duke?s official response to the case was overly concerned with such issues as due process and right to a fair trial...
August Events in the Case
Posted on September 04, 2008I know that a good number of people drop in only from time to time to check up on events in the case: here is a summary of what occurred in August.Attorneys for the unindicted players filed responses to Duke; Duke Hospital; and various Durham figures...
Cooper Response: Durham Filings
Posted on September 02, 2008Chuck Cooper, joined by Durham attorney Bill Thomas, also filed briefs opposing the motions to dismiss of Durham and various Durham employees (including ex-DA investigator Linwood Wilson). A summary is below. The Thomas/Cooper brief regarding Durham?s motion to dismiss opens by commenting on the intriguing tendency of each party to concede that wrongdoing occurred but to blame someone else for it...
Remainders: Levicy
Posted on September 01, 2008For readers new to the blog, or for readers desiring a refresher course, below is a three-part series I did last year summarizing the pernicious effects of former SANE nurse-in-training Tara Levicy in first initiating and then sustaining the hoax.Part OnePart TwoPart ThreeTomorrow, by the way, I'll have a summary and analysis of the remaining briefs filed by Chuck Cooper and Bill Thomas.
Paperback Source Notes
Posted on September 01, 2008< Chapter One: (pp. 1-15) p. 1: Author interview with Devon Sherwood. p. 2: Devon Sherwood interview. ?Indeed, more than one sorority hired . . .? : ?Only Race Matters: A Duke Woman Speaks,? Liestoppers, 25 Jan. 2007. ?Emulating the movie Old School?: USA Today, 25 Jan...
Cooper Response: Duke's SANE Brief
Posted on August 30, 2008The unindicted players? lawsuit against Duke focuses on two areas: (1) the actions of the administration; (2) the performance of Duke Hospital, especially former SANE nurse-in-training/feminist zealot Tara Levicy. Duke attorneys Jamie Gorelick and Dan McLamb have thus far struggled to develop a consistent legal justification for Levicy?s actions?which, in all fairness, is not easy to do...
Cooper Response to Duke
Posted on August 29, 2008The unindicted players represented by Chuck Cooper have filed a powerful response to Duke?s motion to dismiss. Summarized below, it addresses not only the legal arguments offered by Jamie Gorelick and Dan McLamb, but also the (scarcely credible) p.r. spin that the Duke attorneys chose to include in their legal filing...
Q&A Regarding the Mangum Opus
Posted on August 25, 2008In the comments section and through e-mail, I?ve had some questions regarding the Mangum Opus. Here are my replies. Q: What new could come from this book? A: There are a few items related to the case (Mangum?s April 11, 2006 meeting with Mike Nifong, for instance) for which we have never received a credible explanation...
The Mangum Opus
Posted on August 22, 2008The Mangum Opus, once scheduled for release in June, is now due out in October?at least according to this press release, which is riddled with grammatical and other errors: Poignant Memoir Reveals Details of a Difficult Life(Los Angeles) - The Duke Lacrosse case is no longer the lead story on the network and cable news shows, but there is one central figure, who was there on the night in question and who?s [sic] voice has been silent...
Ironies
Posted on August 21, 2008In justifying his character assault on the lacrosse players, History professor Peter Wood mused that the lacrosse players were undesirable upper-classers, while ?the football players here are often rural white boys with baseball caps or hard-working black students who are proud to be at Duke...
Thirty-Six Questions
Posted on August 18, 2008?Equal justice for all in North Carolina begins with justice for Mike Nifong!? At one level, this statement is undeniable: equal justice for all would be served by Mike Nifong standing trial, an outcome prevented by then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales...
Nifong: "$34.99 Is My Final Offer"
Posted on August 15, 2008The N&O reports that Nifong attorney Jim Craven filed a brief today asserting that the three lacrosse players unethically prosecuted by the disgraced ex-D.A. "will never collect so much as $35 from Mike Nifong." Apparently, then, $34.99 is still on the table...
Airbrushing
Posted on August 11, 2008When asked for an anecdote of why history is important, I usually cite a story from March 1948, shortly after a coup that installed totalitarian rule in Czechoslovakia, when the Czech Communist Party (KS?) convened a celebratory gathering in Prague?s Old Town Square...
Still More: Only in Durham
Posted on August 11, 2008It appears that NCCU has been improperly awarding degrees for a satellite campus that it set up in, of all places, the state of Georgia.
More Only in Durham
Posted on August 08, 2008The "Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong"--which consists of two people, one of whom is Durham's resident homophobe, former Nifong citizens' committee chair Victoria Peterson--has been sending out the following item:The "Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong" is conducting a survey and we would consider your participation to be invaluable...
Brodhead, Brown, & the Seligmanns
Posted on August 07, 2008There has been some attention in the blogosphere caused by a recent statement from Jim Cooney about a possible letter from Duke president Richard Brodhead and Reade Seligmann?s application to Brown. The Seligmann family issued a statement on the matter to the Herald-Sun, which quoted excerpts in today?s paper: Seligmann ?knows of no support that Brodhead gave him at Brown,? lawyer Richard Emery said Wednesday after his office e-mailed a statement from his client to The Herald-Sun...
The Baker File
Posted on August 06, 2008[updated] From Ray Gronberg's article in this morning's H-S:Notes officials took from Mayor Bill Bell's regularly scheduled Wednesday morning meetings with City Manager Patrick Baker, for example, show the two discussed the case every week after reports surfaced that police took DNA samples from team members [3-23-06] to the time grand juries indicted the three players [5-15-06]...
Delaying Discovery
Posted on August 05, 2008The legal skirmishing in the civil suits by both the falsely accused and the unindicted players has featured two unusual items of contention. The first was Duke?s motion to close down the Duke Lawsuit website?even as the University hosted a website containing (among other items) President Brodhead?s April 5, 2006 letter to the community...
July Events in the Case
Posted on August 02, 2008I realize that as the case has moved into the civil suit process, many DIW readers drop by only periodically to check in on developments. For these readers, here?s a review of case-related events in July: The major parties filed their motions to dismiss the Ekstrand lawsuit...
SEALS Panel
Posted on July 31, 2008I?m back in the United States, and yesterday participated in a lacrosse-case roundtable at the SEALS conference. My views on the case are, obviously, well-known to any reader of the blog. But here?s a summary of some points presented by the other panelists...
Nifong "Contributes" To Obama
Posted on July 27, 2008From yesterday's Herald-Sun:Even former District Attorney Mike Nifong, who lost his job last year because of the Duke lacrosse scandal, spent much of Saturday morning canvassing homes for the Democratic presidential hopeful. "He's the right man at the right time," said Nifong...
Tone & Substance
Posted on July 21, 2008I suspect that the 9/11 Commission public hearings introduced most people to Jamie Gorelick. In contrast to ineffective questioners such as Bob Kerrey, Jim Thompson, or Richard Ben-Veniste, Gorelick?and fellow commissioner Tim Roemer?proved an incisive cross-examiner, someone with impressive knowledge of the myriad issues associated with the commission...
More from the Rev. Barber
Posted on July 19, 2008In recent months, the North Carolina NAACP and Rev. William Barber have taken up the cause of James Johnson, an African-American initially accused as an accomplice to murder in Wilson, North Carolina. The two pieces of evidence that the NAACP cited to justify its ?demand? that Johnson ?be exonerated?? (1) No DNA evidence linked Johnson to the crime...
The Rev. Barber
Posted on July 16, 2008The N&O reports that William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, has been elected to the NAACP national board.That's the same Rev. Barber who:--demanded a gag order against defense attorneys in the case, with the head of his organization's Legal Redress Committee suggesting that the defense attorneys, not Mike Nifong, had committed ethical misconduct; and then rejoiced when the order temporarily was put in place;--had his photo above an 82-point guilt-presuming memorandum of law riddled with factual errors and unfounded speculation about the lacrosse players, a document for which neither he nor author Al McSurely has ever apologized;--went to Duke Chapel to attack the lacrosse players' character while remaining silent as the grave about Nifong's procedural abuses;--suddenly rediscovered his concern with prosecutorial misconduct after the lacrosse case had concluded;--is, according to last report, overseeing his organization's own "investigation" into the lacrosse case...
A DIW Contest
Posted on July 14, 2008Two recent breathtaking assertions prompt this two-part DIW contest. Part One. Duke attorneys Jamie Gorelick and Dan McLamb wrote, [The lacrosse players] contend that Duke and its employees violated their legal rights by providing the police with information about the alleged rape during the investigation...
Steel to Wachovia
Posted on July 10, 2008The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Wachovia has hired Bob Steel as its new chief executive officer. Notes the Journal, ?Mr. Steel said he was approached about the job in the past few days. He has a long friendship with Mr. [Lanty] Smith [who chaired the Wachovia search committee] as both share ties to Duke University; Mr...
The Lying Game
Posted on July 07, 2008Over the extended holiday weekend, the defendants in the Ekstrand lawsuit filed their expected motions to dismiss. For the most part, they make similar arguments to the motions to dismiss the Cooper lawsuit?it was all Mike Nifong?s fault, Duke has no legal obligation to enforce its own anti-harassment policies or its Faculty Handbook, and the Durham Police Department did nothing wrong in the case...
Rabinowitz
Posted on July 07, 2008For those who missed it, the extraordinary Dorothy Rabinowitz from today's Wall Street Journal. IUPUI, the university of which Rabinowitz writes, is a leading backer of the AAC&U, an academic organization that captures a lot of the Group of 88's ideology, and about which I wrote a few years ago here.
Only in Durham
Posted on July 01, 2008The People's Alliance didn't exactly distinguish itself during the lacrosse case: the far-left group announced in April 2006 that it "wholly supports the struggle of this young woman [Crystal Mangum]"; resolutely stood up in November 2006 for prosecutorial misconduct in its enthusiastic support for Mike Nifong; and then stood four-square in summer 2007 for police misconduct when its most prominent City Council backer, Diane Catotti, did her best to frustrate the inquiry into why the Durham Police Department helped indict three demonstrably innocent people...
The Perkinson Files
Posted on June 30, 2008UPI received two negative reviews from what, at first blush, could be considered expected sources. One came from The Independent: no one would have expected the Triangle?s alternative weekly to suddenly abandon its demagogic view of the lacrosse case...
Schedule
Posted on June 25, 2008I will essentially be off-line for the next three days; I am returning to the U.S. Thursday to speak at FIRE's Campus Freedom Network conference. No comments, therefore, will be cleared until I have returned to Israel on Sunday; a new post will be up on Monday.
A Gorelick Essay
Posted on June 23, 2008As mentioned below, Duke civil attorney Jamie Gorelick is presenting today at the NACUA conference, held in Manhattan?s Marriot Marquis hotel. Her topic: ?The Best Defense: Navigating Complex Criminal Matters on Your Campus.? An essay prepared by Gorelick and Christopher Zimmermann provides background for her talk...
Comments Policy
Posted on June 22, 2008On at least four occasions over the course of the blog, I have printed my comments policy.Having received an e-mail yesterday inaccurately describing the comments policy, I will print it again.(1) Comments are moderated, but with the lightest of touches, to exclude only off-topic comments or obviously racist or similar remarks...
Ironies
Posted on June 20, 2008In light of recent filings, this item passed onto me by a reader is ironic.National Association of College and University Attorneys: 48th Annual Conference June 22-25, 2008, Session 3H: ?The Best Defense: Navigating Complex Criminal Matters on Your Campus,? Monday, June 23, 11:15 a...
Deferring Discovery
Posted on June 18, 2008It perhaps should surprise few that the civil cases would be as peculiar as was the criminal case. First came Duke's peculiar (and unsuccessful) motion demanding that the judge shut down the dukelawsuit.com website?even though the website only had links to case events and documents, while Duke itself hosted a website containing President Brodhead's official statement linking the plaintiffs to racism and the legacy of rape...
Journalistic Hit-Jobs
Posted on June 16, 2008A paperback version of UPI will be published in September; it will include additional material updating matters since the hardcover book appeared. In the process of working on the update, I went back and looked through some of the early press coverage of events in Durham, and was particularly struck by two articles?columns that could be described as journalistic hit jobs...
Items in the News
Posted on June 11, 2008The N&O has reported that, to date, the city of Durham has spent more than $730,000 on legal fees defending the various lawsuits arising from the case. The city?s insurance carrier pays for legal (and settlement) costs starting at $500,000 but ending at $5 million?which means, if the city fails in its attempt to get the falsely accused players? lawsuit dismissed, legal bills alone likely will exceed the insurance policy...
The Butler Column and Its Response
Posted on June 09, 2008A few weeks ago, the Chronicle?s Kristin Butler penned a column that opened with the arresting line, ?It seems anyone can get a college degree these days?especially if they go to North Carolina Central University.? Given Crystal Mangum?s personal history of accusing people of crimes that never occurred, drug and alcohol abuse, hospitalization for mental difficulties, and participation in the sex trade, Butler wondered how the false accuser did not seem to have violated NCCU?s honor code...
Eugene Brown, Voice of Reason
Posted on June 06, 2008City Council member Eugene Brown has been one of the few voices of reason from Durham's political leadership over the past two-plus years. The N&O's Bull's Eye blog recounts this detail from yesterday's City Council meeting, regarding John Shelton--the police officer who saw through Crystal Mangum's lies from the start: Councilman Eugene Brown told Lt...
Nifong's Guitar
Posted on June 05, 2008Tamara Gibbs is reporting that Mike Nifong has filed an appeal against the court order denying his request to get out of the lacrosse players' lawsuit by pleading bankruptcy.The bankruptcy judge's order, meanwhile, contains the following only-in-Durham item:3...
Reflections on the Motions to Dismiss
Posted on June 02, 2008The several hundred pages of briefs filed last Friday contained four items of note. Two were genuine surprises?even at a stage in the process when only the most jaded person could be surprised about the case. Two more were expected legal arguments?but nonetheless spoke volumes about the atmosphere in Durham and at Duke...
The Other Briefs
Posted on June 01, 2008Any case with multiple defendants (each of whom have behaved in what at the very least could be described as a dubious fashion) creates the possibility of the defendants falling out among themselves. In this case, of course, Mike Nifong represents an easy target...
Creative Writing 101
Posted on May 31, 2008The Duke attorneys summarize the lacrosse players? claims, in the very first paragraph of the Duke reply?s ?nature of proceedings?: [The lacrosse players] contend that Duke and its employees violated their legal rights by providing the police with information about the alleged rape during the investigation...
The Duke Motion to Dismiss
Posted on May 31, 2008The Duke motion to dismiss was filed yesterday afternoon. The document is a curious one?reflecting the University?s twin, and perhaps irreconcilable, aims in the lawsuit. On the one hand, the 50-page motion seems geared not for the court but for public opinion, describing the lacrosse players? legal claims in a manner that anyone who has read the case file would recognize as ridiculous?but which might allow the University to score some public relations points...
Tyson Reinvents Some More
Posted on May 27, 2008Professors are supposed to be open-minded, willing to dispassionately evaluate new evidence as it arrives, and, if necessary, reconsider their initial assumptions. Obviously, the lacrosse case showed another side of some elements of the Duke faculty, as race/class/gender advocates not only presumed guilt but then reinvented the past to rationalize their initial actions...
Tyson Reinvents History
Posted on May 24, 2008Last week, the N&O?s Peder Zane profiled Duke faculty member Tim Tyson?s efforts to examine the racial history of the South; the article revealed that ?Pender and New Hanover counties District Attorney Benjamin R. David?s mother signed up for the course last year, then convinced her son that the class would help his efforts to build trust across communities...
Moneta: ?Not Really a Topic I?m Interested in Talking About?
Posted on May 20, 2008In a recent radio interview, Duke?s Larry Moneta criticized a website called juicycampus.com. Moneta pointed to the site?s anonymous rumor-mongering to describe it (correctly) as worthy of condemnation. Moneta?s outrage about the site prompted an understandable question from panelist Christopher Anderson, who wondered why Moneta hadn?t seemed concerned in spring 2006, when Duke professors and some students embarked on a rumor-mongering campaign against the lacrosse players...
Lindgren on the Lubiano Trio
Posted on May 16, 2008At the Volokh Conspiracy, Jim Lindgren comments further on the peculiar Lubiano/Hardt/Wiegman defense of the Group of 88: I strongly doubt that suggestions that the offending professors should ?work as maids? or ?return to the slave quarters? were ?typically? offered by their critics...
The DOJ
Posted on May 13, 2008Tomorrow, two subcommittees of the House Judiciary Committee will hold joint hearings on the following topic: "Allegations of Selective Prosecution Part II: The Erosion of Public Confidence in Our Federal Justice System."Here are the members of the two subcommittees; the links will proceed to the individual members' websites and email addresses...
Duke/Loyola
Posted on May 11, 2008Yesterday, Duke ousted Loyola from the NCAA lacrosse tournament. For Loyola, the leading scorer was Collin Finnerty, who had three goals. After the game, a reunion photo:
North Carolina Results
Posted on May 07, 2008Last night, Barack Obama scored a sizeable victory in what his opponent had suggested could be a ?game-changing? contest, one that would place the eyes of the ?world? on North Carolina. Obama won by around 233,000 votes?or around 3,000 votes fewer than Hillary Clinton?s combined popular vote-margin in Pennsylvania and Indiana...
Tracey Cline: The Nifongesque Choice
Posted on May 03, 2008[At this stage, nothing should surprise me about this case, especially when the issue is Durham politics. Yet I confess that I am amazed that former Mike Nifong ADA Tracey Cline is a frontrunner for the position--endorsed by (of course) the Herald-Sun and several local PACs, despite the heavy shadow that Nifong should cast over her candidacy...
A Well-Deserved Award
Posted on May 02, 2008From Editor & Publisher:Kristin Butler, a senior English major at Duke University, has won the $1,000 first-place prize in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists' annual student-scholarship contest . . . The winners were selected by Boston Globe/Washington Post Writers Group columnist Ellen Goodman, who'll receive the NSNC Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award at the organization's June 21-24 conference in New Orleans...
Responding to "Reharmonizer"
Posted on April 24, 2008As DIW readers know, I generally have avoided making my own comments over the last several months, and have confined myself to the occasional post. I thought, however, it might be useful for me to respond to the reharmonizer comment in the Lubiano thread below...
A Lubiano "Publication"
Posted on April 23, 2008Wahneema Lubiano, whose last scholarly publication was entitled ?Interview with Wahneema Lubiano,? recently took a break from her two ?forthcoming? manuscripts, Like Being Mugged by a Metaphor and Messing with the Machine. Both of these manuscripts, it?s worth remembering, have now been ?forthcoming??a designation that normally means completed and under contract?for eleven years...
Brad Ross
Posted on April 23, 2008For those who haven't seen it, Brad Ross, one of the heroes of the case, is up for the Lowe's Senior Class Men's Lacrosse Award. You can vote here.
Butler's Last Column
Posted on April 22, 2008For those who haven't yet seen it, the extraordinary Kristin Butler signs off.
More from "One of the Most Wide-Ranging Intellectuals in America"
Posted on April 20, 2008In 1993, Terry Teachout penned a brutal review of Houston Baker?s then-most recent book. ?The argument of Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy,? noted Teachout, ?can be summed up briefly: (1) Black studies is an indispensable part of American higher education...
See It To Believe It
Posted on April 15, 2008Vanderbilt University has 2876 full-time faculty members. Of this number, which one has the University chosen to highlight on its website? A hint: three days after the first article on the case appeared, he demanded that Duke summarily expel at least 46 members of the lacrosse team...
Duke Motion Denied
Posted on April 15, 2008In what will surely rate as the least surprising development of the civil case, Judge James Beatty has rejected the Duke demand to sanction the unindicted lacrosse players' attorneys and close the Duke Lawsuit website.As Powerline's Paul Mirengoff had previously noted, "Setting up this kind of website, and indeed ones that are much more aggressive, is a common thing for plaintiffs to do these days ...
Good News on Elmostafa
Posted on April 12, 2008From the Readers' Digest hero of the year, Moez Elmostafa:The good news is, yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security called me in for an interview, and I was finally awarded my citizenship. I am very happy as it has been a very long wait . ...
Kevin Finnerty Letter
Posted on April 09, 2008A powerful letter by Kevin Finnerty, in the most recent Metro:Finnerty Family Remembers Article on Duke Lacrosse Case To writer Sharon Swanson: I hope this note finds you and your family doing well. We sure are. Easter has just passed, and I must say, we enjoyed a very warm family holiday, completely different from just a year ago...
Remarkable
Posted on April 05, 2008Even now, there are case-related events that leave me stunned. The below is an actual press release.LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 7, 2008) ? The University of Kentucky Libraries Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center will present a talk on the now infamous rape case lodged against members of a Duke University athletic team...
Reply to the Motions to Dismiss
Posted on April 03, 2008Attorneys for Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann have filed a robust, 122-page reply to the parties? motion to dismiss the civil suit against the city of Durham, various Durham officials and police officers, and employees of DNA Security...
Reflections on the Duke Reply
Posted on March 31, 2008Duke has filed its reply brief in its longshot demand that the court impose sanctions against attorneys representing the unindicted players and terminate the Duke Lawsuit website. Upon review, Powerline was puzzled by the University?s legal strategy: Setting up this kind of website, and indeed ones that are much more aggressive, is a common thing for plaintiffs to do these days ...
The Durham Justice System: A "State of Emergency"
Posted on March 23, 2008A comprehensive late 2007 report on the Durham Police Department's handling of gang-related activity by Deborah Lamm Weisel and Buddy Howell:Among its conclusions--none of which would surprise anyone who observed the DPD's performance from March 2006 through January 2007:Durham has a long-standing reputation as a high-crime city with well-entrenched gangs...
Race, Obama, and the North Carolina Primary
Posted on March 21, 2008Not since 1976, when Ronald Reagan?s victory over Gerald Ford revived his then-floundering campaign, has North Carolina?s primary played a significant role in the nominating process. That?s likely to change in 2008. The early May primary provides an opportunity for Barack Obama to rebound from a likely Clinton victory in Pennsylvania, and in the process gain ground in the Clintons? latest measuring stick for success, the popular vote total...
Selena Roberts: Still Misleading
Posted on March 17, 2008In the pre-internet world, tracking down a New York Times article from two years ago would have taken some time and effort. An interested reader would have to go to his or her library and scroll through reels of microfilm. Now, however, finding a March 31, 2006 article is as easy as clicking here...
Bannon at Campbell Law Day
Posted on March 11, 2008DIW readers in North Carolina might want to set aside time this Saturday morning, for Brad Bannon's appearance as keynote speaker for Campbell Law School's Law Day. The announcement:Campbell Law School?s 31st Annual Law Day to Feature Distinguished Alumni Brad Bannon and Lt...
Gottlieb Is Out
Posted on March 04, 2008The practitioner of "straight-from-memory" notes and wildly inaccurate grand jury testimony has left the Durham Police Department. The N&O's Stan Chambers reports that Sunday was Mark Gottlieb's last day on the job. He resigned for what the DPD termed personal reasons.
More on Duke's Peculiar Motion
Posted on March 01, 2008As noted below, yesterday Duke filed a motion requesting that the "Duke Lawsuit" site be shut down, and also suggesting that the unindicted players' lead attorney, Chuck Cooper, violated ethics rules in holding a Washington, DC press conference to announce the suit...
Peculiar Duke Motion
Posted on February 29, 2008In a peculiar move, Duke has filed a motion demanding that the Duke Lawsuit site (which contains copies of the civil suit by the unindicted players, as well as links to press coverage) be shut down. The motion claims that the website violates rules against pretrial publicity...
Lawsuit Q&A
Posted on February 27, 2008Q: What are the most troubling items in the lawsuits? A: Legally, Duke seems to be most vulnerable on two items: 1.) The FERPA claim?that someone at Duke gave the Durham Police federally protected student information (student keycard records) and then Duke, at the very least, remained silent as (a) Nifong subpoenaed these records, after-the-fact; and (b) the court ruled that Nifong shouldn't have access to them...
The Herald-Sun--Unsurprisingly--Defends the Status Quo
Posted on February 26, 2008In a development that would surprise only those who have spent the last two years living under a rock, the Bob Ashley-led Herald-Sun editorial board has criticized the lawsuit filed by the unindicted players. Ashley & Co. condescendingly note that members of the team "went through some pretty tough times"?a development that would puzzle those who only read the Herald-Sun, which has never mentioned any such events before yesterday's editorial...
News from Brown
Posted on February 25, 2008Stu Woo reports on Reade Seligmann's first game at Brown; Seligmann had a goal and an assist--and received strong applause from the crowd--as Brown beat Lehigh, 10-4.
New Revelations from the Civil Suits
Posted on February 25, 2008At this stage of events, it would seem unlikely that any more new items would appear. But, of course, that?s not the case. Both the lawsuit filed last week on behalf of 38 players and Bob Ekstrand?s December lawsuit, filed on behalf of Ryan McFadyen, Matt Wilson, and Breck Archer, brought a host of new information to the table...
From the Editorial Page
Posted on February 24, 2008The Wilmington Star-News was the first North Carolina newspaper to demand that Mike Nifong resign. (It did so in a December 27, 2006 editorial.) Its comment on the recently filed lawsuit was, however, peculiar. The paper conceded that unfair harm had befallen the players:Reporters found numbers of Duke students and faculty members eager to offer their opinion that many lacrosse players were little better than swaggering sexist louts...
Lawsuit Summary
Posted on February 22, 2008?The simple truth is that Brodhead and Duke were indifferent to the truth.? That?s perhaps the most powerful line in a lawsuit filed yesterday behalf of 38 of the unindicted lacrosse players and their families. The suit was filed against President Richard Brodhead, a host of Duke administrators, and the city of Durham...
News from Loyola
Posted on February 17, 2008The Greyhounds opened their season with a 7-6 loss to #5-ranked Notre Dame; but, on a bright note, the team's first goal of the season was scored by Collin Finnerty. Clare Lochary has the details.
Times Sports Editor: "Regret" Coverage
Posted on February 16, 2008From a recent Times Q&A session with sports editor Tom Jolly (scroll down to the 22nd entry):Q. When the Duke Lacrosse "rape" case first erupted, the New York Times sports section was one of the leading cheerleaders for the conviction and slandering of the Duke team as a whole and the three charged players...
Taylor on "Sex Workers'" Show
Posted on February 11, 2008As a private university, Duke can set any standard of behavior for its student body that it desires. If it wishes to follow the advice of Group of 88 stalwart William Chafe and imitate BYU and Liberty by becoming a dry university, it has every right to do so...
Another Mosteller Article
Posted on February 02, 2008In a question-and-answer session last month, I was asked what lessons other states could draw from the lacrosse case. I suggested that the case showed the benefits of open-file discovery (without which Mike Nifong clearly would have concealed all exculpatory evidence) and the need for all states to enact due process-friendly identification procedures...
Glossary
Posted on January 22, 2008This blog began in an attempt to analyze the twin scandals of spring 2006: the transparent signs of Mike Nifong?s prosecutorial misconduct; and the decision of Duke faculty activists?personified by the Group of 88?to set aside the academy?s traditional fidelity to due process and instead advance their personal, pedagogical, of ideological agendas on the backs of their own students...
Hiatus
Posted on January 22, 2008Civil suit responses are due in around 12 weeks; until then, the blog will go on hiatus, although if any major developments in the case emerge, I will do a post on them.
Postscript: Reflections on the Responses
Posted on January 21, 2008Some thoughts on the responses of Durham, Durham officials, and DNA Security: 1.) Civil lawsuits are no substitute for a federal criminal inquiry. This was a case in which at least five people?Mike Nifong, Mark Gottlieb, Tara Levicy, Linwood Wilson, and Dr...
Various Items
Posted on January 19, 2008In the Durham News, columnist Rob Waters made a passionate case for what appears to be a call to change federal civil rights law to prevent lawsuits against municipalities that abridge defendants? civil rights. Wrote he, ?The lacrosse players were never convicted, never did time...
Postscript: Durham Officials, DNA Security
Posted on January 18, 2008The lawsuit responses of both Durham officials (Steve Chalmers, Ron Hodge, other police supervisors, and former City Manager Patrick Baker) and DNA Security touch on themes that by this point are familiar: everything bad was done by Mike Nifong and Nifong alone; and if anyone else did anything which violated the lacrosse players' civil rights, the defendants have immunity from a civil suit...
Postscript: Various Items
Posted on January 17, 2008An excellent article in today's Herald-Sun from reporter Ray Gronberg, explaining why Mike Nifong's bakruptcy filing will, perhaps, buy him some time but will not help him avoid liability for what he did. In addition, as Gronberg observes, a bankruptcy trustee "is certain to look at whether Nifong tried to hide assets from his creditors...
Postscript: Contradicting Durham
Posted on January 17, 2008Attorneys representing the city of Durham shared their response with the individual defendants; the lawyers representing Sgts. Mark Gottlieb and David Addison both cite it in their responses. It seems unlikely, however, that either Gottlieb or Addison shared their responses with their superiors...
Postscript: The Addison Response
Posted on January 16, 2008The 26-page response of former Cpl. (now Sgt.) David Addison stands out as the most churlish of the reply briefs. It?s the handiwork of Durham attorney James Maxwell, who certainly knows his way around law enforcement officials whose behavior raises ethical questions...
Postscript: The Gottlieb Response
Posted on January 16, 2008Representing Mark Gottlieb, attorneys Edwin M. Speas and Eric Stevens hold their client free of any civil liability. ?Since Sgt. Gottlieb,? they write, ?did not have authority to ?initiate? or ?continue? a criminal prosecution, and since he provided all relevant information to the District Attorney, Sgt...
Postscript: City of Durham Response
Posted on January 16, 2008The City of Durham has filed a 51-page response to the lacrosse players? lawsuit. The basic argument: it was all Nifong?s fault, and since Nifong was a state employee, the city can?t be held liable for anything he did. The response is particularly passionate in its sections demanding dismissal of the players? call for injunctive relief to ensure due process protections for future defendants that encounter the Durham Police Department...
Postscript: Nifong Bankruptcy Filing
Posted on January 15, 2008Bloomberg News is reporting that former DA Mike Nifong has filed for bankruptcy in an apparent attempt to shield himself from the looming civil suits.Reporter Dawn McCarty adds, "If a bankruptcy judge decides that the prosecution was willful and malicious, the debt to the players would not be erased under federal bankruptcy law...
Postscript: Wilson Response
Posted on January 15, 2008The first of the defendants? responses to the lacrosse case civil suit has been filed by ex-investigator Linwood Wilson?who, in an odd twist, purports to be representing himself. Wilson?s basic argument: all claims against him should be dismissed, since his status as a prosecutor?s assistant entitled him to absolute immunity through...
Legacies
Posted on December 11, 2007With this post, the blog goes on hiatus; if and when Durham ever responds to the civil suit filing, I?ll run a postscript. I?ll also assemble a glossary of posts within the next week. This concluding post discusses the legacies of the case. The lacrosse case functioned as a kind of funhouse mirror: its events magnified patterns evident, but less clearly visible, elsewhere...
For the Record: Group of 88
Posted on December 10, 2007A central element of attempts to rehabilitate the Group of 88?s statement?which began with Cathy Davidson?s January 5, 2007 op-ed, continued with the Piot article, and has now the Robert Zimmerman blog postings?has been the suggestion that the Group of 88?s statement, unfairly, attracted attention...
Q&A
Posted on December 10, 2007Q: How difficult was it to maintain a timeline/deadline while writing the book given the constant new developments in the case? It seemed that things continued to change and develop right up until the publication. Was it difficult to format the book given the swings in the case? A: This wasn?t as much of a problem as it might have seemed at first glance...
Update: Gottlieb "Reassigned"; Details Top 50
Posted on December 07, 2007The N&O is reporting that Sgt. Mark Gottlieb has been "reassigned"; a Liestoppers discussion thread finds that the sergeant appeared unavailable for phone calls. This news would not bode well for Gottlieb's long-term employment status at the DPD.The Details "Power 50," of men under 45:36 // The ExoneratedReade Seligmann, David Evans, and Colin FinnertySure, we all thought they did it...
Barry Lenser on UPI
Posted on December 07, 2007"Until Proven Innocent is a police procedural, a courtroom drama, a social commentary, a correction of spurious history, and most simply, an engrossing story of heroes and villains. Sadly, the book becomes most meaningful when you realize it never should have been written in the first place...
Updates; Book Q&A
Posted on December 05, 2007The N&O is reporting that U.S. Department of Justice has rejected Attorney General Roy Cooper's request for a joint state-federal inquiry into allegations of civil rights violations by Mike Nifong and the DPD.In an unusual rationalization, given that the state had requested federal intervention, Justice Department spokesperson Peter Carr said, ?Well-established principles of federalism and comity discourage federal intervention when the state has the primary interest and the state is taking remedial action...
Mosteller on the Case
Posted on December 04, 2007A few months ago, I posted on the disappointing early coverage of the case from law reviews. The most recent Fordham Law Review corrects the problem, in a lengthy article by Duke Law professor Robert Mosteller. He astutely argues that the lacrosse case shows the insufficiency of ethical rules requiring prosecutors to do justice and to not prosecute cases without probable cause, and concludes with some sensible recommendations to make ethics rules more likely to protect the innocent...
The Group of 88 Rehab Tour Continues
Posted on December 03, 2007Since January, Group members and their sympathizers have aggressively, if unsuccessfully, attempted to rehabilitate the Group from its rush to judgment in spring 2006. The Group of 88 Rehab Tour has followed a long, and torturous, path. The tour began on January 5, when Cathy Davidson penned an N&O op-ed terming the Group?s statement a justified response to ?rampant? racist defenses of Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and Dave Evans ?on the campus quad...
Sheehan on Gell
Posted on November 30, 2007In her column this morning, Ruth Sheehan makes a compelling case that selective prosecution occurred in the recent Alan Gell case. For some background on the case, see Wednesday's article by Joe Neff.
Metro on UPI
Posted on November 30, 2007?The potbangers? noise and the professors? proclamation played well in Durham, a former mill town rife with race and class resentments that energized its 'progressive? agitators.? Read the entire review here.
Now on UPI
Posted on November 29, 2007"Until Proven Innocent is a seething indictment of the individuals and institutions in Durham, North Carolina that conspired to put three demonstrably innocent young men in jail for 30 years." Read the entire review here.
Airbrushing
Posted on November 29, 2007From the comment thread, regarding Claire Potter's disturbing tendency to delete comments that challenge her factual inaccuracies:Yesterday, November 28, at approximately 3:20 PM, I left the following comment on Potter's "turkeys" post. I reproduce it here in its entirety...
Update: Good News from Brown
Posted on November 28, 2007Stu Woo details the efforts of Brown's lacrosse team to raise money for the Innocence Project. Meanwhile, Reade Seligmann dropped by Alan Dershowitz's class at Harvard Law School.
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