Criminal Law

Linwood Fights the Law

Posted on July 27, 2010
Linwood Wilson?the man specially hired to the DA?s office by Mike Nifong, and the ?investigator? who then allegedly pressured witnesses to confirm to the disgraced ex-DA?s version of events?is in more trouble with the law.Yesterday, a warrant was served on the man who once boasted that ?he owned Durham (and) lawyers and judges would do anything he said...

Mangum & N. Buchanan

Posted on July 12, 2010
The false accuser Crystal Mangum recently gave an interview with the Tom Joyner Show. Her interviewer, Jacque Reid, wasn?t exactly hard-hitting: Reid never mentioned that AG Cooper had declared the player innocent based on a comprehensive inquiry. Instead, she reported that North Carolina authorities merely ?said that they did not have enough evidence? to pursue charges...

Wilson & Mangum

Posted on July 08, 2010
Two recent developments from the Wonderland that is Durham.First, ex-DA?s investigator Linwood Wilson was issued a new fugitive arrest warrant, after the AG?s office assumed control of his stalking obscenity case. Court papers revealed that Wilson allegedly had boasted to his wife that ?he owned Durham (and) lawyers and judges would do anything he said...

More from Wonderland

Posted on June 30, 2010
In what could only be described as a classic case of chutzpah, false accuser Crystal Mangum gave a press conference this morning claiming that the Durham judicial system--the same Durham judicial system that the disgraced Mike Nifong rigged to prop up Mangum's "fantastic lies"--is ...

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Linwood Wilson Arrested

Posted on June 25, 2010
According to WTVD-11, Linwood Wilson--whose penchant for unethical behavior was outdone only by the unethical behavior of his disgraced former boss--has been arrested, on a Delaware warrant related to a domestic violence charge. But, as Brad Bannon noted, Wilson once did have a badge...

Professional Protesters' Credibility

Posted on June 17, 2010
[Update, 8.46pm: Joining the Rev. Barber in the protest was none other than Duke's resident professional protester, Tim Tyson--the figure who humiliated himself by participating (as a teacher) in a protest outside the lacrosse captains' house as their false accuser, Crystal Mangum, was caught on videotape pole-dancing at a strip club...

Duke Celebrates Tyson

Posted on June 17, 2010
Said David Jarmul, associate vice president for news and communications: ?Professor Tyson is highly regarded here at Duke for his work as a faculty member."That's the same Professor Tyson who:--in his capacity as a teacher, attended a guilt-presuming protest outside the lacrosse captains' house, at about the same time the supposed "victim" was taped pole-dancing at a strip club;--publicly asserted about Duke students, based solely on evidence supplied by Mike Nifong, ?I think the spirit of the lynch mob lived in that house on Buchanan Street, frankly, and I think that we prefer to think of white supremacists as ignorant, pot-bellied, tobacco-chewing sheriffs and Ku Klux Klan members from Mississippi, but here we have the sons of power and privilege, the wealthy and well-educated among us, who are acting out this history...

Davidson Does Grading, Ctd.

Posted on June 15, 2010
At the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year, I noted the pedagogical . . . innovations . . . of Group of 88 member Cathy Davidson. Suffering from the travails of a tenured Duke professor??I loved returning to teaching last year after several years in administration ...

ESPN: "Questions Remain"

Posted on May 31, 2010
Via NewsBusters, an extraordinary item from ESPN anchor Steve Weissman. Introducing highlights to the Duke-Virginia national semifinals (won by Duke), Weissman made the following observation: ?Two of the top lacrosse teams in the country, dealing with two of the worst stories college athletes have faced in recent memory...

Character, Ctd.

Posted on May 28, 2010
A few more items, from both sides of the question, regarding themes from the post below.Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty were both named to the 2010 Scholar All-America Team.Finnerty?s individual awards were listed in the post below; Seligmann received the IMLCA Boston Market Humanitarian Award in 2008; in 2010, he was named first team All-Ivy, All-New England, and a USILA Scholar All-American...

Character

Posted on May 25, 2010
Times of stress can reveal character.Newsdayhas profiled Collin Finnerty upon his graduation from Loyola. The entire article is here (alas, behind Newsday?s paywall), and is very much reading, since it discusses the particular difficulty that Finnerty faced (because of his recognizability) in the case...

Regarding Dr. Kimmel

Posted on May 20, 2010
Michael Kimmel, a professor of sociology at Stony Brook, has a research profile (?Gender, Sexuality, Masculinity, Political and Social Movements?) that would put him at home with the race/class/gender-obsessed Group of 88. Kimmel?s personal website describes him as ?among the leading researchers and writers on men and masculinity in the world today?; his most recent book is Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men...

No Shame

Posted on May 17, 2010
Though publicly rebuked by his own ideological comrades, Group of 88 extremist Grant Farred doesn?t appear to have lost any of his pedagogical influence. The homepage of Cornell?s English Department includes an announcement of a new concentration??cultural studies??which supposedly allows students to ?study different media and forms of culture in terms of historical, social, and political contexts...

Christine Brennan Offers Insights on the Lacrosse Case

Posted on May 11, 2010
Keep in mind, as outlined in the post below, the enormous differences between the facts of the Duke lacrosse case and what has emerged about the murder charges against former UVA lacrosse player George Huguely, and then ponder the following from USA Today columnist Christine Brennan: Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but there's no escaping the fact that the sport they played is lacrosse, in the news again for all the wrong reasons, again...

More Strained Comparisons

Posted on May 10, 2010
Let?s review some facts. (A) Accused murderer George Huguely had a documented record of violence, seen most clearly when a police officer had to taser him when he resisted arrest. Allegations have emerged of a pattern of violence, allegedly involving not only the woman he?s accused of murdering but even another member of the UVA men?s lacrosse team...

Today Slanders the Lacrosse Players

Posted on May 06, 2010
[Update, 2.41pm, below:}On this morning's broadcast of Today, host Meredith Viera interviewed "criminal profiler" Pat Brown, on the topic of whether the Virginia killing could have been prevented.Out of the blue--in a discussion, again, of an accused murderer--"criminal profiler" Brown offered the following insight: "Look at the Duke situation...

Linkage

Posted on May 03, 2010
[Update, 4.13pm, below]: A horrifying story from Charlottesville, where a member of the UVA men's lacrosse team has been charged with murdering a member of the women's lacrosse team.The Washington Post has linked the matter back to the lacrosse case. Here's how the Post describes the case: " ...

Today's New York Post

Posted on April 25, 2010
Has an excellent article on Collin Finnerty, now in his final season at Loyola. Read it here.

Karma and Grant Farred

Posted on April 12, 2010
With the possible exceptions of Houston Baker and Wahneema Lubiano, Grant Farred was the most extreme member of the Group of 88. This was, it?s worth recalling, the Duke faculty member who: Claimed that Duke students who registered to vote in Durham exhibited a ?secret racism?;Explained away AG Roy Cooper?s innocence declaration by wildly charging?without any offering any evidence to corroborate it?that unnamed lacrosse players had committed ?perjury?;Implied?on the Duke campus, no less, and again without offering any evidence?that the lacrosse players (even if they hadn?t committed rape) had engaged in prostitution...

FIRE Confronts Duke's New Sexual Misconduct Policy

Posted on April 07, 2010
A powerful statement today released by FIRE, regarding Duke's guilt-presuming sexual misconduct procedure. FIRE vice president Robert Shibley put the matter bluntly:"Duke's new sexual misconduct policy could have been written by Mike Nifong. Members of the men's basketball team could be punished for consensual sexual activity simply because they are 'perceived' as more powerful than other students after winning the national championship...

Pressler Lawsuit Settled

Posted on April 02, 2010
Duke has settled its lawsuit with former lacrosse coach Mike Pressler. Having tried (and failed) to get the case thrown out before discovery, the University had little choice--I can't imagine the discovery in this case would have been pleasant.Here is the statement the University released to accompany the settlement: "Coach Michael Pressler is an excellent coach...

"Discordant Voices" at Duke

Posted on March 29, 2010
At this point in time, it?s hard to imagine anything surprising coming from the Brodhead administration?which, after all, has responded to the lacrosse case by promoting numerous members of the Group of 88.But it?s still possible for a Duke decision to raise eyebrows...

Meehan Wrongful Termination Suit Dismissed

Posted on March 21, 2010
In the United States, anyone can file a lawsuit. But some are more brazen than others.In the ranks of people who violated procedures in the lacrosse case, only Mike Nifong exceeded DNA Security lab director Brian Meehan. Working in concert with Nifong, Meehan produced a ?report? that didn?t list all the results from his lab?s tests?in violation of state law and lab accreditation standards...

Williamson Appointed to Judgeship

Posted on March 13, 2010
Governor Beverly Perdue has appointed to a vacant Superior Court judgeship Lane Williamson, who presided over the hearing that resulted in Mike Nifong's conviction on multiple ethics charges and subsequent disbarment.Based on Williamson's performance in the Nifong case, at least, it would be difficult to imagine a more appropriate choice, in terms of both intellect and judicial temperament...

The Roethlisberger Case

Posted on March 09, 2010
One item from the case is especially notable. As far as I can tell, and despite the heavy media interest, the district attorney, Fred Bright, has made only one public comment. Here it is: "The investigation is ongoing. It would be premature to make any announcement at this time...

Updates

Posted on February 25, 2010
A few updates. Crystal Mangum?s bail, for charges of attempted murder, arson, and child endangerment, was reduced to $250,000. As one of the most astute observers of the case noted to me privately, a notable aspect of this affair is that, by filing severe charges against her, the Durham Police Department is no longer willing to afford Mangum the special treatment she so consistently received in the lacrosse case...

Mangum Arrested (Updated)

Posted on February 18, 2010
The N&O, WRAL, and ABC-11 have reported that false accuser Crystal Mangum was arrested early this morning. She has been charged with a series of crimes, including attempted first-degree murder, five counts of arson, and three counts of child endangerment...

Case Updates

Posted on January 09, 2010
A few updates in the civil suit. First, and most significant, an out-of-court settlement was reached in the Pottawatamie case, a civil suit that resulted from massive prosecutorial conduct, and about which I had blogged previously. As Radley Balko has argued, the Pottawattamie side of the case contended ?that prosecutorial immunity gives government officials the right to coerce witnesses to lie, withhold evidence pointing to a suspect's innocence, and work with police to manufacture false evidence of guilt, then use that evidence to win false convictions that send two men to prison for 25 years...

Updates

Posted on November 30, 2009
Posting will be light until there are new developments in the civil case; or if there is significant movement on one or two other case-related fronts.In the meantime, even as the Group of 88 clings to its favored position at Duke, it's worth remembering the legacy of the case for society as a whole...

The "Victim" Was a "Girl"

Posted on November 24, 2009
Apart from the obvious?that in both the specifics of the alleged crime and the (to date, non-existent) conduct of the prosecutor the Sacred Heart controversy has no similarities to the Duke lacrosse case?I have no comment on the specifics of the allegations at Sacred Heart...

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