Actually, they went to a dormitory, and waited around outside until someone with an entry card went in, and snuck in behind them. The rest of your recollection is correct. They tried to talk to players who were represented by counsel.
As far as the state bar is concerned, who knows how big the other shoe is, or when it will drop?
Ah, a hearing, not a trial. Gotcha.
And yes, Nifong is likely to say that he is dropping the charges reluctantly in order to spare the victim further suffering. Here’s hoping it has no effect on the investigation of his conduct.
Thanks, I will have a read.
Regards,
Shodan
Properly regarded, his dropping the rape charges exacerbates or highlights his conduct to date as improper.
Not just because of the obvious (he dropped the charge because it was false and unsupported), though that is true and important.
Nifong’s fundamental failing (though there are so many, it is hard to choose) here is under Rule 3.1, which makes utterly clear that legally-unsustainable allegations or charges cannot be brought, and if brought, cannot be maintained:
The dropping of the rape charges is damning on additional, slightly subtler, bases.
First, the only real reason for dropping the rape charges when he did was that her story of penetration was completely unreliable and inconsistent when his investigator talked to her just recently. The cause for dropping the charges was absolutely not the lack of defendants’ DNA, as that’s been known for months. But if he/a jury could not rely on Crystal’s testimony as to penetration, how is it any scintilla more likely that she is reliable on the elements of the two other charges? What is the basis for determining that her recollection of penetration is insufficient (when it was previously emphatic and positive) and unreliable, but her recollection of the elements of the other two crimes is (taken with any other evidence of sexual assault or kidnapping, which we now know to be absolutely fucking nil) sufficient and reliable? There is no logical or principled basis for trusting her recall on the remaining charges but not on the first. Quite to the contrary, the conclusion that she is unreliable on the elements of rape necessitates giving less (i.e., nil) credence to her percipient "evidence’ on the other two crimes.
Second, why did he drop the charges now? By his admission (and overlooking the shitstorm that arose out of the revelations of his unholy pact with the DNA lab and that probably left him looking for a diversion), it’s because the investigator concluded upon interviewing Crystal that her testimony wouldn’t reliably establish the elements of rape. Well, dumbfuck, why didn’t you interview her during the intervening eight months? Or, maybe even, before the indictment? The duty not to bring or maintain bogus claims or defenses is an ongoing one and includes an affirmative duty of due inquiry into whether they are bogus (in other words, you can’t put your head in the sand and say, well, we had a police report, and nothing else that clearly contradicted it came to my attention (not that even such a bullshit excuse would work here, since circumstances were clearly within his ken long ago, even before the interview, that would have cast serious doubt on the claims)). The timing of dropping the charges is, then, especially damning as to whether he brought and maintained a charge without due care for establishing its foundation and law and fact.
Obviously, he did.
From Durham-in-Wondrland.
Full story here. Pressure Increases on Nifong to Step Aside in Duke Case
In addition to the obvious bias/independent judgment issues that Nifong now confronts following the filing of the grievance (e.g., does he keep prosecuting the case no matter what, in an effort to vindicate himself in the grievance proceeding?), there’s an additional possible grounds for recusal: the non-trivial possibility that Nifong himself would be called as a witness if this abortion of a case went to trial.
Courts don’t like dragging lawyers in as witnesses (if you could do this indiscriminately, everyone would just name their opposing counsel as a witness, just for harassment and to disqualify them as counsel). However, most of the central facts that led to the indictment and the current state of play were brought about by actions (or inactions) of the police and Nifong. If I were defense counsel, I would seriously consider trying to force Nifong to the stand to explain, for instance, the secret deal he made with Meehan (of the DNA lab), which I’d argue is highly relevant to contested issues in the case.
Here’s a question:
Now that the LW (Crystal) is well known to be a lying whore, as there is no way that any of the lacrosse players from Duke could possibly have raped her as she claims, and she has arguably leveled the second worst accusation that can be laid at a man’s feet (the first being that he’s a child molester) and damaged the reputations and careers of 46 people plus the lacrosse coach, why are people still referring to her as ‘the accuser’?
Why is her name still such a taboo thing? The three accused may well have all charges dropped and are certainly not guilty of the crime in question, but I’d contend that it doesn’t matter how many headlines proclaim them innocent, there is a social stigma forever attached to having your picture on CNN while the talking heads point out that you’re a rape suspect, some of them barely remembering to point out that you’ve not been convicted and at least one saying she’d burn your house down if that were her daughter that never goes away.
Until they die, these three will have their names attached to the word ‘rape’.
Why is her name, her reputation, her face, still being protected? Would the mods here punish anyone if they used her full name now?
But won*t being known for making false rape claims hurt her ability to make a living in her chosen line of work?
Was that a possibility previously? Her name has been available on the internet for quite some time.
I doubt it. Her picture hasn’t been all over newspapers and television, she hasn’t got the kind of stigma attached to her that comes from being accused of rape. She’ll change her stage name and start dancing in a different club or even a different city and her life will go on as normal no matter what she did to those she falsely accused and those associated with them.
If it’s not, why hasn’t anyone used her name here? We know she lied, so we’re not protecting an innocent victim.
Why not name her?
Crystal Gayle Mangum.
I don’t think I blame the accuser as much as I do Nifong. He should have known better. If my stereotypical ideas of what this kind of person is like are close to true, she probably could not and should not.
What is in her future? A book, of course, followed by a career in porn, followed by a death from alcohol and cocaine overdose.
Nifong? I would like to say prison. But…
Regards,
Shodan
Oh I don’t think it takes that much education or intelligence to figure out that it’s wrong to accuse people of rape in order to get yourself out of trouble.
Crystal Mangum is responsible for her actions, and belongs in prison for what she’s done. I wonder if anyone knows whether NC has a Son of Sam law.
A slight nitpick (for anyone wishing to search for info on her): a Google search reveals her middle name is spelled Gail. But thanks for the full name, Huerta, I didn’t know it previously.
It is hard to tell – defense counsel, citing previous government filings, spelled it “Gayle,” but I have seen Gail as well as Gale. Quien sabe?
catsix got it right. Nifong is highly culpable for violating not just common decency but an elevated code of professional conduct. But I have always thought it was patronizing and demeaning to take the angle of: Oh, well, she’s poor and black, and exploited by the sex trade, you can’t expect her to get all the little details right.
So she’s poor. So she’s black. So she’s, probably, literally, a whore. BFD. The truth is the truth, and I have enough respect for her (at least in the abstract) as a principled, adult moral being that I expect her (or any seven year old) to know right from wrong. When she doesn’t, or worse, does, but ignores it, I do not cut her any free passes based on her socioeconomic/racial “disadvantages.” Black people have consciences too.
Well, sure - no reasonable person could dispute that. I guess I was not so much saying that what she did was okay, just that what Nifong is doing is worse.
False accusations of rape are bad enough from an LW. To use those accusations as a way to further your own career, from an elected official who is sworn to uphold justice - that’s worse. Because, if it weren’t for Nifong and the Amazing Disappearing Truth, this all would have blown over in a week or three, once the complete lack of corroboration and the ever-shifting sands of the Story combined to make this the cluster-copulation it is.
Regards,
Shodan
Or wasn’t, as it turned out.
Well, considering the number of different guys whose semen was found on the LW’s various private parts, ‘twould seem there was a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on where she was. It just doesn’t seem that any of the shakers played lacrosse.
Regards,
Shodan
OK, can I ask for a bit of help? I followed this discussion when if started for the first five pages, and checked in to the screaming match on occasion since then, but it has been a while. Though I am a big believer in reading an entire thread before jumping in, I’ll be damned if I am slogging through 31 pages.
What is the status of things? I have read the last page and it seems like the last of the defenders have fled and it is now a discussion of, “Why isn’t Nifong in jail yet?” I understand that charges of misconduct on some of his earlier statements have been brought but it is uncertain if anything is happening with the withholding of evidence. Are there further allegations I am unaware of?
Some of the posts above state that some charges against the players have been dropped, but it does not seem that all of them have. What is the state of the case against them? Thanks.
Though this incident is terrible, I like that it serves to remind me that though some of the more conservative posters on this board (Bricker and Shodan) have views on the opposite end of the political spectrum from my own, we all have a desire to see justice done and are outraged when it is miscarried.
If you don’t mind reading two pages, start with post 1470. That should bring you up to speed.
Correction. Post 1430.