RSSCleared Duke Lacrosse Player Seek $30 Million Settlement & Reforms in Legal Process
On the day that ex-DA Mike Nifong heads to jail to wear an orange jump suit, a 
monetary settlement is discussed in the Duke Lacrosse case. They should have made him wear the orange jumper and pick up trash a long the road side. The symbolism would have been poetic. What’s the price of being falsely indicted for rape? It appears to be $30 million. The three Duke Lacrosse players, David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, who have all been cleared on rape charges brought against them by the shameless actions of disgraced ex-DA Mike Nifong are now looking for their monetary damages. The cost of the settlement that the three are looking to make with the city of Durham, NC appears to be $30 million along with reforms in the legal process.
The three Duke lacrosse players who were falsely accused of rape are seeking a $30 million settlement and reforms in the legal process, a person close to the case said Friday, the same day the case prosecutor was due to start his 24-hour jail sentence. The players attorneys, meanwhile, have proposed a settlement with the city of Durham that includes reforming the legal system. If the terms aren’t met, the attorneys will file a civil rights lawsuit early next month, the person close to the case said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the proposed settlement wasn’t complete.
During a discussion Wednesday with Durham officials, players’ attorneys Brendan Sullivan and Barry Scheck stressed that the money they are seeking in the settlement — about $10 million each for David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann over five years — must be accompanied by legal reforms, the person said. (Yahoo News)
Lawyers Discuss Potential Duke Lacrosse Civil Rights Lawsuit
Granted, the three LAX players were falsely accused and have all been found innocent of all the allegations and charges leveled at them by Mike Nifong. However, lets keep (the media) this in perspective as to what is been sought by the Duke LAX players. Money. Its time for people to pay for what happened to them. By the looks of the MSM headlines one would think it was just about the reforming of the system. Please … no defense attorney would ever take that on. There is nothing wrong with David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann asking for money due to the fact that they were wronged in the manner they were. Nothing at all. Let’s just keep the story in its proper perspective without such a slant.
- Duke Players Expected to Seek Reforms – ABC
- Duke Players Expected to Seek Reforms – Forbes
- Duke players expected to seek reforms – Houston Chronicle
UPDATE I: Ex-Duke Lacrosse Prosecutor Leaves Jail
Well that was short lived. Its too bad that Nifong was not given the very sentence that he was looking to railroad the three Duke Lacrosse players with.
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8 Responses to “Cleared Duke Lacrosse Player Seek $30 Million Settlement & Reforms in Legal Process”
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Absolutely! Pay the boys,all of them.Believe me they earned it. While you’re at it pay the university.
All the city of Durham has done is lie throughout this whole fiasco. All the Duke 3 have done is tell the truth. This information is coming from a leak inside of Durham government, we should all hold any judgements until hearing from the Duke 3.
And asking for $30 million doesn’t mean that this isn’t about effecting reforms. Until the voters of Durham feel a noticible pinch in the pocketbook it’s unrealistic to expect them to change their apathetic behavior at best in electing a throughly corrupt government. Remember NiFong was elected during the case and after most of his illegal tactics had been highly publicized.
You know, the thing I don’t understand about Nifong is simply… WHY?
What did he have against these kids? You can’t play the race card because he was pulling for the defendant.
Am I overlooking something that’s plainly obvious? Why would this fool risk his whole career and the lives of the boys who were falsely accused? What was in it for him?
Maybe someone with more insight can spell it out for me. He’s clearly as guilty as sin, but what the hell was he thinking? I see no motive.
Dugga, I personally believe that Nifong fell pray to what so many DA’s do and that is believing that they are untouchable when it comes to the law and our court system , I also think that he HAD and I do mean HAD much higher political aspirations that he hoped this case would help catapult him into .
So wrong Mr Nifong now you’ll settle for just being another ATTY DA held in disgrace .
The ones I feel sorriest for are his children and spouse such a shame well maybe he can get a date from the stripper that he was supposedly representing they may make a good pair Both Liars .
3 & 4 – From what I understand, it was an election year and there was the possibilty that Nifong wasn’t going to be the DA, so he basically hyped the case to promote himelf to the people. In so doing, he dug a hole for himself he couldn’t get out of.
And now that he’s in it, I hope they bury him alive.
Dugga said: “You know, the thing I don’t understand about Nifong is simply… WHY?
What did he have against these kids? You can’t play the race card because he was pulling for the defendant.
Am I overlooking something that’s plainly obvious? Why would this fool risk his whole career and the lives of the boys who were falsely accused? What was in it for him?
Maybe someone with more insight can spell it out for me. He’s clearly as guilty as sin, but what the hell was he thinking? I see no motive.”
SteveDinMD: It’s been well established that the prosecutor, Nifong, pushed this case in an effort to win election. He had nothing in particular against the accused, nor was there any bond of kinship or affection. It was just “business.” Nifong was appointed Durham DA after his predecessor was appointed to a judgeship. Prior to being named DA, Nifong had no political experience and no campaign organization, but had worked as a civil servant in the DA’s office for many years, most recently working traffic cases. Among his first official acts as DA, Nifong fired prosecutor Freda Black, who had recently tried high profile cases and was accordingly well known in the community. Ultimately, as it turned out, Ms. Black mounted her own campaign for the Democrat nomination for Durham DA, and was leading Nifong in the polls by a wide margin only a few weeks before the election. It was then that the Duke rape allegations hit the news.
Seizing on the opportunity before him, Nifong rushed the case to the Grand Jury and got an indictment. He then proceeded make hundreds of inflammatory statements in public appearances and to the media in an obvious attempt to whip up racial animosity among black voters. He succeeded. In heavily black Durham, blacks voted in large numbers for Nifong, for whom they previously had little regard, allowing him to eke out a come-from-behind victory over Freda Black in the Democrat primary. Had he lost that election, it was a foregone conclusion that Black would have in turn blocked Nifong from continuing his civil service career, thus inflicting heavy damage on his pension benefits. Winning the election, then, was the only way for Nifong to protect his pension.
When he initially took up the case, he might have believed that a rape occured, and that his rush to indict someone — ANYONE — wouldn’t really matter in the overall scheme of things. Over time, however, it became obvious to ALL that the accused were innocent. What was Nifong’s response? He engaged in a continuing abuse of process and obstruction of justice in order to keep the charges alive and to delay any trial or examination of the evidence until after the general election. He succeeded in this, but ultimately did himself in. After narrowly winning the general election, Nifong could have dropped the charges against the Duke 3 as late as mid December and suffered no serious rebuke. This was not to be, and Nifong pushed the envelope one time too many. Defense counsel, in a blistering cross-examination of the prosecution’s DNA witness, uncovered in open court that Nifong had initiated a criminal conspiracy to withold exculpatory evidence. It was a Perry Mason moment the likes of which almost never happens in real court proceedings. It was also something that the legal authorities in North Carolina couldn’t ignore without making laughingstocks of themselves and their whole system. I only hope that those wrongly accused and libeled will eventually be able to inflict severe financial losses on all those responsible for this injustice in Government and among the media. Unfortunately, culpable parties among academia seem to have escaped accountability.
NiFong did this for greed, to keep his job and get and increase his pension. NiFong fired Freda Black when he was appointed DA and the same Freda Black was leading NiFong in the polls by about 20 points before the Duke Lacrosse Hoax happened.
I wish NiFong spent years in jail for what that scumbag did to these boys. Maybe they used bad judgement that evening with hiring strippers, but the punishment did NOT fit the crime. How about the other 40 or so lacrosse players that got a season taken away from them? I hope NiFong suffers greatly for his misuse of power.