RSSNifong Dropping Duke Rape Charges But Keeping Kidnapping and Sexual Offense Charges
It looks like the rape charges against the Duke Lacross Players are dropped according to reports. The charges of kidnappng and sexual assault are being upheld. Breaking:
Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party, but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges.
According to court papers filed Friday by District Attorney Mike Nifong, the accuser told a prosecution investigator on Thursday that she now does not know if she was penetrated during the alleged attack.
Nifong had previously said he would rely on the woman’s account because of a lack of DNA evidence against the players.
Lacking any “scientific or other evidence independent of the victim’s testimony” to corroborate that aspect of the case, Nifong wrote, “the State is unable to meet its burden of proof with respect to this offense.”
Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday, and a sign posted on his office door read, “No media, please!” via the AP
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23 Responses to “Nifong Dropping Duke Rape Charges But Keeping Kidnapping and Sexual Offense Charges”
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Looking to me like Nifong will have a difficult time prosecuting any case now and always. ANy criminal defense atty who could possibly find a way to introduce to a jury the appearance of failed justice by Nifong just seems to spoil things. And how can a judge not allow this introduced to a jury? Surely, Nifong is headed himself towards being charged with obstruction of justice. Would love to be on that grand jury to hear the argument.
Many must be reminded of racist remarks as this case began. We must remember the rich boy accusations, from successfull families remarks, athlete conclussions. And most we recognize a prosecutor needs to feel he/she remains in the checks and balances of our system.
Who does not remember when the ‘boys’ looked in the face of the camera and said they were innocent. Statements like defiant, will come back to haunt them, and more of the “rich boys” stuff. I did not know guilt is more obvious for those with more than a quarter pound of cut glass in the homes front door. On one end of the street the rich, on the other end wantabees.
Money and power.
Both sides of the fence have been grazed here.
Credibility, disappointment.
What is sad is that this will surely impact other rape cases across the nation — and with it true victims will lose…
btw…
Red please… I know you have been busy, but I would really like to join the forums… I have sent 3 requests but haven’t heard anything back yet…
___________
SM: Try emailing the request to Tom. Red has been extreemly busy and hasn’t been able to get to all his emails. There is a link to email Tom on the front page of SM. (klaasend)
Nifong blinked due to the feds eye-balling the case. If they push to investigate HIM, I think the whole case will be dismissed entirely.
By the way, I emailed Tom back in the summer and got no response to getting my forum account reinstated after the great server crash. I think it’s coming up on a year now. Oh, well.
I read today where the accuser “is not sure she was penetrated”. HUH??? How can you “not be sure”. According to the nurses, she had injury consistant with “rough sex”. Ok…so she had been working a bit on the side. Who is shocked?
I am sure the boys said some racial garbage to her, but that is no reason to bring an entire team under scrutiny and ruin their lives for a time over a grudge.
I’d LOVE to know if any of the DNA in this accuser’s panties matches the baby’s….it didn’t match the team….
Brenda
Incompetence on the part of Nyfong? Something smells fishy here it it ain’t the chicken………
Nifong is a complete embarrassment to the state of North Carolina! Remember Mike, What comes around goes around!
I’ve heard things that tell me the one boy’s alibi may not be as rock solid as some claim and things that make me believe something happened at that house that scared those guys. I’ve also heard stories that make me question the credibility of the accuser. What I don’t want to hear is that this case will be dropped because of fear, intimidation or prosecutorial incompentence. If all charges are eventually dropped and this case does not see a courtroom, there will always be doubts about all parties involved.
I wonder how the grand jury indicted those guys. That chick is a few slices of bread short of a ham sandwich.
What exactly did Nyfong have? A confession? Emails form the three after the event that were written in poor taste?
Kidnapping and sexual offense charges? What are these? Holding her against her will, lewd acts?
Doesn’t sound like these three are entirely innocent, especially if you do a round robin on the blogsphere. Also sounds like Nyfong does not have what he once thought he did.
Have it on a pretty good source that at least one family tried to settle outside, but Nyfong kept this going? Why? His career? Re-election?
Ugly all the way around……Duke and Chapel Hill get a black eye, not to mention Lady Justice.
zzzzzzzzzz….huh? Oh yeah, Nifong. If it were not so serious, this whole farce could have been inserted(?) in a Pink Panther movie.
Hmm, now who could possibly play the part of Inspector Clouseau(sic)?
Big ole closure phugh like the Natalee Holloway case!
Been reading Raliegh/Durham blogs and Durham web news for a few hours. There is such a ton of hate towards Nifong. I have to wonder how he ever got re elected to office. Were the other candidates THAT bad? Or was Nifong a lesser of 2 evils? I have to say that this may impact those women who have been assaulted, but are now afraid of the very person who is supposed to uphold the law and protect their rights. For possible ‘grandstanding’ in this case, he may not even get a slap on the wrist. Thats disturbing. That very old line; absolute power corrupts absolutely – is sadly true in this caes. From all I read on the North Carolina sites, there are no laws in NC against what he has done. Even down to the hiding of the exculpatory evidence. Hopefully, I am wrong. There at least should be some sanctions. And that sign on his office door – NO MEDIA PLEASE – Why didn’t he think of that when this case broke in the first place? I used to have faith in our entire system. I don’t know if that is the case any longer.
Remember the good ole boy Joran who wouldn’t have sex with Natalee because he DIDN’T HAVE A CONDOM,lol?
Well, maybe the boys in NC DID! Ergo, no DNA.
Not saying that the whole thing is being treated properly by the DA, but I also don’t have much faith in the accuser, and am sure it will hurt rape victims in the future….chris
chris, if the boys did use condoms (thus no dna) as you said, they may have avoided getting exposed to HIV. Good moves.
There is no evidence that the boys did a crime. None, they should have been released long ago on this fact alone.
The accuser and the second dancers statements have provided progressive reasons to let the boys go.
Having only one class of law, I struggle to say Nifong has wrecked the prosecution case to the point of neccesitating the emmediate release of the boys…with an apology.
Political and racial correctness tells us the dancers truthfullness and credibility could not be more so questioned than other not so ‘travled’ persons, but good sense tells me that is exactly what should have been done. And it was not X ten.
It seems there are odd procedures to grand juries in NC? Are they not recorded? Not certain, but I have heard that.
No law ability here, but have been on 3 criminal case juries, 2 of which went all the way to verdict and sentence as well. It to me is constantly about trying to see how the accused is innocent. I and other jurors I spoke with afterwards hoped on hope the accused was innocent. Everything is about evidence, and the presure is great…unable to keep notes, which I understand could be used against the proceedings for a mistrial, say if you took down a note a bit wrong or difficult to read. But it is intense. Gives me headaches, afterwards others said the same. Upon the verdict, coming back to the jury room for farewells, all the lady jurors cried, men too. You have been in a knot to pay the best attention in your life, because someone elses life is at ready to be flushed. At the end you can repeat the evidence, events and sciences word for word like reading it from a page. Your mind his on steroids.
Without evidence there is nothing. Freedom and innocent.
The three young men accused in the case are demonstrably innocent. What’s more, it has been proven that the DA, Nifong, knew it before he referred the case to the grand jury. On top of this, it was established IN OPEN COURT last week that Nifong conspired with the DNA lab director to supress obviously exculpatory evidence and to deny it to the defense. This case will assuredly be known centuries from now as the most notoriously abusive prosecution in the history of the United States. It will be a travesty if Michael Nifong doesn’t spend the rest of his miserable life in prison.
Looks like we may not be THAT much different from Aruba.
Isn’t it sad the way people try to protect their children
even when EVERYBODY knows they’re guilty? Everthing they
did to that girl was wrong. Remember the golden rule?
Dana Pretzer talked with Wendy Murphy about this case about two weeks ago; I think it was 12-14-06. If you look back on the Front Page for Dana’s shows you can listen to this interview. It’s well worth a few minutes of your time.
p.s. I hope this isn’t a double-post; I had a computer glitch.
If I recall the entire team submitted to voluntary DNA tests.
I will borrow another posters line.
THOSE WITH NOTHING TO HIDE, HIDE NOTHING
which it seems they didn’t.
If my son was on the team and told me he didn’t do it I would have a hard time telling him to take the DNA test with out a court order, pure invasion of privacy to me.
Now every one on that team has a DNA report with the LE, for what?
duhhh,
if this woman was raped by 3 men all those years ago, it will be difficult proving the entire thing wasn’t a drug induced flash back.
the d.a. is attempting to save face. at this late date it won’t work. the duke boys have dished out hundreds of thousands of dollars in order for nifong to gather the black vote. nifong is a disgrace to everyone who holds a public office.
I don’t know if we will ever really know what happened
in a court of law. But all this talk about the victim
sounds way too much like an assassination to me…
The medical report is the only reliable evidence; and it,
alone, is enough to support a conviction. Plus you have
the e-mail that specifically describes the facts of the
case (precisely the way the victim described them)… it
may not be mumbo-jumbo, or D.N.A., but it would be enough
for me.
Although I have never been one, my common sense tells me
that even strippers have the right to say “NO” and from
the sounds of the E-Mail, maybe they should be charged with
a human rights violation or a hate crime as well…
afterall, our constitution gives everyone the same “human”
rights in black and white.
The University knew what they were doing….
[...] at Duke rethink that of which had been previously done to the three accused Duke Lacrosse player. DA Nifong had earlier dropped the rape charges against the lacrosse player; however, upheld the sexual assault and kidnapping [...]