Cynical? Me? Noooo... Why would anyone be cynical about this???
The phrase "I could indict a ham sandwich", applying to district attorneys and coined in NYC was popularized in "The Bonfire of the Vanities". It's been around for a few decades. Well, here's more proof that the saying is still as valid as ever: Durham, NC DA Mike Nifong's decision to indict two Duke lacrosse players (fingered by an exotic dancer who had been hired to perform at a party the team was throwing as being responsible for a 30 minute rape and assault of her in a bathroom) is absolutely blowing up in his face and becoming not only a local, but a national embarressment.
The latest bombshell came out today. The defense attorneys for the two indicted players have been informed through discovery that the only DNA found on the woman accuser through a rape test was from a Durham man not involved with the lacrosse team, and not present at the party.
That's right, there is no DNA on the woman who described a horrific half hour ordeal that included being bitten, kicked, and sodomized with a broom from anyone who could have committed the crime she described to the police and still claims happens. How can there be no DNA? Well the answer is obvious: she made up the whole story about the rape in order to enact some type of revenge on the men for some disagreement that occurred at the party, possibly over money or the fact that the lacrosse players say they specifically requested "white" strippers.
Even if the players had worn condoms during the rape there would have been some sort of residual evidence found on the woman. There WAS, however DNA discovered on the woman's broken fingernail taken from a trash can in the bathroom and given to Durham police voluntarily by a member of the team the night of the incident. Of course, this means nothing since it came from a trashcan, which was likely teeming with the stuff, and it would have been strange if the broken fingernail had NOT contained some DNA of members of the lacrosse team/guys who lived at the home.
This is the website for Mike Nifong, the local DA responsible for the indictments for two young men. He was in the midst of a re-election campaign when the story broke. You can, according to the site, have DA Mike come to your home and speak if you like, though I bet he's kinda booked now, especially since he won the primary (only a small percentage of the county voters bothered to turn out and vote).
To me, these players appear to be innocent of everything on the night in question except for very poor decision making in hiring strippers for their party and the typical overconsumption of alcohol seen so often in college students, along with their share of responsibility for whatever drunken argument occurred at the beerbash that resulted in the dancer's getting so pissed off as to report a horrific crime to local cops that has sparked massive nationwide media attention.
The media attention is due largely to the toxic mixture of sexual assault, race, privileged jocks attending an elite private university and supposedly doing nasty, horrible things to a couple of exotic dancers, as well as the local DA being involved in a re-election campaign in a largely minority populated county in North Carolina and needing a scalp or two. Add it all up and there is plenty of blame to go around. First of all, it appears the two dancers have lied to police about an alleged rape and assault. Hopefully they will both be charged; both the woman claiming to be the victim as well as the other dancer who backed up the story to a large degree. The players certainly could have exercised much better judgement; though that may not be their strong suit as many of the young men had been charged with alcohol and public nuisance related misdemeanors in the past. Certainly the media was all over this case from the get go. They can smell ratings and increased circulation when an alleged crime involving so many juicy elements presents itself, facts and intuition be damned. And though the members of the local community who were so quick to believe the woman can hardly be blamed for their initial outrage, since the crime of rape is so heinous, once facts presented themselves casting doubt on the dancer's claims, it seemed as if much of the public still NEEDED to believe the woman's story due to long simmering tensions between Duke's privileged student body and the largely middle and lower class minority population of Durham: an African-American student at a local college was quoted as saying he hoped the lax players were put away whether or not they were guilty, simply as a means of enacting a bit of revenge against Duke for years of perceived slights against the local community.
Here's rundown on the entire affair from talkleft.com. Very depressing all the way around.
The latest bombshell came out today. The defense attorneys for the two indicted players have been informed through discovery that the only DNA found on the woman accuser through a rape test was from a Durham man not involved with the lacrosse team, and not present at the party.
That's right, there is no DNA on the woman who described a horrific half hour ordeal that included being bitten, kicked, and sodomized with a broom from anyone who could have committed the crime she described to the police and still claims happens. How can there be no DNA? Well the answer is obvious: she made up the whole story about the rape in order to enact some type of revenge on the men for some disagreement that occurred at the party, possibly over money or the fact that the lacrosse players say they specifically requested "white" strippers.
Even if the players had worn condoms during the rape there would have been some sort of residual evidence found on the woman. There WAS, however DNA discovered on the woman's broken fingernail taken from a trash can in the bathroom and given to Durham police voluntarily by a member of the team the night of the incident. Of course, this means nothing since it came from a trashcan, which was likely teeming with the stuff, and it would have been strange if the broken fingernail had NOT contained some DNA of members of the lacrosse team/guys who lived at the home.
This is the website for Mike Nifong, the local DA responsible for the indictments for two young men. He was in the midst of a re-election campaign when the story broke. You can, according to the site, have DA Mike come to your home and speak if you like, though I bet he's kinda booked now, especially since he won the primary (only a small percentage of the county voters bothered to turn out and vote).
To me, these players appear to be innocent of everything on the night in question except for very poor decision making in hiring strippers for their party and the typical overconsumption of alcohol seen so often in college students, along with their share of responsibility for whatever drunken argument occurred at the beerbash that resulted in the dancer's getting so pissed off as to report a horrific crime to local cops that has sparked massive nationwide media attention.
The media attention is due largely to the toxic mixture of sexual assault, race, privileged jocks attending an elite private university and supposedly doing nasty, horrible things to a couple of exotic dancers, as well as the local DA being involved in a re-election campaign in a largely minority populated county in North Carolina and needing a scalp or two. Add it all up and there is plenty of blame to go around. First of all, it appears the two dancers have lied to police about an alleged rape and assault. Hopefully they will both be charged; both the woman claiming to be the victim as well as the other dancer who backed up the story to a large degree. The players certainly could have exercised much better judgement; though that may not be their strong suit as many of the young men had been charged with alcohol and public nuisance related misdemeanors in the past. Certainly the media was all over this case from the get go. They can smell ratings and increased circulation when an alleged crime involving so many juicy elements presents itself, facts and intuition be damned. And though the members of the local community who were so quick to believe the woman can hardly be blamed for their initial outrage, since the crime of rape is so heinous, once facts presented themselves casting doubt on the dancer's claims, it seemed as if much of the public still NEEDED to believe the woman's story due to long simmering tensions between Duke's privileged student body and the largely middle and lower class minority population of Durham: an African-American student at a local college was quoted as saying he hoped the lax players were put away whether or not they were guilty, simply as a means of enacting a bit of revenge against Duke for years of perceived slights against the local community.
Here's rundown on the entire affair from talkleft.com. Very depressing all the way around.
posted by joe sweeney at 8:23 PM
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