Duke LaCrosse Case Charges Dropped

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 12:38am

ABC News is reporting that the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper will announce that he is dismissing all charges against three Duke Lacrosse players.

I have no idea what exactly happened in the house, but I do believe the initial prosecutor was too quick to file charges before getting all of the evidence pertinent to the case, and seemed to be using the case to advance his own political objectives.



Duke Lacrosse Case Charges to Be Dropped Updated On: 4/11/07 at 12:38 AM

[TheHumanTorch]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 10:05am

i thought this happened months ago...

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 10:16am

wonder where those guys go to get their reputations and college years back.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 11:10am

I don't know.

Usually prosecutors have a privilege against being held personally liable for their official acts.

But, this case was so mishandled by the prosecutor, I am wondering if there is a chance to pierce the privilege and successfully sue.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 11:12am

Can they sue (or counter sue) the stripper? I'm sure she makes a lot of money accusing innocent people of rape.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 11:31am

One of the guys who was accused in this case lives out here on Long Island. From all reports, Colin Finnerty is a decent kid and would never have gotten involved in such a situation.

It's really time for people who make such false charges to be held responsible for their accusations. As schoolteachers, we are removed from the classroom whenever a student reports us for so much as looking at them "in a sexual manner" (oh, brother, do they know the jargon!) We are given desk jobs at another location while the case is investigated. This past year we've had FIVE teachers who were removed because of student allegations. Not one of them was found guilty and not one of the students was held responsible.

[pab]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 11:35am

"Can they sue (or counter sue) the stripper? I'm sure she makes a lot of money accusing innocent people of rape."

The person they should be looking to sue would be the former District Attorney.

[RadiGal2]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 5:06pm

And this is why Howard Wells is one of my heroes to this day, he was the sheriff in the Susan Smith case. Immediately placing a gag order on his entire department, and refusing to get sucked into the media frenzy and got to the bottom of the investigation -- avoiding what could have otherwise been total chaos; as this Duke case was from the start; now that is a public servant.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 5:20pm

I hope they throw Nifong under the jail. One of his "mistakes" was in the witness lineup only having the lacrosse players when he knew he was supposed to mix in a few "plants". He intentionally did this and should pay a very heavy price.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 6:34pm

Yes, Nifong should be penalized, but the stripper is getting away scott free. She's made life hell for three kids and their families and she just gets to walk away from the situation without so much as a slap on the wrist.

Accusers can ruin the lives of the people they point their fingers at. I only hope that these three fellows are able to get their lives back together after all this. Financially, their families will never recover.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 7:14pm

In this case I am not sure it is fair to claim finanical ruin for the families of the accused.

We do not know what financial resources the families have.

I wonder if they will go after the accuser for filing a false police report.

They should go after the DA's office.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 7:17pm

Excuse me, no matter how affluent a family is, a $40K monthly lawyer fee is going to cause them problems. How long did this go on? A year? You do the math.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 7:41pm

I am just saying you are making assumptions.

FYI, the parents have asked Duke to pay the legal fees.

There has also been fund set up to help the accused players.

To date, the total legal fees is approximately $3 million dollars. Approxmately $830,000 dollars have come in donations.

And yes, to most families this would be an insurmountable sum of money. But Duke is a private school, and we do not know the exact circumstances of the families involved.

I just don't assume facts I do not have before me.

Regardless, I hope they recover every bit of fees paid from the County.





Parents Ask Duke to Pay Legal Fees

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 8:19pm

The Finnerty Family has admitted that the legal fees were $40K per month. I read that in Newsday.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 8:21pm

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/12/07 at 8:55am

I wonder if Nancy Grace is covering herself with flowers and flinging herself into the nearest lake.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/12/07 at 9:21am

ywiw, i may be mistaken but you seem to be implying that the families should not go after the accuser but focus their rage on the da. while i agree that the da bears (heh, why do i see george wendt when i read this) responsibility and should be disbarred and beaten to death in public by the players using their lacrosse sticks, i don't think that the accuser should just be forgotten i this. i think she should be prosecuted, sent to jail and when released work as an indentured servant to the families until she has paid off her debt to them.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 4/12/07 at 9:35am

No, I am not saying that.

What I am saying is that the accuser has no assets to go after, so lawyers will be unlikely to go after her. If there is no money to recover, what recourse to they have against her individually - not much.

The state should go after her for filing a false police report, and perhaps perjury, and other things.

As for the whole indentured servant thing - nice to have you back papa.

[lildogs]

Posted: 4/12/07 at 11:05am

Yeah papa, you had me right up until the very end....

It's clearly a case of malicious (and might I add male-icious) prosecution and while the stripper does have some 'splainin' to do, the people who set the wheels in motion are the ones to blame. A black female stripper doesn't exactly have alot of political and legal clout--none in fact. She was used by Nifong to win his election.

[Jon]

Posted: 4/12/07 at 1:23pm

It's gotta be hard to be a recruiter for a school where the "townies" seem to resent the students so much. The university and the town need to repair their images.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 4/12/07 at 1:50pm

I think they should have a big bike race and let the townies and the college kids settle it all on the race track.

*whistfully recalls Breaking Away and sighs at a young Dennis Quaid and Hart Bochner*

Cutters Rule.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/12/07 at 1:52pm

"It's gotta be hard to be a recruiter for a school where the "townies" seem to resent the students so much."

Duke's reputation really took a blow over this. But it was the teachers who ruined the reputation with their "Gang of 88" mentality. Would you want to go to a school where the teachers went on a witch hunt only to find out the students were innocent?

[BDavis0092]

Posted: 4/12/07 at 7:29pm

This whole case was bogus and Duke lost an entire lacrosse season because of it.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/12/07 at 10:01pm

Does anyone think that Reade Seligmann needs someone who can help him back to normalcy?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/12/07 at 10:21pm