Probably last post on Duke Lacrosse -- Full disclosure

I would like to disclose a few context items in case someone questions why I have now posted 4+ times on Duke lacrosse. . .

I really dislike Duke; I am a fan of UNC basketball (even though I live 1800 miles away. . .

I am not a lacrosse fan

I know no one involved in the case

I have no ill feelings towards the girl. I have never done an internet search to read any of the trash posted about her; I think those postings were wrong.

I am deeply upset by our media, legal system, and society "rushing to judgment" in cases like this. Meantime, real people are having their lives destroyed by the process

I am convinced that the "court of public opinion" is missing a critical branch for people to "get their good name back." We have "professional apologists" (sorry, I meant PR people) for celebrities and sports figures that run afoul of the law, but no ability to say to these players, and their families: we were wrong! We're sorry. How can we make it right?

My prediction: new Duke president will have to focus on fundraising. . .

because the Duke endowment is about to take a big hit!

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper didn't just dismissed all the remaining criminal charges against Evans, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty. He took the extra step of declaring the players innocent -- the victims of a "tragic rush to accuse" by a rogue prosecutor who could be disbarred for his actions.

"This case shows the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor," Cooper said.

link

Now, remember how Duke handled this:

"Surely the answer to the question must come in the form of immediate dismissals of those principally responsible for the horrors of this spring moment at Duke. Coaches of the lacrosse team, the team itself and its players, and any other agents who silenced or lied about the real nature of events at 610 Buchanan on the evening of March 13, 2006, a day that, not even in a cliched sense, will, indeed, always live in infamy for this university."
-- Then-Duke English professor Houston A. Baker Jr., in a letter to the Duke University administration, March 29, 2006. (Baker has since joined the Vanderbilt University faculty).

Suspended the season causing all players to lose a year of NCAA eligibility

Fired the head coach

Suspended players accused

Made lots of comments that could now be seen as defamation of character

My prediction here:

Current president has, as his final task, signing some huge checks and preparing a list for his successor of where to raise funds to replace the loss to the endowment.

The $3 million for legal fees for the three players is just a drop in the bucket. And when the State AG says you were part of a "tragic rush to accuse;" your defense is pretty well shot. . .


My second prediction:

Disbarrment and a huge judgement against Nilfong!

Remember, he said:

"The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done."
-- Nifong, March 27, 2006.

Now, he is reduced to this:

The disgraced district attorney in the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case apologized to the three athletes in a carefully worded statement Thursday as their lawyers weighed whether to sue him -- and some legal experts say they have a case.

While prosecutors generally have immunity for what they do inside the courtroom, experts said that protection probably doesn't cover some of Mike Nifong's more questionable actions in his handling of the case -- such as calling the lacrosse players "a bunch of hooligans" in one of several interviews deemed unethical by the state bar.

"I think their chances of success suing Mr. Nifong are reasonably good, despite what we call prosecutorial immunity," said John Banzhaf, a professor at the George Washington University School of Law.

link

My third prediction:

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are thanking God! that Don Imus exists; it lets them focus on something else so people are not asking when they will be in Durham to apologize. . .



Gene Wojciechowski had a nice column on ESPN. Rather than add his analysys, he just let the history of quotes speak for itself. It is the best column I have read in the media about the entire process! http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=2835342

Duke Lacrosse --What have we learned?

1) The Charges will be dismissed today.

2) You reap what you sow:

Attorneys for District Attorney Mike Nifong acknowledged that he made many of the comments the state bar deemed misleading and inflammatory. But they denied that Nifong intentionally withheld DNA evidence from defense attorneys -- the most serious of the ethics charges faced by the veteran prosecutor.

"A lot of people have been rushing to judgment on both the underlying case and this case," attorney Dudley Witt said. "And after you allow someone to have a full hearing, I think you will find that he didn't do anything wrong." link

3) The media let it's bias and its perception of the public's bias drive the early story.

Rich kids raping a lower class minority. The Media stampeded through the protests to be the first to tar and feather the kids.

4) Beware the media focus:

Now the media has turned its considerable power on toppling Nilfong. From Good Morning America interviewing Grand Jurors who now doubt the indictments to digging into every aspect of the case, the media is digging into every aspect of the case to show Nilfong was the bad guy. Lesson here is don't fool the media. . .

5) Our court system is supposed to be about truth and justice, but it really isn't. We had protest rallies to show outrage before we really knew if their was a crime. And we have had the lives of the dancer and the Lacrosse players destroyed by the media. The three families recently asked Duke to cover their legal costs; the amount was $3 million! My family could not afford that. Yup, it was easy to be outraged when we all thought some rich kids had done this. But the flip side is that justice was abandoned in a process that would destroy anyone's reputation and most families financial means.

We need to examine our court system, our media, and how we respond to incidents like this. In the Duke LaCrosse case, we all pursued a scorched earth policy that left nothing undamaged. . .