Posted on 02/06/2008 11:14:50 AM PST by Ken H
DURHAM -- Duke University has added a former deputy attorney general of the United States to the legal team that will defend it against a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed by three members of the 2005-06 men's lacrosse team.
Court papers filed this week indicate that Washington, D.C., attorney Jamie Gorelick will assist two Greensboro litigators in representing the school.
They're also the attorneys of record for the Duke University Police Department, Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Steel, school President Richard Brodhead and numerous other university officials.
Gorelick was deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration, and in that capacity was responsible for supervising the country's appointed federal prosecutors.
More recently, she served on the 9/11 Commission. She was a controversial choice for that panel because of allegations she'd helped set rules limiting the ability of federal agencies to exchange intelligence information before the attacks on New York and Washington.
She and the Greensboro lawyers, Donald Cowan Jr. and Dixie Wells, will help Duke try to fend off allegations made by current or former lacrosse players Breck Archer, Ryan McFadyen and Matt Wilson.
The players and their lawyer, Durham attorney Bob Ekstrand, essentially contend that the Duke administration conspired with city officials and former District Attorney Mike Nifong to frame members of the 2005-06 lacrosse team on false charges of rape. Archer, McFadyen and Wilson avoided indictment, but teammates David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann did not. They reached an out-of-court settlement with Duke but have filed a lawsuit of their own targeting Nifong and the city.
The two lawsuits have attracted some of the country's best-known litigators. Gorelick is the biggest name involved in the Archer/McFadyen/Wilson case.
But the legal team for Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann includes Barry Scheck, founder of the Innocence Project, and Brendan Sullivan, the one-time lawyer for former Marine Corps Lt. Col. Oliver North.
Lawyers representing the city and Durham Police Department officers in the Evans/Finnerty/Seligmann case have asked a judge to dismiss the players' claims against those defendants. Among other things, they say the city and police weren't responsible for Nifong's misconduct. The players' legal team has until mid-April to respond.
The various lawyers involved in the Archer/McFadyen/Wilson case are still weeks away from trading motions. Ekstrand filed the lawsuit on Dec. 18.
The news of Gorelick's addition to Duke's legal team came this week as the school's dean of undergraduate education, Steve Nowicki, was passing the word that he'd suspended a review of the practices and policies that govern the discipline of Duke students.
Nowicki on Tuesday said he made the decision after Duke's senior in-house counsel, Pamela Bernard, advised him that if the review goes forward now, the 15 students, faculty members and administrators conducting it could wind up having to give depositions in the Archer/McFadyen/Wilson case.
Ekstrand's 404-page filing on the players' behalf alleges that Duke worked with the city to implement a "zero-tolerance" policy against students accused of off-campus misbehavior. He also contends that Duke officials subjected Wilson and Archer to unfair disciplinary action both before and after spring 2006 team party that produced a stripper's false rape allegation.
Nowicki said he hadn't given the people involved in the policy review any warning that "they could be entangled in" the lacrosse case, and so didn't think it was fair to them to let that happen.
He added that he intends to continue the review somehow and is now trying to assemble a strategy for doing so. Nowicki also denied that Bernard ordered the suspension or that the move was meant to help Duke's defense.
I noticed during our tour. Thanks.
W&M is hosting a sex-themed meeting where workers from the sex industry come and discuss their trade. strippers, prostitutes and the like. should be great stuff! the dean has lost it and alumni are speaking by shutting their wallets.
Sheck will outclass Gorlick
Leftist low-lives stick together. Gorelick thinks it is okay to falesely imprison and slander US citizens, but she does not want to save Americans lives by allowing the CIA and the FBI to communicate.
I think W&M got into the discussion in this thread because of that event. I’m told that this event is a student-initiated event. Perhaps I will have to check and see if that is so.
In any case, I find the show, at least by its description, to be meaningless porn rather than art. However, this really is a case of free speech as best I can tell— offensive to me but truly art in someone’s eyes.
You can draw your own conclusions about how it reflects on the institution.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.