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Duke Lacrosse Case: America's Top Sex Crimes Expert Cites Serious Problems Linda Fairstein Questions Whether Case Will Go Forward By LARA SETRAKIAN ABC News Law & Justice Unit March 21, 2007 ? - With the Duke Lacrosse investigation in its final weeks Linda Fairstein, the former head of the Manhattan District Attorney's Sex Crimes Unit and one of the nation's leading experts on sex crimes, told ABC News that she would be shocked if the case went forward. Having investigated and prosecuted thousands of rape cases, Fairstein has a unique ability to evaluate the strength of the case. A pioneer...

Top Lawyers Say Duke Case Is Weak ABC News Gathers Views From Legal Experts on Duke Lacrosse Rape Case March 21, 2007 ? - ABC News spoke to some of the nation's leading criminal defense attorneys and former prosecutors about the Duke Lacrosse rape case. They all say it is a weak case and will almost certainly never go to trial. They point to the lack of evidence, the accuser's changing story, and her credibility.

A North Carolina State Bar response to Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong's request for dismissal of some of the charges against him suggests that Nifong has attempted to skirt the system in his handling of the Duke lacrosse case. In a legal brief filed Monday, the bar suggests Nifong wants the organization to interpret the law according to his view of it. They also said they don't buy Nifong's explanation for withholding DNA evidence, and claimed he's twisting words to make his argument fit.

AARON BEARD Associated Press DURHAM, N.C. - A season lost. Three players indicted for rape. Nearly a year of criticism for everyone associated with Duke lacrosse. On this day, for a few hours, it didn't seem to matter as much.Playing their first game in 11 months, the Blue Devils opened the 2007 season Saturday with a 17-11 victory over Dartmouth in front of a big crowd cheering their every move.

(02/07/07 -- DURHAM) - The defense attorneys for the three charged players in the Duke Lacrosse case met for several hours with special prosecutors James Coman and Mary Winstead Wednesday. Defense attorneys declined to comment about the meeting. But sources close to the case tell Eyewitness News that this was the first opportunity the defense has had to make its case for why the charges against their clients should be dropped.

“. . . Michael Nifong’s inflammatory statements to the media prior to the May elections, for the sole benefit of Mr. Nifong, turned the complaint of a confused young woman into a vicious political game which has brought the office of the district attorney into disrepute. He has ruined lives and reputations for a paycheck and personal political gain. “This so-called investigation has been a reprehensible sham from the very beginning. The grand jury has a right to facts rather than lies and innuendo, and the public has a right to a fair indictment. Further, Nifong concealed the actual DNA...

Durham — A trial date is now set for the ethics complaint filed against Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong. . . The bar takes issue with comments Nifong made early-on in the case. Nifong's trial is set for May 11. He hired an attorney from Winston-Salem to defend him. A three-member panel will decide guilt or innocence, and then, depending on the outcome, impose a sentence. That could be anything from a warning to being disbarred.

Now that the election is over and this can't be considered just an election ploy : Rumors are said to have been circulating in Durham to the effect that Nifong might consider (legally) going after a couple of bloggers; that if he deals with a couple of them the rest will be intimidated and fade away. This is just a heads up; so that if anything untoward happens, everyone will know about it in advance and be able to make the connection. The rumors are well-sourced.

DURHAM - Four days after she said she was raped, the accuser in the Duke lacrosse case told co-workers at a Hillsborough strip club that she was going to get money from some boys at a Duke party who hadn't paid her, the club's former security manager said. "She basically said, 'I'm going to get paid by the white boys,' " H.P. Thomas, the former security manager at the Platinum Club, said in an interview Friday. "I said, 'Whatever,' because no one takes her seriously." (snip) Thomas said dancers must sign in when they take guests into the club's VIP...

In an interview this morning on Good Morning America on ABC, the second-dancer revealed more of the set-up for the Duke rape hoax-- Oct. 30, 2006 — The second dancer in the Duke rape case has said for the first time that the accuser told her to "go ahead, put marks on me'' after the alleged attack. Dancer Kim Roberts made the new allegation — which she has not shared with authorities — in an interview with Chris Cuomo that will air today on "Good Morning America." Roberts' allegation comes in the wake of Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong's admission...

3."Colin Finnerty’s parents contacted (Duke Univ. President) Brodhead to ask for permission to transfer credits from other colleges. . . Brodhead refused to meet with them despite several requests. Finally, the person in charge of the annual giving program told Brodhead that, unless he agreed to see the Finnerties, he would resign. Only then did Brodhead agree to meet them. In the meeting, Brodhead remained intransigent and he and Mrs. Finnerty got into terrible argument. The Finnerties walked out because Brodhead started insulting them." (excerpt from a statement at Talk Left by an offical spokesman for Friends of Duke Univeristy)

Psychologists Gary Wells and Brian Cutler helped design a procedure in 2003 for witnesses to identify crime suspects. Police departments across North Carolina embraced the procedure. The Durham Police Department adopted it almost word- for-word in February. The conduct of the Durham police in the Duke lacrosse case, however, is a case study in violating the new policy, the psychologists said. And as a result, police have injected doubt into a woman's selection of three lacrosse players whom she accused of rape.

DURHAM - Police have launched an internal investigation into allegations that a 13-year-old boy was wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and pepper-sprayed Monday, though he had done nothing wrong... The officers took him to Duke Hospital for treatment of cuts and other minor injuries, where he was left for several hours without his parents being contacted, Lowery said.

Police: Gang Threats Postpone Murder Trial By Darla Miles (DURHAM) - Durham officials have postponed a murder trial amid alleged gang-related threats of violence... Tuesday's courthouse melee erupted on the fifth-floor, after key witnesses backed out of the Nicholson trial. They said they were being threatened.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=local&id=4604761 09/27/06 -- DURHAM) - Durham officials have postponed a murder trial amid alleged gang-related threats of violence. (snip) (Nifong said), "The District Attorney's Office is not equipped to protect witnesses in any situation. There aren't any local witness protection programs, or anything of that nature. The fact is people are to some extent on their own, in terms of their protection."

DURHAM -- Kim Roberts, a dancer who performed at a Duke lacrosse party that ended with rape charges, admitted five probation violations today and will serve up to two months under house arrest.

DURHAM -- Kim Roberts, a dancer who performed at a Duke lacrosse party that ended with rape charges, admitted five probation violations today and will serve up to two months under house arrest.. . Roberts was convicted in 2001 of embezzling $25,000 from a Durham photo finishing company where she worked in the payroll department. . . The probation violations that Roberts admitted to in court were: -- She was behind on restitution payments. -- She missed two appointments with a probation officer. -- She left the state without permission. -- She quit her job without notifying probation officers. --...

http://www.yaledailynews.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=15802 (from 2001) "The president graduated in the same class as Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead. With both showing a penchant for Sterling Memorial Library, and its comfortable couches, Bush said he and Brodhead had a mutual understanding." "Dick wouldn't read aloud, and I wouldn't snore," Bush joked. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Phillips_Academy_in_Andover Class of 1963: * Richard H. Brodhead -- President, Duke University * George W. Bush -- President of the United States (Does this explain why the FBI has taken a 'hands off" attitude towards civil rights violations in the lacrosse case?) In 2005, three FBI agents were dispatched to Durham after...

UNREPORTED by any of the major media, but-- Apparently police have already destroyed evidence in the Duke lacrosse case : http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/ "...the "highlight" of the Duke Hoax hearing came with the announcement by the prosecution that the recordings of all Durham Police Department radio calls for March 13th and 14th had been destroyed. "It seems Durham Police Department tape use policy calls for tapes to be reused after 60 days. So, even though tapes were requested in April 28th motion by the defense, and ordered by Judge Stephens on May18th, "the prosecution now maintains that the tapes were destroyed on...

Canada's national public radio CBC Radio has aired a commentary by a retired professor from the Royal Military College calling for state control over religion, specifically Catholicism. (snip) "Couldn't we insist that human rights, employment and consumer legislation apply to them as it does other organizations? Then it would be illegal to require a particular marital status as a condition of employment or to exclude women from the priesthood. " Ferguson continued, "Of course the Vatican wouldn't like the changes, but they would come to accept them in time as a fact of life in Canada. Indeed I suspect many...