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More lacrosse players file lawsuit

By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun, Dec 19, 2007

DURHAM — The legal fallout from the Duke lacrosse case continued Tuesday as an attorney representing three current or former players filed a federal lawsuit accusing city and Duke University officials of violating his clients’ civil rights.

The lawsuit — the second lacrosse-related filing against the city, and the first in federal court against Duke — seeks actual and punitive damages on behalf of former players Breck Archer and Matt Wilson and still-active player Ryan McFadyen.

None of the three was indicted in connection with the now-infamous false charges of rape levied by a stripper hired to perform at a team party. The players who were indicted and later exonerated — David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann — filed the initial lawsuit against the city and negotiated an out-of-court settlement with Duke.

The McFadyen-Archer-Wilson lawsuit targets six corporate defendants and 45 current or former officials who allegedly conspired against the players.

Much of the senior Duke leadership — including school President Richard Brodhead, trustees Chairman Robert Steel, Duke Health System director Victor Dzau, Provost Peter Lange and Executive Vice President Tallman Trask — appeared on the list. Athletic Director Joe Alleva was a notable omission.

Also named were City Manager Patrick Baker, former Durham Police Chief Steve Chalmers, former District Attorney Mike Nifong, many Durham and Duke police officers, medical personnel at Duke Hospital and officials of the Burlington DNA lab Nifong hired to test samples taken from the stripper and the players.

All worked to “railroad 47 Duke University students as either principals or accomplices based upon the transparently false claim of rape, sexual offense and kidnapping made by a clinically unreliable accuser,” said the 404-page lawsuit, filed by Durham attorney Bob Ekstrand.

The players’ claims rested heavily on Ekstrand’s argument that the Duke University Police Department should have taken the lead in investigating the lacrosse case because it stemmed from an incident at a Duke-owned house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.

Ekstrand noted that city and Duke officials in 2004 had signed a cooperation agreement assigning Duke police the “primary responsibility” to initiate and conclude investigations on Duke property.

The significance of that agreement is certain to be a major point of contention, as state law specifies that Durham police have jurisdiction throughout the city, including on the Duke campus and at off-campus Duke properties.

But it also set the stage for a number of new allegations, among them the claim that Duke police actually launched their own investigation of the stripper’s charges soon after she made them on March 14, 2006.

Duke police abandoned the probe two days later, a major setback for the players, because campus officers on the scene realized the stripper’s charges were bogus, Ekstrand and his clients alleged.

They further alleged that Duke and city leaders conspired and lied to cover up the early involvement of Duke police, and that Duke officials violated federal privacy law in the course of serving up information about the players to Durham police.

Tuesday’s lawsuit also included new claims about the Durham Police Department’s handling of the case.

Ekstrand alleged that an on-call detective, Investigator Buffy Jones, was among the first Durham police officers to talk to the stripper and, like other investigators, received a nonsensical account.

Jones supposedly closed the rape investigation and handed off the case to the department’s District 2 office for handling as a property crime. That was because the stripper was claiming another woman hired to perform at the lacrosse team’s party had robbed her.

The District 2 detectives who wound up working the case — Investigator Ben Himan and Sgt. Mark Gottlieb — were basically property-crimes specialists who lacked experience handling rape cases, Ekstrand and the players contend.

Durham police protocol called for rape cases to be assigned to the detectives in the department’s Criminal Investigations Division who had received specialized training in their handling.

Instead, Gottlieb lobbied for command of the investigation and then assigned it to Himan, the District 2 office’s least-experienced detective. Gottlieb allegedly was biased against Duke students and “undertook to breathe life into the dead rape case by constructing a myth,” the suit claimed.

The bias allegation stems from Gottlieb’s involvement in the Durham Police Department’s crackdown on the off-campus party house scene in Trinity Park during the 2005-06 school year.

Ekstrand contended that city and Duke officials sanctioned police brutality and other illicit tactics unfairly targeting students during the crackdown.

The allegation was a key part of the suit’s conspiracy claims and is also certain to be disputed. The Trinity Park crackdown mirrored similar actions in two neighboring cities, in Chapel Hill against alcohol-law violations and in Raleigh against another party-house scene.

Ekstrand and his clients maintain that a nurse then at Duke Hospital, Tara Levicy, fabricated evidence against the lacrosse team. Also alleged is that Nifong and police hid evidence favorable to the players.

Nifong and two Durham Police Department officials, civilian spokeswoman Kammie Michael and Cpl. David Addison, fanned controversy about the case by lying repeatedly to reporters about various aspects of the investigation, the suit contends.

Duke administrators contributed to the problem by first advising players they didn’t need lawyers and then demanding that they explain what happened, the suit contends. They promised the explanations would remain confidential, but later relayed them to city police.

Detectives likely coached the stripper in advance of a crucial and against-policy photo lineup that produced the evidence needed to indict Evans, Seligmann and Finnerty, the suit claimed.

The stripper had remembered little about the party before the session. But during it, she offered accounts of what different players were doing that matched things depicted in party photos that had been in police hands for days.

City and Duke officials both said they would fight the lawsuit. Duke’s statement, issued late Tuesday afternoon, said the university, “to avoid putting the community through destructive litigation,” months ago offered to compensate the unindicted players for their legal bills and other expenses.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-908589.cfm?

. . .

* * * ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE HOAX * * *

* * * ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE HOAX * * *

* * * ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE HOAX * * *

Man arrested day after plea bargain

BY JOHN STEVENSON AND BRIANNE DOPART : The Herald-Sun, Mar 12, 2007 : 9:19 pm ET

DURHAM -- Just one day after successfully avoiding jail time for his role in the March 2006 shooting death of 24-year-old Alvin Jones, Nicholas Alexander Mack was back behind bars.

Mack, 18, of 9 Carin Court, was arrested Friday for carrying a concealed weapon, possession of marijuana and assault on a female. The charges came 24 hours after Mack pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessory after the fact to Dontae Jones and Thomas Earl Kithcart Jr., who were also tried last week.

Prosecutors had argued that Mack, Kithcart and Dontae Jones were traveling with Alvin Jones when Alvin Jones was mistakenly hit by gunfire.

The Joneses were not related, but were friends.

Mack was out on bond for a marijuana charge when the slaying occurred, according to court records.

Prosecutor Jim Dornfried expressed anger and disappointment over the situation Monday, vowing to seek indictments on the new charges against Mack as early as possible.

But Dornfried also said last week's plea bargain probably was the best result obtainable, since a murder charge against Mack would have been difficult to prove, and Mack had only a minimal adult record: a 2006 conviction for giving false information to a law-enforcement officer.

Dornfried said all the evidence indicated someone other than Mack, specifically Dontae Jones, was the actual killer in the case in question.

In fact, Jones has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and has received a prison sentence of 44 to 62 months.

"If the evidence is there in a case, it is," said Dornfried. "If it's not, it's not. I've got to deal with what I have. If I've got a strong case and someone needs to be incarcerated, that's the approach I take. But it's foolishness to prosecute a case for which there is no evidence. In the Mack case, all the evidence pointed to someone else as the killer."

Dornfried said Mack's plea deal last week was approved by the murder victim's family.

If probation didn't get Mack's attention, the new charges will provide a serious wake-up call, he predicted.

"Some people out there just don't seem to realize the seriousness of felony charges," Dornfried added. "It just doesn't seem to sink in. But I think it will sink in soon for Mr. Mack."

Last week's plea bargain was accepted by Superior Court Judge Orlando F. Hudson, who theoretically could have rejected it.

But Hudson said Monday it is rare for North Carolina judges to turn down deals negotiated by prosecutors, who are in the best position to evaluate evidence from any given case.

When cases are weak, it is sometimes better for prosecutors to make generous plea offers instead of going to trial and possibly losing, according to Hudson.

That way, defendants get at least some punishment instead of none, the judge said.

"Prosecutors have a great deal of discretion," Hudson said. "What they don't have is a crystal ball. They have to use their best judgment. They can never know if a person placed on probation might commit another crime the next day, or even the same day. Sometimes things backfire."

Hudson said he was aware the Mack situation might contribute to a public loss of confidence in the judicial system.

However, he defended plea-bargaining as a necessary tool that prevents the system from breaking down under "overwhelming" caseloads.

"The general public might not like it, but they're kind of stuck with it," Hudson added. "The public must be aware of the realities. Not many plea bargains are rejected. Some are, but the vast majority are accepted. Otherwise, we could not get our business done."

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-828650.cfm

Ex-lacrosse coach, reporter team up on book

Mar 12, 2007 : 10:05 pm ET

DURHAM -- Former Duke University lacrosse coach Mike Pressler and Sports Illustrated magazine investigative reporter Don Yaeger are cooperating on a book about the Duke lacrosse sexual-offense and kidnapping case called "It's Not About The Truth."

The book, called "an explosive insider account" of the case by Pocket Books' executive Louise Burke, will be published in June by Pocket Books' Threshold Editions.

Pocket Books and Threshold Editions are imprints of Simon & Schuster.

Pressler resigned as head coach of the Duke men's lacrosse team under pressure after news first broke about the rape allegations -- since dismissed -- against several members of his nationally ranked team.

The publisher said Pressler's book will reveal for the first time what really happened after the off-campus lacrosse party and how a rush to judgment affected the lives of those associated with the incident.

The book reportedly will recount the vilification and ostracization of the team members, Pressler's forced resignation and the subsequent cancellation of the remainder of the team's season and death threats aimed at the players by some of the Durham community.

Mike Pressler spent 16 seasons at Duke, where he compiled a 153-82 record that included three Atlantic Coast Conference championships, 10 NCAA tournament berths and an appearance in the 2005 NCAA title game. Pressler was voted ACC Coach of the Year three times and honored as national Coach of the Year in 2005.

He is now the head coach of the Bryant University men's lacrosse team.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-828666.cfm

The Virtual Support Team
Rob Copeland, The Chronicle, Posted: 3/8/07

By day, Mike McCusker is just another suit in midtown Manhattan, a civil lawyer working for a large, faceless firm.

At night, though, he steps into his metaphorical telephone booth and emerges as NDLax84, proprietor of the aptly named "Crystal Mess" blog, which has offered commentary on the Duke lacrosse case since last June.

Posts range from the serious to the sophomoric. One day it's an analysis of Steve Monks' decision to run against Lewis Cheek. Another day it's a heavily edited image of South Park's Eric Cartman in a Duke Lacrosse jersey, screaming "Mike Nifong Sucks Ass!" Or a picture of a clown spinning a top to demonstrate McCusker's opinion of the mainstream media's impartiality.

As national attention to the scandal wanes and The Drudge Report returns to covering Britney's latest stint in rehab, blogs are some of the only places still providing regular commentary on the case. Their writers have become the mini-celebrities of the whole episode, and now they're reaping the benefits, with thousands of daily readers boosting their profiles and a book deal in the works for one prominent commentator.

"I think in the end it's all good for democracy, for a nation that touts itself as a government of the people, by the people and for the people," says McCusker, a Notre Dame alum with a Blue Devil wife. "The rise of the Net-and the blogosphere in general-has so clearly demonstrated how a concerned citizenry intent on ascertaining the truth is ultimately a much more powerful force than the mainstream media."

As a lawyer, McCusker was motivated by the "egregious" conduct of Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, adding that the indicted players deserve compensation from the city.

"As they press the flesh with people they are coming to meet for the first time, they will always be remembered as the kids who supposedly raped that poor black girl in Durham," he says. "Each and every one of those kids should own 1/3 of Durham County."

But the dean of the lacrosse bloggers is unquestionably KC Johnson, a 39-year-old history professor from low-profile Brooklyn College, whose "Durham-in-Wonderland" website boasts more than 15,000 page views per day-with more than a handful from the Duke campus, according to online readership statistics.

Johnson has become an unlikely hero for those who believe the indicted players have suffered injustice. His last book, on Congress during the Cold War, was considered a massive success because it was one of the top 100,000 books on Amazon.com's sales ranking for a few days, he says.

He's likely to do a little better for his next effort, a book about the lacrosse case he is co-writing with Stuart Taylor of National Journal.

"I continue to view the blog as an academic enterprise," Johnson explains. "I have the freedom to speak on some of the academic issues that someone who is a professor at Duke wouldn't have, because there is very little that the Group of 88 can do to retaliate against me."

Johnson is referring, of course, to the group of much-criticized professors who published an advertisement in The Chronicle last April which featured anonymous quotes from students and asked, "What Does a Social Disaster Look Like?"

It hasn't been a smooth ride since then, as much of the blogging community has made it a mission to hold those professors accountable for their ostensible rush to judgment. Some blog readers have posted vicious comments on online message boards, and several Duke professors have reportedly received racist, threatening e-mails from anonymous strangers.

All of the bloggers interviewed for this story said they delete unconstructive comments and discourage readers from sending hateful e-mails.

But it's a political issue for some, including William Anderson, who writes at lewrockwell.com, which does not have a message board attached directly to its articles.

A self-described Libertarian and a professor at Frostburg State University in Western Maryland, Anderson says he was alarmed by the "storm trooper tactics" occurring in Durham.

"Every single editorial writer in this country, including The News & Observer and The Herald Scum [sic] were all parroting the same thing," Anderson says, adding that he has sought out personal confrontations with any individual faculty members.

Having written about general issues of crime and justice for many years, Anderson says he became alarmed when he perceived three men on the brink of a prison sentence, with no outcry or support from the public.

"I thought, it's us versus them," Anderson says. "I get fired up about this sort of thing.... Those guys had a lynch mob against them."

And though most of the commentary has been in support of the lacrosse players, the blog "Justice 4 Two Sisters" called for a new focus on the alleged victim before its authors stopped writing Nov. 7, 2006. The author did not respond to a request for comment.

In a late-October post, the blog suggested that the indicted players take advantage of their bully pulpit to speak out against racism.

"I've said from the start of this case, if the public feels these guys have been treated unfairly and stereotyped, well congratulations, you now know what it feels like to be African-American and be prejudiced against," the author wrote.

Regardless of which side they take, for many bloggers on the lacrosse case, it's a labor of love, rather than a means for profit, because they say accepting advertisements would risk their independence.

But LaShawn Barber is different from most of the online commentators, and not only because her site is ringed by advertisements. As a black, female, Christian conservative, Barber naturally attracts attention in a case dominated by issues of race.

She has made a profession out of blogging, spending up to four hours per day on her own site-which receives 4,000 hits per day-and offering her consulting services to others.

"I'm not a feminist, and I don't shout racism at the drop of a hat," Barber says. "I'm very open about my faith and my politics, and that tends to make a lot of people mad-it makes a lot of black readers angry."

With her picture and contact information directly available on the site, Barber stands in contrast to blogs written anonymously, such as John-in-Carolina, who will only identify himself as a Duke alumnus.

McCusker says it is important to him that he stands behinds his words to maintain credibility.

"The bottom line is I'm not really a blogger; I'm a husband, a dad and a lawyer," he explains. "I don't make it my daily waking chore to write because I must."

Indeed, Crystal Mess has been updated infrequently lately, and McCusker says he is feeling the heat.

"I feel like a conscripted slave or employee of my readership, but it's certainly been by-and-large a very rewarding endeavor," he says, noting that he has been in communication with many of the other online commentators.

"I have an amicable and very wry, witty ongoing e-mailing with KC," he adds. "It's nice to know that for each of the ideologues out there like [the Group of 88], there are individuals who will point out the hypocrisy and call them on their lies."

For Johnson, in spite of his book deal and newfound celebrity status, he can only hope that he has made an impact on the indictments handed down last April.

"If the work that I've done ends the case one day earlier than it would have otherwise, I could consider all the work to be worth it," he says.

© Copyright 2007 The Chronicle http://www.dukechronicle.com/home/index.cfm?event=
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---- ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the Hoax, Election Fraud and Hostage Shakedown ----

Lacrosse case weaves a heated legacy

By BRIANNE DOPART and JOHN STEVENSON : The Herald-Sun, Mar 11, 2007 : 12:08 am ET

A year after the team party that made "Duke lacrosse" a household phrase across the nation, the cottage at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. stands empty.

The shutters hang slightly askew and the white paint is dingy, the same as on the night of March 13-14, 2006 -- when two exotic dancers arrived to perform.

But what seemed destined to be just another raucous student bash near East Campus rocketed to the forefront of national news after one of the hired dancers told police three players gang-raped her in a bathroom.

For the past 12 months, what happened -- or didn't -- that night has fueled a raging debate that spans continents and oceans thanks to TV talk shows, e-mail and Internet blogs.

The emotional currents run strong.

The accused players are white men who attend one of the nation's most prestigious and expensive universities. They come from well-heeled families who live near Washington, D.C., and New York City. And they belonged to a team with a history of off-campus misbehavior.

The accuser is a single black mother from a modest background who at the time of the alleged attack attended historically black N.C. Central University in Durham. She has a criminal record and repeatedly has changed her account of what she contends happened to her at the party.

As the two dancers left the Buchanan Boulevard house early on the morning of March 14, there was allegedly an exchange of racial slurs.

Details of the incident made headlines on a Friday, more than a week after the alleged attack.

A hint of what lay ahead came the next night.

About 100 people, most from the surrounding Trinity Park neighborhood, held a prayer vigil outside the party house. It was a somber, quiet, candle-lit gathering like those typically held for Durham murder victims. Some wept.

But by early that Sunday morning, a larger, louder crowd gathered -- dotted with student and community activists. For nearly two hours, they chanted, sang and banged pots and trash cans to deliver "a wake-up call" to the players who lived in the house and in other nearby rental houses.

Some spoke using a megaphone. And several strayed from the alleged rape into speeches about fair wages, sweatshops and other social and political issues on the Duke campus and in Durham.

In the days and weeks after, a swift succession of rallies and vigils followed at the Buchanan Boulevard house -- as local and national media attention mushroomed.

The single alleged attack -- one among about 100 reported rapes in Durham every year -- exploded from concern about sexual violence into a highly charged debate about racial, social and gender issues; sexual politics; the accuser's credibility; the district attorney's honesty; and Duke University's mission as an institution of higher learning and athletics, now under intense self-scrutiny.

A year after the party that made "Duke lacrosse" a household phrase across the nation, "why?" remains a hotly debated question.

Duke spokesman John Burness calls the case a "perfect storm" of race, class, perceived privilege, politics and other issues.

And he concedes the lacrosse team had a reputation for inappropriate behavior.

But Burness, Duke's senior vice president of public and government relations, said much of the community reaction also was inappropriate.

Some of the most vocal members of groups who plastered 610 Buchanan Blvd. with signs like "Get a conscience, not a lawyer" were people with long-standing beefs against Duke, he said.

"There were people in the community upset with Duke students in general over a pattern of behavior they found to be offensive," Burness said.

Long before police Cpl. David Addison and District Attorney Mike Nifong -- an election campaign on his horizon -- spoke out against the team, "a foundation of anger" existed that spurred some people at Duke and in Durham to "rush to judgment," Burness said.

"That was the tone of it all," he said, citing early chatter on the Trinity Park neighborhood e-mail message board that he said sparked the first protests outside 610 N. Buchanan. "A lot of people working off of history, not willing to step back."

Those people, Burness said, made "a leap from a perception of what I would call boorish behavior to believing something as significant as a gang rape had occurred."

On March 18, 2006 -- nearly a week after the alleged attack -- then-police investigator Mark Gottlieb posted a note on the message board announcing the police investigation.

Lots of people responded. But some focused not on the alleged attack, but on past problems with Duke students living in the neighborhood.

Typical was one response that cited trash, smashed beer bottles, parking on sidewalks, graffiti and drunkenness, and called the Duke students "disgusting people" who should leave the neighborhood.

Burness said he thinks relations between Duke and Durham "are good." But when people gathered in large groups and loudly proclaimed their issues with the college, their sheer volume became "newsworthy" and in some sense, gained credibility, he said.

Duke employee Kelly Jarrett, who participated in protests and frequently wrote about it on a community message board, said it was the other way around.

Media coverage of the alleged attack is what drew 100 people to the first protest at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., said Jarrett, who lives in Old West Durham several blocks west of Trinity Park. The rally came a day after the story started making headlines.

Jarrett pointed to lack of coverage, and lack of protests, about the other 99 rapes reported to Durham police in 2006, 11 of which the Durham Crisis Response Center said were gang rapes.

"Where was the press on those?" she asked.

Duke law professor James Coleman said the year has been filled with turmoil.

"The city, the university and students on the lacrosse team have suffered some hard body blows," he said.

Coleman said a lot of what happened was unnecessary, beginning with the party itself and continuing with Nifong -- who, he said, hung onto the case too long before stepping aside in favor of special prosecutors from the state Attorney General's Office.

The whole affair, Coleman said, comes across like a tawdry novel.

"You've got a Southern university, you've got race and you've got sex," he said Friday. "Then you've got a DA who kind of portrays himself as the Lone Ranger, riding in on his white stallion to save the poor black people. He kind of set it up as a latter-day 'Gone With the Wind.' Then he tried to shake the case his way rather than let the facts shake it. He trimmed everything to match his preconceptions."

UNC professor Joe Kennedy said it would be a mistake to focus too much on money and ethnicity.

"People who look at this case mostly through a prism of race or class risk missing a lesson about the enormous power prosecutors have in the criminal justice system," Kennedy said. "This case underscores the fact that a defendant's rights aren't technicalities. They need to be taken seriously. Nifong has not taken seriously the possibility that these [lacrosse] defendants might be innocent."

The three defendants, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans, remain free on bond awaiting a trial on sexual-offense and kidnapping charges -- both felonies. No trial date has been set.

Meanwhile, Nifong faces a June N.C. State Bar hearing on allegations that he withheld evidence from the players' defense attorneys that might have bolstered their case, then lied about it, and that he made inappropriate comments to the press, including calling the alleged attackers "hooligans."

Nifong could be cleared, warned or disbarred. He declined to comment for this article.

One of the attorneys defending him, David Freedman of Winston-Salem, said he had "confidence in the bar's ability to hear cases fairly and come up with a just result."

"Anytime you represent an attorney before the State Bar, where one's ability to practice law is in jeopardy, it's very serious," Freedman said.

In a recent response to the bar, Nifong denied he did anything wrong.

Freedman predicted Nifong would accept no deals, would admit no fault and would battle it out in "a fair and impartial hearing" before the State Bar.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-828117.cfm

---- ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of the Hoax, Election Fraud and Hostage Shakedown ----

Lawyer says client's convictiion "legally impossible"

By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Mar 8, 2007 : 12:19 am ET

DURHAM -- Making the bold claim that a conviction is "legally impossible" in a murder case against one of his clients, defense lawyer John Fitzpatrick asked Wednesday that the District Attorney's Office be prohibited from trying the matter next week.

Fitzpatrick said in a written motion that "justice and judicial economy" mandated a dismissal of the charge against Thomas Bennett, who is accused of killing another man at a gasoline station on Avondale Drive five years ago.

Fitzpatrick made the request in a rare "petition for writ of prohibition" filed in Durham County Superior Court.

"It's not done very often," the defense attorney said in an interview. "It's definitely not trivial. It's fundamental. It's central to our system of justice. I believe there is no chance of a conviction in this case. But because the jury system is not perfect, the facts and circumstances do not support exposing my client to potential loss of liberty for the rest of his life. The case needs to be dismissed."

Bennett faces an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Carl Cary.

Fitzpatrick's petition wasn't filed until a few minutes before court closed for the day Wednesday, and attempts to reach Assistant District Attorney Tracey Cline -- who is prosecuting Bennett -- were unsuccessful.

Other lawyers agreed that writs of prohibition aren't often seen in Durham.

"It's a very rare duck, but it can be quite effective," said veteran attorney Bill Thomas.

Thomas said another lawyer in his firm, Jay Ferguson, successfully obtained such a writ in a serious felony case about a decade ago. Other than that, he said he had not seen the obscure litigation tool used locally.

According to the petition filed by Fitzpatrick on Wednesday, Cary solicited Bennett to buy marijuana from him, and the two began arguing inside the victim's car on Avondale Drive. Cary then attempted to drive away, Bennett pulled a .45-caliber gun to keep from being kidnapped and the two struggled over the weapon, according to the petition.

Fitzpatrick cited reports indicating that a third man, Decarl Sanders, soon approached and shot Cary in an apparent attempt to help Bennett.

Bennett and Sanders finally left the scene together, and Cary collapsed with a fatal wound, Fitzpatrick's petition said.

The petition argued that Bennett clearly was not the shooter, and that he could not be convicted under a legal theory known as "acting in concert" because he and Sanders had no "common scheme or purpose" to kill Cary.

Sanders "could have reasonably believed that [Bennett's] life was in danger, thereby allowing him to exercise a defense of a third party," the petition added. "It would be considered a justified killing."

Under the circumstances, "a conviction is legally impossible in this case," the petition concluded.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-827061.cfm

* More fun and games in the Durham Halls of Justice.

Gang-related trial ends with split jury

By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Mar 7, 2007 : 12:19 am ET

DURHAM -- A gang-related homicide trial against Tyrone Dean of Durham ended with a hung jury Tuesday as at least one panelist expressed fear of possible harm.

The last reported split among jurors was 8-4, reportedly in favor of guilty, after about two full days of deliberations in Durham County Superior Court.

Prosecutor David Saacks said he intended to try Dean again for the May 2004 fatal shooting of 22-year-old Reginald Diondras Johnson on Weaver Street.

Evidence indicated that Johnson, an unintended victim, was mistakenly gunned down as Dean and three co-defendants lay in wait for a gang rival.

Before a mistrial was declared Tuesday, jurors had sent four notes to Judge Orlando F. Hudson, either expressing fear or implying they were concerned about people in the courtroom audience. The panelists stopped short of saying they had been threatened.

According to lawyers, such concerns probably arose from the ostentatious presence of suspected gang members on some days, a development that prompted police and deputies to beef up security dramatically.

"Part of the problem was that you had 20 deputies in there, plus members of the police gang unit wall-to-wall," defense lawyer John Fitzpatrick said after Tuesday's mistrial. "That changed the atmosphere quite a bit."

Fitzpatrick said he was "glad the jury did not allow emotions to dictate a verdict. They stuck to their convictions and made decisions they thought were best individually, not just collectively. That's why we have 12-person juries."

Dean faced an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. The death penalty was not being sought, and the lesser offense of second-degree murder was not on the table. .

Dean did not testify in his own defense and presented only one alibi witness, his sister, who said he was home with her when the shooting occurred.

A key prosecution witness was Philipe Antonio Parker, who faces an unrelated murder charge of his own, although he was not accused in Johnson's death despite being the admitted getaway driver.

Identifying Dean as one of the shooters, Parker testified that bullets began flying from at least three handguns when Johnson appeared on the night in question.

But Fitzpatrick pointed out that Parker faced five felony charges at the time he agreed to help authorities against Dean: two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, possession of a weapon of mass destruction, shooting into occupied property and homicide.

Parker acknowledged he had received probation for all his charges except murder.

"You wanted to do whatever you could to save your butt?" the defense lawyer demanded on cross-examination.

"No, sir," Parker replied.

"Sweet deal, wasn't it?" asked Fitzpatrick, not getting an answer.

It was not alleged that Dean fired the fatal bullet. But prosecutor Saacks contended he was guilty of murder anyway, since he was shooting at the time and "acting in concert" with other gunmen.

Homicide charges in the case remain pending against Deshaun Moshea Mitchell, Joshua Lamont Johnson and Mario Pier Fortune.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-826665.cfm

Monks leaves party helm

BY BRIANNE DOPART : The Herald-Sun, March 3, 2007 : 11:22 pm ET -excerpts-

Steve Monks is sorry.

The former chairman of the Durham County Republican Party, who is best known for his unsuccessful write-in candidacy against District Attorney Mike Nifong, had planned to do a lot of explaining in his farewell address to the committee at the county convention Saturday. ......

Regarding his ill-fated run for district attorney, Monks rehashed his decision to make himself a write-in candidate, saying he met with "some powerful Democrats" who told him to pull out of the race, and saying he didn't take "getting pushed around, bribed or threatened by Democrats lightly.

Monks did not name names.**

As a result, he said, "the powerful Democrats who ran this community for so long were ... taught a lesson: Don't take Republicans for granted."

Floyd McKissick, chairman of the Durham County Democratic Party, said he'd never heard of such a conversation and wasn't aware that anything along the lines of what Monks described had occurred. Regarding the district attorney race, McKissick reiterated what he told The Herald-Sun last week, saying the issue of who played what role in Nifong's election was a moot point.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-825638.cfm

** Wish someone would name some names...this town acts like the old Soviet Union. Everything's secret.

In TV interview, Easley again criticizes Nifong

From Staff Reports, N&O, Mar 02, 2007

Gov. Mike Easley talked politics this week with PBS talk show host Charlie Rose, a North Carolina native. Easley, a former prosecutor, was asked about one of North Carolina’s most talked about prosecutors over the past year — Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong.

In January, Easley told a New York University crowd that picking Nifong to be Durham’s district attorney was the worst appointment of his career.

On The Charlie Rose Show that aired Wednesday, Feb. 28, he elaborated on that appointment.

A portion of the script from that show follows:

CHARLIE ROSE: Speaking of legal issues, the lacrosse team. Some of the players who were first accused of rape, and there was a prosecutor over there, Nifong I think his name was.

MICHAEL EASLEY: That’s right.

CHARLIE ROSE: He was appointed by you?

MICHAEL EASLEY: He was appointed acting DA by me. The district attorney, a very good district attorney, I appointed judge, and I wanted someone who wasn’t going to run, that was a long-term prosecutor, just to hold the office together until somebody was elected. And our staff interviewed him. He said he wasn’t going to run, and we didn’t think he would. And then he got out and started running.

There’s a totally different standard you set for somebody who is going to be the elected district attorney and get into politics, and then there’s somebody who you want just to run the office. Because when you get out there and start making political comments, it requires a whole lot of different talent, a whole lot of different skills that obviously he didn’t have. And he would not have been appointed had we known he was going to run.

That case is now with the attorney general’s office. He turned it over to the attorney general. It’s with a good team there.

CHARLIE ROSE: He was forced to turn it over to the attorney general, wasn’t he?

MICHAEL EASLEY: No, he ...

CHARLIE ROSE: He volunteered to do that.

MICHAEL EASLEY: Well, he was under a lot of pressure, though. You’re correct about that. He voluntarily did it, but -- volunteered to do it, but ...

CHARLIE ROSE: He handed over the prosecution to someone else. And the rape charges have been ...

MICHAEL EASLEY: They’re under investigation.

CHARLIE ROSE: Under investigation.

MICHAEL EASLEY: Right now. What’s happened is the prosecution team at the attorney general’s office who I know is very, very competent. They’re looking at it, giving a whole fresh look, and they’ll make a determination. And if it is a good case, they’ll try it; if it is not, they’ll dismiss it and be done with it. But I can tell you, the crowd that has it now is going to do the right thing.

CHARLIE ROSE: The prosecutorial team.

MICHAEL EASLEY: Yes.

CHARLIE ROSE: Yes. Because they’ve got some very good defense attorneys there, too.

MICHAEL EASLEY: They do.

CHARLIE ROSE: From the North Carolina Bar.

MICHAEL EASLEY: And what’s unfortunate about it is, once a prosecutor says the wrong thing or says something that they shouldn’t say, then it’s on. I mean, the fight’s on. The defense attorneys don’t have a lot of choice but to defend their clients. So then the whole thing is getting tried in the press, and everybody loses on that. It looks bad for the team. It looks bad for Duke. It looks bad for the state. It looks bad for the judicial system. And that’s why you want somebody who understands the media ...

CHARLIE ROSE: Fair to say you would not have appointed him if you had it to do over?

MICHAEL EASLEY: That’s correct. I would voluntarily not appoint him, just as he voluntarily turned the case over to the attorney general.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/548945.html

The News & Observer, July 14, 2002, Chalmers' work ethic praised, Author: Aisling Swift; Staff Writer- excerpts-

Durham -- When supporters of Durham police Lt. Col. Steve Chalmers look at his 27-year career, they wonder why there was any need to look outside the department for a new chief. After all, they say, Chalmers has been acting chief since Feb. 1, he was former chief Teresa Chambers' handpicked successor, he grew up in Durham and knows the city, the department and the issues.

"He knows the people in the community," said Jackie Wagstaff, a former city council member who is now executive director of North-East Central Durham Community Services Center. "He probably knows everyone who is arrested.* That gives him a heads up."

Chalmers joined what was then the Durham Public Safety Department in 1975, and within two years he became a detective and quickly rose through the ranks, working in all areas of the department. Since last year, he ascended rapidly from major to lieutenant colonel and deputy chief to acting chief.

Education: Graduated from Hillside High School in 1971; earned bachelor's degree in political science from N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University, 1975; graduated from Durham's Public Safety Academy in November 1975.

* Chalmers grew up in Crystal's hood, Southeast Durham, and attended same high school, Hillside. Last summer, he announced his retirement plans, 18-months ahead of time. The Durham city council recently instructed city manager Patrick Baker to speed up the search process for a new chief. He remains one of the enigmas of the LAX scam, frame-conspiracy and election fraud debacle.

6775. The latest on Duke la X team. [old message board posting].
by p*****, 4/16/06 9:48 ET

"From a Duke alum who lives in NC.Story is it was the girls 3rd gig of the night.Not bad at $400 per show.2nd stop was at a black frat house where these girls hung out longer then they should have.It got pretty rough for the black girl & she was pis$ed,neither got any $.They got to the La X house very late & though pretty wasted,did there act.Heard it wasn`t one of their better shows.Well, my friend said take it from there."

* *
Since it is obvious after ONE YEAR, no elected or public official or media
in this town can tell the truth, we will have to rely on message boards.
There is nothing in the record which would negate this story. In fact, it
may be the reason a certain chancellor at a historically black state university
is high-tailing it down to Florida. Next to go, the missing police chief.

Nifong Attorneys: DA Didn't Intentionally Violate Ethics Rules

Durham — Attorneys for Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong tell the State Bar he did not intentionally violate ethics rules when prosecuting the Duke lacrosse case.

Nifong on Wednesday filed a written response to ethics complaints levied against him by the North Carolina State Bar in connection with the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case.

The embattled prosecutor had no comment Wednesday afternoon and referred all questions to his lawyers.

Attorneys for Nifong also tell WRAL they will file a motion to dismiss some charges that Nifong withheld exculpatory evidence from defense attorneys representing the charged Duke lacrosse players.

Earlier this year, the State Bar amended an earlier ethics complaint against Nifong alleging he withheld DNA evidence and misrepresented the truth to the judge in the case.

The original complaint, filed in December, accuses Nifong of violating professional conduct rules by making misleading and inflammatory comments about the athletes under suspicion.

The case stems from a March 2006 incident in which a woman claims she was sexually assaulted at an off-campus party, where she was hired to perform as an exotic dancer, by three members of the Duke lacrosse team.

A grand jury later indicted lacrosse players Collin Finnerty, 20, Reade Seligmann, 20, and David Evans, 23, on charges of first-degree kidnapping, rape and sexual assault. Nifong dropped rape charges against all three suspects in December after the accuser wavered in key details of her story.

Less than a month later, Nifong, having come under intense scrutiny for his handling of the case, asked the North Carolina Attorney General's Office to appoint a special prosecutor to take over.

"He feels, as a result of the accusations against him, that he would be a distraction and he wants to make sure the accuser receives a fair trial," Nifong's attorney, David Freedman said on Jan. 12. "He still believes in the case. He just believes his continued presence would hurt her."

In February, Durham resident Elizabeth Brewer filed a civil complaint against Nifong that basically mirrors the State Bar's complaint. It is the first complaint from a Durham citizen asking that Nifong be removed from office.

Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson, however, issued a stay on the complaint until after the State Bar hearing is completed.

Nifong told WRAL on Feb. 9 that he looks forward to defending himself against the charges, which could lead to his disbarment. He added that there is more to the Duke lacrosse case than what the media has reported.

"I wish everyone would withhold judgment until they hear the evidence, as well as my response," he said.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1217557/

Defense waits for DNA test results

By Joseph Neff and Anne Blythe, Staff Writers, N&O, Feb 27, 2007 12:45 PM

Defense lawyers in the Duke lacrosse case still have not received all the DNA test material in the case, according to a motion filed today.

A private laboratory, DNA Security of Burlington, has provided only some of the underlying data in the case, said the motion, which comes a month after the N.C. State Bar charged Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong with withholding DNA evidence favorable to the defense.

Nifong had hired DNA Security to test 22 samples from evidence that a doctor and nurse at Duke Hospital collected from the body of the accuser. The woman, an escort service dancer, said she was sexually assaulted by three men in a bathroom at party in March 2006 attended by members of the Duke University lacrosse team.

The three players have declared their innocence: David Evans, 23, of Bethesda, MD; Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J.; and Collin Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, N.Y.

In October, a judge ordered Nifong to turn over all the underlying laboratory documents. Defense lawyers examined about 2,000 pages of documents, including "electropherograms," which map DNA data as a series of peaks.

The lawyers discovered the laboratory had found DNA from at least four unidentified men in samples from the accuser's body and clothing. The DNA did not match that of any of the lacrosse players.

DNA Security director Brian Meehan admitted that he and Nifong had agreed not to report these results, which must be given to the defense under state law.

Meehan submitted a revised report on Jan. 10. In dissecting the report, defense lawyers found DNA from a second unidentified man taken from a sample found on the accuser's body.

In Tuesday's motion, defense lawyers said they recently discovered they have received only 11 of the 22 electropherograms from the samples collected at Duke Hospital.

"The defendants are still in the dark," the motion said. "The statistical likelihood is that such data will show that there was even more exculpatory, unidentified male DNA discovered by DNA Security in the rape kit extractions that had, by Jan. 12, 2007, still had not been reported to the Defendants by Mr. Nifong and Dr. Meehan in any way."

Nifong, who in January asked the Attorney General's office to take over the case after he was charged by the State Bar with ethical violations, could not be immediately reached for comment. Meehan declined to comment Tuesday on the latest filing.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/547801.html

More Motions Filed in Duke LAX Case
WTVD Eyewitness News

(02/27/07 -- DURHAM) - New motions have been filed in the Duke Lacrosse sex assault case.

Defense attorneys for Collin Finnery, Reade Seligmann and David Evans filed the 39-page motion at the Durham Courthouse Tuesday morning.

In it defense attorneys for the three former Duke Lacrosse players say the prosecution is still holding out on potentially-explosive DNA evidence.

The DNA was taken in a rape kit the morning after the now-infamous lacrosse party on March 13, 2006 where the accuser says she was gang raped.

This new filing says they've not been given all the DNA evidence that excludes their clients but includes more unrelated male DNA.

Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong dropped rape charges against Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans last December. All three defendants still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=triangle&id=5073280

Nifong named in courts' rulings

BY JOHN STEVENSON : The Herald-Sun, Feb 25, 2007

Internet bloggers and cable television pundits have long attacked Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong over his handling of the Duke lacrosse sex-offense case.

But Nifong only recently came under scrutiny from some of the loftiest legal sectors in the land.

Early this month, he was adversely mentioned in rulings from two out of 12 U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, with one judge alluding to him as a prosecutor "run amok" because of the felony indictments he obtained from a grand jury last year against three Duke lacrosse players.

Lawyers view the development as highly significant, since federal appellate courts are at the pinnacle of American jurisprudence, falling immediately below the U.S. Supreme Court in the overall scheme of things.

"I am not aware of any other case from the circuit courts that single out a prosecutor by name to exemplify prosecutorial misconduct," veteran attorney Bill Thomas said Friday. "It is an extremely unusual circumstance. I have never seen it done before in my career of more than 25 years."

In addition, the online "Urban Dictionary" -- self-described as a compilation of slang words -- has added "nifonged" to its collection of derogatory terminology.

"Nifonged describes the railroading or harming of a person with no justifiable cause, except for one's own gain," the dictionary says. "It is someone being taken advantage of unfairly by someone without scruples or morals."

According to the dictionary's Web site, the new word was created "in disdain" of Nifong and "his screwing of 3 Duke University Lacrosse Team members and [his] helping to inflame a tense racial situation for his own glory, ego and political gain."

The latter comment referred to allegations that Nifong seized on the lacrosse case to help him win a May 2006 Democratic primary, followed by a November general election. He prevailed in both contests, despite numerous complaints that he had bungled the lacrosse affair.

The accuser in the lacrosse case is black; the defendants are white.

Nifong has declined to comment on the situation in recent weeks, except to insist he enjoys more public support than media accounts might indicate.

In one recent and judicially significant development, his name appeared in a Feb. 2 ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The appeals judges concluded by majority vote that international money-laundering suspect Humberto Fidel Regalado Cuellar had received a fair trial and didn't deserve another one, even though certain profiling testimony erroneously was admitted against him.

Not everyone agreed, however.

Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote in a dissenting opinion that the case involved "a prosecution run amok."

"Mike Nifong, another prosecutor apparently familiar with the 'win at any cost' mantra, almost surely would approve," Smith added.

Insinuating that Nifong did the same thing to defendants in the lacrosse case, Smith said the government set out to "get" Cuellar for anything it could.

But some contend Smith went too far in his reference to Nifong.

"I think it's improper for any judge to comment on the merits of a pending investigation," Durham Judge David Q. LaBarre said last week. "That's aside from the fact that he would have no first-hand knowledge of the situation beyond what he read on the Internet or saw on TV. One would wonder what motivated him to make that comment."

The other high-level mention of Nifong also came Feb. 2, this time from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The 6th Circuit's reference to Nifong was more of a footnote than that from its sister circuit. It simply pointed out that Nifong faced serious N.C. State Bar charges "for reasons including improper commentary about the defendants and evidence" in the lacrosse case.

"The desire to pander to public opinion has apparently become a 'higher authority' for some prosecutors than their duty to follow their code of professional responsibility," the court said.

The latter remark did not refer specifically to Nifong, but rather was a general allusion to prosecutors who -- in the court's words -- "continue to disregard the ethical duties of the legal profession in order to increase their 'batting average' of death sentences and other convictions."

A hearing on the N.C. State Bar charges is set for June. It could result in anything from exoneration to a warning letter to disbarment for Nifong.

Among other things, Nifong is accused of making unethical remarks about the lacrosse case in its infancy, including a suggestion that some players were "hooligans" whose alleged sexual attack on an exotic dancer in March 2006 was racially motivated.

In addition, the State Bar has accused Nifong of withholding DNA evidence favorable to the defendants, then lying about it.

Nifong no longer is involved in the case, however. He handed it off last month to special prosecutors from the state Attorney General's Office.

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-823089.cfm

A timeline of events in the Duke lacrosse investigation: Associated Press

A chronology of events in the case of Duke lacrosse team members accused of raping a dancer hired to perform at a team party:

March 13, 2006 -- Duke lacrosse players throw a team party at an off-campus house, hiring two strippers to perform.
March 14 -- One of the dancers tells Durham police three men at the party forced her into a bathroom, where they beat her, raped her and sodomized her. It is later learned she told authorities several different versions of the alleged attack in the hours after the party.
March 23 -- Forty-six of the team's 47 members comply with a judge's order to provide DNA samples and be photographed. The team's sole black member is not tested, because the victim said her attackers were white.
March 25 -- School announces lacrosse team will not play two scheduled games, citing the team's decision to hire "private party dancers" and underage drinking at the party.
March 28 -- Duke suspends lacrosse team from play until it has a "clearer resolution of the legal situation" involving team members.
March 29 -- In an interview with the News & Observer of Raleigh, District Attorney Mike Nifong calls the members of the lacrosse team "a bunch of hooligans."
April 3 -- Nifong stops granting interviews about the case.
April 4 -- The accuser identifies her attackers in a photo lineup suggested by Nifong. The defense later called the lineup "an incoherent mass of contradiction and error."
April 5 -- Lacrosse team coach Mike Pressler resigns. Duke President Richard Brodhead cancels the team's season after authorities unseal a search warrant containing an e-mail from player Ryan McFadyen in which he says he wants to kill and skin strippers. Although the context of the e-mail is not clear, McFadyen is suspended from school.
April 6 -- The accuser provides investigators with a five-page, handwritten statement detailing the alleged attack.
April 10 -- Defense attorneys announce DNA test results find no match between the players tested and the woman accusing the players of rape.
April 11 -- District Attorney Mike Nifong says he will continue investigating the rape allegations.
April 17 -- A Durham County grand jury returns sealed indictments against two Duke lacrosse players.
April 18 -- Duke lacrosse players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty are taken into custody on charges of rape, sexual offense and kidnapping. Each is released after posting bond. Nifong says authorities are continuing to try to identify a third possible assailant.
April 25 -- Granville County authorities confirm the accuser told police 10 years ago she was raped by three men when she was 14. None of the men were charged.
May 1 -- A Duke University committee recommends the school's lacrosse team resume play next season, but adds the team needs strict monitoring because of a history of problems tied to alcohol.
May 2 -- Nifong fends off two challengers to win the Democratic primary for district attorney.
May 8 -- A university report concludes Duke administrators were slow to react to the scandal in part because of initial doubts about the accuser's credibility.
May 12 -- Defense attorneys say a second round of DNA testing finds no conclusive match between the accuser and any lacrosse players.
May 15 -- A grand jury indicts Duke men's lacrosse team co-captain David Evans. Evans speaks publicly before surrendering to police, saying, "You have all been told some fantastic lies, and I look forward to watching them unravel in the weeks to come."
June 5 -- Duke's president reinstates the men's lacrosse program for play in 2007, but under strict rules and close monitoring.
June 29 -- McFadyen, an unindicted player, is reinstated at Duke following his suspension for sending a vulgar e-mail about killing strippers.
July 21 -- Duke hires John Danowski from Hofstra to coach the lacrosse team. His son, Matt, is a Duke senior and All-American attackman for the Blue Devils.
Sept. 4 -- The lacrosse team returns to practice for the first time since March 27 for fall workouts.
Oct. 31 -- Nifong insists in an interview with The Associated Press that he and police have not mishandled the case and said his only regret was granting so many interviews early on.
Nov. 7 -- Nifong is elected to a four-year term as district attorney, beating out a write-in candidate and an unaffiliated candidate who did not actively campaign.
Dec. 15 -- The director of a private DNA lab testifies that, as part of an agreement with Nifong, he omitted from a May report the fact that no genetic material from any member of the lacrosse team was among that from several males found in the accuser's underwear and body.
Dec. 21 -- An investigator in Nifong's office interviews the accuser, during which she changes several key details of her account.
Dec. 22 -- Nifong drops rape charges against the three players, citing the accuser's statement from the day before in which she said she was no longer certain whether she was penetrated vaginally by a penis, a necessary element of rape charges in North Carolina. The players remain charged with kidnapping and sexual offense.
Dec. 28 -- The North Carolina bar files ethics charges against Nifong, accusing him of making misleading and inflammatory comments to the media about the athletes under suspicion.
Jan. 2, 2007 -- Nifong is sworn into office in a private ceremony.
Jan. 3 -- Duke invites Seligmann and Finnerty to return to school as students in good standing, saying the circumstances in the case have changed. The accuser gives birth to a girl at a hospital in Chapel Hill.
Jan. 4 -- Former Duke player Kyle Dowd and his parents sue the university, alleging that one of his professors unfairly gave him a failing grade because he was a member of the team.
Jan. 10 -- The judge overseeing the case orders a paternity test to determine the father of the accuser's child. Nifong and the defense agree the pregnancy is unrelated to the team party, but both sides agreed the test should be conducted to silence any doubts.
Jan. 11 -- Citing a prosecution report, the defense says in court papers the accuser told investigators during the Dec. 21 interview that Seligmann did not commit any sex act on her during the alleged attack, but was repeatedly urged to join in.
Jan. 12 -- Nifong asks the state attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor in the case, saying he worries the pending ethics charges might result in an unfair trial.
Jan. 13 -- State Attorney General Roy Cooper agrees to take over the case. "Agreeing to accept the prosecution of these cases doesn't guarantee a trial, nor does it guarantee a dismissal," Cooper said.
Jan. 24 -- The bar amends its ethics complaint against Nifong, accusing him of withholding evidence from the defense and lying to both to the court and bar investigators.
Feb. 24 -- Duke is scheduled to play Dartmouth in its first game in 11 months.

http://nwitimes.com/articles/2007/02/24/sports/
college_sports/doc4acb0090c4190a2f8625728b00732cc3.txt

Spectacle again as Devils start season

By JACK DALY : The Herald-Sun, Feb 24, 2007 : 12:17 am ET

DURHAM -- Matt Danowski recalls the snow flurries and little else.

Ed Douglas thinks back to how poorly Duke played.

John Danowski remembers wondering if the expectations of a team trying to win an NCAA Championship were conspiring against them. It didn't look like the players were having any fun. The new Duke coach -- who was then the coach at Hofstra and just down in Durham to watch his son play -- had no reason to suspect anything more was afoot.

That's about all that's left in the collective memory bank of the Duke men's lacrosse team of an 11-7 loss to Cornell last March 21. It was the last time the Blue Devils could play or practice together without it being an event.

"We had a little bit of a sense [of what was to come]," senior Matt Danowski said about the game, which was played in front of 378 people.

"Guys weren't fully into the game. It was frustrating. Obviously those frustrations were miniscule in light of what happened."

In the days, weeks and months after that loss to Cornell, the details of a police investigation in a March 13 off-campus party were revealed, and the lacrosse season was suspended. Coach Mike Pressler lost his job, and Collin Finnerty, David Evans and Reade Seligmann were charged with rape, kidnapping and sexual offense.

The rape charges have since been dropped, and Finnerty, Evans and Seligmann strongly maintain their innocence on the other two.

Because of the saga and the attention it has received, the players will be part of a spectacle today when the Blue Devils open their season against Dartmouth at Koskinen Stadium at 2 p.m.

ESPNU will be there for the program's first game back. So will 60-70 members of the media. Duke officials expect a large crowd and have told students to be on their best behavior. They've also prepared for protestors.

The players' goal, with all of this, is to enjoy themselves.

"One of the things that we've gotten out of this is just how much we value the opportunity to play," said Douglas, a co-captain. "So I think Saturday is going to be the culmination of that anticipation."

"I think that's our first goal -- to play on Saturday," Matt Danowski said. "We can't make up for lost time. What's in the past is in the past."

The Blue Devils nonetheless will bring some of that past into the present. Different Duke units -- defenders, midfielders, attack players -- will wear the numbers of the accused players on their warm-ups. The team helmets will also have two decals: one for Jimmy Regan, a former player who died serving in Iraq, and another for a division the team is sponsoring in Iraq.

"In many respects, getting back to the season is a return to something familiar," Douglas said. "Whether or not it is normalcy, I think, will be left to be seen. In many respects, just the opportunity to play again will serve as a nice relief to a lot of guys."

Things haven't changed as much as one might think.

On the field, Duke still has enough talent to compete for the NCAA championship.

Off the field, John Danowski isn't overbearing and instead relies on his players' judgment to stay out of trouble. As motivation, he had everybody's body fat tabulated in the preseason.

"Then I'd come in and I'd say, 'Listen, I understand the whole college thing about drinking,' he said. "But if you really want to be an elite Division I athlete, if that burns at your core, then alcohol and the massive consumption of alcohol -- while it's accepted -- can't be accepted in our world. It can't. It just goes against what you're trying to accomplish.

"So instead of being negative and saying, 'No, you can't, no, you can't,' it's more trying to teach and trying to rely on their sensibilities. ... 'If you really want to do those other things, then you can't be with us.' "

Given that approach, perhaps it's not a surprise John Danowski isn't getting too caught up in the larger implications of today's game.

What does it mean? It means he has only 25 hours to get ready for the Blue Devils' next opponent.

"All of those other bigger questions -- I'm going to be looking at film," he said. "Because we're going to have Denver on Sunday. I'll contemplate that in the summer time when I'm on the beach."

http://www.heraldsun.com/sports/18-822798.cfm