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Duke University and the insurance company it sued to recoup some of the settlement costs linked to the Duke lacrosse case hope to settle their differences within the next month. The National Union Fire Insurance Co., an affiliate of insurance giant AIG, and Duke have been wrangling over whether the company should reimburse the university for costs tied to the confidential settlements of lawsuits with three former lacrosse players and the former lacrosse coach. In a court document filed Friday in federal court, Duke and the company acknowledged that settlement talks had been held. "The parties are hopeful that they...

An American college student who published her sexual exploits as a PowerPoint presentation says she regrets any pain the list has caused after it was circulated on the internet. The mock-thesis, titled "An education beyond the classroom: excelling in the realm of horizontal academics", catalogues intimate details about 13 male students the author has slept with, including dirty talk transcripts and their overall rating out of 10. The presentation includes names and photos from Facebook and athletic action shots. Each man — all of them high-profile students — is scored along criteria that include physical attractiveness, penis size and talent...

Crystal Mangum's ex boyfriend went to the Durham County district attorney's office Monday, trying to take responsibility for a February incident that left Mangum charged with arson for allegedly setting a pile of clothes on fire. Milton Walker, the ex-boyfriend, says he set his own clothes on fire and damaged his own house and vehicle. "At that time I wasn't on my medication," Walker wrote in a notarized handwritten note. 'The breakup of my relationship aggravated my symptoms and I acted out on the voices I was hearing." Quantcast Mangum is charged with arson, contributing to the delinquency of a...

Reade Seligmann is now a first-year law student. He is into his second week of classes at Emory University School of Law. In an e-mail response to my query, Reade says he is excited to be starting what he hopes will be a long and fulfilling career in law. He reports that he already has a heavy assignment load but that he is happy to be an L1. He concludes, "Thanks again for all of your support and and please send my best to all of my friends in the liestoppers crew." *** I am very pleased that this outstanding...

DURHAM (WTVD) -- A judge has ordered former Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Mangum arrested again. Officials say Mangum violated the terms of her pre-trial release related to the visitation hours with her children. (snip)

DURHAM -- Crystal Gail Mangum is in police custody under $150,000 bond after court officials accused her of violating a condition of a previous pre-trial release agreement. An arrest warrant issued Wednesday charges Mangum with not complying with visitation hours detailed in her release agreement. Mani Dexter, the attorney representing her, is consulting with the district attorney's office with hopes of scheduling a hearing later today. Mangum, the discredited accuser in the Duke lacrosse case, was in court in July, on the day Duke University demolished the house where the 2006 lacrosse team held its infamous party, asking to be...

A blistering report this week identifying how North Carolina's state crime laboratory workers misrepresented blood evidence in dozens of cases over 16 years covered only two of Roy Cooper's years as attorney general. But it's all Cooper's task to clean up the problems at the State Bureau of Investigation lab and overcome questions about its work. The Democrat faces a long road back to restoring trust in the lab that helps state and local law enforcement. The lab will need to regain faith from attorneys and the public, as well as the lawmakers who approve funding for the lab and...

Longtime News & Observer columnist Ruth Sheehan, who has an ear for a story, an eye for detail and a strong sense of justice, is swapping her reporter's notebook for a legal pad. Sheehan's last column for the paper will appear in late August. She will begin classes at the University of North Carolina law school this fall. "There is no better job than being a columnist. None," said Sheehan, 45. But she's ready for a new challenge. Sheehan knew she wanted to be in newspapers from the day, back in 3rd grade, when her teacher told the class to...

BRADENTON — Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports in the country, and you don’t have to look any further than local high schools for evidence of that. Lakewood Ranch, Saint Stephen’s and Cardinal Mooney have started lacrosse teams over the past few years. This week, local players have another opportunity to improve their skills at the IMG Lacrosse Academy’s Summer Camp. The featured guest is Team USA head coach Mike Pressler, and the timing couldn’t be better. Team USA just upset tournament favorite Canada on Saturday in the final of the 2010 Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship....

Newsweek commentator David Graham recently declared the Philadelphia Voter Intimidation controversy to be a non-story: “it’s not about a real investigation; it’s about staging an effective piece of political theater that hurts the Obama administration.” He also meandered into the assertion that the ACORN scandal was “minimal” and “discredited.” Graham’s career-long track record of suppressing news (without troubling himself with investigation) follows him way, way back to his college years at Duke University. Why bring up such ancient history? Well, because he graduated from Duke last year, in 2009.

The ill-famed "Duke Lacrosse House" is on its way to the dump. A demolition crew began tearing down the Duke University-owned house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. about 7:30 this morning. By 11:15, it had been reduced to rubble and an excavator was loading the debris into a removal truck. "Tearing it down was no problem," said Richard Davis, superintendent with the O.C. Mitchell construction company handling the job. "Carrying it off is the problem." Quantcast Quantcast The rubble was destined for a private landfill, but Davis did not know where. Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/07/12/577917/duke-lacrosse-house-demolished.html#ixzz0tUWey600

Duke University is demolishing the infamous house where a woman alleged she was raped by members of its lacrosse team. Bulldozers began pulling down the home at 610 North Buchanan Street in the Trinity Park neighborhood Monday morning. As recently as May, Duke said it planned to sell the property - just as Duke has done with several other homes in the area. The university has successfully renovated several homes known as "party houses" and then sold them to owner occupants instead of landlords, who typically rent properties near Duke's East Campus. It has been four years since the house...

With a motion bracelet strapped to her right ankle, Mangum, 31, held a press conference in front of a Savannah Avenue home this morning - where she is on house arrest - to defend herself against a February domestic violence arrest. Mangum was arrested at her Lincoln Street home after police alleged that during an argument with her ex-boyfriend, she set the apartment on fire and tried to kill her now ex-boyfriend while her three young children and two Durham police officers were in the home. “I don’t feel like I’m going to get the justice that I deserve through...

DURHAM (WTVD) -- Linwood Wilson - former investigator to Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong - was arrested at his home by Durham sheriff's deputies Thursday evening. According to court documents, deputies served Wilson with a felony extradition warrant stemming from alleged harassment of his estranged wife in Delaware. The order, coming from a Kent, Delaware magistrate, says the alleged offenses happened between May 12 and Thursday. The documents say Wilson is charged with stalking obscenity. On June 1, Wilson allegedly sent his wife an instant message that said in part, "'til death do we part remember your wedding vows ......

Duke wins in overtime, 6-5

What will it take for the MSM to stop smearing the falsely-accused Duke lacrosse players? Judging by the performance of ESPN's Steve Weissman this morning, legal exoneration is not enough. Introducing an ESPNNEWS item on a lacrosse game between Duke and the University of Virginia, Weissman claimed that three years ago, the Duke team had been involved in "a devastating scandal," and that while the accused players had been exonerated, "the questions remain." View video here.

Tonya Craft Sues Accusers In $25 Million Federal Lawsuit Defendants Include Parents Of Accusers, Investigators posted May 24, 2010 Tonya Craft, who was absolved of all charges of child molestation in a highly-publicized trial at Ringgold, has filed a lawsuit against her accusers in Federal Court in Rome, Ga. The 52-page complaint asks $25 million in damages from each of the defendants. They include parents of the children who brought charges against her, the lead detective in the case, the Catoosa County sheriff and officials who investigated the complaints. Defendants are Sandra Lamb, Sherri and Dewayne Wilson, her former husband...

Durham, N.C. — A Durham woman who falsely accused three Duke University athletes of raping her was released from jail Monday afternoon on charges in an unrelated case. Crystal Mangum was arrested in February and charged with attempted first-degree murder, five counts of arson, assault and battery, communicating threats, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, injury to personal property, identity theft and resisting a public officer. Police said she assaulted her boyfriend, Milton Walker, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him. Bond was initially set at $1 million, but it was subsequently lowered to...

RINGGOLD, Ga. — A jury has said she’s not guilty and the trial that devastated her life is over, but Tonya Craft says she’ll never recover what she’s lost. “There is not a winner. There can be restoration, and there can be awareness for others to not go through this, but there are two birthdays for my daughter that I’ll never get back,” Ms. Craft said Tuesday, fighting back the tears. Two years after she was accused of molesting three girls, Ms. Craft said the first thing she cares about is regaining custody of her two children. Defense attorney Scott...

Before the attempted frame-up of innocent lacrosse players in Durham, lacrosse had a good reputation. It may have been seen as an elite sport (or, more truly, a regionally delineated sport); but it was also seen as honest, fun, exciting, and one of the few “sports” remaining which still concerned itself with “sportsmanship”. Then came the lies and the false accusations, and a university which was more concerned with the immediate PR fallout than with standing behind its falsely-accused students. And since it fit the convenient narrative which was being constructed, lacrosse was also lambasted. In Durham, three lacrosse players...