Free Republic

DURHAM (WTVD) -- An overtime scandal at the Durham Police Department will cost a high-ranking officer her job. Sources told Eyewitness News Deputy Chief B.J. Council is leaving the department. Eyewitness News has learned Council was placed on administrative duty Tuesday and will be out of her job by Friday. Her departure stems from an internal probe of a Durham police officer's overtime pay. That officer earned more than $62,000 in overtime, exceeding the officer's actual salary. Sources said the officer's overtime was approved by the police department's second-in-command, who is Council. A news conference is planned for Wednesday.

Not content with the mess they created when the university threw innocent lacrosse team players to the wolves following a manifestly false accusation of group rape, Duke university has now instituted a policy for handling rape charges manifestly unfair to the accused. KC Johnson whose work in defense of the lacrosse team was outstanding, has exposed this outrage as well oin his site, Durham in Wonderland. Three Duke University students were the victims of the highest-profile fraudulent rape claim in modern American history. That fact alone should make the University particularly sensitive to the dangers of false rape allegations, and...

Let's see, a non-covert Valerie Plame gets "outed" and the libs go crazy. The lefist Obama Administration launches an investigation that will most certainly "out" several active CIA agents and expose their families, and the libs remain silent. Do the Dems even have an inkling at what the word "hypocrisy" means? Obama Administration To Give Terrorists More Fodder For Propaganda 84rules August 25, 2009

History and social analysis of the Duke lacrosse case, retold in part from original documents; compared and contrasted with the social history of the Scottsboro trials.

The chancellor and provost at N.C. State have been ordered to appear before a federal grand jury meeting in Raleigh this week, according to federal records released Tuesday afternoon. Chancellor James Oblinger and Provost Larry Nielsen were asked to bring documents related to the hiring, promotion and salary of former first lady Mary Easley. The subpoenas follow reports in The News & Observer about the circumstances surrounding Easley's hiring at N.C. State in 2005 and the expansion of her duties last year, which raised her pay to $170,000. Mary Easley has come under pressure to resign her position from Oblinger...

"DURHAM -- The legislative agenda proposed by the Durham City Council on Monday included measures that would restrict handgun ammunition sales and increase the costs of registering a car." ... ...snip ... "Durham's resolution on ammunition sales is a simplified version of the "Bullet Ownership Bill" promoted by Durham minister Melvin Whitley. It would modify existing state laws to allow handgun-ammunition sales only to those holding a pistol purchase or concealed weapons permit."

The case against a Durham woman accused of aiding in crimes that authorities say were carried out by a satanic cult was effectively dismissed Thursday when a judge denied a request to delay the case. Dianna Palmer, 44, of Cottage Woods Court, was charged in July with one count of accessory after the fact of assault with a deadly weapon. Police said Palmer knew about assaults alleged to have occurred in a residence on Albany Street in Durham and said she helped Joseph Scott Craig remove evidence from the house. Craig, 25, and his wife, Joy Johnson, 30, were arrested...

Folks, I just got the news from Thomas Loflin, III - attorney for Elmostafa. "I am at long last pleased to inform you that Mr. Elmostafa has settled his malicious prosecution action against Hecht's, its security guard, and Hecht's successor corporations, the main one of which is Macy's Inc." "The settlement came just before we were to go to court on cross-motions for summary judgment as to the issue of liability on December 1st, and before court-ordered mediation set for December 15th. We had a trial date of March 30th (2009)." The amount of money settled for can not be...

A federal judge on Thursday rejected the appeal of fallen prosecutor Mike Nifong to keep his case in bankruptcy court. The ruling opens the door for the three exonerated lacrosse players to again pursue malicious prosecution allegations against the former district attorney. In October 2007, Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann filed suit against Nifong, the city of Durham and its police department. The players claimed they suffered personal injury and emotional distress while the prosecutor, police and city pushed ahead with a gang-rape case that was flawed from the start. In their civil suit, the players allege the...

A man charged with the second-degree rape of a then-freshman in February 2007 was arrested on the same charges Nov. 14. Michael Burch, a Durham resident, is currently being held in Durham County Jail on $1.85 million bond, Durham Police Department clerks said. Burch also faces charges of first-degree sexual offense and felony aiding and abetting, for crimes which allegedly occurred June 21, said Candy Clark, an administrative assistant in the Durham County District Attorney's Office. He is scheduled to appear in Criminal District Court Dec. 8 before a grand jury. Michael Burch Burch, who is not a Duke student,...

Duke University is suing its insurance company for refusing to pay any of the settlement costs for the Duke lacrosse case. In federal court papers filed Monday, Duke is seeking financial relief from National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, an affiliate of insurance giant AIG. The case stems from gang-rape allegations that an escort service dancer lodged against three players after a lacrosse team party in June 2006. Before all the facts were gathered and any criminal charges were filed, Duke suspended the lacrosse team's season. The criminal case against the three players crumbled quickly over the next year....

A man charged with the second-degree rape of a then-freshman in February 2007 was arrested on the same charges Nov. 14. Michael Burch, a Durham resident, is currently being held in Durham County Jail on $1.85 million bond, Durham Police Department clerks said. (snip) Burch, who is not a Duke student, was arrested in February 2007 for allegedly raping a then-18-year-old freshman at around 3 a.m. Feb. 11, 2007 at an off-campus party at 405 Gattis St. The party was hosted by members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and police had found marijuana, cocaine and Oxycontin in the house....

Durham, N.C. — A man accused of raping a former Duke student last year is in jail again, charged with the same crime against a different woman. The first victim's father says the new charge could have been prevented if bond had been set higher in the case involving his daughter. Michael Jermaine Burch was charged in February 2007 with the second-degree rape of a Duke freshman in a bathroom during a party at a residence at 405 Gattis St. After getting out of jail on a $50,000 bond, Burch was arrested again Nov. 14 on charges of second-degree rape,...

Raleigh, N.C. — Crystal Mangum thought she was going to die when three people allegedly raped her at a March 13, 2006, party hosted by Duke lacrosse players. "I genuinely believed I was going to die in there, but I did not want to," Mangum writes in her new book, "The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story," which was released online Friday. Mangum was a student at North Carolina Central University in 2006 and also worked as an exotic dancer when she performed at the party. It was there, she claims, that three white members of the team...

The woman at the center of the scandal that rocked Duke University, Durham and the lives of the three lacrosse players plans to return to the city next week to promote her new book. Crystal Gail Mangum is scheduled to hold a news conference at the Know Bookstore on Thursday to promote, “The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story.” Magnum will donate $1 from the purchase of each book to help battered women, according to Vincent Clark, a representative for Fire! Products Inc., a film studio that is representing her. Mangum was a student enrolled at North Carolina...

The A&T Register ncatregister.com Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Woman behind Duke lacrosse scandal speaks out Accuser talks to Aggies about being a student again after controversy surrounding trial faded Alexandria Harper Contributor It was called a scandal but made into mockery. The Duke lacrosse case hit radio and television stations by storm in 2007. Reporters from media outlets around the country scrambled to provide day to-day updates on Crystal Gail Mangum, the accuser, and three Duke Lacrosse players; Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans, the accused. Mangum, a former exotic dancer and escort, accused these men of sexual assault...

A television commercial for an "Ahmed the dead terrorist" ringtone mocks Islam and must be withdrawn, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled. Its ruling followed a complaint by a Moegamat Khan against the GloMobile commercial, flighted on SABC and DSTV. The commercial shows American standup comedian Jeff Durham holding a skeleton puppet with a white cloth around its head, which demands that the audience keeps quiet and says: "Silence! I kill you!" The ASA said Khan had complained that this was offensive to the Islamic religion, and created the impression that all Muslims were terrorists who would kill to get...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Republican National Committee officials say they aren't surprised to hear a Durham County elections official suspects voter registration forms gathered by a community activist group may be fraudulent. The RNC's chief counsel, Sean Cairncross, on Friday said the group, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has a history of gathering fraudulent or incomplete voter registration forms. Cairncross disputes ACORN's claim that it is a nonpartisan organization. The Herald-Sun of Durham reported Friday that Durham County elections director Mike Ashe asked state elections officials to check about 80 registration forms for possible fraud. The registrations were among...

DURHAM - Karen Daniel pushed up against the low courtroom wall separating her from her 21-year-old son Erick Daniels -- the young man who screamed "Mommy" nearly seven years ago as deputies led him away, convicted of a burglary and robbery he insists he did not commit. The two, who spell their last names differently, spent the day in a Durham County courtroom Thursday as lawyer Carlos Mahoney put witness after witness on the stand, trying to show that Daniels had ineffective counsel at his trial in December 2001 and was wrongfully convicted. Judge Orlando Hudson could decide today whether...

Former Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong wants permission to auction off three of his collector guitars. Court documents filed Wednesday list him as wanting to sell a Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, a Martin D-41 and a PRS Custom 24. According to bankruptcy proceedings in February, two of the instruments are worth about $5,000. If the motion to auction the guitars is approved, the auction will take place Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. at 361 Ja-Max Road in Hillsborough. Nifong filed for bankruptcy in January, listing a debt of $180.3 million. Almost all of that is estimated damages from pending civil...

In a scorching ruling today, the state Court of Appeals threw out the conviction of a man serving more than 60 years in prison on burglary, robbery and sexual assault charges, saying the Durham District Attorney's Office unfairly delayed his trial for nearly five years. The ruling could lead to freedom for Frankie Delano Washington, 47, an auto mechanic who was convicted of multiple charges last year in a 2002 invasion of a family's home in Trinity Park in Durham. Because the opinion was unanimous, the state has no automatic right to take the appeal further. The delay cost Washington...

DURHAM -- After figuring in the Duke lacrosse case and becoming Reader's Digest magazine's Hero of the Year, former Durham cabbie Moezeldin Elmostafa has launched what his lawyer described Tuesday as a priceless and perhaps unprecedented court claim. It involves his U.S. citizenship, which Elmostafa contends was delayed for two years by an old and bogus criminal charge that resurfaced in 2006 while the lacrosse debacle was in full swing. "Citizenship is absolutely priceless," said Elmostafa's lawyer, Tom Loflin of Durham. Still, Loflin wants several defendants to come up with a figure. "If they don't agree to my number, we'll...

RALEIGH - Raleigh police have arrested and charged three Durham men with shooting four people -- two fatally -- at a rental home that authorities said was operating as a brothel. Police this morning announced the arrests of Rony Alvararo Martinez, 23, Elvin Adrian Martinez, 21, and Mauricio Castillo, 19. All three live together at 2920 Chapel Hill Road in Durham. Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said they were arrested in Durham overnight with the aid of Durham police. Each suspect is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder. The shootings occurred Saturday at 316 Sunnybrook...

Another Democratic official charged in satanist sex crimes By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun DURHAM -- Police say they've arrested and charged a third person in connection with an ongoing rape and kidnapping investigation. Diana Palmer, 44, is charged with being an accessory after the fact, Durham Police Department spokeswoman Kammie Michael said Wednesday afternoon. Palmer is first vice chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party. Her arrest came five days after police arrested the party's third vice chairwoman, Joy Johnson, 30, and Johnson's husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25. Craig faces three counts of second-degree kidnapping, one count of second-degree...

DURHAM - A husband and wife face more charges in a case that contains allegations of sexual assault and satanic rituals that include shackling, caging and depriving a man of food and water. Joseph Scott Craig, 25, and Joy Suzanne Johnson, 30, both of 2305 Albany St., are scheduled to appear in Durham County court this morning on the new charges in a case that has shocked acquaintances and former co-workers of the couple. Johnson resigned this week as third vice chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats. The charges stem from accusations...

DURHAM, N.C., July 1 (UPI) -- A Durham, N.C., Democratic official and her husband face criminal charges in connection with alleged satanic rituals. Joy Johnson, 30, a third vice-chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats, was charged Friday with two counts of aiding and abetting. Her husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25, was charged with second-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for incidents in January and May, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Tuesday. Mark McCullough, an assistant district attorney ...acknowledged that "part of the allegations are...

DURHAM — Former District Attorney Mike Nifong will not be able to hide from a lawsuit in bankruptcy court, a federal judge ruled today. The three exonerated lacrosse players who filed suit against the fallen prosecutor in October will be able to pursue their claims in federal civil court, Judge William L. Stocks ruled. The ruling came more than a month after lawyers representing the players and Nifong presented their arguments in court. Nifong was stripped of his law license and ousted from office last summer for his misconduct in the Duke lacrosse case. Nifong was supposed to file a...

Collin Finnerty wanted Loyola to win in its NCAA Tournament assignment Saturday afternoon at Duke, where awkward moments could have superseded anything else. The top-seeded Blue Devils defeated Loyola as expected in men's lacrosse, then took aside a former teammate and shared a special moment. Finnerty posed for an impromptu photograph near midfield with his ex-teammates, capping a strange get-together on a splendid, yet windy, Saturday afternoon at nearly full Koskinen Stadium. Duke players say Finnerty remains part of their group even though he wore the opposing uniform during the Blue Devils' 12-7 victory. He was one of the three...

Thursday, May 01, 2008 LieStoppers is open for Business Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Blog Hooligans we have now opened the Meeting Place for viewers. A giant thanks is given to our "Tony Soprano." What he has personally accomplished since last Saturday is truly amazing! Viewers can now read the threads without registering. More importantly it means that the efforts of those who tried to prevent them from learning the facts of the Hoax/Frame have failed. The dirty laundry of those in Durham and at Duke who perpetrated this attempted frame of the 2006 Duke Lacrosse Team will...

Published: Apr 28, 2008 12:30 AM Modified: Apr 28, 2008 01:44 AM Sexual assault reported in Durham From Staff Reports Durham Police are investigating a reported sexual assault in the 900 block of Gilbert Street at 7:51 a.m. Sunday. The victim was taken to Durham Regional Hospital for treatment.

CRIME LOG From staff reports : The Herald-Sun news@heraldsun.com Apr 27, 2008 Three charges for rape suspect DURHAM -- Police have charged a Durham man with first-degree rape, assault on a female and second-degree trespassing in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred on April 22. Eric Dwayne Thomas, 35, of 704 E. Maynard Ave., Durham, was held in the Durham County Jail pending a $750,000 secured bond on the rape charge. City police arrested him Friday. A magistrate also ordered that Thomas be held without bond for up to 48 hours in connection with the assault on a female...

Deadline moved for federal lacrosse suit By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun gronberg@heraldsun.com Apr 26, 2008 DURHAM -- Lawyers on both sides of one of the three federal civil-rights lawsuits stemming from the Duke lacrosse case have agreed to move back a deadline for the city government and Duke University to file dismissal motions. Defense motions in the case filed by unindicted lacrosse players Breck Archer, Ryan McFadyen and Matt Wilson had been due Friday. But instead, lawyers for the players, the city, Duke and other defendants agreed to wait until July 2. The delay will give defense lawyers time...

WINSTON-SALEM -- U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty Jr. on Tuesday denied a motion for sanctions filed by Duke University and the City of Durham and ruled that the legal team for 38 members of the 2005-06 Duke lacrosse team had violated ethical rules by using a Web site, news conference and news release to publicize the filing of their case. The players have filed a civil rights lawsuit against Duke and the city, demanding reparations arising from the since dismissed Duke lacrosse sexual offense case. Beaty also ruled, however, that the content published on that Web site -- www.dukelawsuit.com...

Sports Director Jim Henderson reports that Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva will be named as the new AD at LSU.

RALEIGH, N.C. - A probation officer assigned to a teenager charged with killing the University of North Carolina's student body president was handling 127 cases without benefit of training, state corrections officials said Wednesday. A state investigation into the case also found that Laurence Lovette never met with probation officer Chalita Thomas, while the other defendant in the killing, Demario Atwater, had his probation cases handled by 10 different officers.

Director of Athletics Joe Alleva has been named one of six finalists for the athletic director position at Louisiana State University, LSU officials announced and Duke representatives confirmed Monday. According to a statement released Monday afternoon by Louisiana State University, the six named finalists will be interviewed by the Athletic Director Search Committee Wednesday at the Law Center on the Baton Rouge campus. The committee also intends to make its final recommendations of candidates to Acting LSU Chancellor William Jenkins Wednesday. "I have been contacted by a representative of Louisiana State University regarding its vacant athletics director position and am...

The probation officer in charge of keeping track of Laurence Alvin Lovette never met with the teenager, according to probation records. Officer Chalita N. Thomas, pulled off the case in early March because of a drunken-driving charge, went by Lovette's mother's home in Durham once in late February, according to the probation records, but he was not there. Then, on the day Lovette was charged with murder in the deaths of UNC-Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson and Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato, Thomas added a backdated account of missed meetings and phone calls into computer records, according...

A photography expert with over 30 years of experience says that a second person can be seen in the back seat of the SUV in a photo provided by police regarding the murder of UNC student Eve Carson. William Mathis of Mathis & Jones Communications near St. Louis, Missouri initially contacted the Raleigh Chronicle newspaper to provide a color enhanced version of the ATM surveillance photos that were provided by Chapel Hill Police. UNC student body president Eve Carson, age 22, was found murdered on Wednesday morning in Chapel Hill and police are looking for the man whose photo was...

Chapel Hill, N.C. — Police asked for help identifying a man in surveillance pictures whom they want to question in connection with the killing of Eve Carson, 22, a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lt. Kevin Gunter, a spokesman for the Chapel Hill Police Department, called the man a suspect after the press conference Saturday morning. Police Chief Bill Curran described the photos as “the biggest break” and “strongest lead” in the case yet. Two photographs show a black man in his late teens or early 20s. He is riding in a sport-utility vehicle with...

<p>ORANGE COUNTY: Sources confirmed to NC WANTED that Durham police have arrested a person of interest in the murder of UNC student body president Eve Carson.</p> <p>Durham officials turned the man over to police in Chapel Hill, where he is currently being held for questioning.</p>

Durham, N.C. — Heavily armed Durham police, surrounding a house before dawn Thursday, captured the second of two men charged with murder in the shooting of the student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lawrence Alvin Lovette Jr., 17, surrendered to officers from the department's Selective Enforcement Team outside a house on Cook Road at 4:16 a.m. Police had surrounded the house hours before after receiving an anonymous tip through the Durham County Sheriff's Office

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Authorities have charged a suspect in the slaying of the University of North Carolina student president with the January killing of a Duke University graduate student. A warrant filed Thursday charges 17-year-old Lawrence Alvin Lovette Jr. with first-degree murder in the death of Abhijit Mahato. The 29-year-old computational mechanics doctoral student was found shot to death inside his apartment in January. Authorities have charged both Lovette and Demario James Atwater with first-degree murder in the death of Eve Carson. The 22-year-old was found last week lying on a street about a mile from campus.

2 in lacrosse case quit police force Principal investigators in the case have resigned, the Durham police chief says Stanley B. Chambers Jr., Staff Writer DURHAM - Sgt. Mark Gottlieb and Investigator Benjamin Himan, the Durham Police Department's principal investigators in the Duke lacrosse case, have both left the department in the past several weeks, Chief Jose L. Lopez said Tuesday. Gottlieb, who joined the department in 1992, had contemplated leaving for a few months, Lopez said. "I did not ask him to leave," Lopez said. "I wasn't looking for his resignation." Lopez said Himan, a Durham officer since 2002,...

At the end of February 2004, I wrote a letter that would never be received. The intended recipient was Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas prisoner on death row. Months earlier, Willingham had written me a ten-page, hand-printed essay about his life in solitary confinement and his last experience in the open air. In it, he recalled a cluster of "blazing purple flowers," the first he had seen in more than eight years. The flowers were "gifts to the world," he wrote, reminding him of his own gifts, which had been "taken away." This was a reference to Willingham's daughters, and...

Officers from both the Durham Police Department and the Duke University Police Department responded to reports early Monday morning of a possible narcotics violation by a student in Bell Tower Residence Hall, sources confirmed. DUPD Maj. Gloria Graham said a residence coordinator contacted police about the violation, but when officers arrived on site and tested the substance in question they determined that it was aspirin. No arrest was made and officers left the building at about 1:30 a.m., students said. Chris Ellis, the residence coordinator for Bell Tower, Blackwell and Randolph dormitories, did not respond to requests for comment Monday...

Friday, February 29, 2008 Duke files motion to take down this website Duke and other defendants have filed a motion to shut down this website. Click here to read it. Posted by Bob at 2:48 PM

Thirty-eight current and former Duke lacrosse players are filing suit against Duke University, according to an email I just got from the Robert H. Bork Jr. PR firm. The parents of the players will formally announce the suit tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the National Press Club: Charles J. Cooper, attorney for the players will explain the complaint and answer questions from the media. Only credentialed media will be allowed. Media who are unable to be present at the news conference may call (888) 882-0114 to hear audio from the event and ask questions during the Q&A. The complaint and...

Mike Nifong, the former Durham District Attorney who lost his job and law license for misconduct in the Duke lacrosse case, makes too much money to seek bankruptcy protection, a federal court administrator has concluded. Michael D. West, a bankruptcy administrator, filed a statement in the case late last week. Nifong's case, West said in his statement, should be "presumed to be an abuse" because his annual income would be higher than federal limits. The administrator's statement is a recommendation, not a ruling. But if a judge agrees, that could make it more difficult for Nifong to hide in bankruptcy...

When a mentally deluded stripper accused three Duke University lacrosse players of a brutal gang rape at a March 2006 off-campus team party during spring break, dozens of activist Duke professors were not content merely to give great credence to the rape charge, even as evidence of its probable fraudulence poured into the public record. They also treated the lacrosse players as pariahs for having hired strippers at all. So, too, did Duke President Richard Brodhead, Board Chairman Robert Steel, other campus administrators, many in the media, and others. Never mind that hiring strippers violated no law or university rule....

CRIME WAVE SWEEPS DURHAM Grad student killed in off-campus apartment By: Chelsea Allison Posted: 1/18/08 A Duke graduate student was found shot to death at 11:30 p.m. Friday inside his home at The Anderson Apartments, just 1.6 miles from West Campus. Abhijit Mahato, 29, was a second-year Ph.D. candidate in the Pratt School of Engineering studying computational contact mechanics. The Durham Police Department is treating the crime as a homicide, which authorities said appeared to be motivated by robbery. It was the city's second murder of the year, with 2008's first killing occurring just hours earlier on Burke Street, 1.4...