Free Republic

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...

Former District Attorney Mike Nifong filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday as city leaders, police and other officials began answering one of the federal civil-rights lawsuits triggered by the Duke lacrosse case. Meanwhile, the first replies from defendants in the Evans/Finnerty/Seligmann lawsuit came Tuesday from Nifong's former investigator, Linwood Wilson, and DNA Securities Inc., the Burlington lab that tested samples gathered from the players and stripper who falsely accused them. Late Tuesday, dismissal motions were also filed on behalf of City Manager Patrick Baker, former Police Chief Steve Chalmers, Deputy Police Chief Ron Hodge, Maj. Beverly Council, Maj. Lee Russ, Capt....

Disgraced Duke prosecutor lists $180M in liabilities A summary schedule from Nifong's Chapter 7 petition can be found below. Almost all of that sum represents legal claims filed against the former Durham County district attorney by members of Duke's 2006 lacrosse team, including the three players who were accused of raping a stripper at a team party. Included among Nifong's assets are a 2003 Honda Accord, about $9000 in personal property, and his $235,000 home. He lists nearly $5000 monthly in pension or retirement income and describes himself, charitably, as retired. snip

RALEIGH, N.C. — The disgraced former prosecutor who led the debunked Duke lacrosse rape case has filed for bankruptcy. Mike Nifong cited more than $180 million dollars in liabilities and only $243,898 in assets of real and personal property.

Michael Nifong, the former North Carolina district attorney who unsuccessfully prosecuted Duke University lacrosse players for rape, sought bankruptcy protection from creditors including the athletes. Nifong, listed debt of $180.3 million and assets of $243,898 in documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Durham, North Carolina. The prosecutor stepped down last year. North Carolina officials stripped him of his law license for unethical conduct in the 2006 investigation of the allegations against the players. The three former players who had rape charges against them dropped sued Nifong in federal court in Durham in October. Collin Finnerty, David F. Evans...

Amazing--a middle school girl makes a false allegation of rape against a construction worker who is working at her school, and the result is: a) An outpouring of support and sympathy for the falsely accused construction worker. b) A tearful apology from the false accuser to the falsely accused construction worker. c) A tearful apology from the false accuser's parents to the falsely accused construction worker. d) A call for increased awareness of false allegations of rape. e) A call for increased vigilance against construction workers. If you picked "e", you're correct. The unbelievable story is below. To write a...

Several months ago, FReepers were able to provide a link to FBI statistics showing that rape by white men of black women was so rare as to be non existant. This was at the height of the Nifong/ Duke Lacross scandal. I didn't book mark the link to those reports, but since my son has been given an assignment by his High School English teacher on the topic of "Racism and Prejudice" in modern America-we need those numbers. If you know where we can find them, please provide links, along with any Ward Connerly, Bill Cosby, Juan William's essays which...

From Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine's new press release Governor Kaine Announces 2008 Legislative Initiatives on Domestic and Sexual Violence (1/2/08): "The Violence Against Women Act of 2005 also prohibits law enforcement officers from asking or requiring a victim of an alleged sex offense to submit to a polygraph examination as a condition for proceeding with the investigation of such an offense... "In 2004, the Department of Criminal Justice Services conducted a survey of sexual Assault policies of law enforcement agencies. A little over 72% of respondents indicated that they sometimes performed polygraph exams on victims of sexual assault. Only...

Baker added to Duke lacrosse suit By Anne Blythe, Staff Writer The lawyers representing the three exonerated lacrosse players amended the civil suit in federal court today to include City Manager Patrick Baker as one of the officials they are suing. Baker announced today that he would be stepping aside at the end of the year as city manager to become city attorney, a job that comes with a higher salary but less decision-making power. As Baker met with reporters to discuss his plans to end a tumultuous three years as the city's manager, the lawyers for the exonerated lacrosse...

Since its inception in 1870, the U.S. Department of Justice has had among its chief duties "to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior" and "to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans." Within that context, it is very difficult to accept the Justice Department's Dec. 3 decision not to investigate modern America's highest-profile case of prosecutorial misconduct, also known as former Durham district attorney Mike Nifong's handling of the lacrosse case. The justification for such an inquiry was undeniable: As Jim Cooney, the leader of Reade Seligmann's defense team, explained in an October 2007...

RALEIGH (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice will not investigate former Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong for his handling of the case, a spokesman for the agency said Wednesday. That decision also jeopardizes a possible investigation at the state level, according to a spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper, who said prosecutors in North Carolina can't indict someone on charges of lying to investigators. The DOJ carefully considered the case but decided that it was an issue better resolved inside the state, said spokesman Peter Carr in a statement. "We believe the State of North Carolina has the primary...

The state wants a joint criminal investigation into the prosecution of players, a lawyer says The state attorney general has asked federal prosecutors to help conduct a criminal probe into former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong and other government officials involved with the Duke lacrosse case, according to a lawyer representing one of the three exonerated players. Charlotte lawyer Jim Cooney outlined the request in a three-page letter sent to three high-ranking U.S. Justice Department administrators. The letter was copied to Jim Coman, a special prosecutor for the state who led the criminal investigation that led to the exoneration of...

Raleigh — The North Carolina Attorney General's Office on Thursday rejected a request by former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong to represent him in a federal lawsuit filed by three former Duke University lacrosse players. In a letter sent to Nifong Thursday, Chief Deputy Attorney General Grayson Kelley wrote that state law allows the Attorney General's Office to deny legal representation to state officials being sued for actions outside the scope of their official duties or actions that involved fraud, corruption or malice. Calls to Nifong were not returned, and his attorney, James Craven, had no comment. Last week,...

The Duke lacrosse case was a perfect example of the insanity of radical theories of gender and race which, among other ultra politically correct ideas, have permeated and destroyed our universities.... Broadhead – (noun) (‘brȯd-hed) 1: a: An authority figure who is easily intimidated, especially a high ranking university administrator. b: Politically correct chump who uses authority to disparage innocent students to score cheap popularity points with media and radical professors. “The Provost said what about me? What a Broadhead.” 2: a: Coward. b: person lacking in testicular fortitude. “Just do it you Broadhead!” Broadheaded – (transitive verb): to lose...

Do you agree with former men's lacrosse coach Mike Pressler's decision to sue the University? Yes No

Raleigh — Former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong has asked that the North Carolina Attorney General's Office represent him in a federal lawsuit filed by the three former Duke University lacrosse players he prosecuted last year. "Because I was a constitutional officer of the State of North Carolina at the time that the subject matter of the complaint arose … and because the complaint arises out of the exercise of the duties of that office, I am hereby requesting that you make any arrangements to secure my representation in this matter," Nifong wrote in a letter, dated Oct. 8,...

'Majority' of the Players Have Hired a Lawyer and May Sue Duke A group of current and former Duke University lacrosse players and their families may sue the school over its treatment of the team in the aftermath of the Duke rape scandal, some of the families and their lawyer told ABC News. Charles Cooper, a prominent Washington, D.C., attorney, confirmed that "a large majority" of the players and their families have hired him to explore the possibility of suing the university. Cooper would not comment on the basis of any potential lawsuit or whether or when one might be...

DURHAM--Disbarred District Attorney Mike Nifong's troubles may be far from over. And that may be the case for several individuals that were closely involved in the Duke Lacrosse case, according to Eyewitness News sources. While Attorney General Roy Cooper is considering a request to investigate public officials that handled the case, ABC 11 Reporter Tamara Gibbs has learned federal investigators are collecting testimony and other court documents from Mike Nifong's ethics trial and his recent contempt hearing. Sources say the U.S. Attorney's Office Middle District of North Carolina is considering whether to investigate the case. Investigators are trying to determine...

DURHAM - A law signed by Gov. Mike Easley last month appears to make David Saacks ineligible as Durham County's district attorney. But the governor's office says otherwise. Saacks, a Wake County resident, was sworn in last week as the top prosecutor in a county where he is ineligible to vote. At the time, a spokesman in the governor's office said Saacks' Wake County residency did not render him ineligible for appointment to the Durham office. But a bill that Easley signed into law on Aug. 19 says nobody can be appointed to fill a vacancy in any state or...

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Former Durham County prosecutor Mike Nifong walked out of jail Saturday morning after completing a 24-hour contempt sentence imposed by a judge for lying to the court about critical DNA evidence in the Duke lacrosse rape case. Nifong left the jail shortly after 9 a.m., where he was greeted with cheers and applause by a small crowd of supporters in the lobby. They surrounded the disgraced and disbarred prosecutor as he moved through a thick crowd of reporters to a waiting car. Nifong thanked the jail's staff "for the professionalism with which I was treated and...