Posted on 10/05/2007 8:08:57 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Duke lacrosse players sue Nifong, city
By AARON BEARD, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago
Three former Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape filed a federal lawsuit Friday against disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong, the city of Durham and the police detectives who handled the investigation.
The lawsuit calls the criminal case against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans was "one of the most chilling episodes of premeditated police, prosecutorial and scientific misconduct in modern American history."
The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, attorneys fees and numerous reforms to the way the Durham Police Department handles criminal investigations.
The lawsuit was filed about a month after city officials met with lawyers for the families seeking a $30 million settlement and several legal reforms, two sources close to the case have told The Associated Press. The attorneys gave the city a month to respond or face a civil rights lawsuit.
In April, more than a year after a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a lacrosse team party told police she was raped, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper declared the former players innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse."
In all, the lawsuit names Nifong and 13 other individual defendants, including former police chief Steven Chalmers, police investigators Benjamin Himan and Mark Gottlieb, and Brian Meehan — the director of DNA Security Inc., which conducted the DNA testing that proved key to unraveling the case. The lawsuit also names the Meehan's lab as a defendant.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Excellent
They won’t get anything from him personally. They will nail the city and the county for big $$$$.
These kids will never have to work a day in their lives.
May they take the high road and extraact a lot more in the way of reform than of money. But if the govt stiffs them on the former, then may they max out the latter.
The best part is that it asks that a judge be appointed to oversee the Durham police department for 10 years, with power to hire and fire.
And to make things a bit more clear, the suit says :
“...the defendants maliciously conspired to charge three innocent men with rape, even though they knew that charges were a total fabrication by a mentally troubled, drug-prone exotic dancer whose claims, time and again, were contradicted by physical evidence, documentary evidence, other witnesses, and even the accuser herself.”
It was not just an innocent bit of oversight on the part of an overzealous prosecutor...
I’m glad they continue to pursue this, especially against Nifong. He should be in jail the rest of his life along with never being able to make one red cent again.
I hope they clean Nifong’s clock! One day in jail for what he did, and tried to do is a complete miscarriage of justice. I have heard that the investigation of the police department has been stopped. Does anyone out there know?
“He should be in jail the rest of his life along with never being”
This is a civil lawsuit so Nifong is not going to jail because of this trial. Anyway, since Gonzales is out, maybe Feds take notice. Maybe non-illegals do have civil rights after all.
From another article :
“The three players demand a host of reforms in the Durham Police Department, and ask that a judge appoint an independent monitor to oversee the police department for 10 years and create a three-member Police Review Committee. The monitor would have the power to hire, fire and promote all police officials, including the chief, and would make annual reports to the court. The review committee would publicly hear complaints of police misconduct.”
I would love to be the court appointed “special master” of the Durham Police Department for a few years. It would absolutely sparkle when I was finished with it and become a real department instead of the dumping bin of trash it is now. Shame on them, and shame on the people of Durham for allowing this to happen.
I understand this is a civil case, I’m just saying.
Another zinger from the suit :
“449. Under color of state law, Nifong, Gottlieb, Himan, Wilson, the Supervisory Defendants, and the City of Durham conspired and entered into express and/or implied agreements, understandings, or meetings of the minds among themselves for the purpose of deterring alibi and other defense witnesses—including Moezeldin Elmostafa, Kim Pittman, Sergeant John Shelton, and members of the Duke lacrosse team—by force, intimidation, and threat from attending the Superior Court of Durham County and testifying freely, fully, and truthfully to matters that these Defendants knew were, or would be, pending therein.”
Where is the federal investigation over witness intimidation?
They should have also sued those 80 professors who signed that whacky letter.
They deserve every cent they can wring out of the state, city and Nifong.
***
I agree, but I suspect the ones who will really be paying will be the innocent taxpaying citizens. If I were them, I’d be quite angry with Mr. Nifong.
HBO has bought the movie rights to KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor’s book, UNTIL PROVED INNOCENT.
They should have also sued those 80 professors who signed that whacky letter.
**
And you notice...no one really apologized. Oh yeah, the head mahuff of the University said something about regretting for not being more supportive or something like that, but he wasn’t sorry for presuming the guilt of these fellas and basically facilitating the “lynching” these younmg men got. I didn’t hear anything about him being sorry for being wrong.
I don't know about the public sector, but private lawyers are required to carry malpractice insurance. It doesn't cover intentionally malicious conduct, which this will probably be found to be. So Nifong, even if he has malpractice insurance, probably won't be covered.
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