Criminal Law

Reply to the Motions to Dismiss

Posted on April 03, 2008
Attorneys for Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann have filed a robust, 122-page reply to the parties? motion to dismiss the civil suit against the city of Durham, various Durham officials and police officers, and employees of DNA Security...

Reflections on the Duke Reply

Posted on March 31, 2008
Duke has filed its reply brief in its longshot demand that the court impose sanctions against attorneys representing the unindicted players and terminate the Duke Lawsuit website. Upon review, Powerline was puzzled by the University?s legal strategy: Setting up this kind of website, and indeed ones that are much more aggressive, is a common thing for plaintiffs to do these days ...

The Durham Justice System: A "State of Emergency"

Posted on March 23, 2008
A comprehensive late 2007 report on the Durham Police Department's handling of gang-related activity by Deborah Lamm Weisel and Buddy Howell:Among its conclusions--none of which would surprise anyone who observed the DPD's performance from March 2006 through January 2007:Durham has a long-standing reputation as a high-crime city with well-entrenched gangs...

Race, Obama, and the North Carolina Primary

Posted on March 21, 2008
Not since 1976, when Ronald Reagan?s victory over Gerald Ford revived his then-floundering campaign, has North Carolina?s primary played a significant role in the nominating process. That?s likely to change in 2008. The early May primary provides an opportunity for Barack Obama to rebound from a likely Clinton victory in Pennsylvania, and in the process gain ground in the Clintons? latest measuring stick for success, the popular vote total...

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Selena Roberts: Still Misleading

Posted on March 17, 2008
In the pre-internet world, tracking down a New York Times article from two years ago would have taken some time and effort. An interested reader would have to go to his or her library and scroll through reels of microfilm. Now, however, finding a March 31, 2006 article is as easy as clicking here...

Bannon at Campbell Law Day

Posted on March 11, 2008
DIW readers in North Carolina might want to set aside time this Saturday morning, for Brad Bannon's appearance as keynote speaker for Campbell Law School's Law Day. The announcement:Campbell Law School?s 31st Annual Law Day to Feature Distinguished Alumni Brad Bannon and Lt...

Gottlieb Is Out

Posted on March 04, 2008
The practitioner of "straight-from-memory" notes and wildly inaccurate grand jury testimony has left the Durham Police Department. The N&O's Stan Chambers reports that Sunday was Mark Gottlieb's last day on the job. He resigned for what the DPD termed personal reasons.

More on Duke's Peculiar Motion

Posted on March 01, 2008
As noted below, yesterday Duke filed a motion requesting that the "Duke Lawsuit" site be shut down, and also suggesting that the unindicted players' lead attorney, Chuck Cooper, violated ethics rules in holding a Washington, DC press conference to announce the suit...

Peculiar Duke Motion

Posted on February 29, 2008
In a peculiar move, Duke has filed a motion demanding that the Duke Lawsuit site (which contains copies of the civil suit by the unindicted players, as well as links to press coverage) be shut down. The motion claims that the website violates rules against pretrial publicity...

Lawsuit Q&A

Posted on February 27, 2008
Q: What are the most troubling items in the lawsuits? A: Legally, Duke seems to be most vulnerable on two items: 1.) The FERPA claim?that someone at Duke gave the Durham Police federally protected student information (student keycard records) and then Duke, at the very least, remained silent as (a) Nifong subpoenaed these records, after-the-fact; and (b) the court ruled that Nifong shouldn't have access to them...

The Herald-Sun--Unsurprisingly--Defends the Status Quo

Posted on February 26, 2008
In a development that would surprise only those who have spent the last two years living under a rock, the Bob Ashley-led Herald-Sun editorial board has criticized the lawsuit filed by the unindicted players. Ashley & Co. condescendingly note that members of the team "went through some pretty tough times"?a development that would puzzle those who only read the Herald-Sun, which has never mentioned any such events before yesterday's editorial...

News from Brown

Posted on February 25, 2008
Stu Woo reports on Reade Seligmann's first game at Brown; Seligmann had a goal and an assist--and received strong applause from the crowd--as Brown beat Lehigh, 10-4.

New Revelations from the Civil Suits

Posted on February 25, 2008
At this stage of events, it would seem unlikely that any more new items would appear. But, of course, that?s not the case. Both the lawsuit filed last week on behalf of 38 players and Bob Ekstrand?s December lawsuit, filed on behalf of Ryan McFadyen, Matt Wilson, and Breck Archer, brought a host of new information to the table...

From the Editorial Page

Posted on February 24, 2008
The Wilmington Star-News was the first North Carolina newspaper to demand that Mike Nifong resign. (It did so in a December 27, 2006 editorial.) Its comment on the recently filed lawsuit was, however, peculiar. The paper conceded that unfair harm had befallen the players:Reporters found numbers of Duke students and faculty members eager to offer their opinion that many lacrosse players were little better than swaggering sexist louts...

Lawsuit Summary

Posted on February 22, 2008
?The simple truth is that Brodhead and Duke were indifferent to the truth.? That?s perhaps the most powerful line in a lawsuit filed yesterday behalf of 38 of the unindicted lacrosse players and their families. The suit was filed against President Richard Brodhead, a host of Duke administrators, and the city of Durham...

News from Loyola

Posted on February 17, 2008
The Greyhounds opened their season with a 7-6 loss to #5-ranked Notre Dame; but, on a bright note, the team's first goal of the season was scored by Collin Finnerty. Clare Lochary has the details.

Times Sports Editor: "Regret" Coverage

Posted on February 16, 2008
From a recent Times Q&A session with sports editor Tom Jolly (scroll down to the 22nd entry):Q. When the Duke Lacrosse "rape" case first erupted, the New York Times sports section was one of the leading cheerleaders for the conviction and slandering of the Duke team as a whole and the three charged players...

Taylor on "Sex Workers'" Show

Posted on February 11, 2008
As a private university, Duke can set any standard of behavior for its student body that it desires. If it wishes to follow the advice of Group of 88 stalwart William Chafe and imitate BYU and Liberty by becoming a dry university, it has every right to do so...

Another Mosteller Article

Posted on February 02, 2008
In a question-and-answer session last month, I was asked what lessons other states could draw from the lacrosse case. I suggested that the case showed the benefits of open-file discovery (without which Mike Nifong clearly would have concealed all exculpatory evidence) and the need for all states to enact due process-friendly identification procedures...

Glossary

Posted on January 22, 2008
This blog began in an attempt to analyze the twin scandals of spring 2006: the transparent signs of Mike Nifong?s prosecutorial misconduct; and the decision of Duke faculty activists?personified by the Group of 88?to set aside the academy?s traditional fidelity to due process and instead advance their personal, pedagogical, of ideological agendas on the backs of their own students...

Hiatus

Posted on January 22, 2008
Civil suit responses are due in around 12 weeks; until then, the blog will go on hiatus, although if any major developments in the case emerge, I will do a post on them.

Postscript: Reflections on the Responses

Posted on January 21, 2008
Some thoughts on the responses of Durham, Durham officials, and DNA Security: 1.) Civil lawsuits are no substitute for a federal criminal inquiry. This was a case in which at least five people?Mike Nifong, Mark Gottlieb, Tara Levicy, Linwood Wilson, and Dr...

Various Items

Posted on January 19, 2008
In the Durham News, columnist Rob Waters made a passionate case for what appears to be a call to change federal civil rights law to prevent lawsuits against municipalities that abridge defendants? civil rights. Wrote he, ?The lacrosse players were never convicted, never did time...

Postscript: Durham Officials, DNA Security

Posted on January 18, 2008
The lawsuit responses of both Durham officials (Steve Chalmers, Ron Hodge, other police supervisors, and former City Manager Patrick Baker) and DNA Security touch on themes that by this point are familiar: everything bad was done by Mike Nifong and Nifong alone; and if anyone else did anything which violated the lacrosse players' civil rights, the defendants have immunity from a civil suit...

Postscript: Various Items

Posted on January 17, 2008
An excellent article in today's Herald-Sun from reporter Ray Gronberg, explaining why Mike Nifong's bakruptcy filing will, perhaps, buy him some time but will not help him avoid liability for what he did. In addition, as Gronberg observes, a bankruptcy trustee "is certain to look at whether Nifong tried to hide assets from his creditors...

Postscript: Contradicting Durham

Posted on January 17, 2008
Attorneys representing the city of Durham shared their response with the individual defendants; the lawyers representing Sgts. Mark Gottlieb and David Addison both cite it in their responses. It seems unlikely, however, that either Gottlieb or Addison shared their responses with their superiors...

Postscript: The Addison Response

Posted on January 16, 2008
The 26-page response of former Cpl. (now Sgt.) David Addison stands out as the most churlish of the reply briefs. It?s the handiwork of Durham attorney James Maxwell, who certainly knows his way around law enforcement officials whose behavior raises ethical questions...

Postscript: The Gottlieb Response

Posted on January 16, 2008
Representing Mark Gottlieb, attorneys Edwin M. Speas and Eric Stevens hold their client free of any civil liability. ?Since Sgt. Gottlieb,? they write, ?did not have authority to ?initiate? or ?continue? a criminal prosecution, and since he provided all relevant information to the District Attorney, Sgt...

Postscript: City of Durham Response

Posted on January 16, 2008
The City of Durham has filed a 51-page response to the lacrosse players? lawsuit. The basic argument: it was all Nifong?s fault, and since Nifong was a state employee, the city can?t be held liable for anything he did. The response is particularly passionate in its sections demanding dismissal of the players? call for injunctive relief to ensure due process protections for future defendants that encounter the Durham Police Department...

Postscript: Nifong Bankruptcy Filing

Posted on January 15, 2008
Bloomberg News is reporting that former DA Mike Nifong has filed for bankruptcy in an apparent attempt to shield himself from the looming civil suits.Reporter Dawn McCarty adds, "If a bankruptcy judge decides that the prosecution was willful and malicious, the debt to the players would not be erased under federal bankruptcy law...

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