Someone's Gotta Pay

The North Carolina Attorney General, Ray Cooper, announced today that all charges have been dropped against the three Duke University students accused of raping a black woman, Crystal Gail Mangum. Of course this "victim" will not be arrested for falsely reporting an incident.

Asked if she had lied about the attack, Cooper said that investigators think that she "may actually believe" the many different stories she has told. As for charging Mangum in connection with her claims, Cooper said it was "not in the best interest of justice" to file charges against her. He then made reference to "sealed" records--which apparently regard her mental health--about the woman that convinced prosecutors not to pursue charges against her.

What's happening here is this; the NCAG and everyone else in NC wants it all to go away. They will not open another can of worms by prosecuting this woman.

This is what torques my ass. Whether or not she is mentally deficient is besides the point. She wasn't nuts when she went to the authorities and lied her ass off not once, not twice, but just about everytime the cops or DA/AG interviewed her. That ain't nuts, nuts is when you cannot distinguish delusion from reality. The voices in her head weren't forcing her to give lap dances to strangers. She's just another liar who can't keep her story straight. And now she's a victim all over again. Something bad should happen to this woman if for no other reason than to show other idiots that you can't pull this BS and not expect consequences.

And as for the prosecuting District Attorney, MikeNifong, he should be horsewhipped and ridden out of town. Each one of those Duke lacrosse players should take turns ramming his stick up that man's ass.

I fully expect that these young men should become independently wealthy from the lawsuits that are sure to follow. And I'd sue the daylights out of Duke University for defaming them. I'd also like to see what the racial breakout analysis of victims/suspects is for the university. The last time I did a study like that it was three to one: three blacks committing a crime against whites to one white committing a crime against blacks.

No Confidence In Nifong

Things are going from bad to worse for Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong. From Fox News:

RALEIGH, N.C. — By the time the prosecutor in the Duke University lacrosse case is tried on ethics charges, the sexual assault indictment he sought against three players may have been long since dismissed. The bar association, which filed the ethics charges Thursday, will not schedule Nifong's trial-like hearing for at least three months,

The North Carolina bar association has filed ethics charges against Nifong for his role in violating

four rules of professional conduct by making misleading and inflammatory comments about the athletes, said Thomas Lunsford, executive director of the state bar.

On top of that, Nifong has been forced to reconsider any charges at all in the case.

If the woman who claims the players sexually assaulted her at a party cannot identify them at a February hearing, Durham County District Attorney Mark Nifong has said, he will abandon the divisive case.

First Nifong dropped the rape charges after he withheld DNA evidence that was damaging to his proecution; now the entire case might be dropped.

At the next hearing in the lacrosse case, set for Feb. 5, the defense is expected to ask a judge to throw out the results of a photo lineup in which the accuser — a 28-year-old hired to perform as a stripper at a lacrosse team party — identified her attackers. If that happens, experts have said Nifong would likely be forced to drop charges of kidnapping and sexual offense, and Nifong has acknowledged as much.

This whole charade continues to unravel. Then yesterday

the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys — which does not have any regulatory authority — called on Nifong to recuse himself.

This conference represents all of Nifongs peers, other DA's who can see what this is doing to the reputation of the state's criminal justice system. Nifong kept digging himself deeper with this case. He put his reputation and the prestige of his office on the line and sacrificed it all for his re-election.

So far the best summary of the events in Raleigh is from a defense attorney:

"This is so sad," said Larry Pozner, a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "This case is going to end up with nothing but losers. Everybody who touched it and was touched by it will have lost something, and it is not a shining moment for the criminal justice system."

More Bad News For Nifong

It seems that in some states there are consequences for politicians who overstep themselves.

The North Carolina bar filed an ethics complaint Thursday against the prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case, accusing him of breaking four rules of professional conduct when speaking to the reporters about the sensational case.

The punishment for ethics violations can range from admonishment to disbarment.

I wish this was true everywhere. There isn't a lot to this story, and I wonder about the timing of this as well as other aspects of the Duke rape case.

Among the rules District Attorney Mike Nifong was accused of violating was a prohibition against making comments "that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public comdemnation of the accuser." In a statement, the bar said it opened a case against Nifong in March 30, a little more than two weeks after the
party where a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University hired to perform as a stripper said she was raped.

Running for re-election can be worrisome and there is nothing like a little "heightening" to heighten your chances of keeping your job. But if the ethics investigation against Nifong was opened at the end of March, why did it take so long for news of the investigation to become public? Why was the DNA evidence mismatch also withheld? Why were the rape charges not withdrawn until after the elections? These questions need to be addressed also.

Nifong did not immediately return a call for comment.

I imagine not.