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N.C. Attorney General Releases Duke Lacrosse Findings

When the North Carolina Attorney General declared the three charged Duke Lacrosse players innocent of sexual assault and stated there was no credible evidence to support that any attack had taken place that night, he promised he would be releasing a report.

The report was released today. You can read it here (pdf).

His findings:

  • The accusing witness’s testimony regarding the alleged assault would have been contradicted by other evidence in the case from numerous sources;
  • The accusing witness’s testimony regarding the alleged assault and the events leading up to and following the allegations would have been contradicted by significantly different versions of events she told over the past year;
  • No testimony or physical evidence would have corroborated her testimony;
  • The accused individuals were identified through questionable photographic procedures;

More...

  • Credible and verifiable evidence demonstrated that the accused individuals could not have participated in an attack during the time it was alleged to have occurred;
  • The accusing witness’s credibility would have been suspect based on previous encounters with law enforcement, her medical history and inconsistencies within her statements.

As to what drugs she was taking,

Video evidence from when she left the party shows her unable to walk and in the audio, professing to be a cop, the report said.

Special prosecutors witnessed a similar behavior when meeting with Mangum on April 4, 2007, during the time she acknowledged having taken multiple prescription drugs: Paxil and amitriptyline, which are used to treat depression, Ambien, a drug relaxer, and methadone, a detox treatment for narcotic addiction.

What a hoax this case was. DA Mike Nifong does not deserve to keep his job. Among the problems he's facing:

Nifong is accused of violating rules of professional conduct when speaking to reporters early in the investigation. The State Bar complaint was amended weeks later and accused him of withholding exculpatory evidence and lying to attorneys and the judge. He goes to trial June 12, and if found guilty, could be disbarred.

I suspect civil lawsuits against him are just around the corner.

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  • Display: Sort:
    NC Attorney General's report (none / 0) (#1)
    by tilby stock on Fri Apr 27, 2007 at 08:49:49 PM EST
    Why hasn't the NC Attorney General filed charges of making a false police report and/or perjury against the accuser?

    Because (none / 0) (#2)
    by Jeralyn on Fri Apr 27, 2007 at 11:57:10 PM EST
    she's got mental health issues and she still believes her story.  

    Parent
    geez (none / 0) (#3)
    by cpinva on Sat Apr 28, 2007 at 05:22:05 AM EST
    this whole thing was a train wreck, worse than i thought. what in god's name was nifong thinking, if he was at all?

    was he that desperate to win the election? unless he's a complete and total moron, which i don't believe is the case, he had to have known this was going to come crashing down on him fairly quickly, which is exactly what happened.

    talk about your classic case of professional suicide.

    What was he thinking? (none / 0) (#4)
    by roger on Sat Apr 28, 2007 at 08:31:16 AM EST
    I've seen prosecutors do pretty much everything that happened in this case, and get raises as a result.

    The only unique things about this case are that the elected persecutor did it himself, and the press gave a damn

    but what if (none / 0) (#5)
    by orionATL on Sat Apr 28, 2007 at 12:05:28 PM EST
    these kids had been poor scholarship athletes?

    what if none of the students had had a lawyer for a dad?

    i'd bet there are dozens, maybe hundreds of people in prison now because of prosecutorial behavior not that different from nifong's.

    lose his job?

    he ought to be completely defrocked.