| So where are the emails already? | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 31 2009, 08:41 AM (301 Views) | |
| Quasimodo | Oct 31 2009, 08:41 AM Post #1 |
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http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2006/07/duke-lacrosse-attorney-charns-email-to.html SATURDAY, JULY 01, 2006 [three and a half years later, we're still waiting...] Readers' Note: Attorney Alex Charns, representing one of the unindicted Duke lacrosse players, is asking the Durham City Manager and Police Chief for an official investigation into the production and distribution of a series of Durham CrimeStoppers “wanted posters.” Charns is also asking for an official public apology on behalf of the city and police department for producing and distributing the posters, which he says libeled the players. (snip) Here’s Charns email: Subject: RE: Follow-up Public Records Request and Second Request for an Internal Investigation into libelous DPD Duke lacrosse posters Dear City Manager Baker and Chief Chalmers: This is a follow-up Public Records Act (N.C.G.S Sec. 132-1 et seq.) request as well as my second request for an Internal Affairs or city manager investigation of the libelous posters that you admitted in the letter to me signed by Major Lee Russ, dated May 26, 2006, "was copied by a member of our agency using a Durham Police Department header". This is a public records request for certified copies of all city and police department e-mails, letter, memos, fax transmissions, authorizations or other records in any format (paper, audio, digital or electronic) that were generated or followed my initial public records request for records concerning the Durham Police Department poster offering cash for “assistance in solving this [Duke lacrosse team] case” that impugned the entire lacrosse team with its assertion that “The victim was sodomized, raped, assaulted and robbed. This horrific crime sent shock waves throughout our community.” In response to my initial request for certified copies of all city of Durham and Durham Police Department press releases or posters concerning the Duke lacrosse alleged rape investigation, some records were released to me. I do not believe all records concerning these posters were given to me because I received a certified copy of the poster that I provided to the city as proof instead of copies of the poster from police department files or computers. If records have been destroyed or deleted, I request records concerning the destruction of the records including but not limited to authorizations for their destruction and the date of their destruction. In addition, I have not received a formal letter from Internal Affairs notifying me that an IA investigation of this matter has begun with me as the complainant. I again formally request an internal investigation. Furthermore, under the libel laws of this state, I request a press release correction and apology for the DPD poster in question. This correction and apology is to be disseminated to every person, neighborhood association and media entity that received the original libelous communication on official city of Durham Police Department letterhead. Sincerely, Alex Charns (snip) Charns did not agree with Russ’ contention that because the Durham police had “corrected” the posters there was no need for an investigation. Charns said he was “not satisfied” that simply correcting earlier versions of the “wanted poster” took care of matters. Charns went on to say, “The police made an egregious mistake. They told the public the players were criminals when they had not even completed their investigation. What they did libeled a large group of people. They just can’t walk away from that.” (snip) [Like the Energizer bunny, still waiting...As an added note, in 2007 a stack of printed emails about the case in general, about two inches thick, was handed over to Lt. Russ. AFAIK it was supposed to be handed over to the lax attorneys; AFAIK this was not done and the emails haven't surfaced since. A stack two inches thick is about the size of a ream of paper--500 sheets. Whether that's 500 emails or fewer, longer emails, it nevertheless represents a sizeable amount of communication. So these emails are where...?] |
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| Quasimodo | Oct 31 2009, 08:46 AM Post #2 |
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poster comment from the site : I have been waiting to post this until the right time. This is it. The "Wanted Poster" that Durham Crimestoppers put out and the aid and letterhead provided by the DPD, most definitely are indefensible and libelous. They had better settle before going to court. Libel is actionable even if unintentional. Intent to malign resulting in libel is more serious and harder to prove. Except in this case. Intent to malign is obvious. Here is why any jury of people with more than room temperature IQ's would see it the same way. A wanted poster, or crime stopper advertisement is of use in locating suspects when the suspects' whereabouts are unknown and the public may be useful in pointing the police in the proper direction. Every one of the Duke lacrosse players whereabouts were known and every one of them had made themselves available to the police department and the DA. Therefore the only possible explanation for the wanted poster had to be to vilify the players, engender hatred for the players, and predispose the public to assumptions of guilt of the players,even before the investigation had taken place, much less a trial. The DPD and the Da intentionally set out to impugn the players' integrity, destroy their reputations and deny them due process. Not only should there be large cash settlements in favor of every player, but there should be serious jail time for the parties to this crime committed under color of authority. Ordinarily this would be a tort and a civil matter, except the circumstances surrounding this should most definitely require felony prosecution of Nifong and the police personnel that helped him. I believe a determined DA, an honest one, not Nifong, could find the proper felony charges to lay. |
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| Quasimodo | Oct 31 2009, 08:49 AM Post #3 |
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another poster comment from July, 2006 : Question: When Melanie Sills' Raleigh News & Observer published the so-called vigilante poster libeling the members of the Duke lacrosse team, who provided the poster to Sills' newspaper? [Still unanswered... Does anything think this kind of thing won't happen again in NC in a couple of years, if this kind of DPD abuse of process isn't corrected?] |
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| Quasimodo | Oct 31 2009, 08:55 AM Post #4 |
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Another posted noted this : FROM JULY 2006 From the San Diego Union-Tribune: America's worst district attorney It's Durham County, N.C., DA Mike Nifong, as every new revelation in the Duke lacrosse case makes clear. Ruth Marcus, a Washington Post pundit who was certain the three accused men were guilty in the case's early days, now finds it simply incredible that Nifong is pursuing the prosecution: [The accuser] gave six different accounts of what happened the night of the incident: She did not originally mention rape to the police when they found her in a car outside a grocery store; raised the rape allegation after being taken to a substance abuse facility; later said that "no one forced her to have sex"; and gave accounts of the alleged incident that differed in various ways, including the number of attackers and the type of assault. This is what the public has learned over the months as more official evidence has been released. Nifong has known it all along. And yet he refused to accept the evidence that one of the accused's lawyers provided that made plain the dancer was lying: Reade Seligmann's lawyer has presented evidence that during the post-midnight time frame in which the attack allegedly occurred, Seligmann called his girlfriend six times and another person twice (12:05 to 12:14); was picked up by a cab (12:19); used an ATM (12:24) and returned to his dorm (12:45). The lawyer tried to present this evidence to the prosecutor before the indictment but was rebuffed. This is despicable. Nifong is a disgrace. There's an odd dynamic to this case. The fact that the accuser is a minority and the accused are wealthy jocks at a snooty private school seems to have lessened the media fury that otherwise might be expected over a prosecutor ruining three students' lives to win re-election. Too bad. Because Nifong deserves to be pilloried every day the rest of his life. [So a San Diego newspaper--about 2500 miles from Durham--in July, 2006, could see through Nifong and declare the case a fraud; but the local media could barely get this into focus even in 2007? Was what the N&O and HS were doing, really anything that resembled journalism at all? Did it even resemble reporting? Those papers owned the lax story; they could have trumped the NYT and the TV talking heads and blown the case out of the water; they could have interviewed locals (Crystal's co-workers) and done the investigating job Liestoppers and others did. Instead, they remained shills for Nifong. What an example for journalism students of the future... 
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| Quasimodo | Oct 31 2009, 09:05 AM Post #5 |
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http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2007/02/addison-series-3-not-my-poster.html [From John in Carolina] : "Addison Series #2" – “CrimeStoppers will pay cash” reported on Addison’s production and distribution on March 28 to media, DPD substations and others the text of a Durham CrimeStoppers “Wanted” poster which told the community, among other things: The Duke Lacrosse Team was hosting a party at the residence. The victim was sodomized, raped, assaulted and robbed. This horrific crime sent shock waves throughout our community. For the next thirteen days, until April 10, the CS “Wanted” poster circulated on Duke’s campus and in the Durham community. [That's almost TWO WEEKS...] During that time no member of Duke University’s “leadership team,” including a single one of its trustees, its President, Richard H. Brodhead, or any senior Arts & Sciences faculty member questioned the truthfulness or appropriateness of the CS “Wanted” poster, even as it inflamed unstable individuals and hate groups targeting the players. Reviews of the achives of The Raleigh News & Observer and The Durham Herald Sun for the period March 28 to April 10 reveal no instance of either newspaper’s editorialists or a single news columnist with either paper questioning the truthfulness or appropriateness of the CS “Wanted” poster telling the community: The victim was sodomized, raped, assaulted and robbed. This horrific crime sent shock waves throughout our community. Then, on April 10, someone finally spoke up and said the CS “Wanted” poster should be changed. But it wasn’t Duke’s Dick Brodhead who requested the change, although friends say he now assures people: “I’m one of the biggest critics of how the players were treated.” Was it a Duke trustee? A senior Duke A & S faculty member? An MSM journalist at the N&O or H-S? No! On April 10 DPD Major Lee Russ, Addison’s supervisor, told him to change the “Wanted” poster. You can read about what Russ directed Addison to do here in this N&O story. But please note: The N&O story is wrong when it says the “Wanted” poster was first distributed on April 3. The first distribution occurred on March 28, as documents I’ve reviewed reveal, and as Russ confirmed in an interview. The N&O story is also wrong as regards the number of emails Russ sent Addison requesting corrections. Russ sent him three, not two. The N&O’s story is reliable as regards this : Tuesday [April 11] at 11:16 a.m., Addison e-mailed the same release, but modified the first sentence to read: "The victim alleges that she was sodomized, raped, assaulted and robbed." The second sentence calling the incident a "horrific crime" was deleted. Eighteen minutes later, an amended CrimeStoppers release was sent. The only change was that "the victim" was now referred to as "the complainant." Addison did not return calls inquiring about the change. And, of course, as readers of the Addison Series know, Addison’s never returned my calls either. Maj. Russ recently told me Addison will have no comments to make on the Duke lacrosse case or the “Wanted” poster. April 10, the date on which Russ directed Addison to change the “Wanted” poster, may spark a memory with you. Wasn’t April 10 the day the defense attorneys learned the first round of DNA sample testing done at the “state lab” in Raleigh had all come back negative? Wasn’t April 10 the day the defense attorneys scheduled a press conference and released that news to the community? You’re right on both counts. |
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| Quasimodo | Oct 31 2009, 09:11 AM Post #6 |
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http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2007/02/addison-series-3-not-my-poster.html The March 28 CS “Wanted” poster said in part: The Duke Lacrosse Team was hosting a party at the residence. The victim was sodomized, raped, assaulted and robbed. This horrific crime sent shock waves throughout our community. The “Wanted” poster ended: Information can also be provided anonymously through Durham CrimeStoppers at 683-1200 or by email to david.addison@durhamnc.gov (Please use an anonymous email account). Durham CrimeStoppers will pay cash for any information which leads to an arrest in this case. [What is the source of the cash that Crimestoppers had to pay informants? Did DPD officers also really case the Buchanan St. neighborhood asking for info and offering cash? If the entire case was known to be a fraud, and federal monies were involved, should that bring the feds into the case?] |
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| MikeZPU | Oct 31 2009, 02:59 PM Post #7 |
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There are days that I despise Nifong the most. There are other days I despise Levicy the most. Still, other days I despise Gottlieb the most. And on some days I despise Meehan the most. Even ole' Johnny Boy Burness comes to the front some times. And then there are days that Addison gets the award. What Addison did was outrageously egregious. What makes all these "miscreants" even worse was their attitude many months after it was plainly obvious that the whole thing was all a lie. Not only did not a single of one of these deplorable perpetrators apologize for their outrageously egregious words and actions, they smugly claim they did nothing wrong. That the outrageous "Wanted Poster" stayed in circulation for 13 days is beyond mind-boggling. And it's intent was clear: to vilify the LAX players and inflame the community against them at a time when the DPD absolutely had no evidence that any LAX player had committed a crime. But in their report, City Manager Patrick Baker and DPD Police Chief Chalmers stated that everything that the DPD did during the case was just fine. Edited by MikeZPU, Oct 31 2009, 06:26 PM.
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| genny6348 | Oct 31 2009, 03:08 PM Post #8 |
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Genny6348
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Crickets chirping . . . the sound is deafening after 3 years. |
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| sceptical | Oct 31 2009, 03:55 PM Post #9 |
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This is why the civil lawsuits are so important-- it's a way of getting testimony under oath from miscreants such as Addison, Gottlieb, Himan, Levicy etc. Despite the best efforts of Quasi and many others on this board, we still don't know the full story of the frame-up. The turn-over of the case to Gottlieb and then Nifong, the botched police investigation, the actions of City Manager Patrick Baker and Mayor Bill Bell, the happenings at Duke University Medical Center, the deliberations of the Duke Crisis Management Team, the role of Nifong's ADAs, actions of police officials such as Lamb, Council, Hodge and Chalmers-- these and many other subjects are ripe for further inquiry. Edited by sceptical, Oct 31 2009, 03:57 PM.
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| cks | Oct 31 2009, 04:46 PM Post #10 |
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MikeZPU I find myself at the same point - each day the person who I despise the most rotates among the usual cast of characters - it is so depressing and tiring a list. But then I think of who are the heroes - the families and friends of RCD who never lost faith, Brad Bannon, Joe Cheshire, and all the other members of the defense team who worked so long and hard for a cause that they truly believed in, Mike Pressler and his family, the women's lacrosse team and its coach; Ed Bradley of Sixty Minutes, Kristen Butler, KC and Stuart, JinC, and the many contributors to liestoppers who have never wavered and who stand strong in the belief that justice will be done - no matter how slowly the wheels grind. |
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| kbp | Oct 31 2009, 11:13 PM Post #11 |
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There were so MANY, it seemed like a massive conspiracy. The reality is that it was so many agendas that fell in line with each other. All POS's in my opinion. |
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8:23 AM Nov 27
