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Blog and Media Roundup - Thursday, March 11, 2010; News Roundup
Topic Started: Mar 11 2010, 05:22 AM (613 Views)
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/6651513/article-City-looks-to-delay--8-3M-rise-in-debt-service-tab?instance=main_article


City looks to delay $8.3M rise in debt service tab
03.10.10 - 10:37 pm
By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM — City budgeteers are looking at whether they can somehow delay the onset of some $8.3 million in annual debt service costs as a counter to pressure for an increase in property taxes in the fiscal 2010-11 budget.

The potential rise in debt payments — tied to a combined $130 million in bond issues city voters approved in 2005 and 2007 — is by far the largest single factor in the gap between predicted revenues and expenses for the upcoming budget.

But officials in the city finance office late last month circulated to their higher-ups a new analysis that suggested Durham’s government could stave off much of the bump in payments, at least for another year.

That sparked a round of meetings between City Manager Tom Bonfield, Finance Director David Boyd and other key officials that was continuing as of Tuesday.

Bonfield voiced optimism Tuesday that the group would find a solution.

“It’s definitely early and a work in progress,” he said. “But I feel we have a strategy we’re trying to work though that, if we can play it out, will definitely smooth out that bump in debt service. It won’t eliminate it, but it will smooth it out considerably.”

By saying the effort would smooth out the increase, Bonfield was signaling that administrators are still assuming the city would eventually use the full borrowing authority voters approved in the previous decade’s referenda to pay for repairs and new construction.

But officials do have some control over the timing of when they sell bonds.

As of the City Council’s budget retreat on Feb. 26, they were assuming they’d have to reckon with a bit less than $7 million in new annual payments in fiscal 2010-11 for approved bonds the city hasn’t yet issued.

Another $1.3 million in new debt payments is coming on line for bonds the city has sold. Officials have no way around that increase.

The other implication of Bonfield’s comment about smoothing out the bump is that the bill for the as-yet-unissued debt will eventually come due, starting in fiscal 2011-12.

The debt-service predictions administrators gave the City Council on Feb. 26 assumed that another, $717,521 spike in debt payments is coming in fiscal 2011-12, a budget officials are a year away from debating.

The city would take on more than that in new payments, but benefit from some old debts coming off the books.

That kind of trade-off will continue to play out in the next few years. “We’re still going to have increases, but to an extent we can balance it over time it so increases are balanced by reductions as other debt is paid off,” Bonfield said.

Debt, insurance and other big-ticket items contributed to a budget gap estimated on Feb. 26 of some $13 million.

Officials said at the time that the only way to address that was through a combination of spending cuts and property-tax increases. A tax increase big enough by itself to cover the gap would boost Durham’s tax rate by about 5.8 cents per $100 of assessed property value, an increase of about 11 percent.

Mid-winter gap estimates, however, tend to be worst-case scenarios. Administrators usually whittle down them down in preliminary reviews leading up to the city manager’s formal budget request to the council.

In addition to looking at the debt schedule, Bonfield and administrators intend to study several other potentially big-dollar budget issues.

The manager said he wants to scrutinize transfers from the city’s general fund into special accounting funds it maintains for things like insurance, just to be sure budgeteers haven’t missed any potential savings.

Operating departments have submitted their spending proposals, but it’ll be two or three weeks before they and the city manager’s office begin poring over them in detail. For now, they’re in the hands of analysts in the city budget office.

City officials’ ability to smooth out the effect of rising debt payments this year and next could depend on whether they avoid decisions that add costs to future budgets.

Some increases — such as those the city faces for employment retirement benefits — are basically unavoidable. But other decisions, such as a yet-to-be-ruled out increase in employee pay, typically have follow-on effects the next year and in budgets after that.
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THE POTTED PLANT IS ALIVE!! IT ACTUALLY RULED ON A CASE!!

http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/6650600/article-Carson-case-judge-sides-with-the-media?instance=main_article


Carson case judge sides with the media
03.10.10 - 08:45 pm
Defense sought copies of all stories related to slaying

BY BETH VELLIQUETTE

bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 419-6632

WINSTON-SALEM -- A federal judge quashed motions by Demario Atwater's attorneys that would have required about 20 news organizations to turn over every news article or videotape that mentioned the murder of Eve Carson.

The attorneys were seeking the information to submit as evidence that Atwater's federal trial should be moved out of North Carolina because of pretrial publicity.

U.S. District Judge James A. Beaty said defense attorneys were attempting to place the burden on the news organizations to collect evidence for them, and he ruled that the request was unreasonable.

Beaty ruled the media organizations would have to submit their broadcast and circulation figures to Atwater and that they would need to provide instruction and help for Atwater's defense team on how to obtain the materials off their websites, but they wouldn't have to do the actual work themselves.

Atwater is facing trial for crimes associated with the death of Eve Carson, UNC's former student body president, on March 5, 2008. He could be sentenced to death if found guilty.

Beaty listened to arguments from four attorneys representing various media groups, including The Herald-Sun, area newspapers and television stations that provide coverage that might be seen by potential jurors who live in the Middle District of North Carolina.

After Atwater's attorneys sent subpoenas to the media organizations, most of the organizations objected and filed motions to quash their subpoenas. Atwater wanted a copy of every single television broadcast or news article that either mentioned Eve Carson, Atwater, or his co-defendant in the state case, Laurence Lovette Jr.

The news organizations argued it would take hours, maybe weeks or even a month to identify the stories and copy them, and that they didn't have the staff to do the work, especially in light of the drastic personnel cuts many news organizations have had to make.

"They don't even have enough resources to do what they're trying to do, said Amanda Martin, who represented 14 news organizations, including The Herald-Sun, The News & Observer, The Daily Tar Heel and WRAL.

"What the subpoenas do is attempt to move their burden to our shoulders," Martin said.

Attorney John Hasty, representing WSOC in Charlotte, said Atwater's attorney were on a fishing expedition.

Atwater's attorney, Kimberly Stevens, told Beaty that some news organizations had complied with the subpoenas, including the Greensboro News & Record. She read an editorial from the paper that called Atwater and Lovette two-legged wolves that should be euthanized.

"That is not what we're looking for," she said.

The problem, she said, was the repeated coverage and videotapes that showed Atwater being arrested, being walked into the Chapel Hill Police Department or court in handcuffs and chains.

"They're factual, but they're inflammatory," she said.

Beaty gave Atwater an extra week to collect the evidence for the change of venue hearing, and he set the deadline for March 22.
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http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/

Thursday, March 11, 2010
Woman lies to keep husband from learning of affair
Our View: False reports hurt real victims

On Feb. 8, Marissa Ann Lovingood reportedly contacted the Murphy Police Department and said she was kidnapped and raped between 11:30 p.m. and midnight Feb. 7, Murphy Police Chief Justin Jacobs said.

Since the report was made, Lovingood allegedly told Murphy police officers she made up the story to keep her husband from learning about an affair she was having with a man from Graham County and explain why she was late getting home. She has been charged with making a false report to a law enforcement agency.

We are shocked and saddened that a woman would make up a rape to cover up an extramarital affair, especially since the abduction of Kristi Cornwell is still being investigated by local authorities.

These kind of knowingly false rape charges make it that much more difficult for real victims of sexual assault to be taken seriously and get the help they need and deserve.

Lovingood also reportedly told officers two teenage boys “raped” her. We can only imagine the lives that could have been ruined had her family sought “mountain” justice. Would two innocent teens walking down the street have paid the ultimate price for her false charges? Considering what happened after a shooting last year in Boiling Springs, you can’t be sure.

These kind of false allegations waste taxpayer money and police resources. It also sends an unnecessary fear through a community and damages the credibility of real rape victims.

We cannot allow making these kind of claims to go unpunished. Anyone who makes a false rape claim should face just as strict a penalty as other sex offenders.

Link: http://cherokeescout.com/articles/2010/03/02/opinions/doc4b8d6f698adf8394780723.txt
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http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/03/11/381508/subpoenas-quashed-in-atwater-case.html


Published Thu, Mar 11, 2010 05:03 AM
Modified Thu, Mar 11, 2010 12:05 AM
Subpoenas quashed in Atwater case

WINSTON-SALEM Media companies across North Carolina successfully fought attempts by federal defense attorneys to force them to hand over copies of anything that has been published about the Eve Carson homicide case.

U.S. District Judge James A. Beaty Jr. agreed on Wednesday to quash subpoenas seeking such information, saying that granting such a request would be unduly burdensome and expensive for media organizations.

Demario Atwater, 23, is one of two suspects accused of murdering Carson, an admired UNC-Chapel Hill student body president found shot to death in March 2008. Atwater faces a capital murder charge in state court and federal kidnapping and carjacking charges that could bring the death penalty.

Trying to bolster their request to move the federal trial to Virginia, federal public defenders asked 60 media organizations for copies of all newspaper articles, letters and editorials about the case and copies of all radio and television broadcasts. Media companies argued that such a request would turn them into research firms for the public defenders.
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http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/03/11/381510/no-editor-found-for-ncsu-paper.html


Published Thu, Mar 11, 2010 05:05 AM
Modified Thu, Mar 11, 2010 12:05 AM
No editor found for NCSU paper

N.C. State University's 90-year-old student newspaper, the Technician, is struggling to find enough editors and may be on the verge of shutting down.

The situation is so dire that the paper ran an editorial Wednesday begging students for help "regardless of age or experience."

"Without student support, the paper could cease publication at the end of the semester. ... Today's paper was only in the stand because of what the staff would describe as a printing miracle," the editorial said.

The paper was already missing key editors last month when the top editor, Ty Johnson, was suspended from his job for violating a university policy, said Russell Witham, the editor who wrote the piece about the paper's plight. Then, the managing editor quit to take an internship.

Worse yet, there is no replacement for Johnson in the pipeline for the next academic year. The Student Media Board of Directors was supposed to hire a new Technician editor Tuesday night. Under the traditional timetable, that would have given the incoming editor a month and a half to shadow the current editor, then time to piece together a core staff before taking over for the weekly summer school editions of the paper.

No one applied to become top editor, though. So instead of hiring a new editor, the board appointed a former Technician editor to lead a committee that will make recommendations about the future of the newspaper.

The student body president, Jim Ceresnak, who will be on that committee, said the newspaper is part of the glue that holds together the more than 30,000 students and the widely different colleges of the state's largest university.

"I can't allow the newspaper to close, and we as a university can't allow that to happen," he said.

Editors, former editors and the university staff adviser who oversees the paper cited a host of issues that have made it harder to fill key jobs, including the long work hours required and a general sense that, given widespread layoffs in the journalism industry, perhaps students' time would be better spent doing something else.

Among other things, the new committee will make recommendations about retooling the editor's job to make it more attractive. Options include reigning in the mandatory hours from 35 a week and spreading the duties around, said Bradley Wilson, coordinator for student media advising and the university's adviser to the newspaper staff.

Johnson said he was suspended because his grade point average for the fall semester was below the minimum of 2.5 that students in leadership positions must maintain. He said that he had expected to simply be given a work plan to get his grades up, as he had when they dipped last spring. Instead, he said, Wilson and other professional staff on the paper decided to suspend him.

Wilson, the adviser, said the suspension shocked the rest of the staff and may have made some reconsider applying for the editor job.

"Suddenly everyone was focused on academics, and it was like, wow, my grades could drop, too," he said.

Wilson said that the newspaper's problems have become a major topic on campus and that once the editor's job is retooled he's sure it will draw applicants.

"All student groups have rebuilding years, like certain basketball teams in the area," he said. "It's not a throw-out-the-baby-with-the bathwater year, it's a rebuilding year."
jay.price@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4526
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http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/03/11/381505/ex-da-for-person-caswell-under.html


Published Thu, Mar 11, 2010 05:06 AM
Modified Thu, Mar 11, 2010 12:05 AM
Ex-DA for Person, Caswell under cloud

RALEIGH A former Superior Court judge will serve the rest of the term of the former district attorney for Person and Caswell counties who is being investigated for impersonating a law enforcement official and other misuse of authority.

Joel Brewer, a prosecutor for more than 30 years, retired March 1. Search warrants and an affidavit revealed the State Bureau of Investigation also is looking into allegations that Brewer asked people whose charges he dismissed to work for him at the polls on Election Day.

Brewer hasn't been charged, though a senior lawyer in Attorney General Roy Cooper's office said he expects charges to be filed.

Meanwhile, Gov. Bev Perdue announced Wednesday that James M. Long will be the acting district attorney for Person and Caswell counties through the end of the year until a new district attorney is elected. Long served as a Superior Court judge for 24 years.According to a search warrant filed Tuesday, an agent on Feb. 23 seized a gold-colored badge with Brewer's name on it and two folders containing copies of old citations. One folder was for men, the other for women, according to the list of items collected.

According to the papers, SBI Assistant Agent in Charge W.R. Myers interviewed two unnamed people who knew Brewer for a long time and saw he kept a manila file folder that contained copies of citations and traffic charges. One person said the file was made up of citations Brewer had dismissed.

One of the witnesses told Myers that Brewer agreed to dismiss a charge for a woman while asking for her phone numbers, which he wrote on the citation copy that he kept.

During elections, Brewer referred to the folder, "called some of those for whom he has dismissed charges, reminded them of what he did, and asked them for ... help with working the polls," according to Myers' information.

George Daniel, a Caswell County lawyer representing Brewer, declined to comment on the warrant.

"When we get the investigation report, we'll let the chips fall where they may," he said.

Others interviewed said they knew Brewer carried a gold badge in a black case. One woman told Myers that a man driving a Corvette stopped her on the road, flashed a badge and represented himself as a law enforcement officer.

The woman said the man she later identified as Brewer wanted to know if she wanted a citation or a warning ticket for illegally passing him, according to Myers. When the woman protested, the man asked if she wanted a citation or warning for following too close. The man got back into the car and left when the woman challenged him again, Myers wrote.
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http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=138687&catid=57

Former DA Investigation Could Spark Legal Fight Over Cases
Julia Bagg Created: 3/10/2010 6:15:54 PM Updated: 3/10/2010 7:02:35 PM

Caswell County, NC -- The state probe of a former district attorney could trigger questioning of cases. According to a warrant, former Caswell County prosecutor Joel Brewer is accused of impersonating an officer and misusing his authority.

As of Wednesday, Brewer was not charged with any crime.

Elon law professor Steve Friedman says even if Joel Brewer is not charged with a crime, the investigation could still affect cases he prosecuted.

"Did he cause a bad result through improper behavior?" Friedman said. "And that's the key. Was there improper behavior?"

Friedland points out defendants can seek appeals even without a guilty verdict against Brewer.

"Did this prosecutor take an unfair advantage or manipulate the system for some ulterior reason? If that's the case then there may be a reversal," said Friedland.

Friedland also notes if Brewer were found guilty of a crime, it's not likely most of his cases would be affected. A judge must find prejudice in a case.

"Which cases here were tainted if there was tainted cases? It doesn't automatically mean though if someone is found guilty of a crime that cases that they worked on were indeed prejudiced," said Friedland.

In a message Wednesday afternoon, Brewer told WFMY News 2: "This is not the appropriate time to discuss the matter. There will be an appropriate time but this is not it."

Friedland says if a defendant seeks an appeal, that would be a separate matter from the Brewer case.
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http://justice4nifong.blogspot.com/2010/03/million-dollar-bail-case-comparison.html

Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Million dollar bail... a case comparison - Part 3
Late in the night of February 18, 2010, the nine year old daughter of Crystal Mangum called 9-1-1, and with screaming in the background told the emergency operator, “This is an emergency. Please hurry. My mom is going to die.”

Police were dispatched, and upon arriving found that Crystal Mangum, the accuser in the Duke Lacrosse case, was involved in a heated argument with her boyfriend that had allegedly turned physical. According to police, Ms. Mangum threw punches and objects at her boyfriend and scratched him. So, naturally, they arrested her for attempted first degree murder. To really thicken the case against her, they tossed in a few more charges such as five counts of arson, and identity theft.

She was put in the Durham County jail and placed under a $ 1 million bail.

Contrast this with the case of Democratic State Senator R.C. Soles, who never spent a day in jail despite using a firearm to assault another individual in August 2009. Evidently, one of two men who knew the senator kicked the door of Sole’s home. This act resulted in Mr. Soles grabbing his rifle, walking outside his house and firing at the men. (The media did not disclose much about the incident, except to say that one of the men sustained a non-life threatening wound.)

The Attorney General’s Office, which took over the case from a district attorney with conflicted interests, offered a plea bargain in which Senator Soles pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, was fined $1,000, and avoided incarceration and probation.

Meanwhile, Crystal Mangum has been languishing in jail under a ridiculously humongous bail for allegedly scratching her boyfriend, while Senator Soles, who used his rifle outside his home to wound a person, spends no time behind bars. I have heard of bullets killing people, but never fingernails.

The lenient bias in the ruling is so slanted that it prompted Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger to state in reference to the Sole’s judicial outcome, “It seems to me the same rules don’t apply to average folk that apply to powerful Democrats.” Now, I am certain that Senator Berger would take his statement a step further and agree that the same rules do not apply to average folk that apply to powerful Republicans, as well. In short, within the confines of this situation, Senator Berger, it would seem, agrees that the criminal justice system in North Carolina is one of selective justice based on Class and Color.

However, the outrageousness of the charges against Ms. Mangum and the draconian treatment she has received by the courts, police, and the state belies the hostile attitude smoldering beneath the surface against supporters of Mike Nifong or detractors of the Duke Lacrosse defendants. Sadly, for the average folk, the carpetbagger jihad mentality has been well indoctrinated amidst those in positions of power within the state of North Carolina.
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/7206742/

Judge quashes media subpoenas in Carson case
Posted: 1:52 p.m. yesterday

A U.S. District Court judge ruled Wednesday that media outlets do not have to turn over copies of their coverage of the 2008 shooting death of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson.

Defense attorneys for Demario James Atwater, one of two suspects is the case, subpoenaed several news outlets, including WRAL News, The News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh and UNC's student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, to produce copies of all publicly aired broadcasts, Web site articles, newspaper articles, blog postings and user comments regarding the case.

Chief Judge James A. Beaty quashed the subpoenas, ruling that the material is essentially available to the defendants on their own and that requiring media outlet to provide it would be "burdensome, unreasonable and oppressive."

The outlets, however, do have to provide information regarding circulation and demographic data for their coverage areas, he ruled.

Atwater's attorneys have asked Beaty to consider a change in venue out of state for Atwater's upcoming federal trial on charges of kidnapping and carjacking. They say he would be unable to get a fair trial because of the "staggering" amount of coverage surrounding the case.

Defense attorneys cite a statewide survey that found 80 percent of respondents had some knowledge of the case and that 52 percent believe Atwater is guilty and should be sentenced to death.

Jury selection in the case began Feb. 22; the trial, which will be in Greensboro, is expected to begin in Winston-Salem in May. Atwater could face the death penalty if he's convicted.

Atwater also faces state charges in Carson's death, including first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery, felonious larceny and felonious possession of stolen goods. If convicted, he could also face the death penalty on the murder charge.

A trial date, however, has not been set, for those charges.

Authorities say he and another man, Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr., kidnapped Carson in the early hours of March 5, 2008, forced her to withdraw money from ATMs, shot her five times, including once to the head, and left her on a residential street near the UNC campus.

Federal prosecutors allege that Atwater fired the fifth and final shot that killed Carson.

Lovette, who was 17 when Carson was killed, also faces several charges, including first-degree murder. He is not eligible for the death penalty under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits the executions of people under 18 at the time a crime was committed.

Web Editor: Kelly Gardner
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http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7322676

Media spotlight criticized in Carson case
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

WINSTON-SALEM (WTVD) -- Attorneys representing ABC11 asked a federal judge to throw out a request for copies of hundreds of news stories about the tragic shooting death of UNC student Eve Carson Wednesday.

It was part of an ongoing legal fight to move the federal trial for Demario Atwater, one of Carson’s suspected killers, from North Carolina to Virginia.

Atwater’s defense team had subpoenaed several news agencies, asking for print and video copies of all published reports about the Carson case.

But the judge told Atwater's attorneys they must do their own research and refused to force media outlets to collect all the stories for them.

The defense has asked for a change of venue, citing public outrage sparked by intense media coverage. They contend Atwater can’t get a fair trial on federal kidnapping and carjacking charges because details about him and his co-defendant Lawrence Lovette Jr. have tainted the potential jury pool.

Defense attorneys have suggested information about Atwater and Lovette’s juvenile crime history and probation records that have been widely reported may be inadmissible in court.

Atwater’s defense team conducted a statewide phone survey to support their request for a change of venue. Their data suggests more than half of the 1,400 people who participated in the survey believe Atwater killed Eve Carson.

If convicted, the survey showed most believe Atwater should get the death penalty. Federal prosecutors have argued that the phone survey is flawed. With nearly a million potential jurors to choose from, they say Atwater is guaranteed to find at least 12 impartial ones by his May trial date.

Jury selection for the federal trial has already started. Both Atwater and Lovette are facing state murder charges. Lovette is neither facing federal charges nor the death penalty. His age at the time of the crime made him ineligible for the death penalty on state charges.
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http://www.wxii12.com/news/22798309/detail.html

Federal Court Judge Calls Request Unreasonable

POSTED: 1:00 pm EST March 10, 2010
UPDATED: 2:33 pm EST March 10, 2010
WINSTON-SALEM -- A federal court judge in Winston-Salem ruled Wednesday that media stories about the Eve Carson murder case didn't have to be turned over to prosecution attorneys.

Attorneys for Demario Atwater were arguing for a change of venue out of North Carolina because of the intense media coverage and requested that more than a dozen North Carolina media outlets, including WXII, give them a copy of every story that had been published or broadcast about the case.

Judge James Beatty denied the request, saying that it was unreasonable.

Atwater, who was in court, and Lawrence Lovett are charged with first-degree murder in Carson's death two years ago near the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"You would have literally hundreds of stories somewhere on a computer archive and you'd have to have a person spend hundreds of man-hours having to search, even to see if anything was relevant," WXII attorney Mark Prak argued before the court.

Several media outlets, including WGHP and the News and Record did turn over copies of their stories related to the case.

Atwater's lawyers declined an interview with WXII.
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http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=204905908


Tar Heels Upend Duke in ACC Lacrosse Clash
03/10/2010
- Duke Sports Information
Courtesy: Duke Photography

DURHAM, N.C.-North Carolina outscored Duke 7-1 in the final 18:38 of the contest to capture a 13-7 victory in ACC men's lacrosse action this evening at Koskinen Stadium. Thomas Wood led the fourth-ranked Tar Heels with five goals and an assist in the victory over the No. 10 Blue Devils.

North Carolina (6-0, 1-0 ACC) captured its first win over Duke since March 20, 2004, breaking an 11-game losing streak against the Blue Devils. The victory also gives North Carolina a single point in the Carlyle Cup, pushing the Tar Heel advantage to 11-5.5.

Max Quinzani led the Blue Devils with three scores, pushing his scoring streak to 51 games. Rookie Josh Offit added two goals off the bench.

The Tar Heels registered the game's first three goals from three different players to garner a 3-0 lead after the first 15 minutes.

Quinzani put Duke (2-3, 0-2 ACC) on the scoreboard 5:47 into the second quarter before Billy Bitter gave North Carolina the three-goal lead again at the 6:01 mark of the frame. The Blue Devils bounced back with a pair of unanswered tallies to make it 4-3, but a goal from Sean DeLaney gave the Tar Heels a 5-3 lead at the break.

Coming out of the locker room, North Carolina stretched its advantage to three goals before the Blue Devils came roaring back with three unanswered to tie the game at six with 4:03 remaining in the third quarter.

Offit sparked the run with two goals in 2:44 span. The rookie attackman started the spurt with a nice finish off a Stephen Coyle pass and struck again just over two minutes later with a laser to the top left corner of the net.

A penalty on the Blue Devils put North Carolina on the man-advantage late in the third quarter and the Tar Heels capitalized with a goal from Marcus Holman to give them the lead for good.

North Carolina added three more scores in the final 2:20, including a strike from Bitter in the final second of the quarter for a 10-6 lead after three stanzas. Bitter finished with four goals and two assists.

Duke's Justin Turri pulled the Blue Devils within three in the early minutes of the fourth quarter, but the stifling North Carolina defense kept Duke at bay for the final 13 minutes to come away with the six-goal win.

In goal, Duke freshman Dan Wigrizer had eight stops, while Chris Madalon made seven saves for the Tar Heels.

North Carolina held a 33-24 advantage in shots. Both squads picked up 31 ground balls, nine of which found the stick of Duke's Parker McKee. The Blue Devils held a slight advantage in faceoffs, going 10-of-18, and picked up 10 penalties on the evening with North Carolina capitalizing on 4-of-7 extra man opportunities.

Duke returns to action on March 13 at No. 9 Loyola at 3 p.m.
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http://www.detnews.com/article/20100311/METRO01/3110444/Rep.-Cheeks-Kilpatrick-subpoenaed-to-grand-jury

Rep. Cheeks Kilpatrick subpoenaed to grand jury

DEB PRICE
Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington -- Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and a top aide have been served with grand jury subpoenas requesting testimony in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the subpoena in a letter March 1 but made it public Wednesday.

"After consulting with my attorney, I will make the determinations required" under House rules about how to respond, the congresswoman wrote in the March 1 letter. Members are required to report being subpoenaed, and the House clerk read Cheeks Kilpatrick's notice as is customary.

The reading did not explain the matter in which she was being subpoenaed.

Cheeks Kilpatrick's office said they had no comment on the subpoena or its contents.

The congresswoman's son is former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose actions as mayor are being investigated by federal prosecutors.

Cheeks Kilpatrick office manager Andrea Bragg disclosed her subpoena to House officials March 1. The notice was published Tuesday in the Congressional Record.

Bragg said she would comply with the subpoena while Cheeks Kilpatrick said she is consulting an attorney on how to respond.

dprice@detnews.com">dprice@detnews.com
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123319367364627211.html

* LAW JOURNAL
* JANUARY 29, 2009

Legal System Struggles With How to React When Police Officers Lie

By AMIR EFRATI

It's one of the most common accusations by defendants and defense attorneys -- that police officers don't tell the truth on the witness stand.

Of course, defendants themselves can be the ones lying, but the problem of police perjury -- and what can be done about it -- is being debated anew. Fueling the discussion are recent court cases in New York City and Boston that indicated officers may have lied and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this month that could have broader implications for cases in which improperly obtained evidence is in dispute.

Questionable testimony by police comes up most often in firearm- or drug-possession cases in which officers often testify that a defendant had a bulge in his pocket -- which they thought might be a gun -- or dropped drugs in plain sight as they approached him, giving the officers the right to seize the contraband. Defense lawyers say in many of these cases, officers are "testilying" and that the guns or drugs were actually discovered when their clients were unjustly frisked by officers. They also say testilying frequently occurs in more serious cases.
[Chart]

In Boston, a federal judge last week ruled that a police officer there falsely testified at a pretrial hearing in a gun-possession case about the circumstances of the defendant's arrest. The judge, Mark Wolf, is considering sanctions against the prosecutor for not immediately disclosing that the officer's testimony contradicted what he told prosecutors beforehand.

A federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., last fall ruled that a U.S. marshal and a New York City police officer lied when they testified that a defendant dropped two bags of drugs in front of them and then invited the officers to his apartment, where he revealed a large cache of cocaine.

Though few officers will confess to lying -- after all, it's a crime -- work by researchers and a 1990s commission appointed to examine police corruption shows there's a tacit agreement among many officers that lying about how evidence is seized keeps criminals off the street.

To stem the problem, some criminal-justice researchers and academic experts have called for doing polygraphs on officers who take the stand or requiring officers to tape their searches.

A Supreme Court ruling this month, however, suggests that a simpler, though controversial, solution may be to weaken a longstanding part of U.S. law, known as the exclusionary rule. The 5-4 ruling in Herring v. U.S. that evidence obtained from certain unlawful arrests may nevertheless be used against a criminal defendant could indicate the U.S. is inching closer to a system in which officers might not be tempted to lie to prevent evidence from being thrown out.

Criminal-justice researchers say it's difficult to quantify how often perjury is being committed. According to a 1992 survey, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges in Chicago said they thought that, on average, perjury by police occurs 20% of the time in which defendants claim evidence was illegally seized.

"It is an open secret long shared by prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges that perjury is widespread among law enforcement officers," though it's difficult to detect in specific cases, said Alex Kozinski, a federal appeals-court judge, in the 1990s. That's because the exclusionary rule "sets up a great incentive for...police to lie."

Police officers don't necessarily agree, says Eugene O'Donnell, a former police officer and prosecutor who teaches law and police studies in New York. "Perjury is endemic in the court system, but officers lie less than defendants do because generally they aren't heavily invested in the outcome of the cases," he says.

Testilying may have taken off after a 1961 Supreme Court decision boosted the exclusionary rule by requiring state courts to exclude -- or throw out -- some evidence seized in illegal searches, such as when police frisk people without probable cause or search a residence without a warrant.

Immediately after the decision, Mapp v. Ohio, studies showed that the number of annual drug arrests in the U.S. -- most cases are prosecuted in state court -- didn't change much but there was a sharp increase in officers claiming that suspects dropped drugs on the ground. "Either drug users were suddenly dropping bags all over the place or the cops were still frisking but saying the guy dropped the drugs," says John Kleinig, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

This month's Supreme Court decision added an exception to the exclusionary rule by holding that the prosecution of an Alabama man for drug- and firearm-possession charges was valid, even though the contraband was found after the man was wrongly arrested and searched. Police officers had mistakenly thought he was subject to an arrest warrant.

Throwing out evidence because of wrongful searches and arrests "is not an individual right and applies only where its deterrent effect outweighs the substantial cost of letting guilty and possibly dangerous defendants go free," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts.

Civil liberties advocates and defense lawyers say losing the exclusionary rule would harm the public. "We'd risk far greater invasions of privacy because officers would have carte blanche to do outrageous activity and act on hunches all the time," says JaneAnne Murray, a criminal defense lawyer in New York.

Write to Amir Efrati at amir.efrati@wsj.com
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Mar 11 2010, 05:39 AM
http://justice4nifong.blogspot.com/2010/03/million-dollar-bail-case-comparison.html

Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Million dollar bail... a case comparison - Part 3
Late in the night of February 18, 2010, the nine year old daughter of Crystal Mangum called 9-1-1, and with screaming in the background told the emergency operator, “This is an emergency. Please hurry. My mom is going to die.”

Police were dispatched, and upon arriving found that Crystal Mangum, the accuser in the Duke Lacrosse case, was involved in a heated argument with her boyfriend that had allegedly turned physical. According to police, Ms. Mangum threw punches and objects at her boyfriend and scratched him. So, naturally, they arrested her for attempted first degree murder. To really thicken the case against her, they tossed in a few more charges such as five counts of arson, and identity theft.

She was put in the Durham County jail and placed under a $ 1 million bail.

Contrast this with the case of Democratic State Senator R.C. Soles, who never spent a day in jail despite using a firearm to assault another individual in August 2009. Evidently, one of two men who knew the senator kicked the door of Sole’s home. This act resulted in Mr. Soles grabbing his rifle, walking outside his house and firing at the men. (The media did not disclose much about the incident, except to say that one of the men sustained a non-life threatening wound.)

The Attorney General’s Office, which took over the case from a district attorney with conflicted interests, offered a plea bargain in which Senator Soles pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, was fined $1,000, and avoided incarceration and probation.

Meanwhile, Crystal Mangum has been languishing in jail under a ridiculously humongous bail for allegedly scratching her boyfriend, while Senator Soles, who used his rifle outside his home to wound a person, spends no time behind bars. I have heard of bullets killing people, but never fingernails.

The lenient bias in the ruling is so slanted that it prompted Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger to state in reference to the Sole’s judicial outcome, “It seems to me the same rules don’t apply to average folk that apply to powerful Democrats.” Now, I am certain that Senator Berger would take his statement a step further and agree that the same rules do not apply to average folk that apply to powerful Republicans, as well. In short, within the confines of this situation, Senator Berger, it would seem, agrees that the criminal justice system in North Carolina is one of selective justice based on Class and Color.

However, the outrageousness of the charges against Ms. Mangum and the draconian treatment she has received by the courts, police, and the state belies the hostile attitude smoldering beneath the surface against supporters of Mike Nifong or detractors of the Duke Lacrosse defendants. Sadly, for the average folk, the carpetbagger jihad mentality has been well indoctrinated amidst those in positions of power within the state of North Carolina.
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I have heard of bullets killing people, but never fingernails
.

Oh NO!! There's them fingernails again! :uhoh: :uhoh:
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