| Blog and Media Roundup - Tuesday, April 12, 2011; News Roundup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 12 2011, 04:43 AM (485 Views) | |
| abb | Apr 12 2011, 04:43 AM Post #1 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/12750162/article-Bond-cut-for-officer-charged-in-attack?instance=main_article Bond cut for officer charged in attack 04.11.11 - 11:25 pm By KEITH UPCHURCH kupchurch@heraldsun.com; 419-6612 and JOHN McCANN jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601 DURHAM -- A Durham Police Department sergeant who stands accused of kidnapping and sexual assault had his bond cut Monday from $1.25 million to $400,000, but remained in the county jail Monday evening. The sergeant, Lester Rhodes, was arrested Friday after the Police Department's Professional Standards and Criminal Investigations divisions investigated a complaint. A warrant accuses him of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a man April 3 while Rhodes was on duty. The warrant did not specify the man's age or offer details about the alleged offenses. A judge reduced bond for Rhodes, 42, during an initial appearance at the Durham County Judicial Building on Monday. Reporters and others interested in the case showed up Monday in the jail courtroom, where suspects go for initial appearances for bond to be set, but the case instead was handled in the main courthouse two blocks away. Prior to Monday, Rhodes had been held in jail in another county to protect his safety, Durham County Sheriff's Office Maj. Paul Martin said. Rhodes' role as a Durham police officer creates a possible conflict of interest with having his case prosecuted by the Durham County District Attorney's Office. To avoid those conflicts, District Attorney Tracey Cline said late Monday, the N.C. Attorney General's Office will handle the case. Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said Monday that Rhodes is still a city employee, on administrative leave with pay. His salary could not be confirmed Monday, but as of 2009, it was $60,318 a year. Rhodes joined the department in February 1996 and is assigned to the Patrol Bureau. Lopez said Monday that the Police Department is still investigating the case, "so we don't want to comment on anything in reference to it." Durham Mayor Bill Bell said of the accusations: "It's really unfortunate, if it did occur. Everybody is innocent until proven guilty, but it would really be unfortunate if that's the case." |
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| abb | Apr 12 2011, 04:44 AM Post #2 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/12750352/article-NCCU-raising-bar-for-grades?instance=main_article NCCU raising bar for grades 04.11.11 - 11:43 pm By Neil Offen noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646 DURHAM -- Around 150 students at N.C. Central University are at serious risk of not being allowed to continue their education at the school next fall. They are among more than 500 students whose grade point averages do not measure up to the requirements of a new, more stringent academic policy. That policy, adopted at the end of last year, requires students to have a cumulative GPA of at least 1.9 on a 4.0 scale -- instead of the previous 1.7 -- before the beginning of the 2011 academic year. Under the policy, which is being phased in over two years, students will need a 2.0 GPA in fall 2012 to remain academically eligible. "We want students to take this college experience very, very seriously," said Janice Harper, the assistant vice chancellor for university programs at NCCU. "They have to realize they need to buckle down and do what they have to do." The UNC System reported that 6,520 undergraduates enrolled at NCCU in fall 2010. Currently, 519 students -- 405 freshmen, 85 sophomores, 22 juniors and 7 seniors -- have GPAs below the 1.9 threshold. The majority of them, Harper said, will be able to get their grades up by doing well this semester or by succeeding in summer school, and will be allowed to re-enroll in the fall. "One of the things we've done is given the names of all the students at risk to the deans and department chairmen of their respective colleges and schools and they have met with the students," Harper said. "They have identified steps the students have to take and for many of them, that means summer school. Assuming they do well there, they will be back here." That leaves about 150 students who wouldn't get to the goal, even with a good semester and summer school. They "have been informed the best thing is to go to a community college and get an associate's degree and then try to come back," Harper said. "Right now, those are the students we don't expect to be here next fall." Raising the bar was essential to improving the academic climate at NCCU, Chancellor Charlie Nelms said. "The research is clear; we get what we expect," Nelms said. "And because we get what we expect, we need to raise our expectations." Since Nelms arrived on the campus three years ago, he has emphasized increasing both the university's graduation rate and its retention rate -- the percentage of students who move on from one year to the next. Increasing the minimum GPA, the chancellor argued, will help with both. "If you fail to make a 2.0 in the early stages of your career, you have to take or retake more and more credit hours to mathematically make up the difference," he said. "Some can get into such a hole, they'd have to post straight As to dig themselves out." Students were informed of the new policy by letter from the registrar's office earlier this year. The students then had one-on-one meetings with their department chairs and their advisers, and educational plans to reach the required GPA were mapped out. "No student can say I didn't know," Harper said. "We are working with them to come up with a plan. We are here to support and nurture them and to get them where they need to be." |
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| abb | Apr 12 2011, 04:58 AM Post #3 |
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke-returns-home-snaps-two-game-road-skid Duke returns home, snaps two-game road skid By Jacob Levitt April 12, 2011 After tough road losses to No. 1 Syracuse and then-No. 10 Denver, Duke needed a chance to build morale leading up to its duel with No. 6 Virginia. A matchup against undermanned Presbyterian (2-8) was just what the doctor ordered, as the Blue Devils pummeled the Blue Hose 18-6 Monday night at Koskinen Stadium. Thirty-nine players saw action for the Blue Devils (9-4), who scored less than a minute into the game to set the tone for the night. “The neat thing for us, tonight, was everybody played...and everybody played the Duke way,” head coach John Danowski said. “It’s gotta help build a real positive at the beginning of the week.” Presbyterian, which is cutting its lacrosse program after an unsuccessful five-season run as a varsity team and has a roster of only 25 players, was never really a match for Duke. The Blue Devils jumped out to a 10-2 halftime lead by out-shooting the Blue Hose 21-8 in the first half and never looked back. No. 9 Duke converted five of its six extra-man opportunities on offense while the defense employed its athleticism to completely disrupt Presbyterian’s offense with strong physical play. The Blue Hose managed just 26 shots for the entire game, and only half of those were on goal. The 25 turnovers committed by Presbyterian allowed Duke to run its fast-paced offense to perfection. Jesse Fehr led the way with three goals and an assist, but it seemed like everyone got in on the scoring action as 15 Blue Devils notched goals on the night. “I don’t think I’ve ever coached a game where 15 different guys have scored a goal,” Danowski said. “It shows we were unselfish, we moved the ball.... That probably represents what happened, statistically, as well as any other statistic that you could pick out.” Of those 15 players, five scored their first goal of the season; three of those five—freshmen Henry Lobb and Luke Duprey, as well as junior Andrew Vekstein—scored the first goal of their career. Emptying the bench, Danowski said, was not only a great way to build morale, but also a reward for players who work hard in practice but don’t necessarily get much individual recognition or playing time. “We wanted to have everybody get in,” Danowski said. “We wanted all the guys who work so hard during the season to see...important time—to play first quarter, second quarter. “Casey Shannon, who played goalie and played very well in the goal for us tonight, has never played goalie until this year.... He was a senior and walked onto the team and he’s playing goalie for us. And I think that gave the team a great lift when he made some saves and cleared the ball.” The Blue Devils will now prepare for their last ACC contest of the regular season against Virginia Saturday. |
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| abb | Apr 12 2011, 05:06 AM Post #4 |
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http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/04/i-dont-care-about-the-money/237124/ 'I Don't Care About the Money' By Ta-Nehisi Coates John Thompson spent 18 years in prison, and 14 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. At one point he was within weeks of being executed. This was not the result of an honest mistake by the prosecution, but a conscious effort to conceal evidence of Thompson's innocence: Previously undisclosed police reports showed witnesses at the crime scene had described the shooter as 6 feet tall with close-cropped hair. Thompson was 5-feet, 8-inches tall with a huge Afro. The description, in fact, fit not Thompson, but Freeman, the man who had made the deal to testify against Thompson. In all, there would be 10 pieces of exculpatory evidence that prosecutors failed to turn over to the defense at the first murder trial. At the second trial, a jury acquitted Thompson after just 35 minutes of deliberation. Thompson sued the DA's office and won a $14 million judgement. The Supreme Court overturned the decision. Thompson, himself, writes: I don't care about the money. I just want to know why the prosecutors who hid evidence, sent me to prison for something I didn't do and nearly had me killed are not in jail themselves. There were no ethics charges against them, no criminal charges, no one was fired and now, according to the Supreme Court, no one can be sued. Worst of all, I wasn't the only person they played dirty with. Of the six men one of my prosecutors got sentenced to death, five eventually had their convictions reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct. Because we were sentenced to death, the courts had to appoint us lawyers to fight our appeals. I was lucky, and got lawyers who went to extraordinary lengths. But there are more than 4,000 people serving life without parole in Louisiana, almost none of whom have lawyers after their convictions are final. Someone needs to look at those cases to see how many others might be innocent. If a private investigator hired by a generous law firm hadn't found the blood evidence, I'd be dead today. No doubt about it. I guess there's some argument for why you shouldn't be able to sue the District Attorney, though I can't really see it. But what's hardest to swallow is the lack of any kind of actual punishment for attempting to enlist the machinery of the state in the killing of an innocent man. This was always the most trenchant critique, for me, of the fall-out from the Duke rape case. Mike Nifong got exactly what he had coming to him. But I can't think of single incident where a prosecutor who engaged in the same species of unscrupulous behavior was equally punished. Perhaps I have that wrong. Please correct me if I do. The point should never be that what the players from that lacrosse team "wasn't that bad" or some such. What we need is more justice of the sort meted out to Nifong, not less. |
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| abb | Apr 12 2011, 05:14 AM Post #5 |
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http://noontimesports.com/2011/04/10/sunday-column-the-cult-of-lacrosse/ Sunday Column: The Cult of Lacrosse April 10, 2011 Noontime Leave a comment Go to comments NoontimeSports.com will now feature every Sunday a weekly column that gives fans an inside look into the sports world through opinions and investigative reporting. We begin our first of many “Sunday Column’s” with a look at the sport of lacrosse, as well as the fans that are avid supporters of the game. By Dan Rubin On a crisp Saturday afternoon in Providence, Rhode Island, the Brown Bears took to the field against a nationally ranked Penn Quaker team with hopes of keeping their chances alive in order to compete for the Ivy League’s automatic bid. The stands were utterly packed at Stevenson Field with crowds arriving almost two hours before the game’s start. Penn fans traveled from Philadelphia in droves, parking an RV in the stands and starting a tailgate replete with Penn lawn chairs, a Penn Quaker flag, as well as music loud enough to be heard across the field and atop the press box where I sat watching this. If I didn’t give you the month (or, for that matter, the name of the field), the above story would sound exactly the way the average Saturday during college football season unfolds not only at Brown, but at a number of different stadia across the US. Instead, though, it was during April, and it was for a sport that much of America hears about, but few know about. It’s about a sport that is treated like a religion within its grounds but sometimes mocked by outsiders. It has attained an almost cult-like following, as parents, friends, fans, and athletes travel hundreds of miles to watch their team. Yet, it barely has a professional league and most casual sports fans have no idea where teams play or what cities are represented. It is the world of lacrosse. I spent the past weekend working both men’s and women’s games for Brown, (three games in three days). And I’ve been involved with lacrosse as a sport since I was a 14-year old freshman in high school. But, having never played the sport itself, I’ve always taken a unique perspective of a fan that didn’t really understand its appeal. I never understood what it meant to put on the helmet, put on the eye black, and to have my parents rabidly cheering me from the stands. I never really got it, until I stood in that tailgate, next to that RV, and asked the questions. From what I found, lacrosse has an appeal that no other sport can identify with. It’s a sport driven by passion and intensity. It traces its roots to the Iroquois tribe of Native Americans. The on-field product requires speed, athleticism, and intensity. Even substitutions of players are on the fly during game, requiring players to go full speed to the sideline while teammates charge into the play with the same velocity. But that passion is fueled by a love of the game, a feeling that “it’s our sport,” as one parent explained at the pre-game tailgate. Baseball, they said, had gotten too big, too overblown. Everybody in baseball is worried about the big payday, but they’re not willing to put their bodies on the line. The stereotype of a baseball player is to conserve energy for a long season, with strict inning and pitch counts, so as to keep players in peak condition for a playoff run. Pitchers, they say, are on a pitch count so their arms stay healthy, otherwise they’re no good to a team. In the image category, baseball is much more rigid and monitored. Lacrosse requires peak physical condition before the season starts, they say. It takes offseason conditioning, weight training, and everything that other sports utilize. But with a season only 16-20 games long, it requires a player to be ready to go every step of the way. An uninjured player is one that can fight through sore muscles and pulled ligaments. Injuries, they say, are serious, and they’re taken seriously. But there’s a football-fine line between being injured and being hurt. Lacrosse players, they proudly say, admit they’re injured long before they’re hurt. But there’s more. Lacrosse fans point to their lack of a well-known professional league as proof of passion. Players go out and sacrifice their bodies, putting it all on the line every week when they don’t have to. Major League Lacrosse is relatively unknown outside of its ranks, and the National Lacrosse League barely receives any coverage. One fan from Boston even pointed out that a prominent local newspaper can spend five pages talking about a two-inning minor league rehab stint by a relief pitcher, but they rarely spend five paragraphs talking about the Cannons and Blazers, (I was very proud to tell him about Noontime Sports’ coverage of the Blazers, by the way). To them, the niche of lacrosse gives them a feeling of ownership over their sport. It’s the only sport where its world championships feature a full-blown Native American tribe competing outside the United States’ national team (the Iroquois Nationals are, indeed, one of the best in the world). Because it’s on the national radar but ranks below everything, including soccer at times, games retain the feeling of family reunions. The same fans show up, and the parents feel a kinship among themselves. Players from teams have a genuine dislike for one another, but they have a fervent respect for the game. They love the feeling of crushing one another, the parents say, but at the end they both respect what the other side is trying to accomplish. Lacrosse fans tend to not care what outsiders say about the sport, even if what is said a.) has validity and b.) is a major black eye for the sport. No matter what anybody says about other sports, kids can go outside, pick up a rock and a stick, and play a form of baseball. Kids from inner cities across America play basketball. Even kids from rural areas have the ability to go out and tackle one another to unleash football’s aggression. Outsiders look at lacrosse and say, (ignorantly at times) that it’s a rich, white-kid sport. Indeed, the names on rosters sometimes read like a law firm’s recruiting list of partners instead. The parents are, for the most part, wearing slacks and shoes to the game, and the perfectly manicured skin of the mothers makes outsiders turn their nose. They point to the game and say that it requires money for equipment, requires money for travel, and the best teams are wealthy. And they’d be right by saying the best schools are not public schools. Where football has Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma, lacrosse has Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Syracuse, and every school that’s in the Ivy League. And the fans of these teams usually have the money to travel across the country, following their teams and rooting them on throughout the year. To a casual fan, that’s the number one reason why lacrosse is never on the radar. It’s a blue-collar vs. white-collar attitude – almost like town-gown relations in some areas. The Duke lacrosse scandal galvanized the sport as being a bunch of rich, preppy kids who thought that “Daddy’s money” could save them. Even though those players were innocent, people still say that it didn’t matter because the lacrosse players came from money and wealth, while the rest of us scraped by. The scandal is five years old this year. It’s long forgotten in pop culture, but the name “lacrosse” still brings that perception to the forefront. When Duke won the men’s national title last year, the first question of the postgame interview started with the phrase, “It’s been a long time coming for this program…” Everybody knew what that meant, even if 90% of the team wasn’t even at Duke during that time. The name “lacrosse” evoked the images of a scandal gone wrong, and it still evoked a stereotype of a sport that may never shed it. But to those at the game, they couldn’t care less. They don’t care what people say about it. They care only about the speed of the game, the passion of the players, the next road trip where they can park an SUV. They look at their chance to pack another stadium, root for their team, and hope for a chance at a national title. On Sunday, Brown’s women’s lacrosse team hosted the #3-ranked Duke Blue Devils (ironically enough). Duke packed half the stands with a sea of blue to root on their team. Brown packed a sea of white and brown. The barely-.500 Bears took a one-goal lead against Duke before the Devils rallied to force overtime. In OT, the back-and-forth seesaw battle saw the Devils win in the sudden-death 3rd extra frame. As the girls from Brown walked off the field, both teams’ fans stood and applauded what they saw in a show of mutual respect and admiration. Duke’s head coach shook her head and smiled at Brown’s head coach as they embraced in the middle of the field. As the sun slowly dipped and the nighttime sky began to appear, people packed up their cars, and the lights went out on Stevenson. There were plans to make for next week. |
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| abb | Apr 12 2011, 05:19 AM Post #6 |
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http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2011/04/12/huguely-case-proceeds-to-grand-jury/ Huguely case proceeds to grand jury Friends of defendant, Love testify during lengthy preliminary hearing, describe clearer narrative of night of alleged murder last year By Rodger Nayak, Associate Editor on April 12, 2011 A police officer carries a piece of drywall from Yeardley Love’s bedroom into the Charlottesville Circuit Court. Defense attorney Fran Lawrence said the drywall showed no evidence that Love’s head hit against it. Photo by Claire Cowden At a nine-hour preliminary hearing yesterday which closely resembled an actual trial, more than 20 witnesses, many of them students, brought to light new details about the death of Yeardley Love, a former Virginia lacrosse player. The hearing, during which prosecutors demonstrated to a judge probable cause required to proceed with charges against Love’s former boyfriend George Huguely, began at 1 p.m., and lasted well into the night, an unusually lengthy span that was perhaps fitting for the high-profile case that has brought national attention to Charlottesville and the University. A grand jury will convene Monday to further assess the evidence against Huguely before a trial can take place. For the first time, close friends of Huguely and Love publicly detailed the circumstances surrounding Love’s death May 3 last year, repeatedly describing Huguely as intoxicated the day he entered Love’s room and “shook” Love, allowing her head “to repeatedly hit the wall,” according to a police affidavit. Many of those friends had known either Huguely or Love since high school or middle school and remained in the courtroom along with both families throughout the course of the entire proceeding. Huguely waived his right to appear in court. Caity Whiteley, Love’s roommate, and Philippe Oudshoorn, a third-year College student and member of the men’s tennis team, provided emotional testimony about the horrific scene they encountered upon returning to the apartment after a night at bars on the Corner. Whiteley testified that she had gone to Boylan Heights with Love earlier in the evening, and returned home with her at 10 p.m. Whitely went back to Boylan Heights shortly thereafter, but Love said she was tired and remained in her room. Whiteley later met up with Oudshoorn at The Virginian, and shortly before closing, went to Little John’s, where Whiteley and Oudshoorn stayed until about 2:15 a.m. The two of them returned to Whiteley and Love’s apartment, and Whiteley opened the door to Love’s room and attempted to wake her because, “I didn’t want it to be just Philippe and I when I got back,” Whiteley said. Whiteley noticed a hole in Love’s bedroom door when she opened it and saw Love face down on her bed. She knelt on the bed over Love, and when she lifted her shoulder to try to wake her, she saw blood. She exited the room, and alerted Oudshoorn, who called 911. Oudshoorn attempted to give Love CPR, and at no point, he said, did he feel Love’s heartbeat. Paramedics, who also testified yesterday, arrived on scene and were also unable to revive Love. Anna Leahman, who was then a fourth-year College student studying in her apartment below, testified that she heard a noise she said was “very loud” but “not very prolonged” the night Love died. After hearing the noise, she heard footsteps coming down the stairs from Love’s apartment, then saw a man wearing a bright blue shirt, shorts and white tennis shoes in the parking lot outside. Leahman, who did not suspect anything had occurred, continued studying and learned of Love’s death the next day. Lisa Reeves, a detective with the Charlottesville Police Department, testified that Huguely told her during an interrogation the next morning that he had took Love’s laptop upon leaving her apartment and disposed of it in a dumpster at The Pointe, an apartment complex across the street. Police later recovered the laptop and submitted it to evidence. Police videotaped that interrogation, and during an opening statement, Fran Lawrence, Huguely’s defense attorney, said Huguely had no idea Love was dead when he left her apartment that night, and learned of her death only after Reeves had questioned her for an hour. “She’s not dead. I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t,” Huguely said in response, according to Lawrence. “I never did anything that could do that to her.” About 24 hours prior to Huguely’s interrogation, he had just started a long day of drinking, Kevin Carroll, his roommate, testified. Throughout the course of that day, Huguely’s teammates and friends who testified at the trial reported seeing Huguely become progressively more intoxicated up until the time he allegedly entered Love’s apartment. Carroll and Huguely spent the day at a father-son golf tournament at Wintergreen Resort, a ski venue about 30 miles west of Charlottesville. Chris Clements, a member of the men’s lacrosse team who was paired with Huguely during the tournament, testified that Huguely continued to drink during the course of their round. “George was definitely drunk by the last three holes,” Carroll said. Later that night at around 10:30 p.m., Carroll, Huguely and other members of the men’s lacrosse team were hanging out in Huguely’s apartment. Huguely left the apartment, and Carroll did not report seeing him until shortly after midnight, when Huguely returned saying he had been downstairs in Clements’ apartment. In a phone call later, Clements told Carroll Huguely had never entered his apartment. He came up to Clements’ door, but Clements, who had spent the night writing a paper, locked it when he heard Huguely approaching, Clements testified. “I told him to go away,” Clements said. Also at issue during the testimony of Huguely’s friends was a prior incident which occurred between Huguely and Love the Tuesday before Love’s death. Elizabeth McLean, one of Love’s sorority sisters who also dated Kevin Carroll, Huguely’s roommate, reported hearing an incident the Tuesday before Love’s death which occurred in Huguely and Carroll’s apartment. Two high school girls, McLean said, were staying with Huguely that night, and Love, who was angry after learning about the situation, entered the apartment and confronted Huguely. Neither Carroll nor McLean said why the girls were staying with Huguely, but after the confrontation ended, McLean walked Love back to her apartment. After friends of Huguely and Love finished their testimony, Charlottesville police officers and medical experts took the stand. Rhonda Quagliana, a partner of Lawrence’s who questioned several of the witnesses, grilled Virginia Chief Medical Examiner William Gormley about the state of Love’s body when he performed the autopsy. Quagliana questioned Gormley about whether Adderall, a medicine for which Love had a prescription, may have contributed to Love’s death. Gormley, though, rested with the conclusion of his autoposy — Love had died from blunt force trauma to the head. Huguely has now spent 11 months in Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail and faces charges of first-degree murder, felony murder and several other ones stemming from crimes he allegedly committed that night. The hearing yesterday, which was initially scheduled to take place in the Charlottesville General District Court, was moved to the Charlottesville Circuit Court to allow for a greater number of spectators. |
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| abb | Apr 12 2011, 05:21 AM Post #7 |
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http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-04-11/news/bs-md-huguely-hearing-20110411_1_love-and-huguely-judge-robert-downer-lacrosse-player Court hears details of U.Va. lacrosse player Love's death George Huguely accused in death of Yeardley Love April 11, 2011|By Don Markus, The Baltimore Sun Love family, Baltimore Sun A procession of former University of Virginia lacrosse players and students, police officers and medical experts on Monday gave the most detailed account to date of the May 3 incident that left Yeardley Love dead at her off-campus apartment. According to testimony at a preliminary hearing, George Huguely, who is accused of murder, was badly intoxicated in the hours leading up to the death of his ex-girlfriend, a 22-year-old from Cockeysville. Much of the drinking had been done at a nearby resort, where members of the lacrosse team and their fathers competed in a golf tournament, teammate Kevin Carroll said. Prosecutor Dave Chapman presented his case in precise and often agonizingly graphic detail in a hearing that lasted more than eight hours in the city's Circuit Court. After hearing testimony from more than 20 witnesses, Judge Robert Downer ruled that there was enough evidence to send the case to the grand jury, which is scheduled to meet here Monday. None of the witnesses showed much emotion, but dry forensic evidence sometimes gave way to colorful excerpts from conversations. An hour after police began interrogating Huguely, a detective told him that Love was dead. "She's dead, George, you killed her," the detective said, according to Huguely's attorney, Fran Lawrence. Lawrence said his client, who had waived his right to avoid police questioning, was surprised. "She's dead?" Huguely said. "She's not dead, she's not dead." Huguely, now 23, was not present at the hearing, having waived his rights to appear. He is being held on first-degree homicide and felony murder charges, as well as other counts related to the incident, which came less than two weeks before Huguely and Love were scheduled to graduate. Huguely has not entered a formal plea, but his attorney has called Love's death "an accident." After the hearing, defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana said, "From the beginning we said this case was a tragedy but not an intentional criminal act." In the crowded courtroom, Huguely's relatives and friends sat across the aisle from Love's family and friends. At one point, as Caitey Whiteley, in almost a monotone, described seeing the door to Love's bedroom with a hole in it and her longtime friend laying face down on her bed, Love's mother, Sharon, walked out of the courtroom and did not return for a while. Whiteley was a college teammate and roommate who had known Love since they played club lacrosse together in Baltimore. Whiteley, along with a male friend, discovered Love's body in the off-campus apartment they shared. Whiteley, the first to testify, spoke of the "on and off" relationship Love and Huguely had since they arrived in Charlottesville as freshman. She said Love became angry earlier that week after learning that Huguely had been seeing other women. "She was obviously confused, how other people knew about it but she didn't," Whiteley said. That revelation led to a confrontation between Love and Huguely at Huguely's apartment six days before she died. Elizabeth McLean, a sorority sister of Love's, said she heard the two arguing while she was in the bedroom with her boyfriend, Carroll. The argument stemmed from the presence of two high school girls who, McLean learned, were at the apartment. "It was pretty loud," McLean recalled. "She asked [Huguely] who the girls were." Advertisement Ads by Google McLean said she also heard a noise, as if something had been thrown. It turned out that Love had thrown her purse at Huguely, scattering its contents. McLean said that she later escorted Love back to her apartment, located just yards from where Huguely lived. "I thought it would be better if they were separated," McLean said. A few days later, McLean testified, Love called her to ask her to retrieve a camera and cell phone that had fallen out of the purse. Carroll recalled that Huguely was in their apartment around 10:30 on the night of May 3, but later left. When Huguely told him that he had been in the same apartment complex drinking with two other teammates, Carroll called one of them to check. It turned out, he said, that Chris Clements was pulling an all-nighter for a project and had locked his apartment door when he hear Huguely coming down the stairs. Neither Clements nor Carroll knew where Huguely had gone, but a man fitting his description was later seen leaving the building where Love lived. One of Love's downstairs neighbors, Anna Leahman, said that she had heard arguments emanating from the upstairs apartment before. On the night Love died, Leahman said she only heard a loud noise that was "out of the ordinary." But the pre-med student went back to her studying and didn't think much of it until she heard about the death the next morning. By that point, Huguely was under arrest and in police custody. He is being held without bail. At Monday's hearing, Lawrence got one of the investigators to acknowledge that no marks or blood spatterings were found on the walls. The testimony contradicts what police had asserted in one of the original affadavits: that Huguely had banged Love's head against the wall repeatedly. In December, a judge rejected a request by Huguely's attorneys to see Love's medical records, saying they were not relevant to the case. Defense attorneys had sought the records in an attempt to prove Love died of cardiac arrhythmia causing insufficient blood flow to the head rather than blunt force trauma inflicted by Huguely. But one of the last witnesses, Virginia chief medical examiner William Gormley, said that the cause of death was "blunt force trauma" and that injuries to Love's brain stem contributed to her death. don.markus@baltsun.com |
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| abb | Apr 12 2011, 05:23 AM Post #8 |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/case-of-u-va-lacrosse-player-loves-death-advances-to-grand-jury/2011/04/11/AFxtLYND_print.html Case of U-Va. lacrosse player Love’s death advances to grand jury By Mary Pat Flaherty and and Steve Yanda, Monday, April 11, 11:17 PM CHARLOTTESVILLE — Former University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely V did not know until an hour into his interview with a Charlottesville police detective that his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Yeardley Love, was dead and that he was a suspect in her killing, defense attorneys said Monday in court. “She’s dead, George, and you killed her,” Detective Lisa Reeves told him hours after Love’s body was found face down in a bloody pillow by her roommate May 3, the lawyers said. Huguely responded that he did not believe the police and added: “There is nothing I did to her last night that could have killed her,” they said. The account of that exchange was relayed by Huguely’s attorneys during an unusually long preliminary hearing Monday. At the end of the nine-hour hearing, District Court Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. determined there was enough evidence against Huguely to send the case to the next step of the legal process. A grand jury in Charlottesville Circuit Court will decide later this month whether to indict Huguely, 23, of Chevy Chase, on charges of felony murder, assault, robbery and burglary in Love’s death and the theft of her computer. Neither Huguely’s videotaped statement to police nor the contents of e-mails and computer messages he is alleged to have exchanged with Love was revealed during the hearing, which lasted more than eight hours. The video was made available privately to the judge under an agreement reached between the defense and Charlottesville prosecutor Warner “Dave” Chapman. Testimony from more than 20 witnesses painted a turbulent relationship during the couple’s senior year at U-Va. Love’s mother, Sharon, and sister, Lexie, were in court, although the mother briefly exited just before stretches of the more graphic descriptions of her daughter’s injuries. Relatives of Huguely’s also were in court, including his parents and stepparents. Witnesses recalled several conflicts between Love and Huguely, including Love’s discovery that Huguely might have been dating another woman, according to Love’s roommate, Caitlin Whiteley. Huguely also was found by Love to be talking with two female high school students at his apartment, according to Elizabeth McLean, the girlfriend of Huguely’s roommate. The teenagers were touring campus in the days before Love’s death. McLean said she escorted an “upset” Love home after Love confronted Huguely in his apartment. Several fellow men’s lacrosse players said that on the Sunday that Love died, they saw Huguely drinking and believed he was drunk at various points throughout the day. The drinking lasted from 9 a.m. till after midnight, according to testimony. flahertym@washpost.com |
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| abb | Apr 12 2011, 05:29 AM Post #9 |
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/yeardley-love-family-speaks-start-lacrosse-player-murder/story?id=13348320 Virginia Lacrosse Murder Case Goes to Grand Jury Police Interview Transcript: 'She's Dead, You Killed Her George, You Killed Her' BY ANDREW SPRINGER and EMILY FRIEDMAN April 11, 2011 When University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely was questioned by police about the bludgeoning death of his ex-girlfriend, a detective told him bluntly, "She's dead, you killed her George, you killed her." The police interview was read in court today during a preliminary hearing in the Charlottesville, Va., general district court. After nine hours of testimony, a judge ruled that the case will go to a grand jury. He said there is probable cause to believe a crime was committed in the May 3, 2010 death of Yeardley Love, Huguely's on-again off-again girlfriend. Both were members of the school's nationally ranked lacrosse teams. During today's hearing, Huguely, 23, was present by video conference as his lawyer Fran Lawrence told the court that his client did not intend to kill Love. Lawrence read from a detective's report in which he said during his interview with Huguely, "She's dead, you killed her George, you killed her," according to ABC News affiliate WTBD. According to the detective's report, Huguely replied in disbelief, "I never did anything that could do that to her." Defense attorneys for Huguely have argued that Love's death was caused by drugs and not by a brutal beating. The 22-year-old Love was found face down and bloodied in her Charlottesville, Va., apartment. Her death came days after she told Huguely she was breaking off their relationship. Love's family issued a statement before today's hearing. "We have faith in the justice system and trust that the truth will prevail," the family said. "We miss Yeardley so very much and will work tirelessly to make her proud of us. It is truly devastating to wake up each day and realize she is no longer here." The Loves' statement continues: "Her bright, bright future was stolen from us all. Yeardley's contagious smile, kind spirit and gentle touch have left this world but we know heaven now has an angel like no other. We will never be able to sufficiently thank everyone for their outpouring of love, support and prayers. They have given us the strength to continue and we are eternally grateful to each and every one of them. " Huguely's attorney has argued that Love's murder was a tragic accident, and Huguely at the time waived his Miranda rights and told authorities exactly what had happened the night she was killed. Huguely confessed to police, according to search warrants in the case, that in the early morning hours of May 3, 2010, he kicked in the door to Love's bedroom and shook her violently, repeatedly banging her head against the wall. Love's body was found later that day after an early morning 911 call, face down on her pillow in a pool of blood. Her face was covered in scrapes and bruises, according to the warrant, and her right eye was swollen shut. Huguely's lawyer, who sought earlier this year to have a judge release Love's medical records, presented the testimony of Jack Daniel, a forensic consultant who told the judge that Love's autopsy report indicated that she had Adderall in her system the night she died. The drug, commonly used to treat attention deficit disorder, could have caused her heart to stop beating and for her to die, according to ABC News' affiliate WCAV. Dr. Bill Gormley, the medical examiner who performed Love's autopsy and concluded her death was caused by blunt force trauma, had noted that Love's skull was not fractured. But he testified that the prescribed amount of Adderall and alcohol found in her system "were not enough to have contributed to her death," according to WCAV. Details of what happened between the young lovers suggests that just three days before Love was found dead she had lashed out against Huguely, according to two search warrant affidavits. One of Love's sorority sisters told authorities that she witnessed an "altercation" between her friend and Huguely during which "Love hit Huguely with her purse" hard enough to cause all of its contents to be strewn about his apartment. Later, the friend told police that Love realized that her cellphone and camera were missing and that she "believed it was still at Huguely's apartment." Love recovered the camera, but never got her cellphone back, according to the statement. Days later, Love was dead and Huguely was faced with a first-degree murder charge. ABC News' Jennifer Wlach contributed to this report. |
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| Kerri P. | Apr 12 2011, 06:46 PM Post #10 |
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9429895/ UNC: Report of hate crime was false; charges likely Posted: 6:01 p.m. today Updated: 12 minutes ago Chapel Hill, N.C. — An alleged hate crime against a gay student on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus last week was false, officials said Tuesday. Chancellor Holden Thorp said a student who told authorities he was branded with a searing hot object because of his sexual orientation filed a false police report and that it will not be reported as a hate crime. Quinn Matney, who is gay, told authorities April 5 that a man walked up to him near a foot bridge on campus, called him a derogatory name, told him "here is a taste of hell," and held a heated object to his skin for several seconds, leaving third- and fourth-degree burns. Randy Young, a spokesman for UNC's public safety department, said charges of filing a false police report are likely against Matney. University officials initially called the assault a hate crime and pledged to "bring the strongest possible charges against the attacker." Thorp said the university takes incidents of harassment seriously, but did not release any additional details. |
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| Quasimodo | Apr 12 2011, 06:53 PM Post #11 |
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Why are charges against him "likely", when Mangum's false charges, which did far more damage in every way, did not result in any charges? |
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| Quasimodo | Apr 12 2011, 07:42 PM Post #12 |
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I bet they aren't going to discuss the issue of false accusations... |
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| jarms | Apr 13 2011, 09:15 AM Post #13 |
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Nothing happened. What is there to discuss? |
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3:29 AM Jul 11