RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday against the three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper at a party, saying the athletes were innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse" by an overreaching district attorney.
"There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado," North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a damning assessment of Durham County District Mike Nifong's handling of the sensational case.
Justice is finally done in this case. What should be done about this lying Prosecutor and this lying woman?
Regardless of what happens the reputation of those DUKE guys will forever be tarnished. Even though they are innocent it has permanently scarred them for life. As for that lying woman it seems she has a history of fals acusations. She needs to do a lot of time.i'm thinking 25 with an "L" Same as the prosecutor as well.
I know people won't agree, but I feel any rape acusation, the acussers name and face need to be public as well as the criminal, that way you can stop a lot of false acusations.
Posts: 2690 | Location: USA | Registered: 06-07-02
I know people won't agree, but I feel any rape accusation, the accusers name and face need to be public as well as the criminal, that way you can stop a lot of false accusations.
I would be for it also if this would stop some of these false accusations. These three young men and their families have really suffered over a year because of two lying low lives who need to be locked up.
I think that anyone who falsely accuses a person of a crime, should be dealt with harshly.
Posts: 3165 | Location: From the Mountains to the Sea. | Registered: 06-08-02
If the accuser is not prosecuted for making a false accusation, or any other charges, the whole thing smells rather fishy. These three innocent choir boys, and the Duke University Athletic program, are proclaimed INNOCENT ! and can resume their former activities. I wonder how much money had to change hands to obtain this vindication of everyone but the District Attorney?
I wonder how much money had to change hands to obtain this vindication of everyone but the District Attorney?
Why can't they just be innocent, Frank? Why does it have to be suspicious to you? These "three innocent choir boys" deserve to get on with their lives, and their families also.
Posts: 3165 | Location: From the Mountains to the Sea. | Registered: 06-08-02
How much money? About a million bucks in legal fees to each of the families, so far. The case, long ago, is what smelled fishy, requiring action against DA Nifong by the NC Bar Association that may result in him losing his law license. These guys and their families have gone through hell and their names have been smeared.
Whatever happened to a presumption of innocence? When did the DA ever appear to have an evidence-based case against the young men?
Look for Durham County to settle the civil suit out of court. Nifong was way out of line.
Posts: 7715 | Location: in the backwoods of North Carolina | Registered: 06-07-02
I was admittedly expressing a personal opinion, 'fuse. No doubt it is less thoroughly informed than your own. I didn't read or hear much about the cost to the individuals to defend themselves; nor did I know anything about an upcoming civil suit. Against whom?
In defense of my opinion: I admit that my experience with rape cases has never been in the role of the accused, and only rarely am I forced to defend myself against unwelcome sexual advances.
I believe that when a group of young male athletes organize a "private" celebration, free of adult or official supervision, including alcoholic beverages and female strippers, activities may tend to become unruly. And eye witnesses to events in some parts of a multi-room house may be hard to come by. Especially when the occupants of the house all belong to the same team.
As you say, there is "a presumption of innocence" in all felony cases, but I'm sure that the statistics in rape cases would show that the victim, more often than not, has the burden of proof heself. In most instances she is discouraged from bringing charges. I am familiar with one young family member, a freshman at University of Maryland, who was raped, interrupted her education and was in counseling for the year's hiatus toward her degree. This happens so often in colleges in this country that the colleges are almost ovewhelmed, and most victims abandon any hope of prosecuting.
I'm sure that Mr.Nifong is not immune from political ambitions, neither are his superiors. Nor are any of them immune from the political influence of Duke University, big tobacco, and well-heeled alumni. If anyone brings charges against the young woman in the case, I'll reconsider my suspicion of money being used to purchase her silence. Until then I'll remain suspicious.
When young women are foolish, naive, reckless, drunk, drugged, overpowered, or simply frightened, there is often no physical evidence whether sexual activity took place, or if it did that it was other than consesual. That, in a nutshell, is the basis for my having the opinion you and Scotty disagree with.
If ever, Scotty and I agree on something, I'll suspect that we're both mistaken.
A civil suit is only being speculated about right now. My hunch is that they would sue Durham County, for whom Nifong worked, and perhaps the State of North Carolina, whose Attorney General's office has some oversight responsibility for DA's throughout the state. These pockets are a lot deeper than Nifong's or their acccuser's.
State Attorney General's dropping of the case and bold declaration of the boys' innocence at a press conference may be a step in the healing direction. One story here.
Frank is certainly on target about the boys' behavior. They put themselves in a vulnerable position and, I hope, have learned a lesson. It was easy to believe the story until evidence was presented.
Posts: 7715 | Location: in the backwoods of North Carolina | Registered: 06-07-02
How much money? About a million bucks in legal fees to each of the families, so far
Hmmmm....Question, 'fuse: $3,000,000.00 to get charges dropped? And that in a case that never went to trial, and you don't suspect a pay off, or several??? You seem to be a much more trusting person than I am.
If my son had been one of the three accused, he would have had to have a court appointed counsel, how would that scenario play out, do you suppose?? "You're on your own, son. You made your bed now lie in it! Those two rich kids testified against you ?"
I might be. But I do trust the evidence, and the case smelled from the start of the evidence flow. If the families wanted to pay off someone, why not their accuser, from the start? Their names have been raked through the mud and their lives have been disrupted for over a year.
I actually think justice is being served. The shame is that it has taken so much money to serve it. It takes a lot of money to defend a criminal case or a major lawsuit and one must wonder how many people don't have the money to successfully defend a false accusation.
Posts: 7715 | Location: in the backwoods of North Carolina | Registered: 06-07-02
Coldfuse, money is what it takes to serve justice. I can honestly say back in the day, money prevented myself from doing major prison time. It's sad, but it's true.
Posts: 2690 | Location: USA | Registered: 06-07-02
What should be done about this lying Prosecutor and this lying woman?
I think they should be put in a cage with all the rest of the lying people. That way, when people screw, there'd be too many witnesses to see if it's rape or consensual.
Posts: 6638 | Location: Land of Lincoln, USA | Registered: 07-04-02
Who's rushing to judgment now? At least the jocks were to be given a trial. So far all I can see is someone saying the prosecutor rushed to judgment, and the woman's story wasn't straight.
When people hire demimondes to entertain them, and the entertainers put themselves in jeopardy, they are passengers on a ship of fools. All of them.
In the old days, it was always the "choirboy " college boys whose word was taken when things of this sort got out of hand. It couldn't be that the innocent, fresh-faced children of 'good homes' could have hired a woman of less than sterling character to entertain them. They must have been misled by the booking agent. These young, decent, clean-living men would never, ever dream of inviting a woman who was prepared to take off her clothes in a private home for the entertainment of clean-living athletes.
And the clean-living, pure-minded athletes would never, ever think of dreaming of physically touching her; no, once they noticed that she was, um, underclothed, they would immediately call the police to have her evicted and charged with lewd behavior. They would not themselves dream of touching her to evict her, since such an act might be misconstrued.
In fact, is is very likely that once she was removed, these boys would forget about the party, and would then go to their homes in tears, overwrought, even grieved, buy the shocking events of the evening, to be comforted by their parents over cookies and warm milk; and their pastor called in, to help them deal with the fact that such corruption could exist in their city.
So any woman who agreed to entertain at a 'party' wouldn't even try to lay charges if things got out of hand.
Well, not any more. Now even a prostitute may not be raped, even if the customer thinks she's not worth her asking price. This is of course outrageous to the kind of man who also believes his wife cannot refuse to have sex with him, so he has the right to help himself.
So what happened, and whether there was a rape, and whether the accuser was compos mentis enough to consent to any alleged sex acts, and whether the alleged victim was paid to retract her story, or whether the prosecutors were paid to cover it all up, is simply not known.
It will need to be known if there is a civil case, and more facts may emerge.
You might as well try and figure out without DNA who was the father of Nicole's baby as figure out the truth of it right now.
Ship of fools.
Posts: 6256 | Location: British Columbia, Canada | Registered: 06-11-02
I can't imagine why a basketball coach should have been fired because of the rowdy behavior of a lacrosse team, but whatever! This is the first time in history to my knowledge that there is such a thing as "legitimate rape"! Or since when have people charged with a felony been found or declared "innocent"? Not guilty, perhaps, for one reason or other: usually insufficient evidence, withdrawal of charges,or general skullduggery, IMO. On occasion, money cchanges hands, or plea bargains allow the child molester to cop to "indecent exposure" and re-infect the neighborhood.
I think Honi has the best idea. All screwing should be done in public!
Rape is a serious problem in the United States today. The United States has the highest rape rate among countries which report such statistics. It is 4 times higher than that of Germany, 13 times higher than that of England and 20 times higher than that of Japan.
A study among college women has shown that 1 out of every 5 college age women report being forced to have sexual intercourse.
Only 16% of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police
Rape and sexual assault are not crimes that usually occur in dark alleys or in deserted areas at night. As a matter of fact 6 out of 10 sexual assaults occur in the home of the victim or the home of a friend, neighbor or relative
The mental health costs of sexual assault victims are very high, studies have shown that 25 - 50% of rape and child sexual abuse victims receive some sort of mental health treatment as a result of the victimization.
Less than half of those arrested for rape are convicted, 54% of all rape prosecutions end in either dismissal or acquittal
It is a sad situation when a woman can accuse somebody of rape, and the whole world immediately comes down against them, even if they may be innocent. A person should be assumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. They had absolutely no evidence at all that these three young men were guilty of anything.
It seems that some of you feel that it is alright to railroad three innocent people, and ruin their lives because of a lie. This woman has a history of doing such things. How many times did her story change? She could not get things straight.
Just because somebody yells rape, doesn't mean there was a rape. People that yell rape and it is proven to be a lie should face prison time.
Posts: 3165 | Location: From the Mountains to the Sea. | Registered: 06-08-02
"Maybe we should be calling it Spring Rape...not Spring Break." Do you really think that would help?
"Maybe the reason that the "Girls Gone Wild" go wild is because the Colleges are not teaching them [and the Guys] some basic morality". You mean these wild girls are asking to be raped?
"Can it be that our colleges are just looking the other way when Rape occurs". I suspect that most rapes are not done in the classroom while the professor is looking.
"Or maybe it's because our smartest and brightest are neither smart nor bright". Yeah, that's probably the case. Everyone knows that the smartest people are really stupid.
"What's your answer ???" I couldn't possibly improve on yours.
"It is a sad situation when a woman can accuse somebody of rape, and the whole world immediately comes down against them" The WHOLE World??
"Just because somebody yells rape, doesn't mean there was a rape. People that yell rape and it is proven to be a lie should face prison time." Good idea. Now why don't we wait and see if that takes place? If it doesn't how would you explain that?
