Thread: Nifong takes stand at contempt hearing

Nifong takes stand at contempt hearing
AARON BEARD, Associated Press Writer
33 minutes ago



DURHAM, N.C. - Former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, who pushed a faulty case against three Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape, took the stand Friday in his criminal contempt hearing.

Nifong, who was disbarred for his actions in prosecuting the discredited case, was asked to recount his career history, his personal policy of turning over evidence to defense attorneys in cases he prosecuted, and how he became involved in the lacrosse case after noticing an affidavit on an office copy machine.

"I picked it up to look at it to see what it was, and when I read the affidavit, it struck me that this was a case that was going to get a lot of media attention in Durham, and that I needed to know what was going on with the case," Nifong said.

Defense attorneys have asked Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III to punish Nifong for telling the court he disclosed all DNA testing results in the lacrosse case, when he in fact knew, and failed to reveal, the presence of the unidentified genetic material to defense attorneys.

If held in contempt, Nifong faces up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $500. Nifong pleaded not guilty to the charge. Nifong's attorney, Jim Glover, has said Nifong never intentionally tried to mislead the court and believed he gave all DNA test results to defense attorneys.

Earlier Friday, the director of a private lab who prepared a report on the DNA testing said the failure to disclose all of the results was a misunderstanding.

Brian Meehan said his lab was asked to test DNA samples from players to see if any matched material found on or about a woman who had told police she was raped at a party thrown by the highly ranked lacrosse team.

Although male DNA was found, no sample matched a lacrosse player. Results from the other unidentified men was referenced as "non-probative" material in a report given to defense attorneys, Meehan said.

"My company and the company's assessment of that document request was that clearly there was a misunderstanding, that whoever went through that document we provided, that there were some things that they didn't understand completely, that clearly they got wrong," Meehan said.

Charles Davis, the attorney appointed to prosecute the contempt charge, asked Meehan whether Nifong's statement to the court — that the report encompassed everything he had discussed with Meehan — was true or false.

"It would be false because we don't include discussions in our reports," Meehan answered.

On Thursday, Meehan said he was the one who decided how to prepare a report stating no lacrosse player had been linked to the accuser. When Glover asked Meehan if Nifong had asked him to leave anything out of the report, Meehan answered "no."

During a hearing last fall, Nifong told a judge that defense lawyers had all DNA test results. Glover said the inaccurate statement was little more than an oversight.

Nifong later recused himself from the case after being charged with ethics violations. State prosecutors who took over the case dropped all charges against the three men and declared them innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse."

Nifong was disbarred in June for more than two dozen violations of the state's rules of professional conduct during his prosecution of the lacrosse case. He resigned a month later as district attorney.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070831/...X9BS2vRk9H2ocA

( can't seem to find the original thread ... )

Hoaxer Crystal Mangum, the Duke lacrosse accuser, pens memoir

Yes, the discredited and debunked Duke lacrosse accuser’s got a new book out.

Yes, she still believes she was a rape victim.

Read on an empty stomach: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/2008...tal-mangum.htm

Crystal Mangum, the woman that rattled Duke University in 2006 after accusing three lacrosse players of rape, made her first public appearance on Thursday with a memoir in which she insists she really was raped by the players.

Crystal Gail Mangum held a news conference at the Know Bookstore to promote, “The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story.”

Magnum said she is “looking forward to opening old wounds,” but wants people to know her side of the story.

“Even as I try to move on with my life, I still find it necessary to take one more stand and fight,” she writes in the book, “The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story.”

“I want to assert, without equivocation, that I was assaulted. Make of that what you will. You will decide what that means to you because the state of North Carolina saw fit not to look at all that happened the night I became infamous.”

Jim Cooney, who represented player Reade Seligmann in the criminal case, said attorneys would review the contents of the book. “For 2 1/2 years, this woman has attempted to destroy Reade’s life,” Cooney said. “We aim to put a stop to it.”

Magnum accused former Duke University lacrosse players Reade Seligmann, Colin Finnerty, and Dave Evans of brutally beating, strangling, raping, and sodomizing her in March 2006.

Mangum was hired as a stripper the night the incident happened in March 2006. After a long court case, the state attorney general’s office concluded that there was no credible evidence to prove an attack had occurred.

LaShawn Barber diagnoses Crystal Magnum’s tenacity at mendacity.
http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/20...laims-assault/

Crystal Mangum Claims Assault
Friday, October 24 2008

Crystal Mangum’s still crying rape! I don’t believe it. I’m speechless. I am without speech. But I’ll manage this: Mangum has gang-rape fantasy issues, as I’ve been saying since I first read her side of the story.

Man, I hope I get this much press when my book comes out.

Crystal Mangum, former stripper and prostitute who falsely accused former Duke University lacrosse players Reade Seligmann, Colin Finnerty, and Dave Evans of brutally beating, strangling, raping, and sodomizing her, asserted “without equivocation, that I was assaulted” at the infamous house party in March 2006, although there was no evidence of an assault.

Mangum released two chapters of her “memoir,” neither of which gets to the meat of the story. I presume “Meeting” was written by publisher Vincent Clark about his first encounter with Mangum. The excerpt jumps to the last chapter, “New Beginning,” which is nothing more than a shamelessly maudlin, self-absorbed, unfocused, and unsuccessful attempt to gain sympathy. Does Mangum audaciously maintain in the book that she was brutally beaten, strangled, raped, and sodomized in the bathroom? Can’t wait to read all about it.

Until then, download the excerpt in PDF. http://lashawnbarber.com/wp-content/...-for-grace.pdf


If Mangum makes that claim, I can’t say I’d be stunned by her tenacity at mendacity. I’d hoped the woman would have the grace to acknowledge her lies and apologize to the men whose lives she held captive for a year, shrouding them in a cloud of doubt and suspicion, accused of the most heinous acts.

I would love - LOVE - to talk this woman one-on-one, sister-to-sister. Her handlers are closely guarding what they hope to be a cash cow, so e-mail and telephone interview requests won’t cut it. Am I motivated to go to Durham, track her down, and approach her ambush-style? If a news organization wants to pay for an exclusive (including travel expenses), I’m game.

By the way, here’s a weird tidbit: KC Johnson, premiere Duke case blogger and co-author of Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case (now available in paperback), found out that state NAACP attorney Al McSurely, who published the infamously error-filled memorandum of law in support of Mangum’s side of the story, is the registered agent for the company that published Mangum’s piece of fantasy fiction.

Update: “[Publisher] Clark said the self-published book will be available through his Web site at midnight on a print-by-demand basis.”

Oh, brother.

Mangum said: “I have no comments about the details of the case…Threre’s no point in going into that, because the trial will never happen. So what’s the point? I just don’t see the point.”

I guess we’ll have to wait and see if she offers details in the darn book. What a tool.

See also : http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/20...oes-for-grace/
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/cri...y/1265609.html

I remember this one.Didn't her friend even say she made it up?It is possible I am thinking of another case,but I think she was looking for some money.

Duke lacrosse accuser indicted on murder charge
Mike Baker, Associated Press – 1 hr 47 mins ago

RALEIGH, N.C. – The woman who falsely accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her in 2006 was charged Monday with murder in the death of her boyfriend. Crystal Mangum, 32, was indicted on a charge of first-degree murder and two counts of larceny. She has been in jail since April 3, when police charged her with assault in the stabbing of 46-year-old Reginald Daye. He died after nearly two weeks at a hospital.

An attorney for Mangum did not return a call seeking comment. The district attorney's office declined to discuss the case.

Mangum falsely accused the lacrosse players of raping her at a 2006 party for which she was hired to perform as a stripper. The case heightened long-standing tensions in Durham about race, class and the privileged status of college athletes.

The district attorney who championed Mangum's claims was later disbarred. North Carolina's attorney general eventually declared the players innocent of a "tragic rush to accuse."

Prosecutors declined to press charges for the false accusations, but Mangum's bizarre legal troubles have continued.

Last year, she was convicted on misdemeanor charges after setting a fire that nearly torched her home with her three children inside. In a videotaped police interrogation, she told officers she set got into a confrontation with her boyfriend at the time — not Daye — and burned his clothes, smashed his car windshield and threatened to stab him.

Friends said Mangum has never recovered from the stigma brought by the lacrosse case and has been involved in a string of questionable relationships in an attempt to provide stability for her children. Vincent Clark, a friend who co-authored Mangum's self-published memoir, said he hopes people don't rush to judgment — echoing one of the oft-cited lessons of the lacrosse case itself.

Clark said Mangum realizes she has mental health problems. "I'm sad for her. I hope people realize how difficult it is being her," Clark said.

When Daye's nephew talked to a 911 dispatcher after the stabbing, he referenced the notoriety Mangum still carries. "It's Crystal Mangum. THE Crystal Mangum," said the nephew, whose name was removed from a publicly-released version of the emergency call. "I told him she was trouble from the damn beginning."

A federal judge recently ruled that the three players accused of rape — Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans — can pursue a lawsuit against former District Attorney Mike Nifong and the police investigators who handled their case. The players have not sued Mangum.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_duke_lacrosse_accuser

comments

... and to think that the MERE accusation by such an unbalanced person can result in felony arrests and the COSTS of having to fight her screeching finger pointing accusations in court.

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Jesse Jackson offered to pay for her college after it was found out she lied because of the horrible things she had to do to make by (like make up fake rape charges and incite racial tensions), good to see she put it to good.

Always makes me wonder why there was not backlash on Jesse Jackson, if I was a college student struggling at that time I would feel like I had been slapped in the face to know doing the right thing gets you nothing but causing so much harm can get you a free ride.