Duke lacrosse: A Nifong campaign disaster

Under the headline, “Citizens' group to support Nifong”, we read in today’s Durham Herald Sun:

Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, who faces a write-in rival on the November ballot as well as an effort to recall him from office, now has a group on his side.

A "Citizens for Mike Nifong Committee" has formed, aimed largely at counterbalancing a torrent of criticism Nifong has weathered over his handling of the controversial Duke University lacrosse case.

You may be wondering, “What campaign disaster? That all sounds like good news for Nifong.”

The “disaster report” comes in the next paragraph :

The new group was organized by Kim Brummell, a corporate security officer and writer, and community activist Victoria Peterson. Their goal is to keep Nifong in office when the November general election rolls around. (bold added)

Here's some background on Peterson.

In late April The Charlotte Observer reported Peterson had said :

an investigator in the [Duke lacrosse]case told her the woman had been sodomized "with an object."

"He did not say a broom, just an object," said Peterson, who has become a friend and adviser to the woman's family since the party. "He told me she wasn't just raped, she was terribly sodomized."

On May 2 the Raleigh N&O reported on a rally sponsored by the hate group, The New Black Panther Party. The N&O’s report included :

"This is a hate crime, and we want a conviction," declared Malik Zulu Shabazz, the national chairman of the New Panthers, a black separatist group based in Atlanta that is disavowed by the original Black Panther Party. "We are mad and fired up. We demand justice, and we will have justice, one way or the other." …

Shabazz was flanked by Durham school board member Jacqueline Wagstaff and perennial political candidate Victoria Peterson.

In July, 2003 when Peterson announced as a Durham City Counsil candidate, the H-S reported among other items:

Peterson [has been an] active supporter of accused murderer Michael Peterson [ He was later convicted. – JinC] and helped organize a vigil for him outside the jail after his arrest in December 2001.

She has regularly attended the ongoing trial and even was questioned in May about talking with a prospective juror in a courthouse hallway. She is not related to Michael Peterson. …

Over the years, Peterson's activism has touched on a wide variety of issues.

She's protested the high numbers of young black men in Durham's jail, lobbied for better conditions in public housing projects, argued for pistol permits to be cheaper, and objected to gay and lesbian films being shown at the Carolina Theatre.

In 1992, after losing her legislative campaign, she asked the U.S. Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into voting-machine problems. The election subsequently was upheld by the state elections board. …

And in 1999, she attempted to file criminal charges against a Chapel Hill doctor who she said illegally tested her for HIV without her consent. A judge later dismissed the charges

In the October, 2003 primary for 3 seats on the City Council Peterson, according to records faxed to me this morning by the Durham County Board of Elections (archive portions of BoE website are temporarily “down”), ran 7th in a field of 13 candidates and received 5.27% of the vote.

Today’s H-S story quotes Nifong:

"They came to me and told me what they had done," Nifong said of Brummell and Peterson. "I was very pleased. It made me feel good."

Folks, There are some things that defy my powers of parody and ridicule.

Today’s H-S story with Nifong announcing he’s “very pleased” Peterson will help head his election campaign is one of them.

She'll prove to be a disaster for him.

What do you think of it all?