John In Carolina

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

INNOCENT: Walter Abbott, Citizen Journalist

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
___________________________________

Yesterday’s Durham Herald Sun carried the following letter under the head: 'Just following orders' is no excuse for police

To the editor:

Your June 20 editorial [City in crosshairs..."] said, "It would have taken great courage for a rank-and-file officer or investigator to stand up and oppose the sitting DA."

That thinking is reminiscent of the Nuremberg defense used by Hitler's followers after WWII. It didn't work then and it won't now.

Sworn law officers don't have to "just follow orders" when it involves breaking the law. If they can't figure it out, they've no business with a badge and gun.

The Herald-Sun has a poor record concerning this case -- it was one of Mike Nifong's biggest boosters. It remains to be seen if The Herald-Sun can partially redeem itself by insisting that Durham's leaders get to the bottom of what happened with the police department no matter where it leads.

Mike Nifong didn't frame those three young men by himself. He had help and the public needs to know who it was and why it was done.

WALTER ABBOTT
Ruston, La.

That letter is typical of Abbott’s direct, reasoned and fact-based approach to MSM editors. He’s a “tell me no lies, give me no alibis” person.

After NC Attorney General Roy Cooper declared the three young men innocent, Raleigh News & Observer executive editor for news Melanie Sill posted at the Editors’ Blog pouting she was sure that in the wake of Cooper’s declaration the N&O would receive “the usual barrage from people who hate [us and engage in] smearing The N&O.”

Abbott ignored Sill’s pout and told her just what he thought the N&O had done to enable the witch hunt and frame-up (thread @ 04/19/07 at 07:54)

Melanie,

Last year, Samiha Khanna and Anne Blythe wrote this about Crystal Mangum, the false accuser in the Duke case:

"The accuser had worked for an escort company for two months, doing one-on-one dates about three times a week.

"It wasn't the greatest job," she said, her voice trailing off. But with two children, and a full class load at N.C. Central University, it paid well and fit her schedule.

This was the first time she had been hired to dance provocatively for a group, she said. There was no security to protect her, and as the men became aggressive, the two women started to leave. After some of the men apologized for the behavior, the women went back inside, according to police. That's when the woman was pulled into a bathroom and raped and sodomized, police said."

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/421799.html

Last night, Reade Seligmann's attorney Jim Cooney had this to say on Liestoppers Board:

"We were provided with "sign-in" logs from the "Champagne Room" of the Platinum Club. A "dancer" and her customer are required to sign the sheet pledging that they will not engage in any sex or touching in the room. (I swear that I am not making this up). We have sheets from the latter part of March (and just 2 or 3 days after the "attack") showing that someone named "Precious" signed in.

This is consistent with what Yolanda Hayes said about Precious in her affidavits (and appears to corroborate the approximate time of the videotape showing her dancing until Yolanda throws her off the stage).

Significantly, we were able to trace Precious' footsteps the weekend before the party. Recall that she told Durham PD that after dancing at the Platinum Club on Friday night, she did her nails, went to a movie, and did her nails some more.

Hardly. We found that after dancing at the Platinum Club she had at least 4 private hotel room engagements with various escort customers. She made approximately 20 to 25 calls to at least 8 escort services that weekend for jobs. We were able to track down at least one of those customers. We were comfortable with what his testimony would have been."

http://z9.invisionfree.com/LieStoppers_Board/index.php?showtopic=3191&st=0

It is my contention that the Raleigh News and Observer is as culpable as Mike Nifong in precipitating this tragedy.

The 3/25/06 article by Khanna and Blythe provided the spark. It gave Nifong political cover, incited the potbangers, stampeded Brodhead and Steele, and signaled the TV networks to send in the satellite trucks.

The fuel of the accusations was there as was the oxygen of racial tension. You all struck the match.

In 1898, William Randolph Hearst, one of the most famous yellow journalists of all, precipitated the Spanish American War in a fashion similar to this case. Frederick Remington, the famous artist, telegraphed Hearst to tell him all was quiet in Cuba and "There will be no war."

Hearst responded "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."

I suppose congratulations are in order, Melanie. You've made the big time.

Walter Abbott
Ruston, LA

Just the other day at the Editors’ Blog, managing editor John Drescher asked readers how the N&O should have reported testimony at the disgraced Mike Nifong’s State Bar trial that included the use of the “f” word.

Abbott blew right by Drescher's after the fact "question." He told Drescher some things he hadn’t asked for but which I think we’d all agree Drescher needed to hear and should follow-up on. (Abbott's is the first comment on the thread)

John,

I understand and share your chagrin at what DA Mike Nifong said to DPD invesigators last April. Compared to the big picture, though, it really isn't important.

What's important is that you and your newspaper find out how the Durham Police Department and the Durham DA framed 3 innocent citizens for a crime that never was.

Find out how for an entire year, they managed to carry it off.

Find out who knew about the frame, but kept silent for whatever reason.

Find out who in the command structure of the DPD approved of the frame.

Find out which ADA's knew what Nifong was up to and said nothing.

Find out why the US Attorney is missing in action on this case.

Yes, you poeple have a lot to do. Finding out who uses foul language and whether it should be printed in the paper is way down on the list, in my opinion.

Walter Abbott
Ruston, LA

Walter Abbott and citizen journalists like him are doing just what the founders of this country wanted citizens to do.

May their tribe increase

INNOCENT: To Prof. Haagen re: Seligmann threats

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
___________________________________

Readers Note: I've just sent the following email to Professor Paul Haagen, whose term as Chair of Duke's Academic Council ends on June 30.

I'll let you know what I hear back.

John
________________________________________

Paul H. Haagen, J.D.
Professor of Law
Duke University School of Law

Dear Professor Haagen:

Some weeks back I contacted Faculty of Arts & Sciences Dean George McLendon. I requested he ask the Academic Council to make a statement condemning those who on May 18, 2006 shouted physical threats, including death threats, at Reade Seligmann and expressing concern for him and his family for the ordeal they endured.

In addition to links to news reports of the threats, I provided Dean McLendon with a links to an account of the cross burning in Durham the previous May and the Academic Council’s formal condemnation a few days later of that odious event.

Dean McLendon responded as follows:

I have forwarded your email to Paul Haagen, chair of the academic council.(A [JinC] commentator astutely notes that I have no special standing with [the academic council] ).

I personally deplore and condemn any threats directed at Mr Seligmann,or at any other member of the Duke community,as a result of this tragically misguided prosecution and the events which surrounded it.

I’ve heard nothing from you in the weeks since Dean McLendon forwarded my request to you.

I know how easily things can fall off the radar screen, so I’ve included below a copy of the letter I sent Dean McLendon.

I look forward to your response, which I'll post in full at my blog:Johnincarolina.com

Sincerely,

John in Carolina
_______________________________________________

George L. McLendon, Ph.D.
Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Duke University

Dear Dean McLendon:

I hold two degrees from the University and blog as John in Carolina.

I’m writing as both an alum and a Durham resident.

You no doubt recall that last May 18, then sophomore Reade Seligmann was subjected to shouted physical threats, including death threats. They were made first as he walked to the Durham County Courthouse with his parents and attorney, the late Kirk Osborn, and then again within the courtroom.

The threats were widely reported in media. Britan’s The Guardian's account said:

Reade Seligmann, 20, sat in a suit at a court hearing. From the gallery one onlooker shouted: 'Justice will be served, rapist!' Seligmann largely ignored the taunts, but as he left came the call 'Dead man walking!' and he blanched.

Among those threatening Seligmann were members of the racist New Black Panther Party.

I know of no member of the Arts & Sciences faculty who spoke out publicly to condemn those threatening Seligmann or to offer their compassion to Seligmann and his parents after what was a terrible ordeal.

The A & S faculty’s silence reflects very poorly on it and Duke University.

That’s especially so when we recall the faculty’s prompt, clear and strong response almost exactly a year earlier to the anonymous and still unsolved cross burnings in Durham.

Here in full for your reference and JinC readers information is the Academic Council’s June 1, 2005, statement as posted for media distribution at Duke News:

As representatives of the Duke University faculty, the Executive Committee of the Academic Council wishes to add our collective voice to the recent events in Durham.

Cross-burning in the United States is a history we all hoped had ended. Such acts have been an extreme symbol of racial violence and of one group's desire to deny civil and human rights to another group. Cross-burning has re-emerged as a practice of intimidation in the present, still carrying the taint of white supremacist, segregationist, and other demeaning policies associated with a not-so-distant time in the life of Duke, Durham, and the surrounding region.

Intimidation and threats of violence against any group are anathema in both university contexts and in society at large. We condemn the cross-burnings that have disgraced our community -- and we renew our commitment to liberty and justice for all.

In June 2005 I was very glad the Academic Council made its cross burning statement as were fair-minded alums and Durhamites who learned of it.

Since May 18, 2006 I’ve been very troubled by the faculty’s silence regarding the threats made to Seligmann.

Why has there been no faculty statement that intimidation and threats of violence against Reade Seligmann or any other peaceful citizen are anathema in both university contexts and in society at large?

I don’t believe the intimidation and threats Seligmann, his parents and Kirk Osborn were subjected to last May 18 by two small groups of hate-filled people disgraced either Duke or Durham. But the wall of silence the University and the City have collectively thrown up since May 18 certainly has.

That wall of silence needs to fall.

I’m told that as Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences you are the proper administrator to place the matter of a faculty response to the events of May 18 before the A&S faculty for consideration of a request to the Academic Council.

That request would, I hope, ask the Academic Council to issue on behalf of the Duke faculty a statement as clear and strong in its condemnation of the threats made to Seligmann as was its June 2005 condemnation of the cross burnings.

I look forward to your response, which I’ll publish in full at my blog.

Thank you for your attention to this letter.

Sincerely,

John in Carolina

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The Churchill Series – Jun. 26, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

In September, 1941 Lord Beaverbrook, then serving as Minister of Supply in Churchill’s National Unity Government, headed a mission to Moscow to discuss British aid to the Russians.

In Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour, 1939-1941 historian Sir Martin Gilbert tells us:

On the evening of September 29 a telegram reached Downing Street from Moscow. It was clear that Stalin was going to drive a hard bargain. As Beaverbrook explained: “Moscow is asking for aircraft with cannon and I represent to you urgently that a good measure of Hispano [aircraft] production is desirable. Spitfires must be supplied before long in any circumstances.”

Stalin, added Beaverbrook, “is dissatisfied with Tomahawks and critical of the performance, declaring that the aircraft is unsuited to the Germans on this front. He says that ammunition supply is not adequate, particularly no tracer. I recommend that this situation should be cleared up at the earliest possible moment.”

On reaching the Moscow “outer [defense] ring”, Beaverbrook added, the Mission’s aeroplane had been fired on by Soviet anti-aircraft at 600 feet, and was forced to dive "to tree-tops, fleeing at full speed brushing the autumn leaves away.”

Beaverbrook added: “We do not recommend any more anti-aircraft guns for Russia.” (pgs. 1206-1207)

A sense of humor never hurts, especially when the tough “missions” come our way in life.

INNOCENT: Hodge's Club Fan

Deputy Police Chief Ron Hodge, one of three finalists for Durham police chief, faced a misdemeanor charge of child abuse 10 years ago that was dismissed in court but threatened to cost him his job.

City Manager Patrick Baker, who will make the final call in hiring a new police chief, said he's satisfied that Hodge and his family dealt with the problems that drew sheriff's deputies to his home May 4, 1997.

Hodge was accused of spanking his son, then 13, with a police-issued nightstick because he got into trouble at school, according to court documents and news reports from the time.

Hodge's daughter called 911, and sheriff's deputies arrived to find Hodge had locked himself in a room, according to news reports.

He was allowed to stay at the home that evening and was charged five days later with misdemeanor child abuse. The boy was not seriously injured.

The case was dismissed by a judge in early 1998, court records show.

Baker said Hodge, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, took anger management classes and the entire family underwent counseling. . . .

[Baker also said,]"There's nothing that causes me concern from that incident that affects Mr. Hodge's capacity to be the next Durham police chief."

But officials in the state Attorney General's Office thought the matter left Hodge unfit to be a police officer. They sought to have Hodge stripped of his law enforcement certification, Baker said.

Baker, who was an assistant Durham city attorney, said he is "intimately familiar" with the case because he defended Hodge against the state charges.

He said Hodge went before an administrative law judge, who found that Hodge wasn't guilty in large part because his son did not suffer substantial injuries.

The state appealed, but Hodge prevailed again.

"There never was a conviction or finding of guilt against Deputy Chief Hodge," Baker said.

With that background, we turn to the N&O’s Barry Saunders’ column published today:

There are two likely responses upon hearing that one of the dudes being considered for the top cop job in Durham was accused of hitting his son with a billy club 10 years ago.

The first -- "Oh, how horrible. How could he?" -- is usually said by someone who has never raised a teenager and who thinks they're all like Theo Huxtable.

The other is, "Say, homes (sic). Where can I get me one of those clubs?"

If they're anything like me, most Durham residents couldn't care less who replaces Steve Chalmers as chief, as long as the winner locks up the bad guys and makes the streets safer.

One of the three candidates, Ron Hodge, is probably a long shot for two reasons. He is the No. 2 man in a department beset by image problems tied to, among other things, the Duke lacrosse case. And 10 years ago, he was accused of hitting his son with his department-issue billy club after the kid messed up.

Saunders is right that most of us who live in Durham want a police chief who’ll lock up the bad guys and make our streets safer.

But an awful lot of us don’t want the man who was in day-to-day charge of DPD when it arrested three innocent man following an investigation some say involved criminal conduct to be Durham’s “top cop.”

But the N&O’s Saunders doesn’t see it that way. He doesn’t seem to have any problems with what DPD did to those white boys.

And as for that billy club matter, Saunders says:

Instead of lessening his chances of leading the department, the fact that he disciplined his son -- even in a manner unprescribed by the "time out" crowd -- catapults him to the top of my list. . . .

The decade-old incident at the Hodge homestead was bloodless and, by every account, a one-time thing.

Of course, if you do it right, it only takes one time.

Saunders doesn’t say how a police officer does “it right” when he swings his billy club at his son or anyone else. Maybe he's saving that for his next column

In order to “do it right” just where does a police officer strike his child with his club? Saunders needs to tell us.

Saunders doesn’t say what could happen if striking of the child with the club wasn’t done “right.” Did he consider that?

Anyone aiming to strike one part of a child’s body could miss that part and hit another part of the body. The child’s head, for instance. That could do permanent and severe damage.

It would, in Saunders words, only take one time.

Folks, Durham has a lot of problems. They could get worse.

That said, I hope you won’t object when I say of Saunders' column: “Only in Raleigh; and there only at the N&O”

INNOCENT: Nifong’s “f” & Sgt. Shelton

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
______________________________________________

During the NC State Bar trial that resulted in Mike Nifong’s disbarment, Durham Police Investigator Benjamin Himan, a lead investigator of a case involving the attempted framing of three Duke students, testified he told Nifong on March 27, 2006 that he was concerned about the lack of evidence supporting claims by Crystal Mangum that she’d been beaten and gang-raped by three members of the Duke lacrosse team.

Himan said Nifong responded with: “You know we’re f …ed.”

Nifong’s testimony concerning the “f” part of the March 27 meeting directly contradicts Himan’s testimony.

Let’s look at the contradiction, after which I’ll offer some comments and invite yours.

What follows is an excerpt from the State Bar Deposition posted at Liestoppers.com. Nifong is being questioned about the March 27 meeting by State Bar attorney Doug Brocker. I’ve inserted a few italicized parentheticals for clarity.
______________________________________________

Q. Do you remember making any comments ( at the March 27 meeting )about the case or the investigation or anything else?

A. No, sir, not at that time.

Q. I'm going to have to use his language because it's exact. But in -- do you remember making a comment in that meeting to the effect in talking about this case and what had happened up to this point, I think the exact quote was, "We're f.. ked"?

A. No, sir. I actually am aware -- well, let me say this I don't recall ever making that statement, but on the other -- at the same time, would say that it's not a statement that I can have tell you that I wouldn't have made. I mean, it certainly is possible that I said something.

But my -- my recollection is that that statement would have been made at a later time and in reference to some things that had been written by - had been put in a report by another officer. Some things had been stated by another officer, specifically, Officer Shelton, who was the first officer who arrived on the scene at the Kroger ( the night of March 13/14 ), did not believe that anything had occurred other than it was a drunk victim, and she ( Crystal Mangum ) did not -- I believe -- as my recollection is, that she didn't make any statements about having been sexually assaulted at the time she spoke with him. That subject came up at the Durham Access Center.

So he thought he was dealing with someone who was impaired and uncooperative, and that that was all he was dealing with. And he made some statements publicly later on to other members of the police department, and some of those statements at some point got into -- was asked about them by sources outside, and, you know, I might very well have said, and this is the kind of stuff that, you now, really screws up or f..ks up an investigation. And, you know, this is -- this is not something that he should be saying.

Q. So if you made a comment or a similar comment, it would have been about what was in Shelton's report and comments that he made?

A. I think it would have probably been before I even saw his report, but just based on what heard that he was saying, that he was making comments publicly within the department that there was nothing to this. So he was, to my knowledge, the only officer who had reached that conclusion.

Q. Do you recall any general time frame for when he was making those comments or when you were asked about them?

A. No, sir. I mean, it would have been fairly early on, but probably not even the first week. [. . .]
______________________________________

How did you like Nifong’s answer when Brocker asked him if he’d made the “f” statement?

No, sir. I actually am aware -- well, let me say this I don't recall ever making that statement, but on the other -- at the same time, would say that it's not a statement that I can have tell you that I wouldn't have made. I mean, it certainly is possible that I said something.

No, he didn’t say it. Well, he doesn’t recall it. But he can’t tell Brocker that he “wouldn’t have made” it. It’s certainly possible he said something.

I bet I know what most of you are thinking: Nifong’s trying to give himself all kinds of “wiggle room” in case other testimony and evidence confirms what Himan testified he said to Nifong and what Nifong said in response on March 27, 2006.

That’s my take on it, too.

The “Officer Shelton” Nifong scapegoats for his “f” comment is Sergeant John Shelton, a veteran and well-respected DPD officer.

Nifong says of Shelton: “So he thought he was dealing with someone who was impaired and uncooperative, and that that was all he was dealing with.”

Yes, that’s just what Shelton thought; and he was right.

And BTW - Nifong’s suggestion that Shelton was the one DPD officer last March expressing disbelief in the hoax is “a crock.” I didn’t talk to an officer then and haven’t since who off the record hasn’t said it was “a crock,” often in language much stronger than that.

That shouldn’t surprise anyone. What police officer would believe three strong, young male athletes and one “petite, soft-spoken” woman could all fit in a tiny bathroom; then engage in a brutal, thirty minute battle during which the woman fought for her life as she was strangled and repeatedly raped; and at the end of all that everyone would walk out of the bathroom with no severe fractures or bruising, etc.?

It’s a mark of Nifong’s current desperation that he would attack Shelton for expressing last March what was no more than the simple truth.

It’s also very disingenuous because Nifong knows the most important “statements” Shelton made which hurt Nifong’s “investigation” were not Shelton’s expressions of disbelief in the hoax, but Shelton’s actions in the early morning hours of March 14 and the actions of Shelton’s backup, DPD Officer Willie Barfield.

As veteran police officers, Shelton and Barfield know about the kinds and severity of physical injuries a woman suffers when she’s brutally beaten and raped by even one strong young man, to say nothing of being brutally beaten and raped by three strong young men. Like all DPD officers they're trained to administer emergency first aid to victims of such horrific crimes while they await the arrival of the EMS ambulance and emergency medical assistance.

Shelton and Barfield knew Mangum had suffered no such injuries and needed no emergency medical assistance. She hadn’t even suffered slight injuries.

Had Shelton seen any signs of injuries when he first came upon Mangum “passed out drunk,” he would have arranged for her to be taken immediately to Duke Hospital, which is less than a mile from the Kroger parking lot.

But Shelton saw no evidence of any physical injuries. That’s why he arranged for Officer Barfield to take Mangum to Durham Access, which provides short-term domicile and “support services” for substance abusers.

Barfield only later took Mangum from Durham Access to Duke Hospital after she said at Access she’d been raped.

From the moment he heard what Shelton and Barfield had done, Nifong understood their actions provided extremely significant and irrefutable evidence that a brutal beating and gang-rape DID NOT take place at the party.

I’m looking forward to the time an attorney, hopefully a prosecutor, has Nifong under oath and asks: “Mr. Nifong, why do you criticize Sgt. Shelton for what he said? Wasn’t it really his actions that night that made clear Mangum’s claims were gross frauds? And yours, too?”

Your turn, folks.

Monday, June 25, 2007

The Churchill Series – June 25, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

To many of the documents Churchill sent to his Private Secretaries and close advisors during WW II he added “KBO” along with his signature.

KBO? A Russian secret police organization? A knowledge-based organization?

No, it stood for “keep buggering on,” an expression Churchill often used to remind himself and others not to get discouraged in the face of difficulties but to KBO.

A British dictionary of slang says “bug” can mean bother, persist, annoy.

Churchill had to do a lot of that, often in trying and dangerous circumstances that would quickly break the spirit of most people.

Have a good day and KBO

John

This Made Me Smile

At the London Theatre Guide site there are the following snips from reviews of The Lord of the Rings, now playing at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane:

" I enjoyed the whole spectacle " (londontheatre.co.uk)

"The show has charm, wit, and jaw-dropping theatrical brio" (The Times)

"Tiresome grandiosity with mind-rotting mediocrity" (Daily Telegraph)

"Tedious and vulgar" (Evening Standard)

"I had a perfectly good time." (Guardian)

Well, that's settled.

INNOCENT: Brodhead Wins Sheldon Award

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
______________________________________________

JinC News has just learned Duke University’s President, Richard (“Whatever they did was bad enough”) Brodhead, is this year's Sheldon Award winner. The Sheldon is awarded annually to the university or college president selected as America’s worst.

In The New York Sun we read

“[t]he award is a statuette that looks something like the Oscar, except the Oscar features a man with no face looking straight ahead, whereas the Sheldon shows a man with no spine looking the other way.

Many other feckless, left-leaning and whinny higher ed presidents provided tough competition.

But according to Sheldon Award chair and sole selection committee member John Leo, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, the ultimate selection was an easy one: Brodhead was clearly the worst of this year’s nominees.

Leo explained in his NY Sun column:

[Here] is what Mr. Brodhead did: On hearing the first reports, he abruptly canceled the lacrosse season, suspended the two players named in the case, and fired the lacrosse coach of 16 years, giving him less than a day to get out.

This helped create the impression that the players were guilty.

His long letter to the campus on April 20 did the same thing. He didn't say the boys were guilty, but he talked passionately about the coercion and assault of women, the legacy of racism, and privilege and inequality — all of which fed the anger aimed at the lacrosse team.

Mr. Brodhead did nothing to deter the tsunami whipped up against the players by some students and the Group of 88, an alliance of mostly radical race and gender professors.

One of the looniest of the 88, Houston Baker, answered a polite and worried letter from one of the lacrosse moms by calling her "the mother of a farm animal."

Without any comment from Mr. Brodhead, the protesters issued death threats, carried banners that said "castrate," featured photos of lacrosse players on "Wanted" fliers, and banged pots outside the boys' residences in the early morning hours to disturb their sleep.

A word from the president about leaving the boys alone and guaranteeing them a fair trial would have been nice.

Like Mr. Brodhead, the Group of 88 did not quite call the players guilty, but praised the campus protestors for "shouting and whispering about what happened to this young woman."

No comment about that from Mr. Brodhead and no comment from him on Mr. Nifong for nine months.

An engineering professor at Duke said, "There never was a clear sense that the students were innocent until proven guilty."

Congratulations Richard Brodhead, Sheldon laureate 2007. And you should resign.

I’ll be saying more about Brodhead’s well-deserved Sheldon recognition but right now I want to get the news out to you because John Burness and his people at Duke News haven’t yet issued a statement concerning this latest recognition of the kind of leadership Brodhead’s providing Duke.

You can read John Leo’s NY Sun Sheldon column here. I think you’ll agree that while the other Sheldon nominees deserved consideration, Brodhead was clearly the worst of the lot.

INNOCENT: Remove Nifong Now

A Durham judge has set a hearing for Thursday on the possible removal of Mike Nifong as Durham district attorney.
Nifong already has been suspended with pay, and he has said he will resign effective July 13.

But Orlando Hudson, Durham's senior resident Superior Court judge, has the power to remove Nifong from office sooner than that.

On Thursday, Hudson will consider a petition filed by Durham resident Beth Brewer asking for Nifong's removal. Hudson has appointed Raleigh lawyer Robert Zaytoun to prosecute the case against Nifong. The hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. […]

I hope Judge Hudson will order Nifong’s immediate removal from office.

In a Durham Herald Sun op-ed last week, Durham City Councilman Eugene Brown laid out some of the reasons we should all want Nifong’s immediate removal as DA. While Brown was writing in support of Hudson’s order to suspend Nifong pending the removal hearing, his words apply equally well to Nifong’s removal as DA [excerpts]:

The harsh reality is that our former district attorney has disgraced himself and his office. He has disgraced our community, and he has disgraced his profession.

For him to have [hang] around the courthouse for another month would have been like rubbing salt into a 15-month open, community wound. Such a wound can only be healed with his departure. . . .

Our former district attorney is facing additional civil and perhaps criminal charges. Indeed, [it’s been] announced that the three lacrosse players and their families [will] file a suit against him.

In addition, Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith has stated that he is not through with Nifong yet.

But in spite of the possibility of pending [actions] against him, [Nifong in office might still have] access to all the files on this case.

I can't say for sure that [presents] a problem. But after watching the [State Bar] hearings . . . and seeing Mike Nifong trying to defend the indefensible, I didn't feel comfortable with this situation. Files can be erased, information can be altered, papers can be shredded.

Regardless, our former district attorney needs to go quickly and quietly into the night.

Amen!

Sunday, June 24, 2007

INNOCENT: N&O asks about "f" word.

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
______________________________________________

During the recent State Bar trial of the disgraced Mike Nifong, DPD Investigator Benjamin Himan testified he told Nifong on March 27, 2006 that he was concerned by the lack of evidence supporting the claims of hoaxer Crystal Mangum. Himan said Nifong responded: “You know we're f—ed.”

At the Raleigh News & Observer’s Editors’ Blog, Managing Editor John Drescher posted on the issues Himan’s quote of the “f” word presented the N&O when reporting the story. He explained how the N&O decided to go with the quote you’ve just read in the first paragraph.

Than Drescher said to blog readers: “How would you have handled this? Post your comments below.”

I just left the following comment on the post thread here.
__________________________________________

Dear Editor Drescher,

I’m not sure how I would have handled Himan’s report of what Nifong said on March 27, 2006.

When I heard Himan’s testimony, I wondered what he and Nifong would have been saying if the N&O had published in its March 25, 2006 account of its interview with Crystal Mangum the exculpatory news the N&O withheld from that story and only published on April 12, 2007, the day AFTER Attorney General Roy Cooper had declared David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann innocent.

Here, quoting from your 4/12/07 story, is some of the exculpatory news the N&O hid from the public for thirteen months, five months longer than the disgraced Mike Nifong was able to hide the exculpatory DNA evidence:

"Mangum … said she thought the other woman hired to dance with her also had been assaulted." […]

"When asked why she made the report, she said, 'Most guys don't think it's a big deal' to force a woman to have sex." […]

"Moments later, she added, 'Maybe they think they can get away with it because they have more money than me.'" […]

"Mangum said that although she did not witness it, she thought the second dancer was sexually assaulted but didn't come forward because she would lose her job as an escort.

'I got the feeling she would do just about anything for money,' Mangum said of the second dancer, Kim Roberts." […]

Editor Drescher, if the N&O hadn’t withheld that exculpatory news, what do you think Nifong and Himan would have been talking about last March 27?

And what would they have talked about if the N&O, instead of promulgating in your March 25 story the vicious lie that the lacrosse players had refused to cooperate with police, had instead reported the truth the N&O knew at the time: that the players were very cooperative with the police?

Suppose on March 27 when Nifong and Himan had their “f” conversation, the N&O’s report that day of the previous day’s Trinity Park potbangers’ rally outside the lacrosse captains’ house had reported the people you approvingly described were really so angry and hate-filled they rallied around a large “CASTRATE” banner?

That's a shocking sight we haven’t seen in North Carolina since the days when the N&O’s Josephus Daniels was stirring up lynch mobs. (You can view a picture of the banner and potbangers at Liestoppers.com)

If the N&O had done what an honest newspaper should do, could Nifong and certain DPD officers have gone as far as they did with their lies and attempted frame-up?

When I heard Himan’s account of Nifong’s “f” comment, I thought of another word that begins with “f.”

It’s “fraudulent” as in the N&O’s fraudulent stories that enabled Nifong to first trash and endanger all the lacrosse team with the “wall of solidarity” lie, and then pick three of them, and attempt to frame them and send them to jail, perhaps for the rest of their lives.

Editor Drescher, fraudulent is the “f” word the N&O needs to be concerned about.

Sincerely,

John in Carolina

INNOCENT: Another Opportunity From DPD

I am a lieutenant with the Durham Police Department, where I have served for 23½ years. I worked for Deputy Chief Ron Hodge for several years when he was the commander in District 1 in eastern Durham and I think he is the right choice for Durham's next police chief. He is fair, honest, straightforward, responsive to problems and an innovative thinker.

His results in District 1 prove that he is a strong commander who can develop solutions to crime problems. In his two years as commander of District 1 (2000-2002), violent crime dropped 20 percent and property crime decreased by 26 percent. These are results that would make any police commander proud.

Hayes goes on to fulsomely praise other work Deputy Chief Ron Hodge has done over the years.

But Hayes says nothing about Hodge’s leadership of DPD during the time the “Nifong/DPD investigative team” attempted to frame the three young men. Hodge was in day-to-day charge of DPD during most the attempted frame-up because, the public was told, Chief Steve Chalmers was “on leave taking care of his sick mother.”

Hayes says nothing about what Hodge has done to uncover and publicly explain what the DPD part of the “Nifong/DPD investigative team” did wrong.

It’s no doubt an unintentional irony that Hayes’ guest column appears exactly 15 months to the day Cpl. Addison, acting as DPD spokesperson, told the public: "You are looking at one victim brutally raped.”

Why, during those 15 months, has Hodge never explained why his department’s spokesperson told Durham’s public that falsehood on March 24, 2006 and so many more falsehoods in the days that followed? Hayes doesn’t tell us.

In fact, Hayes never mentions what’s called “the Duke lacrosse case.” Yet it’s undoubtedly one of the most important cases in Hodge’s career and the subject of an impending investigation by a panel appointed by the Mayor and City Council.

I hope many of you will use the opportunity Hayes’ guest column provides to write response letters. You can send them via email to: letters@heraldsun.com

The H-S typically limits letters to 250 words. The H-S publishes letters from out-of-towners.

Police and prosecutors all over America are watching Durham. They’ll be influenced by what happens here. For that reason if no other, every American has a stake in how things work out here.

I hope many of you will write fact-based letters asking questions and raising concerns regarding Hodge’s candidacy for Durham Police Chief.

Here's another link to Lieutenant Hayes' guest column.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

INNOCENT: H-S Not Wrong In This Case (Post 2)

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
______________________________________________

Recently the Durham Herald Sun published a letter you’ll find in this post: "INNOCENT:A Zany & Dangerous Letter."

The post fisks a good part of the letter. On its thread at least one commenter took issue with what I’d done, and there were a few who took issue with the H-S for publishing the letter in the first place. There was a lot more commentary, too. And all of the comments were civil and serious.

I responded on the thread and also in a separate post dealing with the issue of whether the H-S should have published the letter in the first place. You can read that post and comment thread here: "INNOCENT: H-S Not Wrong In This Case."

As with the first post, the comments were civil and informed.

I wanted to say more but was traveling. So now I’ll add a few thoughts and folks familiar with the two posts and threads can respond.

On the matter of whether a community should publish letters expressing dangerous and zany ideas, in most circumstances I’ve no problem with that so long as the newspaper provides counter letters and, with its editorials and solid news reporting, provides its own counter.

On the matter of whether a community newspaper should publish statements that are extreme and false (nothing wrong with being extreme and right. Once those who argued there were things called germs that caused disease were extreme), again I’d hold to let the extreme and false statements appear in community newspapers so long as there are the counters I mentioned about.

(Anticipating the troll who’ll show up saying, “In that case, why do you delete comments?” we must remember that blogs are private affairs and don’t seek extra protections and financial subsidies from the government in exchange for what they do. And BTW – I’ll delete that troll comment when it appears.)

Now two final points:

First, here are two sentences from the letter:

”I do think this case should have gone to trial so all the facts could come out.”

and

“Our legal system must protect those who are falsely accused, but not by quickly dismissing the claims of women.”

The first sentence is manifestly false. Actual evidence is often suppressed at trials while Nifong-type “manufactured evidence” often becomes part of the record.

The second sentence is zany because in the case the letter writer is talking about, we know the woman’s manifestly bogus claims were taken so seriously, they were used to indict three obviously innocent young men who only escaped long jail terms because they were able to mount a defense that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Those sentences and other like them in that letter should scare us; and not just because of their falseness and zaniness. They should scare us because so many people believe them!

I’d love to think only an extreme element of Durham’s population believes everything would have come out at the trial. But that’s not the case. Many thousands of people here believe that.

The letter writer was no more extreme than the professional journalists KC Johnson cites today in his post here.

We have a lot of work to do in our communities and in this country to help people learn that the justice system is not supposed to be about enforcing their prejudices but securing fair treatment for all, even when that means questioning what a woman says or standing up for white males.

My last point is a repeat: Those first two threads were terrific. I’m looking forward to reading this one.

Your turn

John

To Wayne Fontes and Liestoppers forum humorists

Thanks for the heads up.

I love the parody which JinC folks can view here.

And BTW - in that article your "working on" - doesn’t Jason Bissey say something about how if he had called Sgt. Gottlieb and Inv. Himan sooner, Nifong's Bar trial "might never have happened?"

I'm rushing now, but will say more later.

Any plans for another "article" tomorrow reporting on the potbangers' "CASTRATE" rally?

Keep up the great work.

John in Carolina.

INNOCENT: McClancy for Duke Prez?

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
______________________________________________

Folks,

This is a great blog story with a surprise happy ending.

Back on Dec. 5, 2006 Duke's Dick Brodhead, the University's President, had still not said a single public word critical of Mike Nifong.

Brodhead would only do that a few weeks later after DNA expert Brian Meehan had admitted in open court he'd conspired with Nifong to hide exculpatory DNA evidence. At that point Brodhead calculated it was best for him to join those who'd been criticizing Nifong for the past nine months.

On Dec. 5, with both Brodhead's refusal to criticize Nifong and his whinny "It was a very confusing time" excuse in mind, I published " What McClancy Told the N&O."

I'd like you to read it. Then I'll share with you a happy ending to the McClancy post.
__________________________________

Dec. 5, 2006 - "What McClancy Told the N&O"

On April 2 the Raleigh News & Observer published its infamous “Vigilante” poster photo containing the names and face photos of 43 white Duke lacrosse players. We did not know then the DNA results would be negative; and we were many weeks away from learning about the rigged identification procedure in which, as Duke Law professor James Coleman said, “there could be no wrong answers.”

So on April 3 when N&O reader John McClancy left a comment at 17:43 on this post thread at the N&O’s Editors’ Blog he knew nothing about the DNA results or the identification travesty.

With that in mind, let’s look at some what McClancy said Apr. 3 to the N&O’s executive editor for news, Melanie Sill:

Instead of focusing on the facts, your paper trades in classic yellow journalist, pandering to sensationalism to sell newspapers regardless of the cost of another’s reputation or safety.

The only thing that is clear is that the woman had sex. It has not been established who she had sex with or under what conditions, or that it even occurred at the party at all.

Yet the News and Observer, both through your columnists and bias (sic) reporting, continues to inflame the community. The players are castigated and defamed merely for exercising their constitutional rights to follow their attorneys’ wise council.

As a journalist, would you treat exercising the first amendment with the same contempt?

Refusing to comment, especially to a reporter, is not an admission of guilt or even of knowledge of a crime: it is simply good sense! Or do you really expect them to trust the balanced reporting of the News and Observer? […]

After Duke wisely removed the players’ photographs from the website for their own safety, the News and Observer published them so that anyone not getting to the website in time would still have names and faces.

Most, if not all, of these young men may not have been involved in any way, but the News and Observer has lead the way in making them all targets in an emotionally charged and racially divided community.

It may be that this woman’s story is the absolute truth. Even so, the perpetrators deserve their day in court. And those who may be completely innocent deserve to be able to go on with their lives without fear of becoming the victim of a reprisal because of your need to sell newspapers.

Duke University’s President, Richard H. Brodhead, has said last March and April were a “very confusing” time.

N&O reader John McClancy doesn't sound very confused, does he?

I hope McClancy sees this.
__________________________________________

What a wonderful piece of citizen journalism! If President Brodhead had spoken last spring with as much common sense, insistence on fairness for his students and respect for their students constitutional rights, the witch hunt and attempted frame-up would not have gone as far as they did.

I wanted McClancy to know that justice seekers appreciated his wise and decent words.

But I heard nothing from him and the post dropped out of my active memory.

Then last evening into my "IN" box came:

JWM,

Well, I finally have seen it. Thanks for the kudos.

But geez, who knew?

For the first two weeks, Nifong pulled one the screwdest political move I had ever seen. If he had shut up then, he would have been governor for sure. As it is....

John McClancy

"All's Well That Ends Well"

It was wonderful hearing from you, Mr. McClancy.

And have you ever thought of a career change and perhaps serving as .......?

Friday, June 22, 2007

The Churchill Series – Jun 22, 2007

(One of a series of weekend posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Let’s end the week with another account of Churchill under enemy fire and lucky to escape with his life.

It’s mid-April 1900. Churchill has been taking part in the Boer War as both a serving officer and a war correspondent for the Morning Post, a most unusual arrangement Churchill obtained through family influence and over the objections of the senior officers in the field.

In Churchill: Wanted Dead or Alive his granddaughter, Celia Sandys, recounts an incident in which Churchill, accompanying a troop of mounted scouts, found himself in a trap (WSC’s words from his Morning Post account of the incident are in quotation marks):

Then the Scouts were forced to dismount, some hundred yards from the hilltop, to cut a wire fence barring their way.

The delay was fatal to their venture and very nearly fatal for the Morning Post’s correspondent.

The heads of a dozen Boers appeared above the rocks, “grim, hairy and terrible.” There were obviously many more behind them.

“‘Too late,’ McNeill called, ‘back to the other kopje [hill]. Gallop!’

Then the musketry crashed out, and the ‘swish’ and ‘whir’ of bullets filled the air. I put my foot in the stirrup. The horse terrified at the firing, plunged wildly.”

When Churchill tried to spring into the saddle it slipped and his horse, breaking away, galloped after the fast-disappearing Scouts: “I was alone, dismounted, within the closest range, within the closest range, and a mile at least from cover of nay kind”

For the second time in South Africa, Churchill had to run for his life from Boer riflemen.

Then a lone rider appeared ahead of him. From his cap badge he was a member of Montmorency’s Scouts, “a tall man, with a skull and crossbones badge, and on a pale horse. Death in Revelation, but life to me.”

Churchill called for a stirrup and when to his surprise the man stopped, mounted behind him.

Together they made it to safety. Had they not we might notice in an encyclopedia entry for Lord Randolph Churchill a line noting his eldest son, Winston, then age 25, was killed during the Boer War.

Please look tomorrow, Sunday, for a post concerning JinC “editors.” I’ll mention a series comment made earlier this week regarding Churchill’s use of a Mauser pistol at Omdurman.

Have a restful weekend

John

INNOCENT: Grandparent speaks up for DPD

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
______________________________________________

The Durham Herald Sun recently published a letter by Durham Police Corporal David Addison in which Addison expressed his upset about what’s happened since the public got an idea of what went on in Durham during the Duke Hoax.

It’s now certain that members of “the Nifong/DPD Duke lacrosse investigative team” repeatedly and deliberately made false statements to the public, created bogus “evidence,” suppressed exculpatory evidence, and arrested and charged with multiple felonies three young men Nifong and some DPD officers knew were innocent.

Now, none of that bothers Leftists or many “victims’ advocates,” “Durham progressives,” Duke faculty Group of 88 types, and ACLU and NAACP members.

But it sure does bother decent Durham citizens who cherish justice and constitutional rights.

And those citizens have gotten things so “stirred up” here in Durham that the Mayor and City Council have gone and commissioned a panel to investigate what the DPD officers on the “Nifong/DPD investigative team” and their supervisors did as their part of – let’s call it what it was – an attempted frame-up.

Addison doesn’t like the idea of an investigative panel one bit. And who can blame him?

If you’d been DPD spokesperson late last March and you’d given false information to the media and public, and sent out the text of a false Durham CrimeStoppers Wanted poster, would you want a panel asking questions about what you did?

Wouldn’t you all be especially upset when you learned the panel was headed by a very respected former law school dean and former NC Supreme Court Justice?

So we can all understand why Addison would want to write a letter and tell people he was upset about what the panel might do to DPD, can’t we?

None of us would expect Addison to admit he's really concerned about himself: that he doesn’t want to answer questions the panel will certainly ask him.

Questions such as: “Corporal Addison, how did you determine a “brutal rape” had been committed; and did any of your superiors ever tell you to correct that false statement?”

And what about this question: "Whose idea was it, Corporal Addison, to put all that false information in the text of the CrimeStoppers' Wanted poster?"

You can read Addison’s letter here and more about him and the fallout from his letter here, here and here. Those latter two posts contain four excellent letters the H-S published in response to Addison’s.

I received offline the letter below which I’m guessing the H-S didn’t print because it had already published the other four letters. I’m publishing it here with the writer’s consent. It’s from a member of the Duke lacrosse family whose grandson was a member of the 2006 team.

I think it's remarkeable letter. I'll be interested to read what you think.
___________________________

To the editor:

Durham Police Corporal David Addison’s outrageous accusation that Durham city leaders are making slanderous and vicious attacks on the Durham Police Department is nothing more than Addison’s attempt to hide behind DPD so people won’t question what he did last spring.

As DPD spokesman on the Duke Lacrosse case, Cpl. Addison’s statements were printed and broadcast by hundreds of news organizations between March 24-28, 2006.

With absolute certainty Addison claimed one victim was “brutally raped.” He said all members of the lacrosse team had refused to cooperate with DPD. He told Durham citizens and the world there was really, really strong physical evidence of the crime.

All of that was false!

On March 28, 2006, as CrimeStoppers liaison, Addison widely distributed by email to DPD substations and to the media the unqualified and false claims that the victim was sodomized, raped, assaulted and robbed at a party hosted by the Duke Lacrosse Team.

Later, the Special Prosecutors in the NC Attorney General’s office found the claims of a “brutal rape” made by the now disgraced Mike Nifong and DPD spokesperson Addison were completely false.

Addison's statements and actions leave some DPD members suspect and the many decent DPD law enforcement officers unfairly tainted by association.

College students in Durham, their families, and everyone else in Durham are entitled to know they will not be framed by a small gang in the DPD.

Durham citizens are entitled to know that officers who go outside the law will be identified and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Honest law officers have nothing to fear from a truthful investigation. Rogue cops do!

The City Council’s approach is essential to restoring trust in the Durham Police Department.

G. Holman King
Granbury, Texas

The writer is a proud Duke Lacrosse grandparent.

The Churchill Series – June 21, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Readers Note: If you did not see the comment following yesterday’s series post recounting how Churchill’s use during the Battle of Omdurman of a Mauser pistol rather than a sword saved his life, I urge you to take a look at the comment. I plan to mention the comment in a post this weekend concerning all the informed and very helpful “editors” I have. In the post I want to refute that silly and self-serving claim many in MSM make that “bloggers don’t have editors.”

In the meantime, thank you to the commenter/”editor;” and here’s a link that says more about the Mauser model Churchill used.

John
____________________________________

Be careful, folks. This one is off the top of my head.

It’s all but a miracle Churchill ever lived to become Britain’s wartime leader.

Put aside the terrorist groups that over the decades plotted to assassinate him. Disregard if you wish the time he was almost killed in 1931 when he was hit be an auto in New York City.

Just consider how often between 1895 and 1917 he was in close combat under small arms, mortar and artillery fire in at least five wars.

He first came under fire in Cuba where in 1895, as a recent graduate of Sandhurst, he’d gone to observe the fighting between Cuban rebels and Spain, which then controlled Cuba.

In the late 1890s he took part in the savage fighting in what was then Northwest India and is now Afghanistan.

In 1898, he was part of the British force that retook the Sudan in The River War. He engaged in hand-to-hand combat during the fighting there.

Shortly thereafter, Churchill took part in the Boer War in which he was repeatedly shot at. In one engagement, a trooper riding beside and just a few feet behind him was shot dead. In another engagement, his brother Jack was wounded while fighting literally at his side. And in a third engagement, Churchill had a horse shot out from under him.

Those are just a few of the many “close calls” Churchill had during the Boer War.

He had many other "close calls" during WWI when he served in the trenches, including one instance when he left his dugout to report to a rear echelon superior office. Within about 10 minutes of his leaving the dugout it was hit directly by a German artillery shell. I believe there were either one or two soldiers in the dugout who were, of course, killed.

Five wars on four continents! And all that before WW II!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

INNOCENT: Duke's "baggage" problems

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
______________________________________________

Chronicle columnist Kirsten Butler is delighted Nifong’s leaving the DA’s office. She’s glad Duke’s reached a settlement with David Evans, Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmannn and their families. She also wants to see Duke come together.

But in response to President Richard Brodhead’s latest pronouncement that we all need to “move forward,” Butler calls attention to important matters that have people asking why Brodhead doesn’t deal with certain “baggage” before he demands once again that “the Duke community move forward.” Here’s some of what Butler says today:

Among other things, mystery still surrounds Brodhead's decision to appoint Chauncey Nartey, Trinity '07, to the Campus Culture Initiative and take him on tour for the "A Duke Conversation" series.

As we now know, Nartey sent former head lacrosse coach Mike Pressler an e-mail message asking "What if Janet Lynn were next" during the early days of the scandal, which Pressler (appropriately) interpreted as a threat against his daughter.

Yet when asked about the inexplicable decision to reward Nartey's behavior with student leadership positions, Brodhead offered no explanation.

Similarly, the same senior administrators who termed Pressler's "resignation" (the coach was forced to quit) "highly appropriate" last spring now laud Pressler's "excellent" coaching skills and thank him for doing "a great job building the Duke men's lacrosse program." No attempt has been made to reconcile these statements, nor to apologize for the coach's forced departure.

Consider also that because it is Duke's normal policy to keep the terms of financial settlements "private," we cannot know how much it cost the University to protect faculty members and administrators against legal action.

We don't know where that money is coming from or even whether the settlement itself is fair to Duke or its former students.

Moreover, it's hard to see how this administrative secrecy is compatible with Duke's mission as an educational community; such policies make it impossible for students, faculty and alumni to comment intelligently on University affairs.

If other world-class institutions routinely make this information public without injury (on the same day the Duke settlements were announced The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the University of Wisconsin at Madison paid $135,000 to settle a claim with a former administrator), Duke can surely do the same.

Administrators have yet to provide a compelling reason why they choose not to, or how their choices benefit anyone outside of the Allen Building. . . .

Will Duke … combat … and work actively to stop the Durham Police Department's systematic violation of students' rights? Or will it continue to invite more scandals?

There are many other important matters which Brodhead and Board Chair Robert Steel have refused to explain.

Why, for example, did Brodhead refuse to meet with the lacrosse parents last March 25 when they were on campus and their sons had just been ordered to submit to police DNA testing and photographing because they had been identified as suspects in a gang-rape investigation?

Why did Brodhead and Steel not meet with the parents for another 11 months?

Why has Duke failed to deny repeated reports Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek told the lacrosse players not to inform their parents they were suspects in a police investigation?

Why did Brodhead refuse to say anything critical of the “activists” on campus who within sight of his office windows distributed and posted on Duke buildings copies of the notorious “Vigilante” poster which targeted and endangered white male lacrosse players?

Why does anyone think Duke can “come together” and “move forward” before we have full, honest explanations for the matters Butler discusses in her column and the kind of questions I’ve just asked?

You can read Butler’s column here.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The Churchill Series – Jun. 20, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Yesterday’s series post included a link to a few details concerning the Battle of Omdurman in which on September 2, 1898 Churchill took part in the last major cavalry charge of the British army. The British victory at Omdurman over the Dervish army secured the upper Nile (now Sudan) for Queen Victoria’s Empire.

I said yesterday I’d post today on how an accident in India saved Churchill’s life at Omdurman. Here how that came about.

Regulars to this series will recall that when Churchill first arrived in India he was stepping off a small landing boat and preparing to mount steps that would take him up the side of a quay when the boat started drifting away from the steps. Churchill grabbed for a rope ring to avoid falling into the water. He was thereby able to mount the steps but in the process sustained a serious muscle tear at the place where his arm and shoulder joined. The tear left Churchill with a life-long limited rotation in his right arm and shoulder.

Now he tells us what he did in consideration of his shoulder problem and how it saved his life. From My Early Life:

I had always decided that if I were involved in hand-to-hand fighting, I must use a pistol and not a sword. I had purchased in London a Mauser automatic pistol, then the newest and the latest design. I had practiced carefully with this during our march and journey up the river. This then was the weapon with which I determined to fight. . . .(pg. 189)

Now in the midst of the battle Churchill finds himself separated from his troop and surrounded by Dervish fighters. He’s mounted and the Dervishes are on foot. One gets close beside his and intends to swing for Churchill’s leg and cut his hamstring muscle so he’ll be unable to control his horse:

… I saw the gleam of his curved sword as he drew it back for a ham-stringing cut. I had room and time enough to turn my pony out of his reach, and leaning over on the off side I fired two shots into him at three yards.

As I straightened myself in the saddle, I saw before me another figure with uplifted sword. I raised my pistol and fired. So close were we that the pistol itself actually struck him. Man and sword disappeared below and behind me. (pg. 191)

Churchill was twenty-three at the time of the battle. He lived on another sixty-seven years, in time becoming the last surviving British officer to have participated in the famous cavalry charge at Omdurman.

INNOCENT: The N&O’s “Duke deal” story

Duke deal shields faculty
Some spoke out after rape claims

Under reporters Anne Blythe and Eric Ferreri bylines with reporters Benjamin Niolet and Joseph Neff listed as contributors, the story begins:

Duke University's settlement with exonerated lacrosse players gives legal protection to faculty members, some of whom have been under siege for speaking out in the wake of the gang-rape allegations.

Neither side would disclose the terms of the agreement, announced Monday, but Duke's faculty chairman, Paul Haagen, informed professors that one provision is that all faculty members have been released from liability related to the lacrosse case.

That news sparked another round of vitriolic messages from e-mailers and bloggers still exercised over a student newspaper ad signed in the spring of 2006 by 88 Duke professors, who decried a campus culture of racism and sexism.

As Duke shut the door on lawsuits by the players in the lacrosse case, the Durham County sheriff on Tuesday slammed shut District Attorney Mike Nifong's access to the courthouse where he has worked 29 years. Orlando Hudson, the county's chief resident Superior Court judge, entered an order suspending Nifong with pay.

The N&O story is really two stories lumped together: the Duke settlement and matters related to it, and Nifong’s immediate legal and related difficulties.

I’m going to ignore the portions of the story dealing with Nifong and focus only on the N&O’s reporting of the “Duke deal” which reeks of a pro-Group of 88 bias and is, I believe, sloppy with at least one very important fact.

The N&O’s pro Group of 88 bias is obvious in the headlines:

Duke deal shields faculty
Some spoke out after rape claims

But Duke isn’t paying out money to exempt Professors Steve Baldwin, James Coleman and Michael Gustafson and Coaches Kerstin Kimel and Mike Krzyzewski for “speak[ing] out after rape claims.”

Duke’s paying out for statements and actions by certain faculty, including some Group of 88 members, which many legal theorists believe were potentially libelous.

There’s no problem with Duke faculty speaking out about "rape claims." We all know that.

But you can’t libel people, even if they are white male Duke students.

A less biased and more accurate headline would have been:

Duke settlement protects faculty from liability claims

Now let’s look at this paragraph:

That news sparked another round of vitriolic messages from e-mailers and bloggers still exercised over a student newspaper ad signed in the spring of 2006 by 88 Duke professors, who decried a campus culture of racism and sexism

Here we go again, folks.

The messages are “vitriolic?” Blythe, Ferreri, Niolet and Neff don’t say how they determined that. They don’t even say whether they read any or all of the massages.

Mightn’t some of the messages have been informed, fair-minded and properly critical?

And who are these latest e-mailers? Are they anything like the overwhelmingly civil, informed and caring e-mailers (a few haters and trolls mixed in) I’ve been hearing from the last fifteen months?

Does the N&O know whether these latest "e-mailers and bloggers" are the kind of people who were and remain concerned by statements and actions of certain faculty?

Does the N&O know whether the people writing "vitriolic" message are concerned by the same or similar statements and actions I'll bet the University Counsel and Trustees had in mind when they agreed to what was almost certainly a very hefty financial settlement?

Following the subhead - Duke's reasoning - the story continues:

Duke, too, is struggling to restore its image, and that, legal experts say, is one reason the university would settle such a case.

Another reason was to avoid the potential liability that Haagen assures his faculty colleagues they no longer bear.

The N&O, with four reporters working the story, failed to provide readers with even one example of a statement or action by a Duke faculty member that Haagen, a law professor, could tell readers Duke had in mind when it paid out to spare certain faculty from libel suits and itself from the odium of employing such faculty.

And if Haagen had been reluctant to cite examples, it wouldn’t have been hard for one of the four reporters to locate attorneys who have followed the case, and could have cited statements and actions by certain faculty that were potentially libelous.

But that’s not the kind of reporting you’d expect in a strongly pro Group of 88 story, is it?

There are other examples of bias further along in the story, but I’ve made my point.

Now let’s look at the reporters’ sloppy treatment of at least one very important fact.

To do that let’s look again at the story’s first two paragraphs:

Duke University's settlement with exonerated lacrosse players gives legal protection to faculty members, some of whom have been under siege for speaking out in the wake of the gang-rape allegations.

Neither side would disclose the terms of the agreement, announced Monday, but Duke's faculty chairman, Paul Haagen, informed professors that one provision is that all faculty members have been released from liability related to the lacrosse case.

The agreement announced Monday, we’ve previously been told, involved the three members of the Duke lacrosse team who were indicted as part of an attempted frame-up and their families.

There has been no report that Monday’s agreement also involved any of the other forty-four team members or their families.

If they were not involved in Monday’s settlement, what’s to stop one, some or all of the forty-four from bringing a libel action against one or some Duke faculty, and possibly Duke?

If the forty-four were somehow included in Monday’s settlement, the story doesn’t report that.

If the other team members were not involved in Monday’s settlement, than what the N&O should have reported is that faculty members have been released from liability related to the lacrosse case by David Evans, Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and their families, but not by the other forty-four members of the team or their families.

I’ll send lead reporter Anne Blythe a link to this post and request she at least clarify the matter of just who released Duke faculty from liability.

I'll offer to post her response in full.

Here's another link to the N&O story.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The Churchill Series – Jun, 19, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

The Encylopedia Britannica’s entry for the Battle of Omdurman begins:

(Sept. 2, 1898), decisive military engagement in which Anglo-Egyptian forces, under Major General Sir Herbert Kitchener (later Lord Kitchener), defeated the forces of the Mahdist leader 'Abd Allah and thereby won Sudanese territory that the Mahdists had dominated since 1881.

As many of you know, Churchill was part of the British military force that journeyed up the Nile and met the Mahdi’s army at Omdurman.

Churchill, a combat-experienced cavalry officer, volunteered to join Kitchener’s force which was short of officers who’d led men in battle. But Kitchener initially objected to the War Office’s assigning Churchill to his command, in part because in newspaper articles Churchill had been critical of his superior officers.

When Churchill finally succeeded overcoming Kitchener’s objections, he left London immediately for Egypt, but arrived after most of Kitchener’s force had already started up the Nile.

Churchill continues the story in My Early Life:

All was excitement and hustle at Abassiyeh Barracks. Two squadrons of the 21st Lancers had already started up the Nile. The other two were to leave the next morning.

Altogether seven additional officers from other cavalry regiments had been attached to the 21st to bring them up to full war-strength. These officers were distributed in command of troops about the various squadrons.

A troop had been reserved for me in one of the leading squadrons. But the delay and uncertainty about my coming had given this to another. Second-Lieutenant Robert Grenfell had succeeded in obtaining this vacancy. He had gone off in the highest spirits.

At the base everyone believed that we should be too late for the battle. Perhaps the first two squadrons might get up in time, but no one could tell. “Fancy how lucky I am,” wrote Grenfell to his family. “Here I have got the troop that would have been Winston’s, and we are to be the first to start.”

Chance is unceasingly at work in our lives, but we cannot always see its working sharply and clearly defined. As it turned out, this troop was practically cut to pieces in the charge . . . and its brave young leader was killed. (pg. 167-168)

Churchill caught up with Kitchener’s main force in time to take part in the battle at Omdurman. I’ll say more tomorrow about Churchill’s involvement in it, including how his life was spared because of an accident – that happened in India.

INNOCENT: Thanks again, Beth Brewer

A judge suspended District Attorney Mike Nifong effective immediately Tuesday after learning the prosecutor disbarred for his handling of the Duke lacrosse rape case intended to stay in office for another month.

The sheriff immediately stripped Nifong of his badge and the keys to his office.

There is probable cause to believe that Nifong "has engaged in willful misconduct in office and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, which brings the office into disrepute," Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson wrote in his order.

Durham County Sheriff Worth Hill went to Nifong's house with a deputy to serve the order Tuesday morning.

We have a Durham citizen, Beth Brewer, to thank for Judge Hudson’s immediate suspension of Mike Nifong as Durham DA.

Back in early February of this year, Beth filed an affidavit in Durham County Superior Court asking the court to exercise its authority to remove DA Mike Nifong from the office it was evident he’d abused and disgraced.

Judge Hudson could have acted then but he declined to do so until today.

It’s too bad Hudson delayed for four months but at least he did the right thing today in finally acting on Beth’s affidavit.

You can read in this JinC post, That Affidavit Got Results, what I said at the time Beth filed her affidavit.

And over at Liestoppers where Beth has blogged and which supported and publicized her efforts, you can read this post which provides background and current reporting on today’s events.

If you are just learning about Beth Brewer and the very important role she played in helping bring this day of justice in Durham about, please read this JinC post, Thank you, Beth Brewer , which details the work she did to try to unseat Nifong in last fall’s general election.

I’ve said, “Thank you, Beth Brewer," before and I’m very happy to say, “Thanks again, Beth Brewer.”

All of us in Durham who value justice owe Beth Brewer our deepest thanks.

Thank you, Beth Brewer

Blogging resumes late Tuesday

Folks,

I'm traveling most of today.

Blogging will resume about 9 PM Eastern Jun, 19.

I hope you're back then.

John

Monday, June 18, 2007

Gaza: are you surprised?

Twenty-two months after Israel pulled out of Gaza, pundit John Podhoretz isn’t surprised by what's happening there now.

Excerpts from his most recent column:

Someone asked Benjamin Franklin what America got out of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. His reply: "A republic - if you can keep it."

So it was with Gaza in August 2005. The Palestinians got a "homeland, if you can keep it."

What they got instead was hell on earth.

What they got was two brutally murderous gangs, Fatah and Hamas, competing for power by throwing people off the roofs of buildings and slaughtering rivals in front of their wives and children.

What they got was Tony Soprano (Fatah) vs. Phil Leotardo (Hamas). Only this time, Tony got his head smashed in by the SUV.

This isn't a civil war - it's a gang war.

And thousands of Palestinian bystanders are going to get shot while these two gangs go to the mattresses.

Ah, the joys of self-rule.

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister who conceived the disengagement plan, had a brilliant insight: Why not let them have it? They want it? It's theirs.

After all, over the course of Israel's 38 years of occupation, fewer than 10,000 Jews actually sought to live in Gaza - and their settlements required tens of thousands of other Israelis to risk their lives protecting them.

The Palestinians spent decades professing their detestation of Israeli occupation and demanding self-rule . . . so Israel gave them their heart's desire.

Gaza is Judenrein - emptied of all Jews, just as Hitler dreamed Germany would be. No Jews live in Gaza. No Jews patrol Gaza. It's Jew-Free-by-the-Sea, with a charming Mediterranean coast worth billions of dollars in tourism and trade.

So what's the problem?

The problem is that the Jews weren't the problem.

The problem is that the Palestinians are the problem: They are drenched in an ideology of blood and murder and suicide. (emphasis mine)

A new nation must be brought into being, nurtured and built. But Palestinian political culture is a culture of destruction.

And a culture of destruction is, inevitably, a culture of self-destruction.

Podhoretz column is here.

I think he’s right on the money.

What about you?

Hat tip: Betsy’s Page

INNOCENT: H- S not wrong in this case

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
______________________________________________

Today I posted in response to a letter that appeared in the Durham Herald Sun. You can read my post, which contains the letter in full, here.

The first comment the post drew was this from an Anon:

[Letter writer] Schlegel shouldn't be faulted for having bizarre thoughts; after all, she had some pretty serious trauma fighting cancer. She is probably more to be pitied for having trouble grasping reality.

The Hurled Scum was absolutely dead wrong in publishing the poor woman's letter, exposing her aberratiions (sic) for all to see. I liken it to pointing and laughing at someone having a grand mal seizure. At this juncture, what is gained by publishing the ravings of someone who is obviously trouobled (sic)? Hurled Scum does it again!! What a rag!!!

I read the comment a few times trying to decide whether it was a troll's comment that simply deserved deletion.

I've decided to treat the comment as being a genuine expression of belief by a person whose conscious intentions are well-meant.

That said, I take very strong exception to just about everything the commenter says.

To label Ms. Schlegel's statements as bizarre and attribute them to her cancer without detailed clinical knowledge of her condition is presumptuous in the extreme.

It also ignores some very salient facts including the following:

1) Ten of millions of cancer survivors are thoughtful, skilled, intelligent and able citizens who are as free, if not more free, of bizarre thoughts than the average citizen.

2) Everything Schlegel said in her letter has been said by people paid to write news reports, columns and editorial for our largest circulation newspapers; and to host and comment on our cable channels.

Most of those people are not cancer survivors. They are just people like Schlegal who've embraced zany and dangerous ideas.

3) There was nothing I read in Schlegel's letter that I haven't heard again and again from people here in Durham I've know for ten, twenty and thirty plus years. And most of them are people who've never had cancer.

I could say more but I hope I've made my points: lots of people who've never had cancer say what Schlegel said; there's no reason to believe she said what she said because of her cancer; and her opinions are ones many, including many in media and in Durham, share.

Therefore, in publishing her letter, the Herald Sun, was giving voice to one segment of community opinion.

That was a reasonable thing for a newspaper to do even as I disagree with just about everything in Schlegel's letter.

Again, you can read her letter here.

INNOCENT: A Zany & Dangerous Letter

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
______________________________________________
In today’s Durham Herald Sun there’s a letter in which almost every sentence contains an assertion that is zany, dangerous or both.

Usually I ignore such letters but this one really deserves a fisking.

From Judy Schlegel of Durham, the letter runs under the head: Don't call her a liar

As a woman, I remain very disturbed at the way the events of the lacrosse case are being played out.

[ Just what it is that disturbs you, Ms. Schlegel? That the young men who were the victims of an attempted frame-up have been declared innocent by NC’s Attorney General? That the State Bar’s panel that tried Nifong affirmed the AG’s finding of innocence? ]

Would the accused be treated like sweet, innocent victims if they were not super rich?

[ Their families are not "super rich" but if their families hadn’t the resources to hire expensive defense attorneys, the frame-up might well have worked.

In that case, you and people like you would be very satisfied that David Evens, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann would be going to jail for most or all of the rest of their lives.

Ms. Schlegel, people like you are dangerous. No one should support the actions of rogue prosecutors like Mike Nifong who corrupt justice by framing innocent citizens.

If America ever gets enough people like you and Nifong, the country will be well on its way to becoming a police state. ]

Are we going back to the days when the victim of a sexual assault must defend herself?

[ Sexual assault is a terrible wrong. Women, men and children shouldn’t have to defend themselves from sexual assault. People who perpetrate sexual assaults should be subject to legal punishment just as robbers, muggers, and people who falsely accuse others of crimes should be subject to legal punishments.

But in a courtroom someone who’s claimed to be a victim of a sexual assault has to be ready to help defend and prove what they've charged because in America people accused of crimes have the rights to confront and challenge their accusers at trial.

And wouldn't you want those rights for yourself, Ms. Schlegel, if a woman accused you of sexually assaulting her?

You wouldn't want people saying, "We shouldn't challange the word of the woman accusing Judy Schlegel of sexual assault," would you?

In granting you and all others in America those rights, we're not “going back” to any “days,” at least not any days since America adopted the Constitution and Bill of Rights. ]

Many want to label the accuser a liar.

[ That’s because so much of what she said is manifestly false. ]

Even Attorney General Roy Cooper did not do that. He said she really believed what she was saying.

[ AG Cooper said those on his staff who worked closely with Crystal Mangum think she may actually believe the contradictory and unbelievable stories she told them.

In order to be a liar, you need to not only make a false statement, but to deliberately make it with the intent of deceiving.

Cooper was saying, in effect, Mangum was delusional (he did not actually use the word “delusional”); and therefore may very well have believed her statements that were manifestly false. ]

There must be a reason for her belief.

[ There may be, Ms. Schlegel. Mangum may even have more than one reason for what you call “her belief.”

But that doesn’t mean her belief(s) is credible and deserving of our belief any more than your assertions, which I don't doubt you sincerely and ardently believe, are credible and merit fair-minded people's respect.

Also as much as I respect AG Cooper, I haven’t ruled out in my mind that Mangum knows in her mind that she made up a lot of what she said.

I haven’t even ruled out that she counted on people like you to buy into her lies and to support a frame-up and her subsequent efforts to bring suits for damages against the real victims of her hoax who she, like you, apparently believed were "super rich."

I simply don’t know. ]

I do think this case should have gone to trial so all the facts could come out.

[ Ms. Schlegel, please! “All the facts” don’t come out at trials. You know that.

Sometimes judges rule that certain facts are inadmissible at trials. At other trials we know prosecutors have not only withheld facts, but have offered as “facts” fraudulent “evidence” which has helped send innocent people to prison.

When you speak about wanting a trial this is what I think you really mean: "I wanted a trial so badly. I was really looking forward to those three being convicted. Now DA Nifong will never have a chance to do that. It's all so sad."

I’d like to fisk the rest of your letter but I’m out of time.

A few closing comments:

You begin your letter with “As a woman…”

I’ve heard many men say the very same things you say. So what does your being a woman have to do with the noxious statements you made in your letter?

I think what you say doesn’t have so much to do with gender as it does with the way your mind works just as when I hear women and men make sensible and informed statements I think those statements have less to do with gender than with intelligence, logical reasoning ability and fair-mindedness which many members of both genders frequently manifest.

And we can all thank God for that.

Finally, I was sorry to read you had a few years ago what sounds like a very rough time with cancer. I’m glad things are better now. I hope the road ahead is smooth and long.

John ]

Folks, the rest of Ms. Schlegel’s letter follows.

Much has been made of the fact that the accuser changed her story several times. I am not surprised. Two years ago I was hospitalized and very ill. It was so traumatic that two weeks later, I was giving different stories to different people especially with regards to timing. Today I still cannot remember exact details, but I know a lot of what happened particularly the very stressful parts. I would think that being hospitalized for cancer is less traumatic than being sexually assaulted, and so I would expect that the accuser would not have every detail straight. That should not stop us from getting to the truth that we can.

If the City Council wants to spend taxpayers' money investigating the handling of this case, then they must look at this side also. Our legal system must protect those who are falsely accused, but not by quickly dismissing the claims of women.

JUDY SCHLEGEL
Durham
June 18, 2007

Sunday, June 17, 2007

INNOCENT: A gutsy and wise Duke Prof

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
______________________________________________
Locomotive Breath, a Duke alum and citizen journalist, commented last evening to remind us of the gutsy and wise service Professor of Chemistry Steven Baldwin rendered Duke University as the Hoax’s criminal injustices played out on campus and elsewhere last spring.

Below is a copy of a letter Baldwin wrote which The Chronicle, Duke’s student newspaper, published last April 17.

You may recall that was the same day a Durham Grand Jury indicted Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann; and the day before they were arrested before dawn in their dorm rooms, handcuffed and taken to the Durham County jail.

It was also only a few weeks after Duke’s faculty Group of 88 said “something happened” on the night of March 13/14 and thanked those who hadn’t waited.

Those who hadn’t waited included those who rallied at the edge of East Campus under a large “CASTRATE” banner, those who shouted threats at the Duke students who played on the lacrosse team, and the "activists" who distributed the notorious “Vigilante” posters on West Campus.

In that “hang ‘em” atmosphere even Duke’s Dick Brodhead, the University’s President, with all the prestige and power of his office, decided it was best for him to say nothing in support of the players or their Coach, Mike Pressler, whose resignation had been forced despite his 19 years of honorable service to Duke.

But Steve Baldwin spoke out.

Baldwin’s letter follows, after which you’ll see a link to an op-ed he wrote this past fall. Like the letter, Baldwin’s op-ed is a “don’t miss” unless you’re a Brodhead/Group of 88 fan.

For any of you who are Brodhead/Group of 88 fans, just be patient. Duke Trustee Chair Robert Steel will soon send you and all of us another of his “everything is just fine and we're lucky to have Dick at Duke” emails.

Now Baldwin’s April 17, 2006 letter to The Chronicle:

At the risk of arousing the wrath of the righteous, I would like to offer my impressions of Mike Pressler, recent coach of the Duke men's lacrosse team.

I have known Coach Pressler and his family for at least ten years. Our children played together when they were younger and our families have done things together socially. Coach Pressler is humble, reserved, thoughtful and honest to a fault. He has great integrity.

On the occasions when Mike and I would discuss lacrosse and an upcoming recruiting class, his comments invariably focused on the personal qualities of the young men and how excited he was to have those families join the Duke family. He was always more interested in his team members as people than as lacrosse players.

Like any coach whose value is measured by wins and losses, Mike wanted to win. But he wanted to win the right way, with players who were students first and athletes second-players who would be a credit to Duke University.

There is no question that bad things happened at the lacrosse party the night of March 13. At the very least, there was underage drinking and insensitive verbal abuse. At the worst, acts were committed that were truly horrible and that would demand the severest consequences for those involved.

Of course, four weeks after the fact, we still don't know what did or did not happen that night, and whether or not the acts of which the lacrosse team members are accused actually occurred.

I am troubled by the lack of support for Coach Pressler from the athletic department. He was hung out to dry by an athletics administration that neither understood the issues nor appreciated Mike Pressler the man.

Long before we learn the truth about what happened that night, and long before we learn the conclusions and recommendations of the several committees formed by President Brodhead to address the situation, the athletic department convulsed and threw the baby out with the bath water.

For Mike Pressler to offer his resignation was "appropriate."

For Athletic Director Joe Alleva to accept the resignation was wrong. Mike Pressler deserves better; so does Duke.

Steven Baldwin

Professor, Dept. of Chemistry

____________________

Steve Baldwin's op-ed is here. Please read it. See if you don't agree it's a "don't miss."