tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-289934782024-03-07T21:37:20.151-05:00Friends of Duke UniversityThis is a discussion board for the friends of Duke University. At the moment, our focus is on the <b>Duke Lacrosse Scandal</b>. Our discussion board is not affiliated with any organization. All posts will be moderated. The moderator has the right to remove comments deemed inappropriate. Above all, your posts should reflect love and respect for Duke University. <b>You may contact us at: <a href="mailto:jtrumpbour.fodu@yahoo.com">FODU</a></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-43361175755644716192008-08-06T22:50:00.000-04:002008-08-06T23:31:28.641-04:00Jim Cooney Representing DukeNo, I have not given up on the front page. I have just been busy with other projects this summer. I have some more time now so do keep checking here on your way to the media page. <br /><br />Yesterday, it was announced that Jim Cooney who so ably represented Reade Seligmann during the criminal case would be representing Duke University in an unrelated suit against it by golf team member Andrew Giuliani. Some have worried that Mr. Cooney has gone over to the dark side. <br /><br />That Jim Cooney was hired by Duke does not, by itself, trouble me. The right of all persons and entities to have the effective assistance of counsel is a fundamental norm of the profession and an indispensable feature of an adversarial system such as ours. The duty of lawyers to supply such representation unless actually unable to do so or prevented from doing so by a conflicting interest or duty is part of this norm. Because Reade settled with Duke, there does not seem to be a present, direct conflict. Indeed, from the administration’s perspective, it is a smart move. The administration is either getting wiser in its choice of legal representation (something I want to explore in a future update) or it fancies its chances in court and wants to try and fight a case on the merits for a change. <br /><br />I am, however, troubled by some things Mr. Cooney had to say in two articles in yesterday’s Herald-Sun, <a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-977341.cfm">here</a> and <a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-977347.cfm">here</a>.<br /><br />Here is a quote from the first article:<br /><br /><blockquote>Charlotte attorney Jim Cooney shed some insight Tuesday into Duke President Richard Brodhead's involvement with one of the university's three lacrosse players falsely accused of rape in 2006.<br /><br />Brodhead "personally assisted Reade [Seligmann] in transferring" to Brown University after the players' exoneration, by going "out of his way to contact the right people," writing letters of support and doing "everything he could to make sure Reade landed at a good school," Cooney said.</blockquote>I heard early on that Reade was contacted by the coach of an Ivy League school (not Brown) shortly after he was indicted. He remembered what a great kid Reade was from the recruiting process and indicated that he would be interested in having him once his legal problems were over if Duke did not want him. Largely from just getting to know him, the coach seemed to assume that the charges were bogus. This was at a time when Duke kicked Reade off campus and pretended not to know him. We know what a great person Reade is. Do not forget that he was also an outstanding student and a formidable athlete. The idea that Reade would find it difficult to land a place at another good university is far fetched. Also keep in mind the tremendous mutual animosity between the lacrosse families and Brodhead. I cannot imagine Brodhead writing anyone on Reade’s behalf without a gun to his head. If he did so, it was either as part of the settlement or for his own self interest. <br /><br />This situation seems analogous to the extensive lobbying Brodhead did with the presidents of the other ACC schools to get an extra year of eligibility for the team members from the NCAA. Was that effort made out of the goodness of his heart or because of his concern for the players? No, it was purely an exercise in mitigating damages in the anticipated lawsuits. Brodhead was the one who cancelled the season in the first place with full knowledge that the charges were bogus. Indeed, Brodhead’s actions after the hoax ended resembled the old slapstick comedy routine where a character knocks over a priceless piece of art in a museum and then franticly and futilely scrambles to put the pieces back together before anyone notices. <br /><br />If Brodhead had such good things to say about Reade, why did he not say them at the beginning of the case when his words might have made a difference? If he had spoken up sooner rather than later, perhaps Reade could still be a student at Duke University and not Brown. Brodhead did not just remain silent as Reade was slandered. He actually went out of his way to condone the actions of some of those who were doing the slandering. <br /><br />The article also states, <br /><br /><blockquote>The school, beyond saying OK [for him to represent Reade], encouraged him to help Seligmann because officials there thought the youth "needed the strongest representation possible," Cooney said.</blockquote>Again,one has to keep the context in mind. The statement ignores the fact that the case should have never reached the prosecutorial level in the first place and should have been dismissed after it did. Yet, not only did the administration refuse to speak out against the injustice being perpetrated against its students, it actually worked to keep the case on course for trial. That is not my conjecture, the administration said as much. You can read all of Duke’s press releases and public statements and see for yourself. Bob Steel was gambling that Reade, Collin and David would be acquitted. In that case, the administration could have it both ways. It could avoid angering certain narrow constituencies whose it approval it valued and it could say, “See. Everything turned out okay!” (a projected $5 million or more in attorney’s fees later). The perverse thing about the situation was that, the more the revelations revealed how false the charges were, the more the administration seemed encouraged not to do anything. Yes, the administration probably did want Reade, Collin and David to have the best counsel available, but first and foremost because it solved a problem for the administration.<br /><br />What if Reade, Collin and David did not end up being acquitted? The administration was positioning itself for that eventuality as well. Remember the key talking point asserted by both Brodhead and Steel: “I believe in the system.” Think about the full implications of that statement. Think also about President Brodhead’s repeated assertions that only a jury could say what the facts of the case were and that no one else, including himself, was even entitled to an opinion on the matter. Had they been convicted, the administration would have turned on Reade, Collin and David and called them rapists. Given the extent to which the jury pool had been tainted, not only by Nifong, but also activists Duke whose favor Duke was soliciting, there was a very real danger of that happening. The results of polling done by the defense were quite disturbing. Indeed, Jim Cooney drafted the Motion for a Change in Venue. Convicted or acquitted, the one thing the administration was never going to do was say anything that might anger one of those narrow constituencies. <br /><br />I am also taken aback by Jim Cooney’s words because they eerily seem to correspond to the administration’s current public relations strategy. Based on what I have been hearing and seeing, Duke is concentrating all of its efforts in protecting Brodhead and isolating him from the actions taken by other members of the administration. I hope Mr. Cooney is merely speaking off the cuff and from another set of the University’s ham fisted talking points. Any participation by him in Duke’s spin machine concerning the lacrosse litigation is above and beyond his duties in the Giuliani case. I also hope that he is simply misinformed about what Duke actually did and did not do during the lacrosse hoax. <br /><br />In the second article there is this: <br /><br /><blockquote>Cooney said Tuesday that he's "honored to be representing Duke," his undergraduate alma mater, in the Giuliani case.<br /><br />"Duke as an institution has always tried to do its best," Cooney said. "There are times when it doesn't. But that doesn't mean it's not always trying to do the best it can. Trying to represent an institution that's trying and that has learned from issues in its past is exactly what I ought to be doing." </blockquote>The facts adduced at trial in the lacrosse civil cases will show otherwise. The administration’s actions were always about their individual personal needs and desires and nothing else. They were certainly not about Duke University's interests. For his own sake, Mr. Cooney would be better served confining his efforts to defending Duke in the Giuliani case and leaving the lacrosse situation to speak for itself. A connection between the lacrosse litigation and the Giuliani case is not one he really ought to invite. <br /><br />I have tremendous respect for Jim Cooney. As a concerned alumnus and lawyer, he is more than welcome to join us in throwing tomatoes at the administration when he is done with the Giuliani case. <br /><br />As for the Giuliani case, I do not know the merits of it. However, regardless of whether or not Andrew Giuliani should be a member of the golf team, showing that Duke did not give him a fair hearing should be fairly easy for him to do given the way the University conducts its internal procedures. The Chronicle exposed many of these problems in a devastating series of articles last year. If the administration had really learned anything from the lacrosse case, the Giuliani case would have never reached the litigation stage and it probably could have been settled in a manner consistent with everyone’s best interests a long time ago.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com65tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-68530151853194056172008-05-24T21:22:00.000-04:002008-05-24T21:23:52.675-04:00Thank You!Congratulations to both the Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse teams for outstanding seasons and consecutive Final Four appearances. Thanks once again for representing the University so well and making us all proud!<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-69268928301180964382008-05-06T04:09:00.002-04:002008-05-06T04:37:06.502-04:00Durham District Attorney ElectionToday is election day in North Carolina and voters will choose the next District Attorney for Durham County. The Herald-Sun, the great defender of the status quo, predictably endorsed current Assistant District Attorney Tracy Cline. In doing so, it presented a variation of the Durham government party line that Mike Nifong and Mike Nifong alone is to blame for the Lacrosse Hoax stating, “[Nifong’s] actions did not reflect deep flaws within the DA's office.” On the contrary, the Lacrosse Hoax revealed some very deep flaws within the District Attorney’s office indeed.<br /><br />Tracy Cline’s problems are well known. She was Nifong’s second chair in the lacrosse case and would have helped him try the case had it gone to trial. In October, however, she claimed that she had very little role in the hoax. <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-893556.cfm">According to the Herald-Sun</a>,<br /><br /><blockquote>Some suggested during the lacrosse meltdown that Nifong’s assistants dropped the ball by not reining in their boss, halting the scandal in its tracks.<br /><br />Cline agreed last week that attorneys have a duty to report unethical conduct among their colleagues.<br /><br />But she said she lacked insights into what Nifong was doing.<br /><br />“I didn’t have any personal information about what went on in the lacrosse case, other than what the media reported,” she said. “My job was to keep the courtrooms running. That is what I was focused on.”</blockquote>First, the assertion that she did not know the facts of the case is almost certainly false. Having worked as second chair, I can tell you that the second chair knows as much about the case as the lead attorney and often knows more. In fact, in the normal course of things, the second chair handles the day to day chores and basic prep work. <a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/10/candidate-clines-extraordinary.html">Evidence presented at Nifong’s bar hearings suggests that was the case here</a>.<br /><br />More importantly, Cline did not need to know one thing about the Lacrosse case to know that Mike Nifong was an unethical attorney and that he should have been reported to the bar. From the very beginning of the hoax, I tried to make the distinction between Nifong’s conduct and the facts of the case. Even if one could plausibly claim not to know all of the facts of the case, all of Nifong’s misconduct took place in public for all to see. Anyone with a television set could watch him do it.<br /><br />North Carolina Rule or Professional Conduct 8.3(a) states,<br /><br /><blockquote>A lawyer who knows that another lawyer has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct that raises a substantial question as to that lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects, shall inform the North Carolina State Bar or the court having jurisdiction over the matter.</blockquote>It is no exaggeration in the least to say that every single lawyer in the District Attorney’s office is an unethical attorney. Mitchell Garrell, another assistant district attorney who is running against Cline tried to make an issue of Cline’s involvement in the hoax at a candidates forum. However, Garrell has some explaining of his own to do.<br /><br />In any event, the problems with the assistant district attorneys during the Lacrosse Hoax go beyond a passive refusal to report Nifong to the bar. Many actively supported his bid for election and worked on his campaign. They did so with the full knowledge that he was an unethical and corrupt attorney. At a polling place during the 2006 general election, Nifong supporters who claimed to be attorneys in his office were falsely claiming that Nifong had a “smoking gun” that he would reveal at trial. That night, when the results were announced at the courthouse, an assistant district attorney taunted Duke students who were there to support Lewis Cheek saying, “poor little Duke kids didn’t get your way.”<br /><br />Even after Nifong was disbarred, assistant district attorneys continued to support him and defend his actions. ADA Stormy Ellis <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=3100160&page=2">pronounced herself</a> “shocked that he has been tainted as a ‘rogue prosecutor.’ It scares me to think that one case can mar you for the rest of your life.” At Nifong’s contempt hearing, I heard a male voice behind me mutter, “Objection!” to a prosecution question it evidently did not like. I did not see who said it, but moments later David Saacks, who is now the acting District Attorney, stood up from directly behind me when he was called as a witness. At this same hearing, ADA Jan Paul, who had come to the hearing to support Nifong, refused to speak with investigative reporter Joe Neff of the News and Observer because she blamed him for Nifong’s downfall.<br /><br />I do not endorse either of the remaining candidates, Freda Black or Keith Bishop. I just hope the people of Durham can find someone who is willing to provide ethical leadership and surround his or herself with ethical people.<br /><br />While the ethics and moral outlook of assistant district attorneys might not seem that important, consider that the Lacrosse Hoax was not the work of a criminal mastermind. Instead, it was what happened when a venal and small minded career assistant found himself in a situation that tested his character. Consider also, that he likely developed the habits and attitudes he displayed during the Lacrosse Hoax working in that office for 27 years and who knows what other misconduct he might have committed before his actions became subject to public scrutiny.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the best chance for positive change in the Durham County District Attorney’s Office was when Governor Easley had the opportunity to appoint Nifong’s successor. What Easley needed to do was appoint someone from outside the Durham legal community who would go into that office with an eye toward firing most of the people there. Instead, he turned Jim Hardin, Nifong’s predecessor back into the office apparently with an eye toward stabilizing the current situation there.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com84tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-71398814197740486222008-05-02T00:29:00.001-04:002008-05-02T00:36:25.155-04:00LieStoppers Message BoardLast weekend, the LieStoppers message board was <a href="http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/2008/04/some-people-just-love-misery.html">hacked and taken down</a>. Thanks to an incredible amount of work and resourcefulness by the LieStoppers team, their message board is back in business in a new and (hopefully) more secure format and it is now <a href="http://s1.zetaboards.com/Liestoppers_meeting/index/">open to the general public again</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-55594836168849381452008-04-22T22:48:00.005-04:002008-04-23T00:03:33.513-04:00Follow up on Duke's Motion and Two Other Items<strong>The Administration's Motion Denied</strong><br /><br />As predicted, the judge in the civil suits denied the Duke administration’s motion to sanction opposing counsel for an alleged violation of Rule 3.6. (See previous post.) Here are details from the <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/story/1038789.html">News and Observer</a> and the <a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/04/16/News/Judge.Denies.Duke.Durham.Motions-3328284.shtml">Chronicle</a>.<br /><br />I wrote <a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/04/21/Letters/Read-Rules.For.Duke.Lawsuit.Motion-3338097.shtml">a letter to the Chronicle</a> in which I call the actions by Duke’s counsel unprofessional. Understand that this motion was not a request for relief from any alleged harm. The administration’s lawyer denied in court that the motion was a request for a gag order. The motion was solely an attack on the integrity of Charles Cooper and his colleagues and, as I suggested in the previous post, one that had no basis in law. A bar complaint is a very serious matter touching on both the character and professional qualifications of an attorney. It should not be made lightly and certainly not to try and score a rhetorical point.<br /><br />The administration’s motion is also a mean spirited cheap shot against the players who were also specifically targeted. Although Rule 3.6 only applies to attorneys, the motion requested that the court make a finding that “Plaintiffs and their counsel” violated Rule 3.6 and the local rule incorporating it. It accuses them of violating one of the same rules that their tormentor and the administration’s erstwhile codefendant, Mike Nifong did.<br /><br />While the administration’s attorneys were rummaging through the Rules of Professional Conduct, perhaps they missed Rule 3.1:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>A lawyer shall not bring or defend a proceeding, or assert or controvert an issue therein, unless there is a basis in law and fact for doing so that is not frivolous, which includes a good faith argument for an extension, modification or reversal of existing law.</blockquote>Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b)(2) has a similar requirement.<br /><br />It is hard to see the administration’s motion as a good faith argument for the extension, modification or reversal of existing law. Interpreting a statute or rule is a matter of reading the text, which is entirely controlling, and there was no suggestion that the language used is vague or ambiguous. Duke’s argument that the spirit of the rule was violated, even if it were true, is utterly beside the point. Moreover, Rule 3.6(b)(2), the public documents exception, appears specifically intended to operate as a safe harbor rule for lawyers trying to comply with the general rule stated in Rule 3.6(a). Finally, even if the court did announce a new rule, it could not give it retroactive effect.<br /><br />What we are left with the administration is attempting to try the case in the media under the guise of upholding the exact opposite principle. For the administration, appearances have always been the only thing that mattered. Still, this is a new low.<br /><br /><strong>Elmo a Citizen</strong><br /><br />Congratulations to Moezeldin Elmostafa, or “Elmo” as he affectionately came to be known to supporters of the accused players, who recently became a US citizen. He was also recently <a href="http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/2008/03/durham-hero-receives-award-on-nbcs.html">named “Hero of the Year” by Reader’s Digest magazine</a>. Durham needs more citizens like him.<br /><br />Elmo was the taxi driver who picked up Reade Seligmann from the party and was able to help document Reade’s alibi. After Reade’s alibi came to light, Mike Nifong sent two detectives working on the lacrosse case to arrest Elmo on a stale warrant. When they arrested him, they asked him if he “had anything new to say about the lacrosse case.” When he said no, they then took him to a magistrate. He was eventually found innocent at trial.<br /><br />I hope that the recent renewed publicity will focus attention on one loose end that remains in making Nifong fully accountable for his conduct. Attempting to alter the testimony of a witness is obstruction of justice. While Nifong’s ethical misconduct was addressed by the North Carolina Bar, he has never been made to account for his criminal conduct. Also suspicious was Nifong’s conduct in relation to another witness, the second dancer Kim Roberts. The same day that Nifong personally intervened to have her bail reduced on an unrelated criminal charge, she started giving an account that contradicted her earlier statement to police that no rape had occurred.<br /><br />Elmo’s case also should be instructive to those who saw Nifong as some sort of champion for social justice because he was targeting affluent or supposedly affluent people. As an immigrant looking to become a citizen, Elmo was one of the most vulnerable people in our society. A criminal conviction of any kind could have resulted in his deportation and permanent exclusion from the United States. Yet, Nifong was as willing to maliciously prosecute him for his own purposes as he was Reade, Collin and David. Indeed, given the fact that Elmo refused to change his story when pressured by police, Nifong’s decision to prosecute him anyway was purely vindictive.<br /><br /><strong>Amended Complaint</strong><br /><br />Bob Ekstrand who is representing three of the players in the civil suits recently filed an <a href="http://www.ninthstreetlaw.com/docs/amended_complaint.pdf">amended complaint</a> which contains additional allegations and information. It also contains embedded audio and video exhibits. Warning! It is a huge file (121 MB). Such is the extent of the misdeeds of Duke and Durham’s leaders.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-12281922157138932252008-03-04T02:01:00.005-05:002008-03-04T20:05:01.907-05:00Duke's MotionIt has been a while since I updated the front page. Between the holidays and my other commitments, I have had to take some time to get caught up with my other affairs. However, FODU is still very much in business. I hope you have noticed that our Moderator has been continuing to keep the media links page updated everyday. I also hope you have been reading the excellent <a href="http://ethicalduke.blogspot.com/">DSED blog</a>, which has done more than fill any gap left by my absence. I will try to update more frequently and I want to do a larger post to get caught up. In the meantime, I just wanted to share my thoughts about Duke’s motion to shut down the informational site <a href="http://www.dukelawsuit.com/">http://www.dukelawsuit.com/</a>, which is maintained by a publicist for the players and their lawyers. Duke's caim is that it violates North Carolina Rule of Professional Conduct 3.6, the same rule that was among those Mike Nifong was disbarred for violating.<br /><br />Well, I must say that I am glad that, after two years, Duke has finally discovered Rule 3.6. When Mike Nifong was out in front of the cameras violating it hourly, they did not want to know one thing about it. As late as September 2006, Bob Steel tried to argue with me about whether Nifong was actually doing anything wrong. Now, if they could only understand it . . .<br /><br />First, Rule 3.6 only applies to lawyers. It does not apply to parties such as the players and their families. Although not unqualified, parties have a First Amendment right to say whatever they want about a case that is much broader than what is allowed to lawyers. Rule 3.6 certainly does not apply to the heartfelt statement lacrosse parent Steven Henkelman gave at the <a href="http://www.dukelawsuit.com/2008/02/news-conference-video.html">press conference</a>.<br /><br />Second, Rule 3.6 allows lawyers to comment on matters in the public record, which includes court filings.<br /><br />Here are the relevant portions of <a href="http://www.ncbar.com/rules/rpcsearch.asp">Rule 3.6</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>(a) A lawyer who is participating or has participated in the investigation or<br />litigation of a matter shall not make an extrajudicial statement that the lawyer<br />knows or reasonably should know will be disseminated by means of public<br />communication and will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing<br />an adjudicative proceeding in the matter.<br /><br />(b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), a lawyer may state:<br /><br />(1) the claim, offense or defense involved and,<br />except when prohibited by law, the identity of the persons involved;<br /><br />(2) the information contained in a public record; <br /><br /> * * *</blockquote><br />At the press conference linked on the site, attorney Charles Cooper did nothing more than summarize the contents of the complaint, which was being filed as he spoke. He appeared careful to so limit his remarks. The memorandum of law in support of Duke’s motion conceded this point. It tried to make a “spirit of the law” argument that the complaint itself was inflammatory and thus no public reference should be allowed to be made to it. Here is the crux of Duke’s argument from the <a href="http://www.bork.com/downloads/Carrington-Duke_MemoSupportMotionDoc11.pdf">memorandum of law</a> accompanying the motion:<br /><br /><blockquote>Plaintiffs will almost certainly argue that these statements are fully permitted by Rule 3.6(b)(2), which allows an attorney to comment about “information contained in a public record.” Many of these statements are direct quotes from the Complaint, while others are slight paraphrasings of the Complaint. (See, e.g., Compl. ¶¶ 3, 11(a), 11(b), 11(c).) When a complaint contains such incendiary language, an attorney should not be permitted to hide behind the language of the complaint and make a statement to the press that strings together paragraphs that are highly prejudicial. Such an action is contrary to the very intent of Rule 3.6, “materially prejudices an adjudicative proceeding,” and should not be allowed.</blockquote><br />This is not a legal argument. Indeed, the fact that it is not a legal argument is also why they cannot offer one shred of legal authority to support it.<br /><br />Mike Nifong violated Rule 3.6 by commenting on the evidence, lying about the evidence and inviting antipathy toward the accused. This was conduct squarely prohibited by the rule and manifestly prejudicial. <a href="http://www.ncbar.com/rules/rpcsearch.asp">Comments 5 and 6</a> accompanying the rules give a fuller explanation.<br /><br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/03/more-on-dukes-peculiar-motion.html">Others</a> have noticed the hypocrisy of Duke criticizing <a href="http://www.dukelawsuit.com/">dukelawsuit.com</a> while at the same time maintaining its <a href="http://news.duke.edu/lacrosseincident/">own informational site</a> about the case which contains dishonest and self serving accounts of the administration’s handling of the Lacrosse Hoax. It is worse than that. Duke was anticipating lawsuits from the very beginning. Remember Mark Simeon, Nifong’s political ally, was lining up the Mangum family for a suit and brought Willie Gary to town in furtherance of that goal. If you will recall, Duke’s site initially linked media accounts that were mostly negative toward the players and ignored accounts critical of the investigation. As the tide started to turn, and Duke’s own misconduct became apparent, Duke began to anticipate suits from the players, instead.<br /><br />In fall of 2006, Bob Steel made an offer to at least one of the families to pay their legal expenses in exchange for singing an agreement not to sue. Despite the desperation of their situation, they refused. Bob Steel and Richard Brodhead also had a meeting with the families to try and sort out their differences that went nowhere. Duke has known that the present suits were coming for a long time and the twisted apologetics contained on its own informational site were created with that prospect in mind. This strategy reminds me of the famous advice a rugby manager gave to his players before a game: “Be sure and get your retaliation in first!”<br /><br />What is particularly telling to me is that, while Duke’s motion complains about prejudice caused by <a href="http://www.dukelawsuit.com/">dukelawsuit .com</a>, it does not ask for a specific remedy other than asking that the website and its contents be declared violations of Rule 3.6. It does not ask for a gag order. Motions for gag orders to avoid pretrial publicity are not uncommon and Duke could have made a much stronger argument for one by simply pointing to the harm pretrial publicity might cause. It would not be an availing argument, mind you, given its own attempt to take its case to the public, but a better one. By misframing the issue as a legal ethics and Rule 3.6 issue, it decided to forgo a stronger argument in order to try and score a rhetorical point. Duke is falsely attempting to create the appearance of similarity between the conduct of the plaintiffs and their nemesis Mike Nifong. In other words, Duke is attempting to try the case in the media while at the same time purporting to uphold the opposite principle. But then again, Duke signaled how it intended to fight this suit when it hired a lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, whose principal skill set is not federal civil rights litigation, but political infighting.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-72382289862698175222007-11-06T20:54:00.000-05:002007-11-06T20:57:20.548-05:00DSEDuke's new blog and Stuart TaylorDuke Students for an Ethical Duke has a <a href="http://ethicalduke.blogspot.com/">new blog</a>. Be sure and check it out. <br /><br />They also have a <a href="http://www.duke.edu/~kcl10/StuartTaylorWeb.mov">link to video</a> of Stuart Taylor’s excellent speech at Duke on Friday. The video is low resolution and they are working on putting up one with a higher resolution. However, Stuart’s speech is good enough that you might not want to wait.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com153tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-23131975657480906432007-11-01T21:42:00.000-04:002007-11-01T21:54:16.918-04:00Stuart Taylor at Duke<div align="center">Reminder:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#3333ff;">Stuart Taylor co-author of <em>Until Proven Innocent</em> will </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#3333ff;"><span style="font-size:130%;">be </span><span style="font-size:130%;">speaking at Duke on Friday, November 2.</span><br /></span><br />Book signing at 6:00 pm<br />Lecture at 7:00 pm<br /><br />Details and directions are <a href="http://www.duke.edu/~kcl10/DSFEDuke/LSRCDirections.htm">here</a>.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-277647946440534822007-10-25T04:33:00.000-04:002007-10-25T04:38:22.754-04:00Some Announcements<strong>President Brodhead’s Review</strong><br /><br />Just a reminder that you still have a couple of days to send your comments regarding President Brodhead to the committee conducting his performance review for the Board of Trustees. The deadline for submitting comments is October 29.<br /><br />If you do not have enough time to write a letter, send a postcard or send an e-mail. Make your voice heard.<br /><br />Tell them that Duke can do a lot better. <br /><br />In formation on how to participate is <a href="http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/091007/depgaz8.html">here</a>. <br /><br />Another group has taken the lead in rallying the Duke community to participate in the comment phase for President Brodhead’s review. They are called Friends for a Better Duke or FABDU and they want a Duke to be a fab place once again. You can check out their website <a href="http://friends4abetterdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/">here</a>. <br /><br /><strong>Stuart Taylor</strong><br /><br />Our other friends at Duke Students for an Ethical Duke have are hosting a book signing and lecture by Stuart Taylor, the co-author of Until Proven Innocent at Duke on November 2. The book signing will be at 6:00 and the lecture will follow at 7:00. Details, including directions to the venue, Love Auditorium are <a href="http://www.duke.edu/~kcl10/DSFEDuke/LSRCDirections.htm">here</a>. <br /><br />Stuart is an excellent speaker and his lecture will be every bit as interesting and informative as KC Johnsons’s a few weeks ago. Incidentally, DSED informs us that Stuart originally signed on to debate any of the book’s critics who wished to come forward. However, there have been no takers so far so he will give a lecture instead.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-20044158070746021652007-10-04T13:44:00.000-04:002007-10-23T02:32:46.264-04:00Too Little Too Late<em>by Jason Trumpbour, FODU spokesperson</em><br /><br />In an address to a conference at the Law School on Saturday, President Brodhead apologized for several aspects of the administration’s handling of the lacrosse case. <a href="http://news.duke.edu/2007/09/rhb_lawconf.html">The text appears here.</a><br /><br />Apologizing to the players was the right thing to do. However, I cannot help but feel that, once again, circumstances forced his hand. After all, the administration had been belligerently insisting that they had gotten things more or less right and have clung to that position up until this speech. Now, there is the prospect of imminent lawsuits by the unindicted players and a review of President Brodhead’s first three years in office is underway. Just as the revelation that Mike Nifong was hiding evidence forced him to speak out in December, we see President Brodhead reacting rather than leading. <br /><br />His apology also is incomplete. It is inevitable that mistakes would be made in trying to deal with such a bizarre and unprecedented situation. No one would have expected different. That mistakes were made is not really the problem.<br /><br />What President Brodhead really needs to take responsibly for and has yet to do so are the selfish motives that drove the administration’s policies. The administration wanted the case to go to trial. It believed that, if the case were dismissed before trial for whatever reason, people would say that Duke used its influence to have it dismissed. Robert Steel, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees told me that a year ago. That is also why President Brodhead, despite being savagely maligned for doing so, clung to the concept of Reade, Collin and David “proving themselves innocent.” That was not just an isolated, unfortunate choice of words. President Brodhead <a href="http://news.duke.edu/2007/09/law_center.html">repeated this formulation only a few days ago</a>. Dismissal is the proper procedure in the case of weak or baseless charges. Indeed, prosecutors have an affirmative legal and ethical duty to dismiss such charges where they are not based on probable cause or where they do not themselves believe in the guilt of the accused. However, the administration pretended not to know anything about these concepts.* <br /><br />If Reade, Collin and David had to be exposed to the risks associated with a trial by a corrupt, unethical prosecutor who had done everything he could to inflame the jury pool, that was just the way it had to be. Steel told me that it did not matter if they were convicted because all the problems with the case would be sorted out on appeal. That is not the way the appeal process works and I told him that, but that was still his plan. <br /><br />The most disturbing outgrowth of this policy was that the administration not only did not want to speak up itself. It did not want anyone else doing so either. Administration officials would privately bad mouth the players to reporters and anyone else who expressed doubts about the charges or the fairness of the procedures used. I know. I heard this garbage myself. They were still doing it after the Attorney General’s report came out to justify their actions. <br /><br />In the end, the administration’s policies were never about ignorance of the facts or credulity concerning the motives of public officials. The facts were irrelevant. It was all about keeping up appearances. Moreover, the views of some groups carried more weight than others. It is the same policy that lead to Ryan McFadyen being suspended, Mike Pressler being fired and Kim Curtis going unpunished. <br /><br />President Brodhead, as he did in May, reckons that he has things figured out now. However, a recent series in the Chronicle detailed how the administration has been modifying the University’s judicial code to eliminate most of students’ procedural rights and how the administration punishes students on the mere accusation of Durham police officers without further proof despite well documented abuses by the Durham Police department. If the lacrosse case has taught us anything, it is that procedure matters. Unfortunately, it appears that the administration has learned absolutely nothing at all. <br /><br />Duke needs and deserves strong leadership. In making his apology, we find President Brodhead doing precisely what he has been doing all along: embracing and conforming to whatever the prevailing understanding is regardless of its validity. It is gratifying that people finally understand what was actually going on. However, nothing has changed at Duke. <br /><br />Throughout this entire ordeal, we have criticized the administration, but, unlike a number of other critics, we did not call for President Brodhead to be removed. Instead, we tried to support him and give him the courage he needed to be a leader and to do the right thing. We tried to engage the administration in a respectful dialogue about the issues. We have nothing to show for those efforts. I am glad that FODU could help the public understand the extent of Mike Nifong’s misconduct. However, that satisfaction is tempered by the fact that we spent a year doing someone else’s job for them. <br /><br />It has long been our position that the administration’s words must be matched with deeds. Unfortunately, the time for action has come and gone. Last May, I wrote President Brodhead asking him to appoint a commission to look at the administration’s response to the lacrosse case. He appointed one to look at the first couple of weeks. Why not the other eleven months or so? We could not have changed the past. However, could have made sure that the same mistakes and moral failings are not repeated in the future. That is what we wanted and that is what most of the families, despite the wrongs done to them, really wanted. President Brodhead gave us the brush off. That was his last possible opportunity to actually do some tangible good. He has made his choice. It is time to look somewhere else for leadership. <br /><br />President Brodhead is now undergoing a performance review to determine whether his contract should be renewed. Information on how to participate is <a href="http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/091007/depgaz8.html">here</a>. I know what we will be recommending. <br /><br />In criticizing President Brodhead, it should be kept in mind that he alone is not responsible for the University’s official policies and conduct. Indeed, those above him and below him bear greater culpability and their status needs to be addressed as well. Robert Steel, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees bears the greater responsibility for Duke’s official policies regarding the lacrosse case. Getting rid of him is a bigger priority for me than getting rid of Brodhead. Many of those below President Brodhead carried out these policies in the manner described above and with far too much enthusiasm. President Brodhead often simply appeared to be there in the middle. However, that in and of itself is a huge problem.<br /><br />*[Edited for clarity]<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-72095233124407413572007-09-18T22:33:00.000-04:002007-10-05T01:38:35.166-04:00Video of KC Johnson's Duke LectureThe video of KC Johnson's lecture at Duke is now up. It is on the website of Duke Students for an Ethical Duke, one of the cosponsors for the event. <a href="http://www.duke.edu/~kcl10/DSFEDuke/page3.html">Here is the link</a>. <br /><br />While you are over there consider making a donation to DSEDuke. During the lacrosse case, the students as a group were the only ones consistently showing any leadership or initiative on campus. Now that the crisis is over, the students are once again leading the way by making sure that the appropriate lessons are learned and that Duke can once again be a place of mutual respect and concern among all members of the community.<br /><br />[Update: new link provided]<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-86592710029343116232007-09-04T13:21:00.000-04:002007-09-04T14:44:17.379-04:00Its Out!<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5106402555747679922" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi07jIovYRfh_52HRISKx7XiNRYPGGGT5X6QJMc1vaGdQI0D-d8n9EtBVP9ItP_it38-mIMFqpEGPuDA-idVQauUCnROqFjzVarntVKcGp566mJfS59nNd-8VdP591EbebaVWLxog/s320/0312369123L.jpg" border="0" /><em>Until Proven Innocent</em>, Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson's definitive account of the Duke lacrosse case is out today. Be sure and get your copy. And then go and see KC Johnson speak at Duke on September 11, 2007. (See the last post for details.)<br /><br /><strong>Another Follow Up to Duke and the Police</strong><br /><br /><em>by Jason Trumpbour, FODU spokesperson</em><br /><br />Speaking of the growing library on the Duke lacrosse case, I realized that I forgot to mention in my last post an item from Mike Pressler and Don Yaeger's book, <em>It’s Not about the Truth</em> that I thought was rather interesting. That post and the one before it dealt with the Duke administration's violation of federal law by releasing protected student information to Durham police without a subpoena. In <em>It's Not about the Truth</em>, News and Observer columnist Ruth Sheehan, an early critic of the lacrosse team who had based her criticism on the false information being disseminated by Nifong and the Durham Police Department, recounted a conversation she later had with John Burness:<br /><blockquote>I did have a conversation with [him] about the university's role in the case at some point and asked why when all of this was coming out that they [the university] didn’t help us understand the truth, why they did not spin the other side to us. They could have helped us, that’s for sure. One thing he did say to me at the time, which is a convenient excuse but also true, was that they also have to be really careful about how they handle student information.<br /></blockquote><br />Yes, one cannot be too careful.<br /><br />I am sure that <em>Until Proven Innocent</em> will add more insights such as this one into the Duke administration's thinking. I greet that prospect with both eagerness and trepidation.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com320tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-88141276248077074582007-08-30T19:31:00.000-04:002007-08-31T09:20:03.867-04:00Announcements and a Follow Up<div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#3333ff;"><strong>KC Johnson to Speak at Duke University</strong></span><br /><br /><strong>Professor KC Johnson, Durham in Wonderland blogger and </strong></div><div align="center"><strong>coauthor of </strong><strong><em>Until Proven Innocent</em>, will speak in </strong></div><div align="center"><strong>Duke’s Page Auditorium </strong><strong>on September 11, 2007 at 7:00.<br /></strong><br />This event is cosponsored by Duke Students for an Ethical Duke and </div><div align="center">the Program for Values an Ethics in the Marketplace. </div><div align="left"><br /><em>by Jason Trumpbour, FODU spokesperson</em></div><div align="left"><br /></div><div align="left"><strong>DSEDuke</strong></div><br />One of the groups sponsoring KC Johnson’s address, Duke Students for and Ethical Duke (not to be confused with the equally estimable Duke Students for an Ethical Durham) is a new group dedicated to making sure that the appalling treatment of certain Duke students by the administration and a few of their professors is not forgotten and does not go unaddressed. They are pledged to “defend the dignity and the academic and legal rights of Duke students, both individually and collectively, whether threatened by other students, faculty, or administrators alike.” <a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/08/27/News/PostLax.Group.Boosts.Equality-2938371.shtml">Here is an article from the Chronicle.</a><br /><br />This is a very encouraging development. The fact that the number of groups focusing attention on these issues is growing and not decreasing with time should indicate to the trustees and administration that these issues are not going to go away. It is also good that the students themselves are getting involved. We at FODU are certainly concerned for Duke as an institution. However, most of all, we have done what we have done for the students. Those of us who are alumni want present students to enjoy what we enjoyed while at Duke: a university committed to the care, nurturing and dignity of ALL students. Those who are parents want these things for their children.<br /><br /><strong>Follow up to Duke and the Police</strong><br /><br />First, a Duke official contacted me after I posted the last update and took issue with two statements I made there. I repeated information that had been told to me personally and which had also been widely reported. However, this official says these two statements are inaccurate and offers an alternative view. As the other bloggers in this case have done, I reproduce this person’s comments below in order to allow a fair opportunity to reply. I also appreciate this person’s willingness to respond and engage us in a dialogue, something lacking among Duke officials up to this point.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>1) No one in the university “hired” Wes Covington. In fact, I was the unfortunate agent who brought him into contact with the players. When I met with them on March 17th and first learned of the police search, I was surprised and concerned that they had neither told their parents about it nor retained counsel. I told them to call their parents and consult with them about a lawyer. I said that I would also find out if there was anyone locally who could help them. I then asked Sue Wasiolek for a recommendation and she pointed me to Covington. I was the one who passed his name along to the four captains. They met with him at least once that I am aware of but to the best of my knowledge, he was never formally retained by any of them. I would be surprised if anyone in the administration other than Wasiolek knew anything about this until much later. By 3/24 (the day after the NTO was served) he was entirely out of the picture as far as I know.<br /><br />2) The persistent rumor about “student/teacher privilege” is somewhat inaccurate. This came up in a meeting between the captains and Trask, Pressler [and] Alleva . . . on 2/24. By then, the players had all retained counsel and been advised not to speak about the matter without the presence of counsel. Trask had been sent down to athletics (I think) to assess the situation and report back to Allen Building. When he asked the players to tell him everything that had happened, they responded that they had been advised not to speak (in fact, they were dying to tell anyone who would listen what had (or hadn’t) happened). Trask responded that they could call their lawyers to come over and that he would wait for them. The players (specifically, David Evans) then said they would go ahead without representation. At that point, Trask said “We could argue that it (their account of the evening of 3/13) is a protected educational record. We might lose that argument.” The players then went on to detail what had happened at the party. Incidentally, it was clear . . . that Trask was absolutely certain that nothing had happened and that the players were innocent; I’m not sure that he played much of a role in what ensued in the following weeks.</blockquote><br />Either way, my larger point remains unchanged. Officials of Duke University--and, in a couple of cases at least, I do think genuinely--were indicating to the players their belief in their innocence at the same time that the University was surreptitiously passing protected personal information about them out the back door to police officers with questionable motives and disputed integrity.<br /><br />The problems with Mike Nifong and his conduct were manifest as I mentioned in the last post. However, Duke had every reason to be very suspicious of the motives of the police as well. Before that interview with the victim occurred, the original police investigator assigned to the case spoke with Sergeant Mark Gottlieb and they agreed that he would take over the case. As detailed last September in both the News and Observer and the Chronicle, Sergeant Gottlieb had been the subject of numerous allegations involving the violation of the rights of Duke students and use of thug-like tactics against them because of some particular animus he had against Duke students. Days before the lacrosse case incident, Durham Police Department officials had moved Gottlieb from patrol to investigations in District 2 apparently in response to these complaints. Duke officials had been notified of the complaints against Gottlieb no later than February. Now Gottlieb was back chasing Duke students, having in his own words “adopted” the lacrosse case. And into Gottlieb’s very hands, Duke personally delivered this protected information without a subpoena.<br /><br />Second, in the comments, someone asked why turning the key card data over to the police was prejudicial to the players. Sure it was illegal, but how did it harm them? A good investigator will gather as much information as possible and then form a theory. However, that is not how it is always done. Some police investigators unfortunately do not go wherever the evidence takes them. Instead, they make up their mind what happened and then go out and try to find evidence that supports their theory while ignoring all else. Sometimes they will even make up evidence. Even “good” cops sometimes do all this. No better illustration of these problems can be found than the way Durham police actually conducted the lacrosse case investigation.<br /><br />Let me be clear. There is nothing inherently sinister about police. Most police officers are dedicated, honest professionals who want to make a difference in the community. As in every human organization, there are some who do not live up to these ideals. In the middle are a bunch of people who see police work as just another job. Even under the best circumstances, the role of a defense attorney, as with any other type attorney, is to protect against the worst case scenario. They do that by forcing police to establish probable cause and preventing opportunities for fishing expeditions.<br /><br />In investigating an alleged crime, the police must establish two things: whether a crime occurred and who did it. In the context of the lacrosse case, the police had skipped over the first step and were already trying to find three people to indict. This was despite their initial skepticism about the accuser’s story. In fact, throughout the entire case, they specifically avoided looking for corroborating evidence to test the accuser’s claims, evidently afraid of what they would find. Remember that the application for the Nontestimonial Order sought by police stated that the dna evidence would “immediately rule out any innocent persons, and show conclusive evidence as to who the suspect(s) are. . . .” Yet, the police did not wait for the results of the DNA testing to come back before inducing Duke to give them the keycard information. The keycard data helped police establish who was at the party and, more importantly, who was not. As described in the Pressler/Yeager book, the police were afraid that the accuser would pick someone out of the lineup who was not at the party and that is exactly what she did.<br /><br />It is not that information protected by FERPA can never be obtained by police. All police have to show is that they have some particular need for the information, i.e. that it would be helpful to them in their investigation. That is a very low threshold, yet the police and Nifong were unable to make that showing with regard to the key card data. That they were unable to do so demonstrates that no legitimate reason existed for them to have this information.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-45653161827190492012007-07-19T22:53:00.000-04:002007-09-05T22:33:59.629-04:00Duke and the Police<em>by Jason Trumpbour, FODU spokesperson</em><br /><br /><strong>Duke and the Police</strong><br /><br />I have been keeping a low profile recently and that is deliberate. Mike Nifong had tried to make an issue of FODU’s efforts to call attention to his misdeeds. Now that the relevant authorities have taken the matter up, I am content to let them handle it. I will have much to say about the bar hearing, removal proceeding and contempt hearing in due course. In the meantime, I want to call attention to some disturbing information brought to light by the <a href="http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/2007/07/titus-plays-fool.html">folks at LieStoppers</a> concerning Duke. See also <a href="http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/2007/07/updated-titus-played-fool-timeline.html">this timeline</a> and <a href="http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/2007/07/titus-played-fool-july-17-2006-subpoena.html">the hearing transcript</a>.<br /><br />If you will recall, last May Mike Nifong requested the court issue a subpoena to Duke University to provide records of card key activity by all members of the Duke lacrosse team and also provide their home addresses. This information is protected by a federal statute called the Family Educational Right to Privacy Act and cannot be disclosed without a showing of need. Nifong’s request was patently overbroad, but Duke University refused to challenge it. Instead, Duke told the lacrosse players that it would comply with the request and that, if they did not like it, they could do something about it themselves. Attorneys for the lacrosse players challenged the request on their own and a hearing was held in July. The judge then handling the case, Kenneth Titus denied the request. It turns out that Nifong’s request was a complete fraud on the court because, as LieSoppers discovered, Duke University had already turned these records over to police months earlier in March evidently in violation of FERPA.<br /><br />This new information is disturbing as it relates to Duke on several levels.<br /><br />First, the Duke administration chose to supply personal information about its students to a manifestly unethical and corrupt district attorney in connection with a politically motivated investigation. Do not be fooled by the administration’s story that they did not know what to believe or that they instinctively trust public officials. Duke had been told by the police that the case was bogus and the file would likely be closed after the police had interviewed that alleged victim. How the police later came to aggressively investigate the case is an interesting story. I will have to tell it to you sometime, but not now. Suffice it to say that these circumstances were an additional reason for them to be very suspicious of the motives of Mike Nifong and the police.<br /><br />Second, the principle beneficiary of this bit of theater would not have been Mike Nifong. He already had indictments against three defendants and he could have subpoenaed their records with no difficulty. Nifong had no need to use the records of the other players at trial, because his position at that point in time was that they had been exculpated by the April 4 lineup. Nor would there have likely been any repercussions for him or the police for merely soliciting a violation of FERPA. The real beneficiary would seem to be Duke University because it would provide a legal fig leaf to cover its apparent violation of federal law. Worse, Nifong’s apparent willingness to cover for Duke shows that Duke, through its own misconduct, had found itself entangled in Nifong’s malicious prosecution to the point that its interests had started to overlap with those of Nifong.<br /><br />Third, even if the leak of personal information had not been illegal, it was extremely prejudicial to the players. Judge Titus found that Nifong had failed to show any legitimate reason for the police to have this information. Indeed, just as with the Ryan McFadyen e-mail, police used it to as part of a fishing expedition.<br /><br />Finally, and probably most disturbing of all, this surreptitious leak of private information occurred at a time when Duke was pretending to support the players, had encouraged them to talk to Duke officials citing a totally fictitious student/teacher privilege and had even hired a local attorney who they offered to the players in an ambiguous relationship meant to approximate that of a defense attorney. Now we see what kind of “help” Duke was providing the players. No person truly acting in the role of defense counsel would have volunteered this information without a subpeona.<br /><br />For those who insisted that our criticism of the Duke administration for its lack of public support for its falsely accused students was unfair because Duke was probably concerned about its students and was probably working behind the scenes to help them, guess again. For those who have insisted that speaking out against the conduct of Mike Nifong might work against the University’s interests and expose it to unacceptable risks, look at the risks the administration was willing to take in order to further the interests of those working against the players.<br /><br />Speaking of the Ryan McFadyen e-mail, the claim by Sergeant Gottlieb in his post dated notes prepared in July that the police received a copy of the Ryan McFadyen e-mail through a Crimestoppers tip always sounded suspect to me. The affidavit in support of the search warrant application recites that “On 3/27/2006 Sgt. Gottlieb was contacted by a confidential source. The source provided Sgt. Gottlieb a copy of an e-mail sent by email address. . . .” The Ryan McFadyen e-mail was widely distributed because, aside from being tasteless, there was need to conceal its contents. It is possible that some private individual unconnected to the team came across a copy of it. However, the only other people who had access to the e-mail and its chain of replies were Duke University employees. Is Sergeant Gottlieb’s new version of events in July 2006, which characteristically contradicts an earlier document produced by the police, one supplied to a judge no less, an attempt to conceal another surreptitious leak of private information by Duke officials? In his deposition for the bar hearing, Benjamin Himan indicated that, on March 27, 2006, he, Sergeant Gottlieb and Nifong met and among the topics discussed was obtaining “e-mails and stuff like that.” However, we do not see the police or Nifong actually making a formal request for the e-mail records of the players.<br /><br />I do not believe that the administration actually wanted to help frame its own students. There is some indication that members of the administration initially believed the charges based on their own personal prejudices rather than objective facts. However, the one common denominator present is that there was always some other priority for the administration that was greater than the welfare of its students. They wanted to be on the right side in the eyes of the public regardless of the facts or law. They wanted to maintain their cozy working relationships with local officials. They wanted to appease small, vocal constituencies within their faculty. They did not think the lacrosse players deserved their help.<br /><br />People, particularly lawyers, keep asking me, “Doesn’t Duke have access to legal advice?” They are puzzled at how a major university with its own legal staff and a top ten law school on campus could continuously make such horrible mistakes and seemingly lack any appreciation for what was going on in the lacrosse case. Duke does have access to plenty of legal advice. The reality is that the administration does not care. I found this out first hand. In settling with several of the players, particularly in the Dowd case, the Duke administration essentially used University resources to pay for the privilege of doing whatever it wanted. They were not mistaken about the consequences of their actions. It was never going to be any other way.<br /><br />It is impossible to defend the administration’s motives in violating FERPA as somehow a well intentioned attempt to further the cause of justice as it understood it to be at the time. If the administration had truly been committed to justice, it would have pursued it without regard to where it might take them and which side it might be found to lay. Yet, when the time came for speaking up for the due process rights of its students, the administration was silent and remained silent until late December. No, there was never any commitment by the administration to seeing justice done in the lacrosse case at least through December and certainly not in March. In the absence of such a commitment, there was only self interest and playing favorites.<br /><br /><strong>Collin Leaves Duke as Well</strong><br /><br />In other news, Collin Finnerty has announced that he is transferring to Loyola College. As with Reade Seligmann, it is disgraceful that Duke has not done more to retain a student who suffered because of his Duke affiliation and did so with dignity and character. Reade, Collin and David represented the University well and made us proud.<br /><br />I live not too far from Loyola College. It is an excellent school with a top notch lacrosse program (they beat Duke last year). The people there are glad to have him and I am sure that they will take good care of him in a way that the Duke administration was unwilling to do. Welcome to Baltimore Collin!<br /><br /><strong>Joan Collins</strong><br /><br />I do not want Joan Collins’s latest article to be overlooked by bumping it from the top place with this update so, after reading this, keep reading below. I would just like to add that it is not surprising to me that faith was important to all of the lacrosse team members, their families and the Presslers and that it helped them through their ordeal. The deep faith she describes them having was certainly apparent to me by their conduct all along, especially that of Reade, Collin and David. I am sure that there were many, many moments of despair for them. However, they did not give up. They did not let themselves be paralyzed with self pity. They did not give in to hatred. They never lost the ability to see beyond their own concerns and now want to use their experience to help others in similar situations.<br /><br />St. Louis de Montfort, in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross, described the proper way for people to confront and even embrace the vicissitudes of life, which provide opportunities for spiritual growth and a closer, more uncomplicated and uncluttered relationship with God. To suffer setbacks without hope and without faith is to suffer as the damned do. However, to suffer with hope and with faith is to suffer as Christ and the holy martyrs did. What the three families went through was horrible and they are still suffering materially for it. However, not only were they not destroyed by the experience, as Joan points out, they are better people for it. St. Louis emphasizes that there is nothing meritorious about suffering in and of itself. Recently, someone wrote a letter to the Herald-Sun complaining about all of the legal actions against Mike Nifong and compared him to Jesus. I wish I were kidding. However, to suffer for an evil or unjust cause is to be a martyr not for God, but for Satan. If Mike Nifong would only embrace the, in his case, just suffering he brought on himself, as the penitent thief at Christ’s side did, he too could be a better person for this experience and actually would be like Christ.<br /><br />While we are on the subject, this was the thought for the week during Mike Nifong’s bar hearing on a site run by Irish Jesuits called <a href="http://www.sacredspace.ie/">Sacred Space</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Jesus urged us not to swear at all: “All you need say is ‘Yes’ if you mean yes, ‘No’ if you mean no.” Only constant honesty with ourselves can make us really sincere. The world knows an honest person. Many would not tell a downright lie, but few, even of the pious, always tell the truth. It was the truth in Jesus that devastated his enemies. In proportion as we live a recollected life, with Jesus as model, we attain a simplicity and lucidity of character which has less and less need for untruth.</blockquote>I thought the coincidence was remarkable. That should be the lesson for all of us in the lacrosse case, not just Mike Nifong.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-13785281105848555012007-07-16T20:29:00.001-04:002007-07-19T15:02:15.242-04:00Faith and the Duke Lacrosse Case<p align="left"><img height="9" src="http://cgibin.erols.com/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?df=saintraymond&ft=0&tr=N&dd=E&md=6;pad=N" width="36" /></p><p><hr /><br />Below is a special letter written by our good friend <strong>Joan Collins</strong>. The letter was written at the request of <strong>Rae Evans</strong> based on their recent communications and it looks at an aspect of the Duke Lacrosse Case that, so far, may have been overlooked: faith. Indeed, we find through communications with the lacrosse families that faith was a great source of strength to them and guided them through this most difficult period of their lives.<br /><br />We would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to and honor a very distinguished lacrosse grandparent who is no longer with us: <strong>Raymond Forker</strong>. Mr. Forker was a most devoted and proud grandparent of David Evans. He passed away almost a year ago without seeing his grandson declared innocent. May this loving grandparent rest in peace with the knowledge we all have that Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann had been falsely accused! They were the victims of some ‘fantastic lies.’<br /><br />We extend our best wishes to the Evanses, Finnertys, Seligmanns and Presslers as well as all the other Duke lacrosse families. We are greatly relieved that their ordeal is finally over. These families showed endless courage, patience and hope throughout the lacrosse controversy and came out of it stronger than ever before.<br /><br />Moderator<br /><br /><strong>Faith and the Duke Lacrosse Case</strong><br /><br />Some supporters became interested in the Duke Lacrosse Case because of ties to Duke University or lacrosse. For others it was thoughts that this could be their son, brother or grandchild. For many it was concerns that with the best justice system in the world how could this happen in our country. As for me, it was faith that brought me to this case.<br /><br />Several players on the Duke Men’s Lacrosse Team were from my hometown. After hearing some of the media reports, I wanted more information, so I began reading the Court TV message board. I had never before read or posted on a message board or blog.<br /><br />On April 25, 2006, a photo of Collin Finnerty with a priest appeared in the media. I soon learned that Father Peter LeJacq had devoted his life to serving as a missionary in Africa. In addition to being a Maryknoll priest, Father LeJacq, is a physician who has opened hospitals and trained doctors in Africa. He attended grammar school with Kevin Finnerty and has known Collin Finnerty his entire life. When some posters began referring to the priest as a rent-a-priest, I could no longer remain silent. My first post was “What better time for a family to be drawn to their faith than in a time of crisis!” Little did I know that post would draw me into a case that would consume me for more than a year.<br /><br />On May 15, 2006, Dave Evans gave an inspiring and courageous <a href="http://z10.invisionfree.com/FODU_Open_Board/index.php?showtopic=88&view=findpost&p=12723894">speech</a> to the press on the steps of the Durham County Courthouse, flanked by seniors of the lacrosse team, with his parents, David and Rae, standing proudly behind him. For me, Dave Evans epitomized Hemingway’s definition of courage namely ‘grace under pressure’. Convinced Evans was being truthful and that he, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were innocent of all charges, the thoughts of his speech remained with me for months.<br /><br />On the morning of August 20, 2006, I decided to put my thoughts into words and wrote “Profile of Courage - Dave Evans”. I had no idea why, but I felt this sense of urgency to post it immediately. It was posted as <a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/05/letters-from-friends.html#c115623484986819758">a letter</a> to Friends of Duke University (FODU) on August 22, 2006 after which I left on vacation. Upon my return on August 31, I learned that Evans’ grandfather, Raymond Forker, had passed away on the morning the profile of courage about his grandson was written and was posted on the same day as his obituary. The timing was an uncanny coincidence, but I was pleased that it had provided some comfort to the family as they prepared for the funeral.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEienMazC_rXQ1qVtApwU7wdnFDCRqOevmvyvcPuaLvrVg61GLQkzny96VDxA8x0t_5VKnj8BxmYs55jJWyMp4F2bJu_EalvSDjtjeUq9jAzajISwJzu2nwsXNk9fqyx5wEYcg7FmQ/s1600-h/Saint+Raymond-5.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5087846264543391106" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEienMazC_rXQ1qVtApwU7wdnFDCRqOevmvyvcPuaLvrVg61GLQkzny96VDxA8x0t_5VKnj8BxmYs55jJWyMp4F2bJu_EalvSDjtjeUq9jAzajISwJzu2nwsXNk9fqyx5wEYcg7FmQ/s320/Saint+Raymond-5.JPG" border="0" /></a>Whether one believes in miracles or not, if ever a case needed a miracle it was the Duke Lacrosse Case. I decided to pray to St. Raymond Nonnatus, the patron saint of the falsely accused, asking that the case be dismissed. In the spring of 2007, I wrote to Mr. Evans that St. Raymond was the patron saint of the falsely accused. It was another coincidence that Rae Evans and her father, Raymond, shared the same name as the patron saint of the falsely accused. Later, I was touched by Mr. Evans’ testimony at Mr. Nifong’s trial about Raymond Forker and how the family had embraced the patron saint.<br /><br />Well educated, Raymond was born to a noble Spanish family in 1204. His father had planned a career for him in the royal court of Aragon, but Raymond was drawn to a religious life ransoming Christian captives in North Africa. When his funds were exhausted, he surrendered himself up as a hostage to free another. Imprisoned and tortured, he converted some of his guards. To prevent him from preaching, his captors pierced and padlocked his lips. Raymond remained in jail for eight months until he was ransomed. He became cardinal, although he continued to live as a monk. Raymond died in 1239 and was canonized a saint in 1657. His feast day is August 31.<br /><br />Over the past year, I encountered remarkable, resolute people in the search for truth and justice in the Duke Lacrosse Case. Their research, writings, poems, videos and cartoons energized us to continue. It was a privilege to meet and speak with some of the lacrosse players, their families and the Presslers. Their courage inspired me. The common theme of the conversations was faith and how it had sustained them, provided them hope, and at times carried them through some of their darkest days. When their university turned its back on them, when the media spewed vile things about them, when our legal system did not seem to be working, what remained were family, friends and faith.<br /><br />Today I met Rae Evans for the first time. She was wearing a St. Raymond pendant and she gave me a special gift of a St. Raymond medal. Faith has taken me on a journey from that first post on Court TV about faith, to writing the Dave Evans profile of courage on the morning of Raymond Forker’s death, praying to the patron saint of the falsely accused and receiving the medal. The St. Raymond medal reminds me that with faith all things are possible.<br /><br />None of us will forget the Duke Lacrosse Case. We must move forward and learn from the experience. The Duke Lacrosse team will become better and stronger men, sons, husbands, and fathers because of the case. This is not the end, but the beginning for there is still much work to be done. Hopefully, the players and their many supporters will follow in the generous footsteps of St. Raymond, so that something like this never happens again.<br /><br />Reflecting on the events of the case, its effect on all those involved and looking to the future, the poignant words of Father Bob Joerger, a mission priest who spoke of the story of Lazarus at my church during the past Lenten season seem most appropriate:<br /><br /><em>"What seems like weakness becomes strength, what seems like failure becomes new growth, what seems like the end, becomes the beginning, what seems like ultimate depravity, becomes redemption, what seems like powerlessness, becomes power, and what seems like death, becomes the seeds of a new life."</em><br /><br />Joan Collins<br />Garden City, NY<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-75277394835667159542007-06-22T08:45:00.000-04:002007-06-22T08:54:51.363-04:00Updated: Pressler Book Signing<b>Updated on June 22, 2007</b><br />Congratulations to Coach Mike Pressler and Dan Yaeger for making the New York Times bestseller list. Their book '<i>It's Not About the Truth</i>' made it to the bestseller list yesterday. Here is more media coverage of Coach Pressler and Dan Yeager.<br /><br /><li><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/story/612845.html"> Pressler gets to 'The Truth'</a> Newsobserver<br /><li><a href="http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-859134.cfm?"> Pressler says police used coercive tactics</a> Herald Sun<br /><li><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1522898"> Former Duke Lacrosse Coach Signs Books, Reflects on Case</a> WRAL<br /> <br /><b>Posted on June 11, 2007</b><br />Congratulations to Coach Mike Pressler and Dan Yaeger on the publication of their book "It's Not About The Truth." If you have not purchased the book yet, click here to order a copy: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-About-Truth-Shattered/dp/1416551468/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/103-8997871-6419010?ie=UTF8&qid=1175025723&sr=1-3">It's Not About The Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives It Shattered</a>. <br /> <br />Coach Pressler will be signing books from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Lax Hut on 4161 Merrick Road in Massapequa, Long Island, on Friday, <b>June 15th</b>. Matt Zash, one of the co-captains of the Duke Mens Lacrosse Team in 2006, is a part-owner of the Lax Hut.<br /><br />Coach Pressler will also be at Mitchell Field, Uniondale (Long Island), NY on Saturday, <b>June 16th</b> to sign copies of his newly released book. He will be there from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Long Island Lizards will host the Philadelphia Barrage at the same place. Their game time is 1:00 p.m. <br /> <br />Books may be purchased at both events.<br /><br />Related reading:<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1491927"> Ex-Coach Discusses Duke Lacrosse Case</a><br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/06/on-bookshelf.html"> On the Bookshelf</a><br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2007/04/conversation-with-susan-pressler.html"> A Conversation with Susan Pressler</a> <br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/02/scapegoating.html"> Scapegoating</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com287tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-86321562456657419232007-06-19T17:28:00.000-04:002007-06-21T09:05:35.497-04:00Nifong SuspendedTwo days ago, Durham District Attorney Michael Nifong was found guilty on 27 of 32 ethical charges brought against him by the NC State Bar in handling the Duke lacrosse case. As a result of those findings, Mr. Nifong was disbarred on Saturday. Earlier today, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson suspended Mr. Nifong ending his career immediately as a district attorney.<br /><br />Beth Brewer, a courageous Durham resident, should be congratulated and praised for providing the legal mechanism for the judge to issue Mr. Nifong’s suspension today. If not for the petition that Beth Brewer filed several months ago to remove Mr. Nifong from office, the suspension today might not have been possible. Thank you Beth Brewer, for being a good citizen!<br /><br />Here are links for more details on today’s developments:<br /><li><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1512605"> Nifong Served With Suspension Order</a> WRAL<br /><li><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_re_us/duke_lacrosse"> Judge suspends Duke rape DA immediately</a> Associated Press<br /><li><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/nifong/story/609014.html">Judge to suspend dallying Nifong today</a> Newsobserver<br /><br />To read more about 'good citizen' Beth Brewer:<br /><li><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/05/letters-from-friends-2.html#c116161120181769908"> Profile in Courage - Beth Brewer</a> by Joan Collins<br /><li><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2007/01/thank-you-beth-brewer.html"> Thank you, Beth Brewer</a> John in Carolina<br /><li><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2007/06/innocent-thanks-again-beth-brewer.html"> INNOCENT: Thanks again, Beth Brewer</a> John in Carolina<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-73914256057462021832007-06-18T15:33:00.000-04:002007-06-18T17:44:41.640-04:00Duke Settles With Indicted Players<p><span style="color:#ff0000;">Breaking News:</span> The Chronicle is reporting that Duke University reached a financial settlement with formerly indicted lacrosse players. Here are more details:<br /><br /><li><a href="http://dukenews.duke.edu/2007/06/settlement.html">Duke University, Three Lacrosse Players Announce Settlement</a> Duke University<br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2007/06/14/News/Duke-Announces.Settlement.With.Indicted.Laxers-2915965.shtml">Duke announce settlement with indicted laxers</a> The Chronicle<br /><li><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070618/ap_on_re_us/duke_lacrosse">Duke reaches settlement with players</a> Associated Press<br /><li><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/06/duke-and-three-families-settle.html">Duke and Three Families Settle</a> KC Johnson</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-26538234186744568502007-06-16T14:51:00.000-04:002007-06-19T11:45:45.867-04:00Nifong Trial Verdict<span style="color:#ff0000;">Breaking News:</span> Durham DA Michael Nifong was found guilty on 27 of the 32 ethical charges brought against him by the NC Bar. An AP report indicates the following:<br /><br /><em>Mike Nifong broke numerous rules of professional conduct during his disastrous prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape, committing "deceit and misrepresentations," a disciplinary committee ruled Saturday.</em><br /><br /><b>Selected Videos:</b><br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/1507000"> David Evans Sr. State Bar Testimony</a><br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/1507031"> Mary Ellen Finnerty State Bar Testimony</a><br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/1507052"> Nifong Says He should Be Disbarred</a><br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/1506954"> Disciplinary Board Disbars Nifong</a><br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/1506978"> Duke Lacrosse Defense Attorneys News Conference</a><br /><b>Selected articles:</b><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/us/17duke-text.html?_r=1&oref=slogin"> Comments of Disciplinary Panel’s Chairman</a>The New York Times<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1506245"> Bar Accepts Nifong's Offer to Surrender Law License</a> WRAL<br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070616/ap_on_re_us/duke_lacrosse"> N.C. panel disbars Duke prosecutor</a> AP<br /><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3285862&page=1"> Former Duke Prosecutor Nifong Disbarred</a> June 18, ABC News<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/story/606386.html"> Bar strips Nifong of his law license</a> Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/06/findings.html"> Findings</a> KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070616/ap_on_re_us/duke_lacrosse"> Duke prosecutor: He should be disbarred</a> AP<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/06/nifong-accepts-disbarment.html"> Nifong Accepts Disbarment</a> KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070616/ap_on_re_us/duke_lacrosse">Committee: Duke prosecutor broke rules</a> AP<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/06/blog-post.html">Verdict</a> KC Johnson<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-69447565353635846062007-06-15T16:01:00.000-04:002007-06-16T15:18:02.019-04:00DA Michael Nifong Resigns<span style="color:#ff0000;">Breaking News:</span> Durham DA Michael Nifong just announced that he will resign his post. This is something we had hoped for. We are glad to hear that Mr. Nifong finally reached that decision. Below are links to selected media coverage on this topic.<br /><br /><b>Articles:</b><br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1506145"> Law Expert: Cleared Player's Testimony Devastating for Nifong</a> WRAL<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/story/605725.html">Reactions to Nifong's resignation</a> Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1459913"> Embattled Nifong Says He'll Resign</a> WRAL<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/06/nifong-resigns.html"> Nifong resigns</a> KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/nifong/story/605101.html"> Nifong says he'll quit as district attorney</a> Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070615/ap_on_re_us/duke_lacrosse"> Duke prosecutor says he will resign</a> Associated Press<br /><b>Videos:</b><br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/1503575"> Reade Seligmann Full Testimony</a><br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/1504933"> Nifong announces he is resigning</a><br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/1504647"> Nifong’s testimony ‘Extraordinary’ lacrosse attorney says</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-69599307545670069432007-06-07T07:50:00.000-04:002007-06-08T09:30:02.639-04:00Fundraiser Event - Final UpdateAbout a week ago, an important fundraiser event was concluded by Ethical Durham in support of the lacrosse legal defense fund. Through that effort, a Chevy Tahoe 2007 was raffled off and $66,300 was raised for the defense fund. This was a major undertaking and it required a lot of coordination and effort by many individuals. Even the legal status of Ethical Durham had to be changed to be able to carry it out. All those hurdles were successfully crossed. Today, I would like to acknowledge major contributions made to this important fundraiser by several individuals and thank them. Without their contributions, the raffle would not have been possible. <br /><br />First and foremost, our thanks go to Robert and Sally Fogarty for donating the Chevy Tahoe 2007. Their generosity is much appreciated by the beneficiaries of the legal defense fund. In fact, words are not enough to thank them properly. Many thanks for Ethical Durham as well! They worked tirelessly to make this a successful fundraiser. This was the group’s first serious fundraiser and they had to learn every step of the way. Despite that, they handled the event like professionals. Our hats are off to Ethical Durham and Stefanie Sparks in particular. Last but not least, thank you Mrs. Susan Wolcott and Mr. George Jennison for handling the overall coordination and logistics. Without your guidance and leadership the raffle would not have been a success.<br /><br />This brings me to the next group of people who deserves a big thank you. That’s you, all the supporters and friends who purchased the raffle tickets. Thank you for purchasing those tickets. You could not have spent $100 per ticket for a worthier cause. Your support is much appreciated by those who will benefit from the defense fund.<br /><br />Finally, I would like to congratulate the lucky winner of the raffle. I truly hope you will use your Chevy Tahoe in good times.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-20828503189528362512007-05-29T09:49:00.000-04:002007-07-19T23:13:25.764-04:00Thank you!<span style="color:#ff0000;">Breaking News:<a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/2104/story/583686.html"> Reade Seligmann to attend Brown University.</span></a><br /><br />We are sorry that Duke is losing such a fine young man and the embodiment of all that is good about Duke students. However, we understand completely and want only the best for him. We know that other excellent schools reached out to Reade even while he was under indictment. It is a disgrace that his own school, Duke University, did nothing to try and keep him even after he was exonerated.<br /><br /><p><strong>Thank you</strong></p><p>Congratulations to the Duke Men’s and Women’s lacrosse teams for outstanding seasons! It was not a Hollywood ending, but we hope with time you can look back and appreciate all you accomplished this season. It was something amazing.<br /><br />We love you and have always been proud of the success you achieved as people in the things that matter most: confronting the overwhelming challenges presented to you by life itself. The success you achieved on the field was equally remarkable and just icing on the cake, very sweet icing indeed.<br /><br />Thank you for a thrilling ride this season!<br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-88677787815268277502007-05-22T12:55:00.000-04:002007-05-22T13:04:08.274-04:00The State of Things<i>by Jason Trumpbour, FODU spokesperson</i><br /><br /><b>ATAF Fundraiser </b> <br /><br />First, a reminder. Tickets remain for the Tahoe Raffle to benefit the defense fund. <a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/01/ataf-fundraising.html"> Click here</a> or scroll down for information on how to order tickets. The proceeds support a very good cause you know you want that Tahoe! The number of tickets is limited and the drawing is on May 28th. Get yours before it is too late.<br /><br /><b>The End, the Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning.</b><br /><br />Now that Reade, Collin and David have finally been exonerated, it is time to think about the future of FODU. Obviously, our number one priority was ending the hoax and getting Reade, Collin and David from out of harm’s way and that has been achieved. However, our approach was originally premised on the fact that Duke should be a part of that process, not only for the sake its falsely accused students, but for its own sake. That objective has yet to be realized. Together, with many others, we changed the world around Duke for the better. However, Bob Steel’s most recent letter and the News and Communications Office’s recent attempts at history show the University still singing exactly the same tune it was a year ago.<br /><br />When FODU first began operating, a friend of mine who is an alumnus was excited because he thought FODU could become an alternative to the University’s official, administration run alumni organization that would be more responsive to the concerns of alumni. Something like that has already happened as the FODU bulletin board has morphed into the Duke Community Forum and will likely live on beyond us. For my part, I have always hoped that the need for our group would be temporary. Unfortunately, the legal case is over and here we all still are. <br /><br />At some point, the administration will have to come to terms with the lacrosse case. It is not going to go away. The incident will be relived countless more times as the many books about it are released. The story is not going to get any better for Duke with each retelling--indeed, quite the opposite. Hopefully, the administration will engage in some self reflection and soul searching so that, if the past cannot be changed, the future will. The University will have opportunities to do this in the near future. Settling the Dowd case fairly was a small step in the right direction. We are not going away yet and will watch events in the coming weeks. <br /><br /><b>Celebrations! </b><br /><br />Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of attending not one, but two celebrations. The first was a luncheon, hosted by our moderator for FODU members and parents in the Washington area. David Evans and his family were the guests of honor. The second was a dinner hosted in New York by the Wolcotts in honor of last year’s graduating seniors on the lacrosse team. It is a tradition to have a dinner each year for the graduating seniors, but circumstances prevented last year’s seniors from getting theirs. <br /><br />Over the course of the last year, I have had a chance to get to know many of the player’s families. I never fail to be amazed at their ability to conduct themselves with grace and dignity and even good humor throughout their ordeal. I have also been impressed by their ability to remain charitable toward people who have wronged them and to vigorously pursue justice without malice and with an eye toward everyone’s good, not just their own. They are remarkable people and it was thus a joy to share these two moments of great happiness with them.<br /><br />However, the real pleasure in these celebrations was finally meeting some of the players themselves and speaking to them. I knew they were basically good kids and not miscreants and libertines as the hoax enablers tried the paint them. Nevertheless, I was quite impressed with them. They were polite, thoughtful, sincere and straightforward young men. They thanked me profusely and I assured them that I stood in for the many, many people who contributed to their cause in large ways and in small, both through FODU and alongside us. I now pass their thanks on to all of you and offer you their worthy lives rescued from ruin as reward. <br /><br />It is worth noting that, to date, the players are the only actors in the entire saga who have expressed any genuine regret for inappropriate behavior on their part and who have been willing to examine themselves with an eye toward improvement. They are better people for this experience and will use what they have learned to make a difference in the world. Who else in all this can say that? <br /><br />For those of us who love Duke, the dignity with which the players, especially Reade, Collin and David, conducted themselves throughout their ordeal showed Duke students in such a positive light and gave us all something of which to be proud. Let us also not forget the character, fortitude and resourcefulness shown by the women’s lacrosse team in standing up for what was right. <br /><br />I got involved with this case because of the issues it presented, not the people. Good, bad or ugly, none of the players had committed a crime and neither they nor their families deserved the terrible ordeal to which Mike Nifong subjected them. Neither did they deserve the unfair vilification of them by those who either wanted to enable the hoax or who wanted to rationalize their inaction. No one is safe in a society that allows manifest injustice such as the lacrosse case to go forward. No institution dedicated to knowledge and social betterment can look the other way when something like it occurs. <br /><br />In the end, however, the people were what made this experience so truly rewarding. We could not have asked for more worthy beneficiaries of our efforts than the players and their families, especially Reade, Collin and David and their families. For that, I and my colleagues at FODU are most grateful to them.<br /><br /><b>Roy Cooper </b><br /><br />I have to commend Attorney General Roy Cooper and the Special Prosecutors for the professionalism and leadership they demonstrated during their investigation. You may recall that, when the Attorney General’s Office took over the case I had this to say:<br /><br /><ul>Roy Cooper and his attorneys have a real opportunity to restore confidence in North Carolina’s legal system. Furthermore, in doing so, they have a real opportunity to educate the public about the proper role of prosecutors in our legal system and how the legal system is supposed to resolve criminal matters. They can do these things by scrupulously executing their duties and exercising their discretion according to the requirements of law. Where Nifong allowed political considerations to influence his actions, they can embrace the rule of law. Where Nifong, abdicated his duties, they can embrace them. Where Nifong mislead the public as to the appropriate legal standards and his proper role, they can be honest. The public there and all over the world will be following their every move. Let us hope that they seize this opportunity and make the most of it. </ul>Roy Cooper, Jim Coman and Mary Winstead did all these things and what a difference it made. Not only was justice done, but the way they conducted the investigation and the transparency with which they shared its results ensured that everyone, aside from a handful of narrow minded ideologues, would accept their findings. I am also grateful to Attorney General Cooper for going one step further and stating his conclusion that Reade, Collin and David were completely innocent. That he felt compelled to do so shows that he truly is a man of integrity. <br /><br />We have had various letter writing campaigns asking our public officials to do something to help Reade, Collin and David. It is only fitting that we recognize them when they do something right. Please consider writing to thank Roy Cooper and his assistants for a job well done. <br /><br /><b>Final Fours </b><br /><br />Finally, congratulations to the Men’s and Women’s lacrosse teams for advancing to the Final Four. That both teams could successfully overcome all of the enormous challenges presented by real life and also play lacrosse at the highest level is perhaps the final wonder of this whole saga.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-17953555565237640032007-04-23T07:50:00.000-04:002007-05-03T08:49:35.152-04:00A Conversation with Susan Pressler<p align="left"><img height="9" src="http://cgibin.erols.com/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?df=pressler&ft=0&tr=N&dd=E&md=6;pad=N" width="36" /></p><p><hr /><br />Today, we are sharing with you another 'profile in courage' written by our friend Joan Collins. In her latest profile, Joan writes about a selfless and inspiring woman. A woman who not only stood by her husband and family and supported them through extraordinarily tough times but also stood by 46 other families, Duke lacrosse families, who were devastated by the events that unfolded at Duke a year ago. This woman is former Duke Lacrosse head coach Mike Pressler's wife, Susan Pressler. Thank you Joan, for talking with Mrs. Pressler and sharing your conversation with us.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_S1TR4rGimRgB928mGNlxNGzP6xHOZs6J5vQTULRQvxI8JSAtu5qrEFNtNJzfd8lzBv5I3EgqdbtG57sXjS5PoY5xt8Em-vHIaV_ox9lI6InyATv9l11yROGsGAsBzmZHCvb8sQ/s1600-h/Pressler-Book-Cover-Small.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5056598637513313810" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_S1TR4rGimRgB928mGNlxNGzP6xHOZs6J5vQTULRQvxI8JSAtu5qrEFNtNJzfd8lzBv5I3EgqdbtG57sXjS5PoY5xt8Em-vHIaV_ox9lI6InyATv9l11yROGsGAsBzmZHCvb8sQ/s400/Pressler-Book-Cover-Small.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p></p><p><br />In a book that will be published soon, there will be much more on the ordeal that Presslers along with 46 other lacrosse families went through between March 2006 and April 2007. To find out more or to purchase that book, use the link below.<br /></p><p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-About-Truth-Shattered/dp/1416551468/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/103-8997871-6419010?ie=UTF8&qid=1175025723&sr=1-3"><span style="font-size:85%;">It’s Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives it Shattered</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> by Don Yaeger and Mike Pressler<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><br /><br /><b>Profile in Courage</b><br /><i>A Conversation with Susan Pressler</i><br /><br />For some time now, several Duke Lacrosse mothers have spoken to me about Susan Pressler, wife of former Duke Lacrosse Coach, Mike Pressler. They described a woman who not only has supported her husband and children through difficult and painful times, but has continued to be an inspiration to them and their sons. Some of the words used to describe her were “amazing, “a rock”, and “the wind beneath Mike Pressler’s wings”. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Susan Pressler.<br /><br />Susan and Mike Pressler met at Ohio Wesleyan University where she was a swim coach, while he was head lacrosse coach. Originally from Illinois, she is both strong and loving. For over 16 years, Susan Pressler stood beside her husband as they made their home in Durham. As head coach, Pressler built Duke Lacrosse into a highly regarded program. Pressler compiled a 153-82 record at Duke, winning the Atlantic Coast Conference championship three times, while leading his team to 10 NCAA tournament appearances as well as the Division I men's national championship game in 2005. Pressler was voted ACC Coach of the Year three times and also was honored as the U.S.I.L.A. National Coach of the Year in 2005. She worked with him in organizing the successful Duke Lacrosse Summer Camp.<br /><br />The family immersed themselves in the Durham community. Their children were happy. Their two daughters, age 9 and 15, know of no home other than Durham. After her husband’s contract was renewed, they put a large addition on their Durham home, almost doubling its size, making it just the way they always wanted. They expected Durham would be their home for the next 20 years. Everything changed on April 5, 2006, when Mike Pressler lost his coaching job at Duke.<br /><br />Sadly, Durham became a community Susan no longer recognized. After receiving threats and out of fear for their children’s safety, they sent their eldest daughter to live with friends in another city, while their youngest was sent out of state with family for a time.<br /><br />Immediately after the players were indicted, she used a labeler to make handmade signs “Innocent #6- Innocent #13- Innocent #45” which she displays prominently on her license plate as she drives around Durham. She proudly wears a Duke Lacrosse wristband with the same inscription. Susan insists she will not remove the wristband, until Reade and Collin each score their first goal and she hears from Rae Evans that Dave is alright.<br /><br />Although she is the mother of two daughters, Susan considers herself to have hundreds of sons. She spoke in a most loving, motherly way of Coach Pressler’s players, not just the recent team, but of all the players over the last 16 years of coaching at Duke. She estimates that about 200 players have passed through his program. “I am so grateful for the young men my husband has brought into our family. I love every kid,” said Susan. Her youngest daughter refers to the players as “Daddy’s Boys”. I would trust my girls with all 47 boys on the team,” Susan said. Parents of daughters understand what that means.<br /><br />Several days before the Blue Devils played their first game of the season against Dartmouth, Susan Pressler addressed the team in the locker room, something she had never done before. She told them that Duke is not the administration or professors. She said, “Duke is the students. Once you wear that uniform you are always Duke.” She told the team the Pressler family never blamed them for what happened and that she loved them and they should feel proud again.<br /><br />About Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann she replied, “I am so proud of these three young men and how they handled themselves in the face of the most unbelievable adversity. As the ones picked, it would ultimately be them and their families that the world would focus on. No one would represent Duke Lacrosse with more class and dignity. After their innocence was announced to the world, they spoke at a press conference, their poise and presence could make every Duke alumni proud again. It showed anyone willing to see, that these are great kids from great families, who were falsely accused.”<br /><br />Ask to comment on John Danowski as Coach of Duke Lacrosse, Susan responded, “Duke Lacrosse is a great program. We were a big part of building the Duke Lacrosse brand. It is difficult to see someone else in that position, but I am glad it is John Danowski. His purpose is pure. He loves it as we did and he loves the boys.”<br /><br />In August of 2006 Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island announced Mike Pressler would become their new head lacrosse coach. For the past 8 months Coach Pressler has been working at Bryant settling into his new position, while his family remained in Durham. In the next few weeks, Susan and her daughters will move to their new home in Rhode Island. For the Presslers, starting over will mean many changes. It means a new job, new community, new home, new schools and new friends. Her eldest daughter, a sophomore in high school, plays on a varsity volleyball team, Triangle, which has won 8 out of the last 9 state championships. Unfortunately, she must leave her team which means so much to her.<br /><br />This past weekend at the Lone Star Classic National qualifier in Dallas, the Presslers eldest daughter, Janet, had a chance to meet some members of her new team, the Rhode Island Blast Volleyball. It was another glimpse for this teenager into what lies ahead. They were scheduled to play in the afternoon pool on court 38, the same court Janet’s Triangle 16-1 team played earlier that morning. Susan Wolcott, mother of a member of the Men’s Duke Lacrosse 2006 Team, was in the stands to cheer Janet and her team. For Susan Pressler, this represented the bridge between the Duke boys and the Bryant boys, which will forever be a part of the Pressler children’s lives.<br /><br />On the same day back in Durham, younger daughter, Maggie, attended the Duke-Army Lacrosse game where Jimmy Regan, former Duke Lacrosse player and Army Ranger, recently killed in Iraq, was honored in a half time ceremony. Former Duke assistant Joe Albericci, and the Army Captains presented Regan’s parents and fiancé with a cadet sword. The Duke Captains presented his family with his framed No. 10 Duke Jersey. “Jimmy represented and lived the Ranger Creed, extraordinary but not surprising, for a Duke Lacrosse player. This is yet another reason for Duke Alumni to be proud of their lacrosse team again,” she said.<br /><br />According to Susan, lacrosse in Rhode Island is at a stage similar to North Carolina when they first moved to Duke over 16 years ago. She described a Bryant University community that has been supportive and wonderful in welcoming them. The Bryant parents are excited that their children will have an opportunity to learn lacrosse from a man with the talent and expertise of Coach Pressler. The climate is much colder, so they will be practicing indoors a lot and shoveling snow, however the citizens of Smithfield have warm hearts to compensate for the colder temperatures.<br /><br />During our conversations, I could not help but think of one of my mother’s favorite expressions, “When one door closes, another door opens.” I thought of all the New England boys who will benefit from another door that has opened.<br /><br />Susan is optimistic about the future. Bryant has a student body of about 3,500 students. At Bryant’s first game of the season, there were 700 spectators, much more than attended Pressler’s first game at Duke years ago. In the stands were some of Pressler’s former players and their parents.<br /><br />Susan is excited about Mike Pressler’s soon to be released book, “It’s Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives it Shattered”, which he wrote with Don Yaeger. It was written to fulfill a promise Mike made to the 47 players that he would tell the world the truth at the appropriate time and venue.<br /><br />Bryant opened the door for Coach Pressler. As they hold the door open for Susan Pressler and her daughters to enter, they will soon learn that the woman entering the door has a heart big enough to love each and every one of Bryant University’s sons.<br /><br />“Optimism is the foundation of courage,” wrote Nicholas Murray Butler, former President of Columbia University. “My goal is to not let the events of this last year taint my children’s view of the world,” said Susan Pressler. She is a testament to finding the inner strength to recognize the open door in front of you, when one had closed unexpectedly.<br /><br />One former member of the Duke lacrosse team wrote to me, “I am forever indebted to Mrs. Pressler for what she did for me and my friends”. Heroes inspire us. Susan is an inspiration for us all to rise above feelings of disappointment and watch for our own opening doors.<br /><br />Susan Pressler is a true hero.<br /><br />Joan Collins<br />Garden City, NY </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28993478.post-1149099224508225922007-04-16T07:00:00.351-04:002009-02-06T18:57:48.684-05:00Links to mediaThis page contains a list of selected articles on the Duke Lacrosse case. In the lower part of the page, several discussion boards and related websites are also listed.<br /><br />To propose a new link, post it in the comments section below or send us an email. Be sure to include the exact web address. We will review all suggested links, and add as appropriate. This page is updated many times per day. <span style="color:#000066;">To make sure you are viewing the latest, click on your <i>Refresh</i> button</span>.<br /><br /><b>a. Recent Articles:</b><br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2009/02/on-other-blogs.html">On Other Blogs</a> Feb 6, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/02/brodhead-chronicle-spin-same-take-on.html">Brodhead, Chronicle Spin Same Take On Duke’s Giving Drop</a> Feb 5, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/02/dukes-donations-drop-chronicles-same.html">Duke’s Donations Drop; The Chronicle’s The Same</a> Feb 3, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2009/02/january-events-in-case.html">January Events in the Case</a> Feb 2, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/02/plaintiffs-will-question-nifongs-press.html">Plaintiffs will question Nifong's press contact before Mar. 27, 2006</a> Feb 1, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/plaintiffs-response-to-nifongs-latest.html">Plaintiffs’ response to Nifong’s latest filing</a> Feb 1, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/informed-commentary-re-likely.html">Informed commentary re: likely Duke/Durham discovery</a> Jan 30, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/who-should-worry-about-dukedurham.html">Who should worry about Duke/Durham discovery?</a> Jan 28, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/tim-tyson-raleigh-n-whiteys-place.html">Tim Tyson, the Raleigh N&O & Whiteys’ Place</a> Jan 27, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/sec-probes-whether-duke-bot-chair.html">SEC Probes Whether Duke BOT Chair Misled Investors</a> Jan 23, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-re-dukes-chronicle-ignores.html">More re: "Duke’s Chronicle Ignores Insurer's Charges"</a> Jan 23, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/dukes-chronicle-ignores-insurers.html">Duke’s Chronicle Ignores Insurer’s Charges</a> Jan 22, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/insurer-dukes-allegations-knowingly.html">Insurer: Duke’s “allegations … knowingly unfounded, malicious, frivolous, and in bad faith.”</a> Jan 20, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2009/01/dukes-5m-defense.html">Duke's $5M Defense?</a> Jan 19, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/until-proven-innocent-on-law-profs-top.html">“Until Proven Innocent” On Law Prof’s Top 5 List</a> Jan 17, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2009/01/is-nifong-paying-by-line.html">Is Nifong Paying by the Line?</a> Jan 16, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/two-question-for-n-saunders-durham-da.html">Two question for the N&O’s Saunders & Durham DA Cline</a> Jan 16, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/seigels-orlando-sentinel-op-ed-smeared.html">Seigel’s Orlando Sentinel Op-Ed Smeared Laxers</a> Jan 13, John in Carolina <br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2009/01/keohanes-root-of-problem.html">Keohane's "Root of the Problem"</a> Jan 12, KC Johnson <br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/two-missing-guests-at-da-clines.html">Two Missing Guests at DA Cline's Swearing-in</a> Jan 9, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2009/01/cline-was-nifong-right.html">Cline: Was Nifong Right?</a> Jan 8, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/worst-duke-hoaxframe-up-prediction-so.html">Worst Duke Hoax/Frame-up Prediction So Far?</a> Jan 8, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/duke-trustees-watching-larry-king-on.html">Duke Trustees Watching Larry King On Apr. 10, 2006</a> Jan 5, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2009/01/attorney-spilbor-proves-dukes-trustees.html">Attorney Spilbor Proves Duke's Trustees Knew</a> Jan 1, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/12/december-events-in-case.html">December Events in the Case</a> Dec 31, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/bill-anderson.html">Bill Anderson on the H-S; my response</a> Dec 30, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/dukes-allison-haltom-trustees.html">Duke's Allison Haltom & the trustees</a> Dec 29, John in Carolina<br />Dec 28, John in Carolina<br /><li><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/yes-virginia-there-is-police-report.html">Yes, Virginia, there is a Police Report</a> <br /><li><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/durham-pd-h-ss-big-present-to-duke.html">Durham PD & H-S’s big “present” to Duke laxers</a> <br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/raleigh-n-gift-to-duke-laxers.html">Raleigh N&O’s “gift” to the Duke laxers</a> Dec 24, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/12/alternate-realities_22.html">Alternate Realities</a> Dec 22, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/brodhead-to-faculty-staff-dukes.html">Brodhead to faculty & staff: "Duke’s endowment … has declined"</a> Dec 17, John in Carolina<br />John in Carolina, Dec 16<br /><li><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/durhams-lax-frame-contributes-to.html">Durham’s lax frame contributes to probation problems</a> <br /><li><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/harvard-duke-yale-report-on-their.html">Harvard, Duke & Yale report on their endowments</a><br /><li><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/dukes-endowment-budget-reporting-trails.html">Duke’s endowment, budget reporting trails Harvard’s & Yale’s</a> <br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/despite-duke-endowments-1b-hit-steel.html">Despite Duke endowment's $1B hit, Steel & Brodhead "very, very" positive</a> Dec 14, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/12/durhams-vanishing-comma.html">Durham's Vanishing Comma</a> Dec 10, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/quick-duke-quiz.html">Take a quick Duke quiz</a> Dec 9, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/is-raleigh-news-observer-for-sale.html">Is the Raleigh News & Observer for sale?</a> Dec 7, John in Carolina<br /><a hrfe="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/raleigh-n-pearl-harbor-remembrances.html">Raleigh N&O’s Pearl Harbor remembrances</a> Dec 7, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/n-again-terms-nifong-fallen-prosecutor.html">N&O again terms Nifong "fallen prosecutor"</a> Dec 6, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/duke-sues-national-union-interesting.html">An interesting "conversation" re: Duke's National Union suit</a> Dec 5, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/story/1321296.html">Suit against Nifong can go ahead</a> Dec 5, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/state/6-1036265.cfm">Judge allows lawsuit against Nifong to proceed</a> Dec 4, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1035393.cfm">Duke lacrosse suit lawyers scoff at city immunity claim</a> Dec 3, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1035547.cfm">Atwater pleads not guilty to federal charges</a> Dec 3, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/12/duke-filing-against-insurer-in.html">Duke filing against insurer in connection with lax suits</a> Dec 2, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/12/asking-questions.html">Asking Questions</a> Dec 1, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/12/01/News/Duke-Seeks.Insurance.Damages-3563821.shtml">Duke seeks insurance damage</a> Dec 1, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/11/crime-punishment.html">Crime & Punishment</a> Nov 30, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/11/duke-as-plaintiff.html">Duke As Plaintiff: Sues Its Insurance Company</a> Nov 26, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/11/n-smoke-and-mirrors-cant-hide.html">N&O’s “smoke and mirrors” can’t hide circulation losses</a> Nov 26, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/11/n-finally-reports-gattis-street-rape.html">N&O finally reports Gattis Street rape suspect’s latest arrest</a> Nov 26, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/story/1309208.html">Duke sues insurer over lacrosse settlement</a> Nov 25, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/11/25/News/Gattis.Rape.Suspect.Jailed.This.Month-3561513.shtml">Gattis rape suspect jailed this month</a> Nov 25, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/11/n-reporters-falsehoods-undermine.html">N&O reporter’s falsehoods undermine editors’ “police report” claim</a> Nov 25, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/11/amazing.html">Amazing</a> Nov 24, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/11/whats-duke-research-for-post-1.html">What's Duke Research for? (Post 1)</a> Nov 23, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/11/making-duke-research-must-read.html">Making Duke Research a “must read”</a> Nov 19, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/11/odds-ends.html">Odds & Ends</a> Nov 17, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1020043.cfm">City wins rounds in lacrosse suit cases</a> Nov 15, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/11/nifongs-nov-06-election-duke-role.html">Nifong’s Nov. ’06 election: a Duke role?</a> Nov 14, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/11/duke-this-veterans-day-eve.html">Duke this Veteran’s Day Eve</a> Nov 10, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/11/durham-state-law-cant-touch-us.html">Durham: "State Law Can't Touch Us"</a> Nov 10, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1012676.cfm">Lawyers seek city lacrosse dismissals</a> Nov 6, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/11/06/News/Book-Review.The.Last.Dance.For.Grace-3529194.shtml">Book Review- The last Dance for grace</a> Nov 6, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/11/you-can-be-sure-mangum-hasnt-changed.html">You can be sure Mangum hasn't changed</a> Nov 3, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/11/october-events-in-case.html">October Events in the Case</a> Nov 3, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/11/03/News/Chronicle.Nabs.Acp.Accolades-3520995.shtml">Chronicle nabs ACP accolades</a> Nov 3, The Chronicle <br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/11/reality-therapy-for-mangums-handlers.html">Reality therapy for Mangum's handlers</a> Nov 1, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/10/least-surprising-endorsement.html">The Least Surprising Endorsement</a> Oct 31, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/10/mangums-last-dance-swindle-ignores.html">Mangum’s Last Dance swindle ignores Brodhead</a> Oct 30, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/10/29/Editorial/Moving.On.From.Mangum-3512807.shtml">Moving on from Mangum</a> Oct 29, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/10/29/News/Agent.Says.Memoir.Not.Defamatory-3512760.shtml">Agent says memoir not defamatory</a> Oct 29, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-judges-duke-lacrosse.html">Obama Judges & Duke lacrosse</a> Oct 28, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/10/27/News/Lax-Father.May.Pursue.Legal.Action-3507745.shtml">Lax father may pursue legal action</a> Oct 27, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/10/reflections-on-mangum-opus.html">Reflections on the Mangum Opus</a> Oct 27, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/10/mangum-takes-on-special-prosecutors.html">Mangum Takes on the Special Prosecutors</a> Oct 25, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/10/crystals-many-enemies.html">Crystal's Many Enemies</a> Oct 24, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/10/shird-preface.html">The Shird Preface</a> Oct 24, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/10/24/News/Mangum.Maintains.Assault.Occurred-3505146.shtml">Mangum maintains assault occurred</a> Oct 24, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1001861.cfm">Duke rape accuser sticks to her story</a> Oct 24, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3804581/">Phil Seligmann statement on Crystal Mangum's claim of sexual assault</a> Oct 23, WRAL<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-will-duke-false-accuser-say-today.html">What will the Duke false accuser say today?</a> Oct 23, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/3798232/">Publisher talks about Duke lacrosse accuser's memoir (video)</a> Oct 23, WRAL<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/story/1265609.html">Lacrosse party dancer still claims assault</a> Oct 23, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3797898/">Duke lacrosse accuser to promote book</a> Oct 22, WRAL<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-999420.cfm">Record turnout marks first day of general election early voting</a> Oct 17, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/134/story/1254219.html">The blues just got tougher</a> Oct 16, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/10/amazing.html">Amazing</a> Oct 14, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/10/did-raleigh-n-fake-police-report.html">Did the Raleigh N&O fake “a police report?”</a> Oct 13, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/10/ekstrand-filings.html">Ekstrand Filings</a> Oct 13, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/10/raleigh-n-editor-terms-ayers-wackily.html">Raleigh N&O editor terms Ayers “wackily idealistic”</a> Oct 12, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/10/naacps-mcsurely-s-letter-so-bad-it-was.html">NAACP's McSurely 's letter : So bad it was good</a> Oct 9, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/10/attorney-mcsurely.html">Attorney McSurely</a> Oct 8, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/10/07/News/Court.Orders.Restraint.In.Wachovia.Deal-3473972.shtml">Court orders restraint in Wachovia deal</a> Oct 7, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/10/mangums-alternate-reality.html">Mangum's Alternate Reality</a> Oct 4, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/10/03/Editorial/Board.Should.Be.More.Transparent-3468966.shtml">Board should be more transparent</a> Oct 3, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-995012.cfm">Duke honors faculty members</a> Oct 3, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-995044.cfm">Duke urged to preserve liberal education focus</a> Oct 3, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/10/02/News/Policy.May.Limit.News.On.Trustees-3466072.shtml">Policy may limit news on trustees</a> Oct 2, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/10/01/News/Annual.Dupd.Report.Shows.Few.Changes.In.Crime-3462852.shtml">Annual DUPD report shows few changes in crime</a> Oct 1, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/09/ncs-ag-cooper-said-innocent-and-sen.html">NC's AG Cooper said "Innocent." And Sen. Dole said what?</a> Sep 30, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3646620/">Nifong's attorney asks for reversal of bankruptcy judge ruling</a> Sep 30, WRAL<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/09/cooper-ad.html">Cooper Ad</a> Sep 30, KC Johnson<br />The Chronicle, Sep 30 <br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/30/News/Board.Of.Trustees.Closes.Door.On.Media.Access-3460089.shtml">Board of Trustees closes door on media access</a><br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/30/News/Markets.Tumble.As.Bailout.Fails-3460091.shtml">Markets tumble as bailout fails</a><br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/09/chronicle-ignored-nc-gov-candidate-prof.html">Chronicle ignored NC Gov candidate & prof Munger's debate participation</a> Sep 29, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/09/september-events-in-case.html">September Events in the Case</a> Sep 29, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/03/expired-documents-3.html#c1345283554701429627">Duke stonewalls</a> Sep 29, Herald Sun<br />The Chronicle, Sep 29<br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/29/News/News-Briefs-3457752.shtml">News briefs</a><br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/29/News/Bedeviled.No.More-3457743.shtml">Bedeviled no more</a><br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/durham/story/1230003.html">Durham's legal bills in Duke lacrosse case hit $1.2 million</a> Sep 24, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/24/Football/Trading.Places-3449121.shtml">Trading places</a> Sep 24, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/09/matory-to-duke.html">Matory to Duke</a> Sep 24, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-991732.cfm">Lacrosse suits so far cost city $729,350</a> Sep 23, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/23/News/Anniversary.Sees.Progress.In.Interim-3446454.shtml">Anniversary sees progress in Interim</a> Sep 23, The Chronicle<br />The Chronicle, Sep 22<br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/22/News/New-Aaas.Head.To.Join.Duke.In.July-3444096.shtml?reffeature=htmlemailedition">New AAAS head to join Duke in July</a><br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/22/News/Duke-Adds.Voting.Site.To.Campus-3444097.shtml">Duke adds voting site to campus</a><br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/09/group-members-discover-civil-liberties.html">Group Members Discover Civil Liberties</a> Sep 22, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/09/durham-convictions-tossed-n-ignores-its.html">Durham conviction’s tossed. N&O ignores its Duke frame sames</a> Sep 21, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/09/raleigh-n-without-its-mask-post-2.html">The Raleigh N&O without its mask (Post 2)</a> Sep 17, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/09/words-to-stand-by.html">Words To "Stand By"</a> Sep 16, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3548950/">Attorneys respond to Nifong's bankruptcy appeal</a> Sep 15, WRAL<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/09/tyson-hunkers-down.html">Tyson Hunkers Down</a> Sep 15, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/1216266.html">Pressler to coach U.S. men's lacrosse team</a> Sep 12, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/10/Columns/God-Damn.Independents-3423248.shtml">God damns independents</a> Sep 10, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/09/News/Duke-Paper.Examines.Legacy.Trends-3421288.shtml">Duke paper examines legacy trends</a> Sep 9, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-case-scholarship.html">New Case "Scholarship"</a> Sep 8, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://www.denverpost.com/lacrosse/ci_10406850">Mammoth picks All-America Duke forward Danowski</a> Sep 7, Denverpost.com<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/09/august-events-in-case.html">August Events in the Case</a> Sep 5, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/09/04/Editorial/Judicial.Affairs.Still.Cause.For.Concern-3415419.shtml?reffeature=htmlemailedition">Judicial affairs still cause was concern</a> Sep 4, The Chronicle<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3479308/">Nifong wants to auction guitars</a> Sep 3, WRAL<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/09/cooper-response-durham-filings.html">Cooper Response: Durham Filings</a> Sep 2, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/3466457/">Unindicted lacrosse players fight attempts to dismiss lawsuit</a> Sep 1, WRAL<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/08/cooper-response-dukes-sane-brief.html">Cooper Response: Duke's SANE Brief</a> Aug 30, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-984664.cfm">Athletes: Duke breached duty to fight charges</a> Aug 30, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/duke_lacrosse/story/1199945.html">Lacrosse suit given a new push</a> Aug 30, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/08/cooper-response-to-duke.html">Cooper Response to Duke</a> Aug 29, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-984401.cfm">Panel to focus on town-gown relations</a> Aug 29, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://www.dukelawsuit.com/2008/08/players-oppose-defendants-motions-to.html">Players Oppose Defendants' Motions to Dismiss</a> Aug 28, DukeLawsuit.com<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-983702.cfm">Duke students draw more complaints</a> Aug 27, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson223.html">A Story of Two Mikes</a> Aug 26, William L. Anderson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/08/chronicles-butler-rickards-are-truth.html">The Chronicle’s Butler & Rickards are truth-seekers</a> Aug 25, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/08/q-regarding-mangum-opus.html">Q&A Regarding the Mangum Opus</a> Aug 25, KC Johnson<br />The Chronicle, Aug 25<br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/08/25/News/Gold-Devil-3403074.shtml">Gold Devil</a><br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/08/25/News/Mangum.Plans.Release.Of.Book.Locally.In.Oct-3403076.shtml">Mangum plans release of book locally in Oct.</a><br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/08/25/Columns/Pro-Bono.Publico-3403129.shtml">Pro-Bono publico</a><br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/08/22/Columns/Our-Alma.Mater.Dear-3401637.shtml">Our alma mater dear</a><br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/08/my-hopes-for-duke-post-1.html">My hopes for Duke (Post 1)</a> Aug 24, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-982626.cfm">Woman in lacrosse case writing book</a> Aug 23, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-982617.cfm">Local shops plan to stock lacrosse accuser's book</a> Aug 23, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/08/mangums-forthcoming-book-first-thoughts.html">Mangum's forthcoming book: First thoughts</a> Aug 22, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3421612/">Duke lacrosse attorney hopes accuser admits she lied</a> Aug 22, WRAL<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/08/raleigh-n-different-cuts-for-different.html">Raleigh N&O's different cuts for different folks</a> Aug 22, John in Carolina<br />The Chronicle, Aug 22<br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/08/22/News/Lax-Case.Slows.As.Attorneys.Wrangle.Over.Words.Motions-3401629.shtml?reffeature=htmlemailedition">Lax case slows as attorneys wrangle over words, motions</a><br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/08/22/News/From-8th.To.80th.Dukes.Rank.Varies.By.Publication-3401623.shtml">From 8th to 80th: Duke’s rank varies by publication</a><br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/08/22/News/University.Listed.80th.Best.Undergrad.Institution.In.First.Forbes.com.Ranking-3401624.shtml">University listed 80th best undergrad institution by Forbes.com ranking</a><br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/08/22/News/Prez-Backs.New.Debate.On.Drinking-3401619.shtml">Prez backs new debate on drinking</a><br /><li><a href="http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/08/22/News/Alpha.Delt.Faces.Hazing.Complaint-3401618.shtml">Alpha delt faces hazing complaint</a><br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/higher_education/story/1188389.html">U.S. News: Duke ranked high on list</a> Aug 22, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-982275.cfm">Councilman opposes lowering drinking age</a> Aug 22, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/08/mangum-opus.html">The Mangum Opus</a> Aug 22, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-981897.cfm">Duke freshmen get Olympic welcome</a> Aug 21, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://www.bryantbulldogs.com/sports/mlax/2008/News/2008August19PresslerContract">Bryant University Announces Contract Extension For Men's Lacrosse Coach Mike Pressler</a> Aug 19, Bryant University Bulldogs<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-981230.cfm">College leaders: Drinking age should be 18</a> Aug 19, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/08/thirty-six-questions.html">Thirty-Six Questions</a> Aug 18, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/08/reader-rebukes-saunders-n.html">Reader rebukes Saunders, N&O</a> Aug 16, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-980444.cfm">Nifong seeks protection from lawsuit</a> Aug 16, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/08/nifong-3499-is-my-settlement-offer.html">Nifong: "$34.99 Is My Final Offer"</a> Aug 15, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/front/story/1179406.html#MI_Comments_Link">Lawyer: Nifong won't pay lacrosse players</a> Aug 15, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/08/brodhead-steels-shrinking-credibility.html">Brodhead & Steel's shrinking credibility (a repost)</a> Aug 12, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/08/airbrushing.html">Airbrushing</a> Aug 11, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/08/brodhead-helped-seligmann-wheres.html">Brodhead helped Seligmann? Where’s the evidence?</a> Aug 11, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/2811/story/1172998.html">DA will pursue death penalty for Atwater</a> Aug 11, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3358693/">Death penalty hearing today for UNC murder suspect</a> Aug 11, WRAL<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/08/mcclatchys-n-unbelievable-credible.html">McClatchy’s N&O’s unbelievable “credible” sources</a> Aug 8, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/08/brodhead-brown-seligmanns.html">Brodhead, Brown, & the Seligmanns</a> Aug 7, KC Johnson <br /><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-977684.cfm">Seligmann unaware of Duke help</a> Aug 7, Herald Sun<br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2008/08/jim-cooney-representing-duke.html">Jim Cooney Representing Duke</a> Aug 6, FODU by Jason Trumpbour<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/08/raleigh-n-early-coverage-myth.html">The Raleigh N&O’s “early coverage” myth</a> Aug 6, John in Carolina<br />Herald Sun, August 6<br /><li><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-977356.cfm">Lacrosse lawyers push for city evidence</a><br /><li><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-977341.cfm">Duke helped lacrosse player transfer to Brown</a><br /><li><a href="http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-977347.cfm">Ex-lacrosse attorney now on Duke team</a><br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/08/delaying-discovery.html">Delaying Discovery</a> Aug 5, KC Johnson<br /><a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1165338.html">Lawyer on Duke's side against Giuliani</a> Aug 5, Newsobserver<br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2008/08/ny-times-did-not-lead-on-duke-lacrosse.html">NY Times did not “lead” on the Duke lacrosse case</a> Aug 4, John in Carolina<br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2008/08/july-events-in-case.html">July Events in the Case</a> Aug 2, KC Johnson<br /><br /><b>b. Archived Information</b><br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/04/links-to-media-1-full.html">Earlier articles 1 (May 2006 - August 2006)</a><br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/04/links-to-media-2-full.html">Earlier articles 2 (September 2006 -December 2006)</a><br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/04/links-to-media-3-full.html">Earlier articles 3 (January 2007 - October 2007)</a><br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/05/earlier-articles.html">Earlier articles 4 (November 2007 - July 2008)</a><br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/03/expired-documents.html">Archived documents 1 </a><br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/03/expired-documents-2.html">Archived documents 2 </a><br /><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/03/expired-documents-3.html">Archived documents 3 </a><br /><a href="http://www.resisttheurge.com/60/60.html">60 Minutes 1 Video - Ed Bradley</a> (October 15, 2006)<br /><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2359206n">60 Minutes 2 Video - Lesley Stahl</a> (January 14, 2007)<br /><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/11/60minutes/main2673456.shtml">60 Minutes 3 Video - Lesley Stahl</a> (April 15, 2007)<br /><a href="http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/58/innocent">60 Minutes Outtakes</a><br />Proceedings of April 11, 2007<br /><li><a href="http://friendsofdukeuniversity.blogspot.com/2006/03/expired-documents.html#c6641612894173660188">David Evans Statement</a><br /><li><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/04/collin-finnerty-statement.html">Collin Finnerty Statement </a><br /><li><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/04/reade-seligmann-statement.html">Reade Seligmann Statement </a><br /><br /><b>c. Blogs</b><br /><a href="http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/">KC Johnson - Durham in Wonderland</a><br /><a href="http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/">John in Carolina </a><br /><a href="http://www.liestoppers.blogspot.com/">LieStoppers </a><br /><a href="http://johnsville.blogspot.com/">The Johnsville News </a><br /><a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson-arch.html">William L. Anderson </a><br /><br /><b>d. Discussion Boards</b><br /><a href="http://www.dukechronicle.com/messageboard/index.cfm?event=forumtopics&uforum_id=f558a7cc-9861-48e0-a691-23ddcc1b2d94">The Chronicle Message Board</a><br /><a href="http://s1.zetaboards.com/Liestoppers_meeting/index/">LieStoppers</a><br /><a href="http://z10.invisionfree.com/FODU_Open_Board/index.php?act=idx">Duke Community Forum</a><br /><a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=duke">Free Republic</a><br /><a href="http://forums.talkleft.com/index.php?board=1.0">TalkLeft</a><br /><br /><b>e. Other Information:</b><br /><a href="http://johnsville.blogspot.com/2006/04/duke-lacrosse-rape-timeline.html">Lacrosse case timeline </a>The Johnsville News<br /><a href="http://www.thefire.org/">Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)</a><br /><a href="http://mysite.verizon.net/vzestfw3/2006.06.01_arch.html#1150690237513">The Truth About False Confessions </a><br /><a href="http://harfordmedlegal.typepad.com/forensics_talk">Forensics Talk </a></li><a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--specialops-memori0525may25,0,730268.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork"></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Friends of Duke University</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com144