Wednesday, May 30, 2007

A Blow to Hodge

The non-credible foundation of the Baker/Chalmers report—that the April 4 ID session wasn’t a “lineup” but rather a search for witnesses, even though it, unlike previous lineups, was taped, and even though it didn’t include three non-suspects the police knew were at the party, and even though the police already had a witness list of people at the party—continues to crumble.

This morning’s Herald-Sun reports that Sgt. Mark Gottlieb reported that the April 4 lineup was constructed to with an eye toward how it would be viewed by “potential jurors, defense attorneys, prosecutors and other judicial officials.” Why any of these people would have been interested in a lineup designed to obtain “witnesses” Gottlieb didn’t say.

The H-S’ Ray Gronberg dryly noted,

City Manager Patrick Baker said Tuesday he didn’t know[!] why Gottlieb’s report alluded to recording the session for potential jurors and court officials.

In the Police Department’s eyes, “that was not a lineup,” Police Chief Steve Chalmers said previously, echoing the explanation he and Baker adopted in a May 11 report on how authorities handled the investigation.
There is one other important item in today’s story: at a meeting demanded by Baker sometime last spring, Deputy Police Chief Ron Hodge—one of the three finalists to replace Chalmers—joined Chalmers and Mike Nifong in justifying the decision to bypass Police Department procedures in the lineup.

[Update, 12.52pm: Today's N&O, meanwhile, reveals other concerns with the Hodge candidacy.]

How, then, is it possible Hodge could be considered as the next leader of the department?

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20 comments:

  1. Anonymous5/30/07, 12:46 PM

    I am glad to see the H-S actually do real journalism, as opposed to the enabling that it did for a year. Only last fall, the paper was saying that the "60 Minutes" broadcast was wrong and wrong-headed.

    Now the paper actually is saying the charges were bogus. Yet, the information we have now is no different than the information we had a year ago. I guess the H-S does not want to be caught on the losing side.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5/30/07, 1:26 PM

    What is it with these folks in Durham, especially the DA's office and the DPD? Do Durham voters really hate themselves this much that they would tolerate such fools for so long? The shit just continues to ooze out of Durham County....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5/30/07, 2:03 PM

    Carolyn says:

    So that's what Chalmers has really been doing all last year. Finding someone to replace him who's as dumb as he is.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous5/30/07, 2:22 PM

    So lets see. DPD never intended to use the 4/4 line-up as evidence - no certainly not, but they constructed the procedure with an eye towards how it would be viewed by judges and potential jurors.

    Baker will have to come up with a new song to sing about this line-up. While he's at it he should man the pumps - he's taking on water.

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  5. Anonymous5/30/07, 2:32 PM

    Try figuring out
    who runs the county.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous5/30/07, 2:33 PM

    So accounts from the various actors from the city of Durham, the Durham police department and the Durham DA's office don't corroborate each other?

    No problem. Maybe they'll be investigated by Mike Nifong.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous5/30/07, 2:52 PM

    I love NC, but I'm going to do my best to avoid Durham and their finest until things change.

    Space Puppy

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous5/30/07, 3:10 PM

    How absurdist. The "definitely never intended as a lineup" lineup was specifically designed for presentation to a jury... So much for the "credibility" of the city's last "report".

    When will the city council wise up enough to realize that they need a city manager and a police force who won't lie to them quite so blatantly?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gary Packwood5/30/07, 4:13 PM

    Eric 3:10 said...

    ...When will the city council wise up enough to realize that they need a city manager and a police force who won't lie to them quite so blatantly?
    ::
    Members of the City Council long ago gave up on the truth because they have convinced themselves that their city has so few resources and can't get anything done.

    That is pretty much the picture across the country in cities with large numbers of low income residents.

    I suspect the State of NC will need to eventually set minimum standards of services for such towns and cities.
    ::
    GP

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  10. GaryB5/30/07, 4:16 PM

    I guess the really sad part is that Baker and Chalmers aren't even very good at lying.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous5/30/07, 4:34 PM

    So it's the District Attorney, PD Spokesman, Chief of Police, City Manager, lead Detectives.......anyone else in Durham been caught telling bold faced lies lately? At least the Mayor hasn't been caught lying through his teeth.....yet.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous5/30/07, 4:42 PM

    Baker and Chalmers remind me of three year olds standing in the kitchen with crumbs all over the floor around them and their faces covered in chocolate, swearing to their mothers they didn't get into the cookie jar.

    Have these two not learned anything from watching Mike Nifong get caught in lie after lie after lie?

    I only hope to see these two clowns on the stand trying to defend these BS claims in the cases of Evans/Finnerty/Seligman vs. Durham and DPD.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous5/30/07, 5:06 PM

    Don't miss the point here. You are talking about people with extremely limited IQ and no education. They are not intellectually capable of thinking ahead of themselves or external events. They are childlike in both their reactiveness AND their inherent badness. Don't ascribe too much thought-process to their actions. They have a stupid excuse for everything....because they don't know they are stupid.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Tawny25/30/07, 5:35 PM

    Just finished Ray Gronberg's H-S interview with the "redoubtable" Sgt. Mark Gottleib. Does Gottleib really believe at this late date with all of the info that has been disseminated about this case that anyone will accept his attempts to justify the DPD's shoddy investigation? Did Gottleib intentionally follow his "superiors" [Chalmers and Baker] down the same garden path or was he drafted for this embarassment?

    I was fascinated how this one article implicated so many of "usual suspects." Besides Gottleib, we have Nifong, Chalmers, Baker, Hodge, Himan, Clayton, Lamb, Ripberger, Soucie, even Burness. All of them apparently signed off on this ludicrous "photo session" without a murmur.

    Yes, the behavior of the DPD is perplexing. Perhaps we should call in an expert. How about Crystal Gail Mangum? No, really.

    I recently checked the NCCU website to get their take on the AG's report. Actually, pretty temperate. While perusing "Duke Case Fizzles" [04-18-07]I came upon a paragraph that began: "Mangum was taking courses in police psychology. According to documents obtained by the Campus Echo, she was an honor student."

    http://www.nccu.edu/campus/
    echo/c-duke.html

    Well, CGM certainly has had interaction with the DPD [often as a perp] and now we learn that she has the education to offer us some unique insights. Does anyone have any idea where she might be hiding out?

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  15. Mandelbrot's Chaos5/30/07, 6:15 PM

    For a few days now, given that it is now apparent that the DoJ is not interested in seeing justice in another Southern town where innocent people were targeted for prosecution because of their race, I have been curious about why Gov. Easley has not called up the National Guard and declared martial law in Durham. It's painfully obvious that someone needs to march into Durham City Hall and their various police precincts and start auditing and arresting people. I know Wikipedia isn't the best source, but I did read this article, and it did mention that they may be called upon to provide martial law when local law enforcement is no longer able to maintain civil control. I'm no expert on law, much less the morass that is North Carolina, but I would think massive violations of civil rights would qualify. Also, it would serve as a powerful warning to those who would repeat the crimes committed by the highest levels of Durham's government.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous5/30/07, 6:18 PM

    face up folks, the politcos of Durm and the DPD are common criminals.

    ReplyDelete
  17. mac5/30/07, 8:29 PM

    Carolyn 2:03
    You'd think these clowns were
    investigating Natalie Holloway's
    disappearance or
    something...oh,wait...isn't that
    where Chalmers has been all this
    time? In Aruba? Studying Law
    Enforcement technique?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous5/30/07, 10:58 PM

    Is there someone in the Justice Department other than Gonzales who could initiate a federal investigation of the corruption in the Durham police department and in the city of Durham? Are there attorneys reading this who could give some advice to ordinary citizens?

    ReplyDelete
  19. mac5/31/07, 6:53 AM

    10:58

    Justice Department?
    Last I saw, they're only interested
    in persecuting/prosecuting Border
    Patrol agents.

    Asking them to investigate is like
    asking Ronnie Earle to investigate
    himself.

    Besides, "Fez" isn't about to show
    a spine.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous5/31/07, 5:04 PM

    N & O front page Mayor Bell has asked a former Supreme Court judge to chair 9 -12 person panel to investigste DPD and case. DEtails
    all the good "crimes" to be investigated!

    ReplyDelete