Strongly urges the commission to "really pay attention to Sgt. Gottlieb. I am just absolutely flummoxed" by the fact that in this case--and the only people working on case were Himan (who was young and did what he could) and Gottlieb. "Where were the experienced investigators?"
"It appears to me that the Police Dept. was so excited to get rid of this case" to Nifong "that they just handed it to him" and "Pontius Pilate-d it."
Gottlieb: "This supervising sergeant was the most experienced police officer in this case"--first officer assigned, last to provide a report. Urges them to look at 32-page typewritten document--although he says he never took any notes.
Gottlieb "simply a document designed" to cover up--Gottlieb report not supported by any other contemporaneous handwritten notes. Did he make it up? At the very least, this question must be asked.
Potentially "enormously egregious misconduct, bordering on criminal conduct."
Then go from there to the lineups--a no-wrong-answer lineup.
Police helped to create atmosphere stoked by Nifong.
Basic story: what was described as a racial gang rape, with a DA saying it was true, and then an investigation that "simply stopped with her initial statement" and Tara Levicy's report. DA then took over case and made himself police investigator, decision made to charge, and then everything that happened was designed to justify that charge--not to see that justice was done, but to justify that charge.
Picture of this story is treatment of Elmostafa.
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15 comments:
How many spectators are in the room?
Is this live on the net somewhere??
wral.com
wral.com
The room looks totally empty. May be indicative of how many people outside this blog who care...sigh
Hey guys, theres a dead horse outside, lets go beat it!!!!!!!!
"May be indicative of how many people outside this blog who care...sigh"
Just because you care about the Duke LaCrosse Burning that doesn't mean you care about this toothless, stacked, BS committee.
2:06-
Go to hell. People like you can't stand the fact that a lowlife black whore and a scuzzy DA didn't get away with their crimes.
We intend to rub it in!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To be honest -- speaking as someone who believes that justice requires, at minimum, the imprisonment of Nifong and Linwood, and the firing (at minimum) of Gottlieb -- I'm afraid what we're seeing from the general public and press, is a sort of post-orgasmic lassitude, in the wake of Nifong's seemingly climactic humiliation before the Bar, and public unmasking as a low-life piece of excrement.
To the average person, I fear, it's all over: Nifong is now considered garbage, and nobody wants to linger any longer near his stench, even for purposes of hosing away his slime. To which I say, again, it's a dirty job but justice demands that we do it.
2:06 - actually, and without emotion, I can say you are absolutely wrong. Compared to where Nifong will end up in this case, he is far from dead. Yes, that is sad, but his troubles are only just beginning, and even the contempt hearing will likely look like small potatoes for him in hindsight. As for the DPD and Durham officials, the disaster has only just begun. And I am perplexed, given Durham's penchant for doing the wrong thing, what DPD is even doing holding this Whichard hearing. Here's why - these hearings and investigations only work if they are very well done, thorough and honest. And some of the committee members appear to have major league potential to be anything but. And a lousy, whitewashed report will only make an already rotten situation for Durham (and yes, that horse has yet to beaten yet) even worse. So again, 2:06 - you may think that folks are beating a dead horse, but with any sort of foresight, the chain of negative events for Durham has only just begun. Not a happy circumstance for people who don't like to be reminded of unhappy or bad news - you may one of them - prepare for a long and disturbing ride - with lots of dead horse comments being made to simply no avail.
"And a lousy, whitewashed report will only make an already rotten situation for Durham (and yes, that horse has yet to beaten yet) even worse."
How so? A "good" (for justice) report would show lots of bad actions by the DPD and open up the city of Durham to huge payouts in civil suits. A "bad" (for justice) report that doesn't produce any evidence the defense team doesn't already have also doesn't add to the city's liablity.
From the point of view of the city of Durham, its employees, and its elected officials, a whitewash is clearly the way to go.
The politicians, press and academics who want it all to be Nifong's fault aren't anything but interested in minimizing harm to themselves and their favorite agendas.
The only downside to having the committee do to little is the risk of having outside forces say "if you won't clean up your mess we'll clean it up for you."
There are two outside forces with the power to do so. One is the state attorney general's office. They already have sufficient evidence to indict Mangum and Gottlieb at the very least, and chose not to do so. I think we can safely assume they're part of the "Blame Nifong and keep the rest of the corruption in place" faction, and have done as much as they're ever going to.
The second is the Feds. Everyone is wondering "Where are the Feds already?" If what's happened so far hasn't drawn their attention yet, I doubt a whitewash from this committee will be enough to wake them up.
My prediction for how the rest of this "investigation: proceeds:
Step 2 is a series of interviews with DPD officials who tell obvious, self-serving, contradictory bald-faced lies.
Step 3 is a report thanking the DPD for their cooperation and concluding that there's nothing wrong with them and it was all Nifongs fault.
Step 4 is fair minded people howling "BULLSHIT!" and demanding "Who's going to do something about this?"
Step 5 is crickets chirping.
Ralph
Step 6: My alarm clock rings, I awaken from a deep and long sleep, shake my head and realize that this has all been a dream / nightmare.
ralph - you are underestimating the force and effect that the civil suits will have. Discovery is a wonderful thing, and even the most stubborn and dim minded will have fear of what may be discovered. Duke settled so ridiculously fast (and on a universal basis, protecting their professors, too) that it made most of our heads spin. This makes sense to me - Duke has excellent lawyers (not sure the same can be said for Durham) and they knew damn well that discovery and its potential to unlock ugly information was the real devil for them. Potential for some to commit obstruction in the civil cases to frustrate evidence being produced? Perhaps. But with the whole blog world watching and commenting, that will take chutzpah that even the DPD doesn't have. Every "oh they will get away with it" notion in this case has proven wrong so far - who would have surmised in Nov. of 06 that we would have a sitting prosecutor disbarred and likely being found in criminal contempt (and worse)? Yet it has (or will) come to pass. Modern communications and the Internet is a wonderful thing - it keeps the heat on - and makes those discovery nuggets so available to a public that knows something smells to high heaven in the third world country known as Durham.
"Duke settled so ridiculously fast (and on a universal basis, protecting their professors, too) that it made most of our heads spin. "
They forked over cash which they have plenty of and avoided making any structural changes or punishing any of their wrongdoers.
"But with the whole blog world watching and commenting, that will take chutzpah that even the DPD doesn't have."
I don't believe there is any such level.
" who would have surmised in Nov. of 06 that we would have a sitting prosecutor disbarred and likely being found in criminal contempt (and worse)?"
But as one of the defense lawyers said recently, "How did Nifong ever think he could could get away with it? He almost did!"
"Modern communications and the Internet is a wonderful thing - it keeps the heat on - and makes those discovery nuggets so available to a public that knows something smells to high heaven in the third world country known as Durham. "
Yet somehow Duke's recruitment hasn't been measureably affected.
I do agree with you the the civil suits will do quite a bit of damage to the Durham taxpayer, every bit of which they deserve. However they won't understand why they deserve it and will just consider it another example of the white man keeping them down, while they reelect the same old corrupt crew who cost them a fortune in judgements.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Durham voters aren't as stupid as I assume ... but then they are the folks who reelected Nifong.
So far the overarching theme of this case has been "No matter how cynical I get I just can't keep up."
I second Ralph's analysis.
P
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