Updates

[Update, Thursday, 4.27pm: In the latest only-in-Durham moment, false accuser Crystal Mangum, in what is described as a jailhouse interview with the H-S, has now denied that she authored the document (which was filed through the PACER system) described below. This denial came after Durham's attorneys filed a motion to--appropriately--urge the court to ignore the request to intervene.]

A few updates:

False accuser Crystal Mangum, currently awaiting trial on murder charges, has petitioned the court to intervene in the civil suit filed by the falsely accused lacrosse players. (That lawsuit is on hold, pending a decision by the 4th Circuit.) In the petition, a clearly imbalanced Mangum claims to have been a victim of "government controlled sex slavery," and adds that she is currently being "framed for murder by the illuminati and the New World Order."

This, again, is the woman of whose credibility the Group of 88 was so certain that these Duke faculty members asserted, as fact and using Duke funds, that something "happened" to Mangum at the lacrosse party. No apology from the Group for their actions, of course, will ever be forthcoming; it's worth remembering that even the two Group members who privately apologized, Susan Thorne and Alberto Moreiras, subsequently reversed course by signing a public statement saying they'd never apologize.

Another item from Mangum's ranting intervention request will raise eyebrows: she claims that Mike Nifong paid her $50,000 (before, it seems, she even attended the party) to invent the allegations, so as to help him win re-election. Needless to say, she provides no evidence to corroborate this absurd assertion. But Mangum's decision to turn on Nifong might pose problems for her de facto legal team, the committee seeking to restore Nifong's law license.

In an item that might bring chuckles among longtime readers of DIW, a first in the case: several days ago, the H-S quoted my opinion in an article, if in the process reporter Ray Gronberg inaccurately claimed that I "said" rather than "wrote" the item in question. (A note: DIW doesn't do podcasts). Surely the fact that my analysis of the 4th Circuit's likely outcome coincided with the status quo preferences of Editor Bob Ashley played no role in the paper's sudden decision to include a comment from me. (The H-S continued its longtime practice of refusing to identify the name of the blog.)

Needless to say, the article didn't reference any of the criticisms that I made of the Herald-Sun's almost comically-biased coverage of the case.

Finally, as some DIW readers know, Duke successfully petitioned a Maine magistrate judge to compel me to reveal to Duke confidential, non-published communications relating to the book and the blog. I have refrained from commenting on the University's crusade, and will continue that approach, but for those interested, the decision has been appealed to the Maine District Court.