Report: Duke Prosecutor Dropping Rape Charges

DURHAM, N.C. — Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party, but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges, a defense attorney said.

Joseph Cheshire and attorneys for the other players have said for months the woman told several different versions of the alleged assault.

Cheshire said Friday that the accuser now says she does not know if she was penetrated, which he said led District Attorney Mike Nifong to dismiss the rape charges.

Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, has said three men raped her in a bathroom at a March 13 team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

The players — Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann — all say they are innocent. Their attorneys have consistently said no sex occurred at the party and have cited a lack of DNA evidence in the case as proof of their clients' innocence. The three lacrosse players are white; their accuser is black.

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Filed under DUH: Clinton aide stashed classified documents under trailer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton's national security adviser removed classified documents from the National Archives, hid them under a construction trailer and later tried to find the trash collector to retrieve them, the agency's internal watchdog said Wednesday.

The report was issued more than a year after Sandy Berger pleaded guilty and received a criminal sentence for removing the documents.

Berger took the documents in the fall of 2003 while working to prepare himself and Clinton administration witnesses for testimony to the September 11 commission. Berger was authorized as the Clinton administration's representative to make sure the commission got the correct classified materials.

Berger's lawyer, Lanny Breuer, said in a statement that the contents of all the documents exist today and were made available to the commission.

But Rep. Tom Davis, R-Virginia, outgoing chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said he's not convinced that the Archives can account for all the documents taken by Berger. Davis said working papers of National Security Council staff members are not inventoried by the Archives.

"There is absolutely no way to determine if Berger swiped any of these original documents. Consequently, there is no way to ever know if the 9/11 Commission received all required materials," Davis said.

Berger pleaded guilty to unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents. He was fined $50,000, ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and was barred from access to classified material for three years.

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Immunity May Not Protect Duke Prosecutor

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

By Wendy McElroy

Michael Nifong, the prosecutor handling the Duke lacrosse rape case, may single-handedly cause a reconsideration of ‘absolute prosecutorial immunity,’ the legal doctrine by which certain acts of a prosecuting attorney are literally immune from lawsuits or criminal charges.

The doctrine is intended to protect prosecutors from frivolous and retaliatory actions. District Attorney Nifong’s crusade to convict three white Duke students of raping a black woman (race is a key factor in the case) has been so outrageous, however, that it reveals how the immunity invites and rewards abuse.

Is Nifong absolutely immune for his bad acts, even intentional ones?

Before answering, it is useful to review some of those acts and to consider why subtleties of immunity are important at this point in the case.

Three recent revelations are indicative of Nifong’s behavior.

Last week, it was discovered that Nifong withheld "key DNA evidence" from defense attorneys for six months despite a legal requirement for immediate disclosure. The DNA results exclude the defendants but include "multiple" other men as sex partners of the accuser around the time of her alleged rape.

On Dec. 15, Brian Meehan, head of a private DNA lab, testified under oath that he and Nifong agreed not to report exculpatory DNA results to the defense. They conspired to hide evidence that weakened the prosecution’s case.

Meanwhile, as of Oct. 27 (and presumably to this day), Nifong hadn’t even interviewed the accuser about her alleged rape.

Why are subtleties of immunity so important now?

Immunity was never intended to shield intentional or egregiously bad acts by prosecutors. Check and balances in the legal system-- for example, the power of State Bar Associations to disbar -- are supposed to prevent abuse.

People have tried to have Nifong sanctioned on a state and local level. To date, the North Carolina State Bar Association has received at least 17 complaints about Nifong. Because such complaints become public only when copied to the governor or attorney general, there may be many more.

State bar associations are seen as checks upon the legal immunity granted to prosecutors because they have the power to sanction and disbar. North Carolina has not acted.

Nor will officials. For example, Gov. Mike Easley is responsible for initially appointing fellow-Democrat Nifong to the office of D.A.. Easley’s upcoming election will depend on the same voter bloc that recently elected Nifong: working-class blacks. Easley is unlikely to alienate his base.

Thus, there is a growing cry for federal intervention on the grounds that the defendants have been willfully deprived of their Constitutional rights: specifically, the 5th and 14th Amendment protections of Due Process.

Duke defense attorney Michael Cornacchia -- the chief investigative counsel into the United Nation's oil-for-food scandal -- has requested a federal investigation. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., has written to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales also asking for a federal investigation.

The demand draws energy from the fact that Duke will not go away.

News stories break on a daily basis. The latest court hearing was standing-room only, with national press crowding in. For the first time, in a show of solidarity, the three defendants appeared in court together.

Even if the judge dismisses the case, the defendants will almost certainly take whatever action they can against those responsible for the ordeal.

With Nifong, they will stumble over federal precedents of "absolute prosecutorial immunity" that immunize him against consequences for his behavior as a prosecutor. The qualification is key. The main question about Nifong’s immunity is not whether he committed misconduct-- he clearly did -- but what function was he serving when he did so.

The Supreme Court case Imbler v. Pachtman (1976) is often cited in discussion of prosecutorial misconduct. There, the court distinguished between "those aspects of the prosecutor's responsibility that cast him in the role of an administrator or investigative officer rather than that of advocate" [that is, a prosecutor]. It is only as a prosecutor that a D.A. has absolute immunity.

Otherwise, his immunity is qualified; he is not automatically immunized against misconduct that he should have known was a violation of law.

In short, Nifong’s immunity hinges upon the role he was playing when he acted, not upon the actions he took. For example, most of the press conferences held by Nifong occurred before an indictment was sought-- that is, before he became an advocate in a prosecution. The case was in the investigative phase. If the defense can prove Nifong knowingly made false statements then, prosecutorial immunity won’t necessarily protect him against a suit.

Consider the tainted photo I.D. upon which the indictments drew.

It was widely reported that Nifong directed the police to violate their own suspect-identification procedures.

Namely, he omitted non-suspects from the photo lineup and the accuser was told that all photos were of Duke lacrosse players who had been at the scene of the alleged rape. If this is true, then Nifong acted as an investigator and has qualified immunity.

The very fact that it is necessary to jump through hoops in order to address Nifong’s blatant abuse, however, highlights the problem with granting blanket immunity to anyone in power.

If prosecutorial misconduct were rare, then the situation might not be so disturbing. In an essay entitled "Reconsidering Absolute Prosecutorial Immunity" (Brigham Young University Law Review, 2005), legal scholar Margaret Z. Johns observed, "a 2003 study presents alarming evidence of the frequency of prosecutorial misconduct resulting in the wrongful conviction of hundreds of innocent people. This conclusion is reinforced with the ongoing investigation by the Innocence Project…which reported that, as of January 2005, 154 people who served time in prison for crimes they did not commit have been exonerated by DNA evidence. In many of these cases, prosecutorial misconduct contributed to the wrongful convictions….[O]ne can no longer dismiss the problem of prosecutorial misconduct as infrequent nor pretend that sufficient safeguards exist in the system to protect the innocent from wrongful convictions."

Absolute immunity was never meant to suppress evidence, dilute police procedure, or violate civil rights. But when checks and balances within the system refuse to work, then it becomes a blank check on the use of power.

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Living off rats to survive in Zimbabwe

By Jeff Koinange

(CNN) -- Twelve-year-old Beatrice returns from the fields with small animals she's caught for dinner.

Her mother, Elizabeth, prepares the meat and cooks it on a grill made of three stones supporting a wood fire. It's just enough food, she says, to feed her starving family of six.

Tonight, they dine on rats.

"Look what we've been reduced to eating?" she said. "How can my children eat rats in a country that used to export food? This is a tragedy." (Watch as Beatrice digs for rodents in the fields of Zimbabwe)

This is a story about how Zimbabwe, once dubbed southern Africa's bread basket, has in six short years become a basket case. It is about a country that once exported surplus food now apparently falling apart, with many residents scrounging for rodents to survive.

According to the CIA fact book, which profiles the countries of the world, the Zimbabwean economy is crashing -- inflation was at least 585 percent by the end of 2005 -- and the nation now must import food.

Zimbabwe's ambassador to United States, Machivenyika Mapuranga, told CNN on Tuesday that reports of people eating rats unfairly represented the situation, adding that at times while he grew up his family ate rodents.

"The eating of the field mice -- Zimbabweans do that. It is a delicacy," he said. "It is misleading to portray the eating of field mice as an act of desperation. It is not."

Western journalists aren't allowed in Zimbabwe. CNN gained access via a cameraman who operated under the radar of the Zimbabwean government. Mapuranga said that there are news agencies allowed to film there but that the country was "under siege" by media outlets like CNN and the BBC, "which have shown themselves to be hostile to the people of Zimbabwe."

Critics: Mugabe rules with iron fist
Critics point to one man for the nation's downfall -- 82-year-old President Robert Mugabe, one of the longest-serving rulers in Africa. They say he rules with an iron fist and has reduced Zimbabwe to a nation of beggars.

On Friday, Mugabe downplayed the situation in the country.

"I know we are in difficult times; it's hard times that we are going through. You are bearing a fair share of the burden, we know that [but] Zimbabwe will never collapse," he told a meeting of his ruling political party, the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front, or ZANU - PF, according to Reuters.

But Shadrack Gutto, of the Center for International Political Studies, said Zimbabwe is on the verge of collapse.

"The reality is it's really grinding down and not improving," he said.

The downslide began, critics say, in 2000 when the government crippled the country's prime commercial farms by running off white farmers and redistributing the land to Mugabe's cronies. At least a dozen white farmers were killed and dozens were injured and hospitalized. Thousands more fled the country and the land. Most of that land now lies empty and abandoned.

Mapuranga said the program was "the greatest thing that has happened to Zimbabwe."

The ambassador said the Africans who had been marginalized by whites before can now own land and control natural resources.

"This generation may suffer, but we are actually laying the foundations of prosperity and Zimbabwean control," he said.

Mugabe's political rivals have been neutralized. The official opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has been fractured by infighting and disunity. Its leader, former trade unionist Morgan Tvasngirai, just barely survived being convicted of treason after a video was released showing him discussing plans for the supposed "elimination" of Mugabe.

Last year, a few months after the presidential election, the government of Zimbabwe bulldozed homes and businesses in the capital of Harare. It was called "Operation Murambatsvina," which in the local Shona language means "Drive Out Rubbish." The United Nations said more than 700,000 people were left homeless, and critics say they were targeted for their political views.

-more @ cnn.com

Joy Behar of 'The View' Likens Rumsfeld to Adolf Hitler

NEW YORK — The women of 'The View' did it again.

Specifically Joy Behar, who during a discussion Monday about Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' selection, likened former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to ... Adolf Hitler.

"You have to put, like, a Hitler type [on the cover]," Behar said in response to a question about whether Time's selection of "You" was appropriate.

"Like, you put Donald Rumsfeld there, or something," she said.

The show's audience — even show diva Rosie O'Donnell — was stunned by the comment, and as many began to jeer, Behar feigned surprise and yelled, "What's wrong with that?"

Behar is no stranger to the off-the-cuff comment.

Last Thursday, in a discussion about Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson’s emergency brain surgery, Behar offered a bizarre conspiracy theory.

“Is there such a thing as a man-made stroke?" she asked. "In other words, did someone do this to him?”

Her co-hosts, including guest host Dari Alexander of FOX News, appeared mystified by the absurd suggestion, but went along with it.

“Maybe they gave him polonium,” Alexander joked, a reference to the ex-KGB spy who was poisoned last month.

But Behar didn't let it go. When asked by 'View' regular Elisabeth Hasselbeck, “Why is everything coming from the liberal perspective a conspiracy?”

Behar answered: “I know what this, that party is capable of.”

Stay tuned.

Two words: Freak Show.

MIA: Sharpton and Jackson

ST. CHARLES: Police officers fatally shoot armed man

12/18/2006

Police say they fatally shot a St. Charles man Sunday after he brandished a rifle at officers sent to his home.

Gregory John Brodko Jr., 24, was pronounced dead shortly after 8 p.m. at St. Joseph Hospital in St. Charles, according to a statement released Sunday by the city's Police Department.

Earlier, Police Chief Tim Swope said Brodko was shot when he pointed a rifle at police when they showed up at his home in the 100 block of South Overbrook Street.

Swope said that Brodko's mother had called police shortly before 3 p.m. and said Brodko was hallucinating and waving weapons around.

The officer who fired the shots was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

It's been 6 weeks with no posts.

In the last 6 weeks alot has happened, most of it bad. Maybe I'll be able to keep up from here on out. We'll see.