Hag of the Hoax Nomination: Nancy Grace

Golden-haired southern belle Nancy Grace is LieStoppers’ second nominee for the prestigious Hag of the Hoax title. Born in Macon, Georgia, Nancy became a prosecutor in Atlanta. Now, doubling our pleasure and doubling our fun, Nancy can be seen bristling with outrage on both CTV and CNN. Her rigorous schedule might explain Nancy's uncanny ability to simultaneously appear utterly uninformed about a case, yet supremely confident in her erroneous pronouncements. She apparently believes legal rights don't extend to suspects, that the lacrosse players can never be sufficiently humiliated, and that everything a district attorney says is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Mixing high drama with moments of simpering sentimentality is Nancy's stock in trade. After eviscerating her target du jour, Nancy's voice drops to a purr, her slow drawl intensifies, and a hint of tears sparkles in her beautiful blue eyes. "Goodnight, friend," she softly intones. Her "friends" at LieStoppers want her to have the acclaim she deserves. Interesting facts about Miss Grace, our Miss Hag of the Hoax contestant, include: Although Nancy never lost a felony case, several of her convictions were overturned on appeal. Not surprisingly, higher courts have questioned Nancy’s prosecutorial ethics.

Qualifying quotes:

March 31, 2006

GRACE: OK, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let`s go out to Dave Foley, defense attorney. Don`t move, Kevin Miller! David Foley, if they`re innocent, why not cooperate? Why stall? Why did they have to have a court order for 46 or 47 lacrosse members to give DNA? It`s very simple. You take something that looks like a Q-tip. You swab the inside of your mouth. It`s nothing more than like a doctor looking for a sore throat. Why? Why wouldn`t they give their DNA? Let`s think about it, Dave Foley! Give me your best shot.

DAVE FOLEY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, in terms of this, we`re dealing with young people, OK, who are not necessarily familiar with the law, number one. So they need to have their legal rights...

GRACE: You`re kidding, right?

FOLEY: ... protected...

GRACE: You`re -- you`re kidding?

FOLEY: No, I`m not kidding.

CNN Transcript March 31, 2006

Liestoppers: In fact, the captains who lived at 610 N. Buchanan voluntarily agreed to DNA testing. The captains also gave hours of statements to the police (without lawyers present). Their pleas to be polygraph-tested were inexplicably denied by the police. It’s hard to believe that a legal commentator on a major news network like CNN, herself a former prosecutor, would respond to a concern about legal rights being protected with, “You’re kidding, right?” This is especially offensive considering her comment was made about a case involving a prosecutor and police department who have repeatedly violated their official policies and normal procedures in their callous treatment of the accused.

April 6th, 2006

One of Nancy’s shining moments in covering the Duke Hoax came on April 6th:

GRACE: So possibly, you know, Betty`s got a good point. The 46 that have given the DNA, the perp may actually not be on the lacrosse team. OK. But you know what? I know that there are witnesses that are ultimately going to come forward and name the three men in the bathroom with this girl. So Clark Goldband, what are the stats?

CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE INTERNET REPORTER: Well, Nancy, the stats are hard to know right now because Duke's no longer in the league. Hofstra number two...(CROSSTALK)

GOLDBAND: ... surging ahead of Sacred Heart last night, 19 to...

GRACE: Clark, Clark, I don`t mean the athletic stats. I mean the rape stats. What would that have to do with this case?

GOLDBAND: I`m sorry, Nancy. I misunderstood. But we do have the rape stats.

CNN Transcript April 6, 2006

LieStoppers: Who needs facts of the individual case, when you have statistics derived from other cases? Why do we even need commentators like Nancy Grace if we can just conclude that all accused are invariably guilty?

April 18, 2006

Another shining moment came after Reade Seligmann and Colin Finnerty were arrested and led out of a police cruiser in handcuffs during a perp walk broadcast repeatedly throughout the day on national television. Nancy argued that this wasn’t humiliating enough for Reade and Collin."

GRACE: A humiliation? Wa-wa-wa-wa-wait~! A humiliation would be dragging them out of class in front of their friends, or from Easter dinner, or Passover dinner, dragging them out in handcuffs, having the press there having a field day taking photos, roughing them up if they resisted in any way..."….

GRACE: ... and they get to show up in their suits and ties, their prep ties from high school -- I really don`t get the humiliation accusation, Doug Burns.

CNN Transcript April 18, 2006

LieStoppers: Well, Nancy, it’s not like they are presumed innocent or anything. Why not humiliate them? Two weeks later, their mug shots were splashed on the cover of Newsweek. Was that humiliating enough for you?

May 2, 2006

Yet another shining moment for Nancy.

GRACE: Yes, well, you know what? You know why I don`t think that they want a lie-detector test? I don`t think they want a lie-detector test because they`re afraid they won`t pass a lie-detector test.

CNN Transcript May 2 2006

LieStoppers: All three indicted players have taken and passed polygraphs. It appears Nancy was not aware of this fact. However, had she known, it wouldn’t have convinced her of the players’ innocence. To Nancy, polygraphs, like DNA, apparently can only prove guilt, not innocence.

May 11, 2006

Nancy’s cheerleading for the prosecution reached its peak the day of the fingernail DNA leak. She even went so far as to gleefully declare, “Touchdown!" and could barely keep her pompoms to herself.

GRACE: Well, it all looked bleak for the prosecution of the Duke lacrosse team multiple rape case. At the 11th hour, suddenly, a Hail Mary pass was thrown, and it`s a touchdown for the state! Apparently, DNA matching one of these three lacrosse players has turned up under the nails of the student-turned-stripper.-----

GRACE: ... that there is her positive identification of three of the suspects, 100 percent, 100 percent and 90 percent, that the timeline fits with her story, and the rape kit nurse says she saw signs of recent anal and vaginal trauma consistent with rape. Am I missing something?------

GRACE: And now, of course, we know the allegations that this young lady changed her story were completely false. To Stephen Miller, Duke student and executive of the Duke Conservative Union, all right, so the allegation she changed her story, false. We now have 100 percent identifications of two people, and now there`s DNA. So have you filed your transfer papers yet?

CNN Transcript May 11, 2006

LieStoppers: Where to begin? It was soon revealed that the false fingernail recovered from a trash can in the bathroom where the accuser and Kim Roberts spent some time contained a mixture of DNA that didn’t exclude Evans. It was not a DNA match, as Nancy wrongly declared. No DNA matching to any lacrosse player was found on or in the accuser. No DNA from the accuser was found on the floor, rug, or towels in the bathroom where the “attack” was alleged to have occurred. The DNA tests also revealed that the accuser recently had sex with her boyfriend. Nancy’s excited declaration of a “touchdown” for the state was a “little” premature. We also regret to inform her that the accuser’s timeline of the event does not appear to fit anywhere, that the vaginal “trauma” is limited to diffuse edema, and that there was no anal trauma (according to the S.A.N.E. report). We have no idea where Nancy got her information that “the allegations this young lady changed her story were completely false,” but we think Linwood Wilson is a good suspect as a source of that misinformation. In fact, the accuser gave multiple inconsistent stories.

May 15, 2006

Arguably, Nancy’s most disgraceful performance came on the day that Dave Evans was indicted. After blasting the players for remaining quiet, she introduced Evans’ eloquent declaration of innocence with a montage of other defendants in an effort to diminish Evans’ courageous and convincing speech. Nancy also cast polygraphs aside in favor of a body language expert, and had trouble understanding why Evans would declare Seligmann and Finnerty innocent.

RICHARD NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I`m not a crook. I`ve earned everything I`ve got.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you plead to counts one and two?

O.J. SIMPSON, FORMER FOOTBALL PLAYER: Absolutely, 100 percent not guilty.

MICHAEL JACKSON, SINGER: If I were to hurt a child, I would slit my wrists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: As we all know, just because you say it`s so doesn`t make it so. Today the third indictee declaring his innocence, David Evans.….

GRACE: It`s interesting to me, Midwin Charles, defense attorney, how he would know whether the other two were guilty or innocent. What, were they all together, holding hands at a prayer meeting?…

GRACE: And that is exactly why defendants should not speak because now, when he goes to trial, and if he`s on cross-examination, he can be pummeled on, "What do you know about the other two? Were you all three together or what did they tell you?"…

GRACE: Did he have a rehearsed speech?

WOOD: Very, very rehearsed. It was later on in the interview where there was some specific things that he said. For example, he said, "It did not happen," and then he had a significant eye close. Typically, that means he didn`t believe that particular statement.

CNN Transcript May 15, 2006

LieStoppers: That prayer meeting line is cute, Nancy, but we think the more likely explanation is that Evans knew Finnerty and Seligmann left the party early, and that nothing happened at the party. It doesn’t look like he’s going to get pummeled on the stand. He even took a polygraph, which you previously said he wouldn’t do because he was afraid. What was your response after you found out Evans passed a polygraph? You called a body language expert to watch the video and suggest he was lying because of a “significant eye close.” So now a polygraph is not reliable, but an eye close is?

LieStoppers thinks that Nancy Grace is a disgrace. That’s why Nancy earned our wholehearted nomination for Miss Hag of the Hoax.