The Relevance of Nancy’s disGrace

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It’s easy to see the SNL skit with Amy Poehler skewering Nancy Grace as a joke and a throwaway effort at cheap laughs. However, the recent revelations concerning the collusion between DNA Securities and DA Nifong to withhold exculpatory DNA evidence in the Hoax makes skewering Grace particularly timely. No one led the cries of condemnation and the effort to convict the lacrosse players before any investigation more than Nancy Grace. We previously reviewed many of her ridiculous assertions in a nomination of Grace for Hag of the Hoax.

Reviewing those statements again, one group of comments stands out as particularly relevant. In all the discussions this past Friday regarding whether Brian Meehan or DA Nifong was more responsible for hiding DNA results, it was forgotten that Nifong’s office not only provided an incomplete report to the defense, but also leaked an incomplete and false account to the press. The day before Meehan’s May 12th letter was delivered to Detective Himan, "well placed sources" and "sources close to the investigation" told the Herald-Sun and other media outlets that there was a positive DNA match to a lacrosse player.

"Tissue found under the fingernail of an exotic dancer who claimed she was raped at a Duke University lacrosse party may match a player who was at the party, sources told a North Carolina newspaper Wednesday.

"The Durham Herald-Sun reports that scientists who analyzed the tissue concluded it came from the same genetic pool and was "consistent" with the bodily makeup of one of 46 lacrosse players who gave DNA samples for testing. Scientists ruled out a possible match with any of the other 45 students, sources told the newspaper." CBS News May 11, 2006

"Prosecutors believe they have DNA evidence to tie a third Duke lacrosse player to the alleged attack of a 27-year-old exotic dancer, sources close to the investigation tell ABC News." ABC News May 11, 2006

"Tissue found under the fingernail of an exotic dancer who claimed she was raped at a Duke University lacrosse party may match a player who was there, several well-placed sources said Wednesday.

"Analyzing the tissue, scientists concluded it came from the same genetic pool and was “consistent” with the bodily makeup of one of 46 lacrosse players who gave DNA samples for testing, the sources said." Herald Sun May 11, 2006

"After a first set of DNA tests failed to link two lacrosse players to the alleged crime, it was widely considered that DNA evidence would not be part of the case. New results from this second round of testing will help the prosecution's case, sources close to the investigation say.

"New DNA Tests 'Helpful' to Prosecution

"The potential evidence - a DNA sample found under a fake fingernail worn by the alleged victim and linked to the lacrosse player - was recovered from the off-campus home where the alleged attack took place." WTVD May 11, 2006

This leak of information apparently known only to Dr. Meehan's lab and District Attorney Nifong's office, the false presentation of the non-exclusion as a match or possible match, and the withholding of the clear exculpatory findings combined to create an uproar by making it appear that the additional DNA testing revealed incriminating evidence rather than proof positive of exoneration. In response to this public fraud, no one was more excited than Nancy Grace. On her May 11th show she celebrated the new evidence and practically declared it proof of guilt.

"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." Nancy Grace May 11, 2006

Transforming a clearly devastating report, exonerating the lacrosse players, into a “touchdown for the state” was precisely Nifong and Meehan’s intent and precisely what Nancy Grace, the Herald-Sun and others enabled them to do. The Herald-Sun willingly was the first to report one small piece of a much larger report in order to incite the local and national media into a frenzy over a “match” to a plastic fingernail found in a trashcan.

We now know that the "match" was not really a match and was rather an inability to exclude Dave Evans. The DNA came not from under a fingernail but from a mixture created from multiple fake nails retrieved from Dave Evans' own bathroom trashcan. In addition, hidden in the Meehan-Nifong conspiracy were the matches to numerous unknown other males not on the lacrosse team. One day later, on Friday May 12th the defense was informed in the report that there was genetic material matching the accuser’s “boyfriend” found in her vagina, but no mention was made of the other matches to other males in the accuser’s pubic area, on her panties, and in her anal cavity. The press and the public remained unaware of these matches, and many continued to hold onto the manufactured belief that the trashcan DNA had import, until last week’s defense motion followed by Meehan's in court confession.

Meehan's intentionally incomplete report was delivered to Inv. Himan on Friday, May 12th. Dave Evans was indicted on Monday, May 15th. One can only wonder what the grand jury would have said had the full results of the test been revealed.

It is deeply ironic that the Hoax enablers, Wendy Murphy in particular (is she really back?), dismissed the negative DNA results back in April and May and asserted there was more in the reports than the defense attorneys were revealing. Nifong himself jumped on this train for a while (after previously stating to the News & Observer that, “[i]f the only thing that we ever have in this case is DNA, then we wouldn't have a case."). Nifong chastised Susannah Meadows of Newsweek for believing the defense attorneys when they said the DNA reports exonerated the players, a claim that Nifong described as “preposterous.” In fact, just the opposite was true. There was more to the DNA reports, but it was the testing facility and the District Attorney that had conspired to keep this evidence from the defense and the press.

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Apparently Nancy Grace and the Herald-Sun are choosing to believe this manipulation and deception never happened. Other networks appear oblivious as well. FoxNews and WRAL are currently attempting to pretend they didn’t report and “confirm” the accuser had given birth last Thursday, when in fact she is not due until February.

This pattern of manipulative and false leaks from the prosecution is not something new nor has it been something difficult to recognize. We have seen it from the very first day of this Hoax when the police claimed the lacrosse players were not cooperating and were hiding behind of a wall of silence. We watched it continue through the manufactured racial outrage created by the 911 hoax. We've witnessed false hints of date rape drugs, false contentions of condoms and long sleeve shirts worn to prevent the transfer of evidence, false promises and invented assertions in affidavits, fabricated theories of the Hoax, contrived lineup procedures, the release of a retracted affidavit, and more. We have outlined many of these Hoaxes within the Hoax on these pages over the past several months.

Hoax Within A Hoax
Another Hoax Within A Hoax
Yet Another Hoax Within A Hoax
Hijacker of the Hoax
An Affiant's Belief (Fake Names, Fake Teams Hoax)
Enabling the Hoax
A Conspiracy of Truth (Wall of Silence Hoax)

Nancy Grace was ripe to be ridiculed for her willing cooperation and facilitation of the hoax. She should not be the last member of the media skewered for their role in this fiasco. As shown in court on Friday, Nifong could not have accomplished this persecution on his own.