Perhaps the most bizarre denial in Mike Nifong’s, “I didn’t do it but if I did I didn’t mean it,” response to the multitudinous ethics charges filed against him was his unbelievable assertion that he did not recall meeting with co-conspirator Dr. Brian Meehan on April 10. Despite sworn testimony from Dr. Meehan that this meeting occurred, and in contradiction to Durham Police Investigators Mark Gottlieb and Ben Himan, both of whom documented the date of the meeting, Defendant Nifong apparently regresses to fourth grade, telling the Bar that, although he knows they say he was there, he doesn’t recall the meeting, so they should pretend it didn’t happen.
202. Defendant only recalls two meetings with Dr. Meehan occurring April 21st and May 12th, 2006. Defendant is however aware that Officers Gottlieb, Himan and Dr. Meehan indicate that there was an initial meeting occurring on April 10, 2006. Any remaining allegations contained in paragraph 202 are denied.
A review of Defendant Nifong’s December letter to the Bar demonstrates the reason for his grade school denial.
“To place the matter further in context, on April 4, 2006, prior to DNA Security, Inc. having become involved in the ease, the victim had identified two lacrosse players to a certainty of 100% (Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann) as her assailants and a third player (David Evans) as her assailant to a certainty of 90%. Based on that identification, indictments were sought for Mr. Finnerty and Mr. Seligmann and were returned as true bills on April 17, 2006 – before I had ever spoken to Dr. Meehan.”
While the State Bar did not include this apparently false statement in their charges of misrepresentations made to them, it is difficult to imagine that it is not worthy of inclusion. In order to believe Nifong’s petulant assertion that he did not even speak to his co-conspirator prior to the first indictments, one must believe not only that Dr. Meehan committed perjury when testifying before Judge Smith, but also that DPD Inv. Himan and Sgt. Gottlieb both invented their first meeting with Meehan on April 10, which they have both said they attended with Nifong.
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“I don’t remember” never worked with Sister Mary Margaret. We’ll soon see if the State Bar falls for it.
15 comments:
Claiming he doesn't remember the meeting with Meehan allows Nifong to avoid having to take the Fifth on that subject and what that implies, because to admit the truth would be admitting obstruction of justice and a couple other charges. Lying would become yet another charge against him, so he took Hillary's "I don't remember" way out, also known as the Alzheimer's defense.
The April 10 meeting is very problematic for Nifong, which is undoubtedly why he insists on denying it even happened. Nifong knew on April 10 that the only evidence he had consisted of identifications -- made under extremely suggestive circumstances -- and made by an accuser of highly dubious credibility (admittedly drunk on the night in question; account contradicted by every other partygoer; history of mental illness; had already given multiple contradictory versions of alleged crime, etc.). On April 10, Nifong receives scientific confirmation that the accuser's story is almost certainly a lie -- yet Nifong chooses to go forward with indictments. Why? Because he's interested in seeking justice, or because he needs to win an election? You decide.
The April 10th meeting took place a hundred miles away.
3 other people recall it.
1 - I bet someone put it in a milage log or expense report.
2 - I bet Nifong's calander records the meeting. The Da would be out of the city during a working day for hours. Staff and others would know.
Does anyone believe that in this case, going to the DNA lab from which you order a special DNA test from, drove a 100 miles and did not ask for the results?
No one will ever buy that story.
The April 10 meeting is the nail in Nifong's coffin. It proves absolutely that he was proceeding in bad faith when he indicted Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann on April 17. If he believed a rape occurred, how could he not identify the sources of the mystery DNA before indicting?
It is interesting that Nifong once again lies to the NC Bar. He reminds me of a student I had who plagiarized some material. I confronted her about it (nicely, at first), and her response was to turn in a number of other plagiarized papers, all the while denying she was engaged in plagiarism.
She and Mikey are two peas in the same pod. I can only hope the NC Bar will be willing to deal with this. If the bar ignores this latest pack of lies, then the organization should be disbanded.
He knew from the DNA results one of three things:
A - She identified the wrong people
B - She lied about her sexual history.
C - It was all lies.
Faced with this he decided not to have anyone question her until Dec?
And even in Dec they never asked her about all the other DNA?
Bill,
Did your student know what she was doing was wrong?
Either way the analogy is good. Nifong doesn't think holding discovery material back is wrong, as long as the other side gets it a reasonable time before trial. Since the trial date was not set, it didn't matter when the stuff was turned over.
April 10th meeting and his attempt to say it didn't happen, though, shows guilty knowledge to me. I wonder if Bannon asked Meehan if Nifong asked him to delay his written report, whatever it would say until after the grand jury indictment and after the May 2 primary. Once a large volume of supplementary material was gathered, it was relatively safe to put some of the data in the large discovery dump in late October, since defense could not prepare an adequate motion before the November 7th general election.
The April 10 meeting involved a private DNA lab which would incur an expense against someone's budget, either Nifong's, Durham County's, or the State. When you are working with a fixed budget and are considering charging a case which may involve additional expense not incuded in the budget AND you are a candidate for the office you hold temporarily AND you have never been in this situation previously, you would not be likely to forget this experience. I doubt seriously whether the Durhap PD could incur this cost without the OK of the District Attorney--more likely it would be from his budget or over his signature.
A week later after meeting with Meehan & Nifong, Gottlieb & Himan went before a Grand Jury and testified. Did they tell them about the multiple DNA discovered?
I think we can safely assume not. This case is outrageous and I see more than one liar laying.
Where is the Justice System of NC? I guess they are are sleeping down at the Snooze Room!!
Gosh darn it all!
I don't recall what I was going to post.
Nifong's most bizarre claim may be that he never refused to meet with other attorneys to hear their evidence as to why their clients were not guilt. That is, Nifong is saying that he is telling the truth, but those other attorneys are liars.
Everyone but Nifong is a liar, according to Nifong.
Did those meetings come up before the court as a defense request for discovery? I know the 4/11 meeting with CGM did, but I can't recall with certainty if the 4/10 and 4/21 meetings were discussed and told that they were work product. I seem to recall that the meetings were said to have only discussed if DNASI was capable of doing the tests and that the reports were picked up? Anyone else recall if this was discussed in the early "settings"?
1:55
ON JUNE 22, NIFONG TOLD JUDGE STEPHENS in a hearing that he and Meehan had discussed only the contents of a report that was turned over to the defense.
Defense lawyer Joseph B. Cheshire V sounded skeptical at the time: "It's very difficult for me, although I take Mr. Nifong as an officer of the court at his word, to believe that there was no discussion at all as it relates to that testing."
Testifying on Dec. 15, Meehan said at least 33 times that he and Nifong discussed the results or agreed to keep them from the lab's final report.
AT A HEARING SEPT. 22, defense attorney Bradley Bannon pressed Nifong for more details of his conversations with Meehan.
Nifong again said they discussed only the contents of the report. "We did not ask any questions because the information was there in the summary [Meehan] had given us," Nifong said. "It was pretty clear. [Meehan] provided that to us. We looked over it. And we didn't have any questions about what was there. There's nothing really to provide."
Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III, who has been assigned to the case, pressed for a clear answer to Bannon's question: "So his report encompasses it all?"
Nifong answered haltingly: "His report encompasses ever -- because we didn't -- they apparently think that everybody I speak to about, I talk about the facts of the case. And that's just, that would be counterproductive. It did not happen here."
Smith repeated his question: "So you represent there are no other statements?"
"No other statements," Nifong said. "No other statements made to me."
ON OCT. 27, SMITH SIGNED AN ORDER THAT STATED: "Mr. Nifong indicated that he did not discuss the facts of the case with Dr. Meehan and that Dr. Meehan said nothing during those meetings beyond what was encompassed in the final report of DNA Security, dated May 12, 2006. The Court accepted Mr. Nifong's representation about those meetings and held that there were no additional discoverable statements by Dr. Meehan for the state to produce."
http://www.newsobserver.com/634/story/525091-p2.html
2:30:
Good example of what will undoubtedly be a Clintonian defense to that exchange. Literally, what he said was true. There were no more "statements" because Nifong told Meehan to write no other statements. There was obviously more material. Judge Smith was not asking the right questions. Nifong did lie though, when he said he had not discussed anything else (i.e. the underlying data).
I'm... I'm speechless. Truly. I just have no words. How can this rat-bastard sleep with himself at night? Does Nifong look so haggard because he can't look at himself in a mirror, or is he a sociopath?
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