Were Duke Officials briefed about no matching DNA?
Upon Information and Belief
n. a phrase often used in legal pleadings (complaints and answers in a lawsuit), declarations under penalty of perjury, and affidavits under oath, in which the person making the statement or allegation qualifies it. In effect, he/she says: "I am only stating what I have been told, and I believe it." Law Dictionary
A Serious Allegation is made in the civil complaint
In the civil complaint filed last week a serious allegation was levied against Duke University which has far reaching repercussions for the future of the Duke Officials named in the civil lawsuit. The plaintiff’s attorneys said "Upon Information and Belief" they believe that Duke University Officials were informed in a meeting in late March that there would be no DNA matching any of the members of the Lacrosse Team to Crystal Gail Mangum's body swabs. Further the attendees of that meeting were also informed of her failure to ID any Lacrosse player in two attempts.
Civil Complaint- pages 106-107
IX. DNA Evidence Dispositively Exonerates The Lacrosse Players But Is Ignored By Defendants
A. The State Bureau Of Investigation's DNA Testing Results Are Negative
By March 28, on information and belief, the State Bureau of Investigation ("SBI") concluded an initial examination of the rape-kit evidence from the forensic examination of Mangum at Duke Hospital, and the DNA samples from the lacrosse players. On March 28 or March 29, the SBI gave an initial report to Nifong regarding its analysis of these materials.
The SBI reported to Nifong that their examination of the rape kit items had not discovered any semen, blood, or saliva on any of the rape kit items. The absence of semen, blood, or saliva was obviously highly exculpatory, given Mangum's stories at Duke Hospital, which had alleged a violent gang rape without condoms and with ejaculation into both her mouth and her vagina or anus.
306. Either the same day or the next, Duke officials met with key members of Nifong's investigative team and the Durham city government, including Gottlieb, Himan, Durham City Manager Patrick Baker, and Durham Police Chief Steve Chalmers, among others. Duke's administration was represented by Aaron Graves, Duke's Vice President for Campus Security, Duke Police Director Dean, and perhaps other Duke officials. On information and belief, this was the first of several meetings held between Duke and Durham officials during the ensuing investigation. On information and belief, at this meeting, Nifong, Gottlieb, and Himan reported to Duke and Durham officials that Mangum's accounts of the attack were patently inconsistent, that the SBI lab results had come back negative, and that Mangum had failed to identify any alleged attackers in two separate photo arrays.
John Burness, Duke's chief spokesman, later said that the meeting "was just about the ways the university could assist in the investigation." Gottlieb said in his deposition that Duke Police came to "several" meetings of this same group.
On information and belief, the purpose of this meeting was to coordinate approaches to bolstering the prosecution's case, which was rapidly disintegrating in the face of Mangum's inability to identify any of her purported attackers in the March 16 and March 21 photo arrays and the SBI's report that initial analysis of the rape kit evidence showed no blood, semen, or saliva.
On information and belief, during this meeting, the Durham Investigators, the Durham Supervisors, and/or other Durham city officials agreed to expedite the identifications and arrests of Duke lacrosse players, notwithstanding evidence demonstrating the lacrosse players' innocence. On information and belief, Duke Police were present and agreed to cooperate in this expedited effort to make identifications and arrests notwithstanding the evidence. Duke Lawsuit
Were City Manager Baker, Durham Police Chief Chalmers, and Duke University officials getting briefings by Durham Police Investigators? According to the complaint on March 29th Nifong & the Police Investigators knew these charges were most likely false and there was wasn't any data to indict anyone. Over a year later NC AG Cooper's investigation confirmed these results and declared the three indicted Duke students totally innocent. There was no sexual assault and the allegations against the team were false. One wonders when presented with the briefing did the Duke Officials raise objections to Durham's Chief of Police Chalmers and his Police Investigators? Did they immediately inform Duke President Brodhead and the Crisis Management Team?
Nifong withheld that critical information from the Lacrosse Team attorneys for 13 days until the SBI DNA results were released. No one suspected that Duke Officals knew it also. One can only imagine the effect of those preliminary DNA results being released to the defense attormeys on March 29th. The case would have collapsed, as it should have.
If, as it is alleged, why didn't the Duke Crisis Management Team with President Brodhead try to calm down the Duke Community when a Duke Senior Official & the Duke's Police Chief knew the charges were most likely false? On Thursday, March 30, 2006 Brodhead sent out an e-mail to all parents and students.
...This is a difficult time at Duke. Allegations have been made that, if verified, will justify all of our outrage and call for very severe penalties. On the other hand, we need to remember that allegation is not the same thing as conviction, and that we must not prejudge until the facts are established. The Durham police will have our full cooperation in expediting their investigation.... E-mail
...“It's understandable to feel badly when terrible things may have happened at a place you love, and I've heard from many of you who have expressed sadness, anger, outrage and frustration about the lacrosse situation,” Brodhead wrote in an e-mail message to alumni. “Let me also say that as painful as these times are, the test of a school is not preventing bad things from ever happening, but in addressing them in an honest and forthright way. In my meetings with students, faculty, and administrators, I believe Duke is doing just that...” e-mail
Why did Brodhead send these e-mails when Senior Officials allegedly knew that the charges had no basis in fact? Clearly they were adding credence to the allegations at a time when the fate of the 46 innocent players was being decided in local protests, the local media, and by a national press & TV pundits. Some of the Lacrosse Team members were in fear of their safety and were being verbally abused on campus and in class by some professors. A calming voice was needed, it never came.
On April 5th Brodhead sealed the fate of the Lacrosse Team by cancelling the season and firing Coach Pressler. He did this after McFadyen's e-mail was selectively released, out of context in the search warrant, by Judge Stephens for no legitimate reason. Brodhead & Duke professors were well aware of the book "American Psycho" sick parody of a white Wall Street broker's sex crimes. It was still required reading in some of Duke's classes as late as last year. How could Brodhead have cancelled the season when his own Police Chief & Senior VP Official knew the charges were most likely false? One cannot imagine them not reporting to the Crisis Management Team.
I have canceled the men’s lacrosse season and all associated activities, effective immediately. Lacrosse Coach Mike Pressler has submitted his resignation to Athletics Director Joe Alleva, effective immediately. Brodhead
What did Duke know & when did they know it?
The questions we must ask from this Lacrosse Team lawsuit combined with the information and allegations in the Evans-Seligmann-Finnerty & Archer-McFadyen-Wilson lawsuit are these.
What were the real reasons Duke had to get Lacrosse Team off the cover of National Magazines as Chairman of the Board Steel said. If it wasn't about the truth as said to Coach Pressler in his book, "It's Not About the Truth." What was it about?
Has any member of Duke University or DUMC's staff been chastised or reprimanded for their conduct or performance in this Hoax/Frame?
Has the Duke Board of Trustees been fully briefed on this Hoax/Frame by someone other than the defendants in the lawsuits?
Finally did Duke University have good reason to suspect that the Lacrosse Team never committed these crimes and yet sacrificed them for political expediency in the face of activist pressure from the Duke's professors, pot-banging activists, Duke employees, local special interest groups, City of Durham Leaders, and a local & national press operating on false & malicious statements from DA & PD sources?
How could they be so indifferent when an injustice was occurring to their students?
One wonders why Brodhead & Duke took this course of action?
27.24 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves."Gospel of Matthew
22 comments:
If this proves to be true, Brodhead and Steel are history and Duke is in deep trouble.
The Plantiff's attorneys must have someone on the inside who is spilling his guts. I thought nothing would shock me in this case again, but I was wrong. The Board of Trustees are looking at a real "social disaster!" They might as well turn over the Duke's bank accounts to the Duke Lacrosse Team.
It is not only Duke's bank account which is at risk.
It is also Duke's soul.
Where is the Law School? Where is Duke?
Jim Peterson
"No evidence? No problem" leads very easily to "Evidence of innocence? Still no problem."
The DNA results (negative)were published very early on - like as soon as SBI made them available. What is the big deal???? That should have been the end of the matter but Nifong kept it going for election and a good time. BTW, has anyone actually read the Rape KIt Report???
The DNA results (negative)were published very early on - like as soon as SBI made them available. What is the big deal???? That should have been the end of the matter but Nifong kept it going for election and a good time. BTW, has anyone actually read the Rape KIt Report???
Perhaps they were intimidated by Jesse Jackson and members of the "New Black Panther Party." LOL. What a craven and disgraceful performance by everyone involved EXCEPT the "rapists" who maintained their integrity throughout.
They conducted themselves with dignity as they confronted a corrupt system. Some people have a word for that: heroism.
I doubt that even if these allegations are proven true, that Brodhead or Steel will suffer at all. The leadership at Duke knew this information would come out, and yet they did these things anyway.
We have to face the fact that people at Duke really do not care what happened. They will pay their lawyers, hope that their political allies in the court system will bail them out, and continue to do whatever they were doing before.
Oh, yes, and they can count on the North Carolina and national media to continue to demonize the lacrosse players and their families. People like Burness will continue to slime them, and then deny everything. It is sickening, but that is the state of elite higher education today. That is what these "elites" are capable of doing, and their attitude toward the rest of us "inferiors" is that they can do what they want because they are morally and intellectually superior to everyone else.
I don't even want to know what twisted reasoning enables these people to consider themselves morally superior to anybody.
Funny article on a site called Us Verus Them about the law suits - Called "Gold digging Lax players Sue Duke."
Truth digs longer and harder than lies.
Mr. Anderson,
I very respectfully disagree. I believe they are suffering now and will suffer much more in the future.
Remember how Brodhead whined (I believe to the captains) about how hard it had been on him.
They thought they could get away with it and they came close. People of their ilk have been getting away with this stuff for years/decades.
But in this instance, they came up against people not only of integrity, high moral character and a sense of honor but also people who are tenacious. They were terribly wronged and they cannot allow that to stand.
The players and their families could have easily (and understandably) taken a reimbursement of their expenses and walked away. It would have been easier but they rightly have chosen the harder path.
Even if a settlement of some sort is eventually reached, more details, more allegations are now and forever in the public record.
For Brodhead, Steel, and many others, that's very bad and I believe it will get worse. I believe they are suffering. Many reputations have been ruined and there will be no exoneration.
Of course, that's just what I think but I'm pretty sure. I know I wouldn't want to be them.
Gracie
wake up america! i can't believe this school has any students left attending. i know for sure i would have taken my child and my money and not looked back.
my child attended william and mary and i was horrified, as an alumni, that the college had hired an ex-ucla lawyer to be the president. first action of this pos was to remove the cross from the wren building, after complaints, it was put back. then came the sex workers show and finally that was the end of him.
again, parents, wake up. you are the only thing that can change the way these universities run.
we need, as parents, to stand up against these stupid feminist courses and these horrible angry african american courses! what are these stupid courses anyway and how do they benifit our society and what place do they serve in our universities?
The feminist courses exist to brainwash women into supporting false allegations against men. Slogans such as "all men are rapists" and "one out of three women in America is raped" came out of womyn's studies. It's as if the KKK had its own department.
rhonda - I am sorry for you and your family but you have exhausted me.
To contact me directly, please send SERIOUS media and legal inquiries to:
justice4all2005@yahoo.com
Rhonda Fleming
Cleveland, Ohio
Sister of Allen Jackson Croft Jr, murdered in Durham on May 11, 2005 fighting for JUSTICE!
Let's give it a rest. We've all seen that post dozens of times now.
southernsue says--"I was horrified, as an alumni, that the college had hired an ex-ucla lawyer to be the president."
If you are female then you are an alumna.
If you are male then you are an alumnus.
Graduates of a university as a group are alumni.
Didn't you learn this?
Gene Nichol was the dean of the law school at UNC before going to William and Mary. He's originally from out West where he ran for office multiple times and always lost.
My name is Rhonda Fleming, and I am writing this letter and posting it on every news and blog site possible, to seek recognition, aid, and to educate the masses to the unfathomable abuses and crimes that are allowed to be continued without ANY help from our government concerning the murder of my brother in Durham, North Carolina in 2005, and many other crimes involving a very long list of injustices committed by Law Enforcement, and not just in the Carolina's.
The media and world have focused too much attention to this one case, as countless other cases have been completely left at the wayside! During the three years I have spent gathering evidence that they have completely ignored, have made numerous official requests and complaints to countless officials in NC, and Washington DC, all to no avail.
The focus is on one case by a city that is totally corrupt, yet the Department Of Justice, Administrative Office Of The Courts, Congress and many other official legislative, and judicial branches sits idly by, watches and does nothing!
The lawsuit made by the Duke LAX team will shed a bit of light onto the deliberate attempt and conspiracy of many, to care less about the lives, laws, and rights of citizens, and instead use them and us as political pawns on their nefarious road to perdition.
What is the big shock here? The families have every right to sue the city for negligence of an entire political system that failed miserably! This is by far NOT the biggest case to be media worthy, but one that has brought to the light of day a sample of what people in power do every single day and nobody even knows or cares!
Well, I am here to tell the WORLD and every entity watching, that As God is my witness I will not go to my grave without speaking out about the same system that has not only covered over my beloved brother's murder, but have mocked us, threatened us, and continue to deny us the right to know not just how my brother died, but everything that was done and NOT done!
I have contacted EVERY person their is imaginable, excluding the President, and still have been denied not just documents, but the right of a family to know how their loved one met their death, and to know what was done, and not done to his body!
We have been lied to and threatened by the Durham Sheriff's Department, have been shuffled through 3 years and 3 District Attorneys, countless complaints filed to numerous governmental agencies, even our own Congressman Dennis Kucinich, and STILL NOTHING!
We have sent our documents that we have been able to glean from the system to Mr. Ekstrand, but due to his obligation to the LAX team is unable to represent us but would if he could. I have sent him, the FBI, and several others copies of the BLUE blood coming from an entrance wound, none from 2 exits wounds, a inconclusive and actually negative GSR screen, proof of fraud and collaborative deception, and have been to hell and back in this maddening chase to expose this city and system for allowing crimes against humanity to go unannounced, while innocent people suffer from the hands of the very powers who took oaths before God and man to protect and serve!
So, here my family and I are coming forward to beg the media to help us to solve my brother's death, and expose a system of debauchery and evils that not only baffle the mind, but leaves you breathless and speechless! I have tried and done all that I can alone, and now have 2 months before the state can be held liable for not just one mans death, but expose a system that feeds off the helpless, then leaves them for dead!
So, I will say the purpose of this letter now is to also gain attention to the enumerable failures within the system, to right a countless injustice done to a plethora of lives that have been left completely devastated, and to make our government be held responsible and accountable for FAILING us the citizens, and the dead who have no voice but scream beyond their graves! The truth is worse than a nightmare because it is REAL and more HORRIFIC than you could ever
have imagined!
Never could I have guessed such wickedness by not just individuals, but extremely organized and calculated, and failed by the very country and leaders we so blindly put our hopes and faith into! My heart bleeds for the truth, and mourns those who have been so wickedly tortured! My brother and countless others did NOT die in vain, and I will be damned if I will let fear keep me from Justice For Jack, but JUSTICE For ALL!
Imagine instead, your child or loved one MURDERED, and not only does it take Law Enforcement over a YEAR to send ONE single report, they LIE to you from the beginning, and not only REFUSE to do any investigating, but fail to adhere to ANY role of conduct and protocol, then threaten you and LAUGH at you?!
Yes, I have the utmost sympathy for the team, but let us not forget just how many OTHER cases have been corrupted by the exact same system! WHAT has been done to answer and solve the murders of my brother, Janet Araboa, and Michelle Young?! What voices have they now they are dead?!
Where is the outrage, and public and media attention for our families?!
Nifong is by far the only knave on the long list of miscreant marauders who care nothing about rights of citizens, and care only for what is in "their" best interest! Wake up people and ask why the Department of Justice has not intervened, and why do our nations leaders just watch and do nothing about an abjectly corrupt and politically ran city?!
I never would have imagined what I now know, and am sick that nobody has taken our pleas, and heard our cries! Our loved ones not just dead, but murdered, and we will never see them hear them, or feel their touch ever again! Unfair?! Unjust?! Impossible?! The cesspool of corruption flows deep into a murky quagmire of wickedness that should expose our own government for allowing it to continue!
True and REAL crimes against humanity ranging from organized crime and drugs, to kidnapping, slavery, prostitution, and murders for global sale of body parts! Google human trafficking in organs, and learn exactly what is going on behind closed doors "the powers that be" never want to see opened! The reality is not only horrific and unimaginable, it IS happening every single day across the world, and Durham is just one of the many links in this chain of the grisly, dark underworld!
I have fought for nearly 3 years to restore my beloved brother, and best friend's respect, and JUSTICE he, and all of the others desperately deserve, and will never quit until something is done and things are changed! NOBODY deserves what mine and countless other families have endured, and for us I am begging the people and media to make a difference and care about all of the other serious matters that have fallen to the wayside for needless years!
Where IS the SBI report on my brother? Where is the details of what was done to his body and organs after he was killed? What was done to investigate his death? What was done to provide the family with documents and reports we should not just have public access to, but to every iota of information, as they closed his death as a "suicide" yet did no autopsy and lied they did?
What was done to my brother is so horrifically twisted and unreal that the city has gone out of it's way to not only deny him an investigation, but to hide facts, alter reports, and fail to adhere to any semblance of protocol?!
Where is the OUTRAGE for our family and others of unsolved and purposely neglected murders, just from 2005?!
Does anybody out here give a damn for us?!
Something MUST be done, and I have come forward to beg the media and government to hear what I have to say about my brother's case, and the crimes being done to many innocent victims that MUST be acknowledged, reported, investigated, and DESERVE action and resolution!
To contact me directly, please send SERIOUS media and legal inquiries to:
justice4all2005@yahoo.com
Rhonda Fleming
Cleveland, Ohio
Sister of Allen Jackson Croft Jr, murdered in Durham on May 11, 2005 fighting for JUSTICE
For legal reference please refer to Mr. Ekstrand for personal contact:
Robert C. Ekstrand
Firm: Ekstrand & Ekstrand
Address: 811 Ninth Street, Suite 260
Durham, NC 27705
Phone: (919) 416-4590
Fax: (919) 416-4591
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-931447.cfm
Jail suicide prompts no policy changes
BY BRIANNE DOPART : The Herald-Sun
bdopart@heraldsun.com
Mar 8, 2008
DURHAM -- Despite claims by inmates that a Durham County Jail prisoner spoke openly of suicidal tendencies and a discovery of suicide notes, officials say they received no such indications before the 27-year-old man ended his life.
And there are no plans for policy or structural changes at the jail, where fellow inmates found assault suspect Brian Lashand Rollins hanging from part of a window frame in his cell about 4 p.m. on Feb. 9. That was about 30 minutes after he'd last been seen alive, according to the report of his autopsy.
Days after the hanging death of Rollins, county leaders told The Herald-Sun they'd await the outcome of the Sheriff's Office investigation to determine if additional safety precautions were needed to ensure the jail was a safe place for its inmates.
According to Deputy County Manager Carolyn Titus, it is routine procedure for the Sheriff's Office to investigate a jailhouse death, ensure no foul play was involved and then recommend any adjustments that need to be made to the facility.
Titus said that the Sheriff's Office made no such recommendations and expressed confidence in the safety of inmates housed at the jail.
Rollins, a father of eight, was without a pulse when he was discovered. He was taken to Duke University Hospital, where he was declared brain dead the next morning and died a short time later.
He was found hanging from a window frame in his cell. But the Sheriff's Office says there is no need to adjust cells by removing items from which an inmate could be hanged. Sheriff's Office Investigator Tom Mellown, who investigated the case, said suicidal individuals can hang themselves from anything, so long as they can apply enough pressure to the neck to block the passage of air.
Yet in the past, the Sheriff's Office has requested money from the county to rid cells of vents based on the argument that the vents present a safety threat and an opportunity for hanging. Mellown, who as investigator has no part in budgeting, could not comment on those past requests, he said.
Mellown's criminal investigation into Rollins' death determined there was no foul play. From conversations with guards, jail employees and four or five inmates, Mellown determined there were no indications that the 27-year-old inmate was suicidal, he said.
One inmate did tell the investigator that Rollins never responded to him when he tried to chat with him from an adjacent cell. Another inmate told the investigator Rollins talked to him about wanting to end his life. But according to Mellown, the inmate said he never told any jail guards or officials of Rollins' intentions.
One inmate who was in the jail at the same time as Rollins told The Herald-Sun that, contrary to the Sheriff's Office's investigation, the troubled inmate told anyone who would listen that he wanted to end his life. But the guards, he claimed, were either too busy or didn't care and ignored Rollins' repeated pleas for help.
Rollins was distraught, the source said, over relationship issues involving a woman. Rollins was being held in the jail on a charge of assault on a female. His bond was $50,000. It was unclear whether the assault victim was the same woman with whom he was romantically involved.
According to the Sheriff's Office, no red flags arose during a 10-question psychological assessment that Rollins, like all inmates entering the jail, was subject to when he arrived at the facility Feb. 6.
Jail procedure calls for inmates to be administered the test only upon arrival, regardless of how long they are to be held in the jail. But if an inmate reaches out for help or if jail employees notice an inmate acting in a way that demonstrates his or her psychological state has changed, they will be referred for reassessment.
Rollins was not referred for any such assessment.
THIS is the SAME man who "INVESTIGATED" my brother's death, and you all still think HE and LE are to be trusted at all?!?!
AND, again, NO autopsy was done for my brother, AND we were LIED to and told one was done, plus threatened!!!!!
For the love of God people, DO SOMETHING!!!!
Rhonda Fleming
Durham SURVIVOR
MORE proof of the denial of the Sheriff's Office to take our complaints and requests! My God, they CANNOT get away with this!!!
Undeliverable: Mr Croft's death
"System Administrator" ..
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dcsnet01. DurhamSheriff. net 4.4.7
Where is our civil rights?!?!
Rhonda Fleming
Durham SURVIVOR
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