GREENSBORO, N.C. — (AP) [1]Three former Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape filed a federal lawsuit Friday against disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong, the city of Durham and the police detectives who handled the investigation.The lawsuit calls the criminal case against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans “one of the most chilling episodes of premeditated police, prosecutorial and scientific misconduct in modern American history.”
What makes this one different, frankly, is that they got CAUGHT.
And by the way, who did they get caught by? Was it the supposed mainstream press? Nope. Blogs.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, attorneys fees and numerous reforms to the way the Durham Police Department handles criminal investigations.
Well, as much as I am normally discomforted by such procedure being laid down by means of lawsuit, it is clear that in the case of the city of Durham, and the voters down there who put a Nifong into office in the first place, can’t handle things without being directed. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens, here. One would hope that it will be more satisfying than the 24 hours in jail Nifong received as punishment from the criminal case
Billy notes something [2] I hadn’t: Crystal Gail Mangum isn’t named in this suit. It’s reasonable to suggest that the reason they did not was that there wasn’t any money there. Certainly, the case was provable, and more, I think, than justified. She’d have to work a lot more parties to be able to raise the cash those boys would need, though.
[3]