60 minutes: Duke accuser has history of serious mental illness.

[pnwmom]

According to Sunday's broadcast, the accuser has been prescribed two anti-psychotic drugs, Depakote and Seroquel. Both are used in the treatment of the manic phase of bipolar disorder. Depakote is also prescribed for epilepsy; and Seroquel, for schizophrenia.

What do you want to bet that Nifong hasn't known this all along?

If 60 Minutes is correct, then I feel even more that she has been Nifong's victim. She may actually believe that all of her contradictory stories are true.

[Skittles]

1. and we all know people with mental illness cannot be raped

right?

[bigdarryl]

2. More spin from the defense side this is the same thing they siad...

about the accuser in the Kobe Bryant case.So the new thing to do these days is if your accused of rape get good lawyers and trash the accuser.

[pnwmom]

4. Have you read the evidence at all, or is this just what you say

when anyone is accused of rape?

[pnwmom]

3. We do not know that. But when the whole case hinges on the

accuser's testimony, as this one now does, the case is in even deeper trouble if the accuser has a history of psychosis.

[Dinger]

10. Margie Schoedinger Is Another One

Just google that name.

[marshall]

25. No, but

they can sure be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous DA looking for a magic carpet to ride into national headlines!

[MonkeyFunk]

5. I wish both sides

would stop trying this in the media.

We have no fucking idea what happened. If the prosecutor can make a case, present it. If he can't, exonerate the accused.

I hate the fact that every leak from the defense or prosecutor is being aired.

[pnwmom]

6. If you have no idea what happened, then you haven't read

the scads of primary documents that are on the web.

The prosecution had to hand over witness statements and other evidence to the defense, and much of it has been published in the forms of motions and other documents that were filed in the Court. For example, the whole transcript from the accuser's statement during the photo lineup is on the web. All her various and contradictory statements to the police and the prosecutor's office are also available. Her own words, alone, are enough to shoot huge holes of reasonable doubt through the case. But there is much more.

There are the statements of her own driver, that don't support hers. There are the statements of the other dancer, saying that the rape accusation was "a crock." And there is the public testimony of the lab director, Dr. Meehan, who reports that DNA from several males was found on the person of the accuser, but NONE of it matched the three accused (or none of the 46 students, for that matter.) There are the videotapes with the time stamps that show that the accuser was dancing at midnight, even though she NOW claims both her dancing and the attack had ended by then.

But none of this matters to you, I'm sure. You don't have any idea what happened, so you can't believe that anyone else does.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. And my point is

that ALL these documents, statements, etc. are being released by lawyers closely involved in the case.

I want them to stop.

I have no friggin'idea if the charges are true, totally made up, or somewhere in between.

Do you REALLY object to my earlier post which said let the prosecutor make his case or else exonerate the accused?

I think that's a pretty fair position.

[Maine-ah]

8. hey Monkey, I'm with you.

[MonkeyFunk]

11. Thanks

I appreciate it.

It seems that in modern America, saying "I don't know" is an indefensible position.

The same people who refuse to believe anything CNN says regarding this administration will ejaculate over every news-alert from Nancy Grace.

Let it play out. There's no benefit in choosing sides now.

[onenote]

9. criminal trials are, and should be, public

I hope you're not seriously advocating secret criminal prosecutions.

[MonkeyFunk]

12. how you managed

to discern that from what I posted is... well... either admirable or astonishing.

I said no such thing. In fact, I pretty much said the opposite.

edit: "admirable" because I have a special fondness for crazy people.

[pnwmom]

You said the documents are being "released" by the defense attorneys

and that you wanted them to stop.

The defense attorneys have been filing their motions with the Court, which they must do. These documents are then part of the public record, which the media has free access to. Do you understand that? Do you agree with that?

If you don't, then you ARE advocating that criminal proceedings take place in secrecy.

[MonkeyFunk]

17. please

stop being so combative. I'm arguing with you in good faith.

My point is simple and, in my opinion, unobjectionable. Here it is:

"Both sides should stop releasing information to the media in an attempt to win their case."


Tell me what's wrong with that position.

[pnwmom]

20. How can the defense attorneys stop releasing information

when every time they file a motion it automatically becomes available to the media?

I honestly don't understand your point. Sorry.

[MonkeyFunk]

23. OK

I apologize for asking you to understand something beyond your comprehension. That was rude of me.

[onenote]

28. a serious question

We agree that the information being reported by the media is contained in formal legal filings made by the defense. I have no doubt that the defense lawyers are sending copies of these filings, maybe even with press releases describing them, to members of the media.

But even they stopped doing that, do you honestly believe that the media wouldn't be scrutinizing and reporting on the arguments and allegations being made in the public legal filings?

[pnwmom]

13. No, it's not a fair position.

Cases like this are not supposed to be brought to a grand jury for indictment, much less to a a full trial. It is the job of the prosecutor to sift through all the claims and accusations that come to him and ONLY bring to trial those cases that he has a reasonable chance of proving to an unbiased jury. These families are having to spend a literal fortune on lawyers who are working to keep their sons out of prison for the next 2 or 3 decades -- no one should have to defend such a spurious case.

And I mean NO ONE. If the defendants were poor, they'd be sitting in jail right now. In fact, they would have been there for the last ten months and maybe for the next several decades. How on earth could anyone have had a fair trial when they were being prosecuted by a man who has admitted to withholding exculpatory evidence?

[MonkeyFunk]

15. and yet again

I'm saying that YOU don't know what evidence the DA has. Nor do I.

Let it play out.

All you know is what high-paid lawyers have put out. And the highest-paid lawyers are on the side of the accused.

Why is it so unreasonable to ask what I asked for? Please tell me exactly what was wrong with my request for the prosecutor to make his case or else exonerate the accused?

[pnwmom]

18. I already told you. The students shouldn't have to go through

any more months of agony, or any more tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys bills.

The DA has already provided all his evidence to the defense, by law, and the defense has made it available to reporters, such as Dan Abrams, who have seen the whole file. And at this point I trust Dan Abrams judgment far more than I do Nifong's, who has already admitted -- in open court -- to withholding exculpatory evidence.

But even if no one had seen the whole file, I wouldn't care. Why? Because our system is based on "reasonable doubt." And the accuser's words alone -- her words that are part of the public record -- don't hold together. Her words alone create reasonable doubt. Besides that, the DNA evidence, also part of the public record, exonerates the students. And the photo lineup transcript, also part of the public record, shows how the police department violated their own procedures by only including suspects in the lineup.

And there is a mountain more of evidence available to anyone in the public who cared enough to read it -- all of which only adds to the reasonable doubt. At this point, it doesn't matter what rabbit Nifong thought he had up his sleeve. Given an unbiased jury, this case would be over.

[MonkeyFunk]

22. and

if what you say is true, they will be exonerated.

[pnwmom]

26. After a year or more of their lives are spent caught up in this,

and hundreds of thousands or more in attorneys fees. But no biggie, they can afford it, right?

:sarcasm:

[pnwmom]

14. Court documents have always been public, by the way,

unless specifically ordered to be sealed. The only difference now is that it is much easier for the public to exercise oversight over Court proceedings since the documents can be viewed over the web.

[MonkeyFunk]

16. Unless

you're the judge, a grand-jury member, or an involved attorney, then you do definitely do NOT know all the facts involved.

It seems to me you have already drawn a conclusion in this case. You might be surprised to learn that I lean toward to the same conclusion you have drawn. But I'm not so arrogant as to say that I *KNOW* what happened.

[pnwmom]

19. I don't know ALL the facts involved. Just ENOUGH facts,

actually, more than enough facts, to tell me that the hurdle of reasonable doubt was overcome months ago. That's when Nifong should have withdrawn this case. There is no excuse for putting those families through ten months of this hell. And there still isn't even a Court date!

[MonkeyFunk]

21. Respectfully

I repeat my question:

What do you find objectionable to my simple request that he make his case or exonerate the accused?

[pnwmom]

27. He shouldn't ever have brought this to a grand jury for indictment.

But since he did, he should have brought this to trial 6 months ago. Since he didn't, the whole thing should be dismissed.

And, by the way, he can't make a case because he's off the case. He recused himself. Now the students are going to have to wait some indefinite period of time for new prosecutors to get up to speed.

[cassiepriam]

24. If someone is psychotic it does raise issues of credibility in the testimony.

But of course someone who is psychotic can be raped.
But the case has fallen apart on many levels.