A Message to Nifong From the Mother of One of the Accused

Washington, DC (TLS). The mother of one of the Duke lacrosse students who has been indicted by Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong has a message for the prosecutor. According to advanced excerpts from a segment to be aired on CBS News' '60 Minutes' this coming Sunday, Leslie Stahl asked the parents of the accused players that if Nifong were to come into the room and stand before them, would they have anything they'd like to say to him. A mother of one of the accused answered, 'I would say to Mr. Nifong that he has picked the wrong families, the wrong lacrosse team, and the wrong University family to harass, and he will pay for it for the rest of his life.'

These words of warning are an apt summary of this entire shameful and embarrassing episode in American jurisprudence and American politics.

It is time for action. No longer can the judiciary wait. This circus has gone on for much too long. The Judge should have dismissed this case long ago. The fact that this has not happened is a further indictment against the North Carolina judicial system.

How can honorable men and women stand idly by as this completely fabricated hoax is perpetrated on innocent young men and their families? It is to be noted that Nifong has been charged with ethics violations by the North Carolina Bar, and an investigation has ensued. Investigations take time, no doubt. But to leave innocent lives hanging in the balance while slothful officials in the N.C. judiciary try to decide what to do with a prosecutor out of control makes the entire N.C. judicial system look like a bunch of clowns at a Ringling Brothers' circus.

Why has the Judge failed to dismiss this case entirely? This case should have been thrown out of court months ago.

Why has the Judge failed to remove Nifong from the case at the very least, so that the present log-jam can be cleared making it possible for the three falsely accused young men to have their names cleared?

Nifong continues to refuse to drop charges of sexual assault against the three students, in spite of the fact that as of today, the accuser has changed her story of what happened that night yet again, claiming that one of the accused committed no sexual act of any kind. She had stated repeatedly up until today that all three had engaged in such acts.

DNA evidence also shows that the accuser had engaged in sex with several young men during the night in question, but none of the DNA found on the woman belongs to any of the accused. Obviously the accuser had been spreading around her charm far and wide that night. It is to be wondered just how many men she had frolicked with that evening.

The longer this travesty of justice is allowed to go on unfettered, the more the entirety of the N.C. judicial system and the N.C. Democrat Party appear to be co-conspirators with the D.A. who has engaged in unethical and incompetent practices at the very least, and who has in all likelihood committed crimes for which he should face prosecution. And this doesn't even begin to address the perpetual inertia exhibited by the Judge in this case.

To be candid, at this point more and more questions are raised in my mind concerning the integrity of everyone involved in the state's 'case' against the students. One would think that at the very least the Judge would have thrown the case out of court. The fact that this has not happened only raises more suspicions. When even the lab that examines DNA evidence colludes with a renegade D.A. to withhold such evidence, it is clear to even the most casual observer that these proceedings are tainted, rotten to the core, dripping with corruption from top to bottom. The terms 'set-up,' 'conspiracy,' 'judicial corruption,' and 'high crimes and misdemeanors' immediately come to mind.

In fact, until concrete action is taken immediately to bring this sad chapter to a close, everyone from the Judge, the D.A.'s office, the N.C. Democrat Party, as well as the N.C. judiciary oversight bodies, is suspect.