Duke players seek $30 million from city
The three men who were exonerated in the infamous Duke lacrosse case are seeking $30 million in a settlement from the city of Durham as well as legal reforms in North Carolina as a result of their wrongful prosecution.
Meanwhile, disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong (left), who has been disbarred, reported to jail today to serve his one-day sentence for lying when he said he turned over all required evidence to the defense from a key DNA test. As just about everyone knows, the three players were accused of sexually assaulting an exotic dancer who was hired to perform at a party.
Lawyers for the three -- David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann -- are seeking about $10 million for each man to be paid over five years. According to a Durham newspaper, the Herald-Sun, the city's liability insurance is for $5 million with a $500,000 deductible. If a settlement is not reached, the players reportedly will file a civil rights lawsuit.
In this whole mess, Durham officials just can't seem to bring themselves to completely do the right thing, though. In addition to the prosecutor's office, the Durham police department also has been criticized because it helped in the prosecution. A special committee had been looking into the police's handling of the case -- but stopped its examination last month.
Why?
The insurance company advised that the committee's finding could be used as ammunition in a lawsuit.
So what price truth? That may be unclear, but the answer obviously comes with a dollar sign in front of it.
Photo credit: Associated Press
Comments
I believe Nifrong made mistakes in this case. But, 30 million???? Why I have some compassion for the Duke players. They have to accept some responsibility for their activities. If they had not put themselves in this position it would have never happened. Hiring strippers for a private party, under age drinking, too much drinking is not exactly proper moral behaviour for a college student.
Posted by: Captain Jack | September 7, 2007 2:01 PM
Hi:
In all the reporting about the Duke case, I didn't see anyone question the morality of three young men hiring a stripper for entertainment (that's what an "exotic dancer" is, isn't it?).
Is this because of the "boys will be boys" mentality? After all, isn't a scantily clad female jumping out of a cake practically a tradition at upper crust pre-wedding bachelor parties?
I say it all pushes the boundaries of
what constitutes degradiation to women, and allows the continuance of the binary thinking still pervading our culture and keeping women from true equality. Binary thinking classifies everything into opposites, such as women - inside (the home), men-outside (the home, in public life), wives-respectable, dancers-sluts, e.g., there are only two kinds of women, good and bad,and so forth.
We'll never know if anything at all happened that night. These young men might be examples of the best the US has to offer, yet they indulged in what amounts to live pornography. If that's OK, and they can still be seen as shinning stars of collegial
life, then exotic dancers have to be viewed as equally pure.
Marjorie Hill-Devine
Posted by: Marjorie Hill-Devine | September 7, 2007 2:40 PM
Just putting Nifong in a jail with the stripper for one day should be punishment enough for both.
Posted by: Fu Manchu | September 7, 2007 7:35 PM
I hope they get every dime that they ask for. Money is the only thing those who participated in this attempted lynching will understand. Some citizen of Durham still support Nifong!
Posted by: Jsens | September 8, 2007 11:02 AM
It has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with Nifong's lust to bring down 3 people who did nothing wrong so that he could look like something out of a Law & Order episode. Two of the three were not underage, there's no law against strippers, and they weren't driving. They broke no laws. The third guy was MAYBE guilty of underage drinking - does that excuse the university for kicking him out of school, flunking the entire lacrosse team in certain classes due to the actions of biased professors, tarnishing their good names, and allowing a kangaroo court to put these people on trial for up to twenty YEARS when Nifong KNEW they hadn't done it?
In a word, no.
Stop trying to make excuses for what was one of the most poorly handled examples of our legal system in the last twenty years.
Posted by: thinker | September 8, 2007 11:13 AM
I don't know what "legal reforms in North Carolina" the Duke defense lawyers are asking for but it concerns me. I hate to think about it like this but they could be proposing reforms just for the sake of looking like they are not just in it for the money.
If they are indeed good reforms I'm sure I'd be all for them but I'd like to know what they are specifically.
Posted by: Indian National Lacrosse Federation | September 9, 2007 1:01 AM