Topic category: Other/General
Duke Case: Sure Sam Hummel Sure Was Wrong
THAT man, Sam Hummel, was insistent that Duke lacrosse players had raped false accuser Crystal Gail Mangum.
The date was Sunday, March 26, 2006.
As midnight approached, Sam, then Duke's Environmental Sustainability Coordinator, sent out a group email on a Duke email account: sdh2@duke.edu.
The subject line of that email read: "MONDAY: SPEAK-OUT in response to recent rape".
NOT alleged rape!
Sam was soooo sure, so skilled, so passionate.
The text read:
"SPEAK-OUT & LISTENING CIRCLES 11:30 am - Allen Building Lawn
"This event will be geared toward educating the larger Duke community about the sexual assault that occurred two weeks ago in a house just off East Campus that is rented by Duke students. The event will be audience-input oriented with the intention of compiling concerns the community feels must be addressed.
"After some brief statements there will be an open-mic session and small-group discussions.
"Factsheets will be distributed and large posters will be used to collect comments from the community.
"The event will begin at 11:30 AM on the lawn in front of the Allen Building, West Campus.(directions & parking: http://map.duke.edu/?bid=7753)"
NOT alleged sexual assault, of course.
Sam, you were soooo sure, weren't you?
Yet soooo wrong.
It seemed critical to crack that imaginary "blue wall of silence." Right, Sam?
Of course, getting a member or members of the 2005-2006 Duke University Men's Lacrosse Team to "speak out" in support of what actually was a false gang rape claim would have been a coup.
But you believed it was true then, didn't you, Sam?
How to help "the community"?
Perhaps sending an email in the name of a team member to the other team members to the effect that he would not longer cover up, so others would be smart to speak out, or "share," quickly?
Perhaps accessing email of team members and sending one to the police under an alias, say, "Dukeblues44"?
To all you lucky recipients of email, group or individual, related to the Duke case, from Sam Hummel, read them again, carefully, with the benefit of hindsight, and then...do what is right!
Michael J. Gaynor
Biography - Michael J. Gaynor
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.
Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.