With DA Mike Nifong on the ropes, the New York Times is seeking to rig the rape prosecution against three Duke lacrosse players, by weaving evidence out of whole towels.
Today's New York Times carries a story by Duff Wilson and Jonathan D. Glater,
"Files From Duke Rape Case Give Details but No Answers."
The story seeks desperately to cover for accuser Crystal Gail Mangum and for DA Mike Nifong, and early on draws the following conclusion, which seems more appropriate to an editorial than a news story.
By disclosing pieces of evidence favorable to the defendants, the defense has created an image of a case heading for the rocks. But an examination of the entire 1,850 pages of evidence gathered by the prosecution in the four months after the accusation yields a more ambiguous picture. It shows that while there are big weaknesses in Mr. Nifong’s case, there is also a body of evidence to support his decision to take the matter to a jury.
The "reporters" also insist that Mangum was not a prostitute; strongly insinuate that the Duke lacrosse players gave her a date-rape drug; omit the statement of her partner that night, Kim Roberts Pittman, that the two were never apart for more than five minutes, and exert themselves in seeking to paper over contradictions in her story, such as her initial police report that she had been with three other “dancers,” as opposed to one.
Wilson and Glater also omit statements by DA Nifong that undermine his case: His lie that the lacrosse players were stonewalling him, when in fact they had been very cooperative; his claim that the alleged attackers might have given the alleged victim a “date rape drug,” when in fact, there was no evidence of such, and Nifong had avoided the opportunity to do a drug tox screen, to determine what in fact was the case; and Nifong’s early claim that the case would rise and fall on the DNA evidence, a claim that he contradicted, just as soon as it was determined that there was no DNA evidence. And while the reporters mention the complaint by the defendants’ defense attorneys that the accuser was only shown pictures of lacrosse team members, they refrain from mentioning that in typical police practice, for each picture of a suspect, six pictures of people who could not be suspects are typically mixed in. Wilson and Glater write as if they were working as spinmeisters for Nifong’s office: “Outside experts say it is possible for a rapist to leave no DNA evidence. But they say juries often expect to see such evidence.”
“Possible for a rapist,” but not bloody likely. And not possible for three rapists. The reporters also insinuate that another lacrosse player, who has not been charged, also raped Mangum, and seek to spin exculpatory evidence into incriminating evidence, by mentioning it in a sinister manner.
The police recovered semen from beside the toilet — about the same spot where the woman said she had spat out semen from someone who orally raped her. It matched the DNA of Matt Zash, a team captain who lived in the house and has not been charged. His lawyer said the semen had come from other, innocent sexual activity. Investigators also found a towel in the hallway near [defendant David] Evans’s bedroom with semen matching his DNA. The woman had told the sexual assault nurse that someone had wiped her vagina with a rag. Mr. Evans’s lawyer said that this towel had nothing to do with her accusation, and that the semen came from other activity.
Wilson and Glater insinuate not only that Matt Zash is an additional rapist, but that the towel they cite is evidence against David Evans.
Not even out-of-control prosecutor Mike Nifong went so far as to indict Zash. And as for the towel, if one searches the sleeping quarters of a healthy, single, 23-year-old man on any given day, one is almost sure to find semen-soaked towels, t-shirts or tissues. In fact, such “evidence” is so commonly found in young men’s sleeping quarters, that in his “Zuckerman” novels, Philip Roth made a running joke of the matter.
Had Wilson and Glater been serious about crime reporting, as opposed to writing propaganda for Mike Nifong, they would have added that had the towel with Evans’ semen been used to wipe Mangum’s vagina, it would also very likely have contained her DNA, as well.
Wilson and Glater seek to weave incriminating evidence out of whole towels, where there is none.
Led by "reporter" Cash Michaels, black media outlets that have long insisted, in the face of mountains of exculpatory evidence, that DA Nifong has been holding back damning evidence against the defendants, will surely trumpet the New York Times reporters' insinuations as part of that "evidence."
Apparently, the Times seeks to re-create the pro-prosecution echo chamber that operated early in tghe case, and was then drowned out by the defendants' attorneys and the blogosphere, before Judge Titus issued his notorious gag order last month.
That Mangum worked for at least one, and possibly three prostitution services (Bunny Hole Entertainment, Allure, and Angel’s Escorts have been named in different reports) has not been disputed by anyone, although the media insist on using the euphemism, “escort service.” But early on, Mangum told a local reporter that she did “one-on-one” sessions with clients, and did not deny (or affirm, for that matter) that they involved prostitution. Perhaps it is theoretically possible, in a parallel universe, for a woman working for a prostitution agency to give paying customers “one-on-one” sessions without engaging in sex, but in this world, the likelihood is nil.
(While it is certainly possible for a prostitute to be raped, it is for some reason very important for Wilson and Glater and others seeking to railroad the Duke Three, to insist that Mangum was not a prostitute. Perhaps they fear that if people believe that Mangum was a prostitute, they will be less likely to believe her story of gang rape.)
The New York Times is trying desperately to help DA Nifong win election this fall, to support Mangum, and to railroad three white men against whom no credible incriminating evidence, but much exculpatory evidence has been adduced. Crystal Gail Magnum has undoubtedly had a hard life, and very likely was gang-raped – ten years ago, by three black men. But railroading three white men today, will not exact punishment against three black rapists of yesteryear.
Award-winning, New York-based freelancer Nicholas Stix founded A Different Drummer magazine (1989-93). Stix has written for Die Suedwest Presse, New York Daily News, New York Post, Newsday, Middle American News, Toogood Reports, Insight, Chronicles, the American Enterprise, Campus Reports, VDARE, the Weekly Standard, Front Page Magazine, Ideas on Liberty, National Review Online and the Illinois Leader. His column also appears at Men's News Daily, MichNews, Intellectual Conservative, Enter Stage Right and OpinioNet. Stix has studied at colleges and universities on two continents, and earned a couple of sheepskins, but he asks that the reader not hold that against him. His day jobs have included washing pots, building Daimler-Benzes on the assembly-line, tackling shoplifters and teaching college, but his favorite job was changing his son's diapers.
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