Duke Rape: NY Times Tried to Make the Best of a Catastrophe

Nifong wants out.

NY Times still in cover-up mode.

The district attorney in the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case asked the state attorney general on Friday to take over the troubled prosecution, saying he faced a conflict of interest because of ethics charges filed against him by the state bar, officials involved in the case said.

The defendants, who are white, were initially portrayed as boys gone wild. But in time, with the fraying of the evidence and careful maneuvering by their legal team, [right, those shifty defense lawyers pointing out that one of the accused had irrefutable evidence that he was not in the house during the alleged rape] they emerged in news accounts as victims of a kind of reverse discrimination, promising young men whose lives were being destroyed by concocted accusations.

The accuser, who is black, was at first embraced at candlelight vigils. Investigators depicted her as the victim of a brutal assault. But her shifting and inconsistent accounts of what happened, combined with the absence of incriminating DNA [lots of DNA from numerous men in her orifices and panties, just not any from the accused] evidence, have resulted in her being branded a false accuser.

But no one was more fully transformed in this case than Mr. Nifong. Once an obscure but respected career prosecutor, [by whom? the NY Times?] he is now routinely portrayed as having recklessly and stubbornly pursued a weak case for political gain.

Mr. Nifong compounded his troubles with seemingly avoidable blunders, [a new term for ethical violations by a "respected career prosecutor] most in the earliest weeks, before anyone was indicted. He ordered a lineup that violated standard police procedures. [a lineup of just white lacrosse team members, there were no wrong answers for the accuser] He spoke misleadingly in public about evidence in the case and disparaged the Duke lacrosse team as “hooligans” whose “daddies” would “buy them big-time lawyers.” He refused to hear out defense lawyers who proffered photographs and phone records intended to prove their clients’ innocence. Most significantly, he mishandled the DNA test results [he lied about having exculpatory DNA test results] by failing to turn them over to defense lawyers for seven months.

The NY Times has tried its best to continue to build on the theme of rich white men rape poor black woman. It wants one of Tom Wolfe's "Great White Defendants." And if some kids from Duke get railroaded in this laudable cause, well, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.