As expected, the three Duke University lacrosse players who were persecuted for "rape" by Durham DA Mike Nifong – despite their complete innocence – have filed suit against Nifong, the city of Durham and the police who investigated the case. This should be a walk.
The lawsuit calls the criminal case against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans was "one of the most chilling episodes of premeditated police, prosecutorial and scientific misconduct in modern American history."
The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, attorneys fees and numerous reforms to the way the Durham Police Department handles criminal investigations.
The lawsuit was filed about a month after city officials met with lawyers for the families seeking a $30 million settlement and several legal reforms, two sources close to the case have told The Associated Press. The attorneys gave the city a month to respond or face a civil rights lawsuit.
In April, more than a year after a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a lacrosse team party told police she was raped, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper declared the former players innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse."
In all, the lawsuit names Nifong and 13 other individual defendants, including former police chief Steven Chalmers, police investigators Benjamin Himan and Mark Gottlieb, and Brian Meehan — the director of DNA Security Inc., which conducted the DNA testing that proved key to unraveling the case. The lawsuit also names the Meehan's lab as a defendant.
The city would have been better off settling. They are going to lose this one and lose it badly. That's why Duke settled as fast as they did.
I am serious;y sorry they did not include the Duke “faculty” (“gang of 88″ was it?).
I think they got shielded in the Duke settlement.