Collin, Collin, Collin... (Signifying Nothing: how does saying nothing at all become so loud?)

Tuesday, 25 April 2006

Collin, Collin, Collin...

Mr. Finnerty’s previous legal entanglement has come back to haunt him, whether or not he was actually at Cosmic at the time of the alleged rape (via UD and others):

One of two Duke University lacrosse players charged with raping a stripper faces new legal trouble in an unrelated assault case from November.

Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y., appeared in D.C. Superior Court on Tuesday for a hearing in which a judge determined that he violated the conditions of a diversion program he entered after being charged in a Georgetown assault.

Finnerty and two other high school men are accused of punching Jeffrey O. Bloxgom in the face and body after he told them to “stop calling him gay and other derogatory names,” last November, according to court documents.

Under the terms of the diversion program, the charges would have been dismissed after Finnerty completed 25 hours of community service. But the agreement called for Finnerty to refrain from committing any criminal offense.

Finnerty remains free pending a July 10 trial date. He could face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 if convicted of simple assault.

“We look forward to presenting the facts,” attorney Steven J. McCool, who is representing Finnerty in the Georgetown case, said in a brief statement outside the courthouse. “This incident has been grossly mischaracterized.” ...

In addition to the new trial dates, the Washington D.C. judge also set new restrictions for Finnerty and the other suspects. Under some of those restrictions, they must follow a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, stay at least 50 feet from Bloxgom and refrain from going any place where alcohol is sold, served or consumed.

I guess this means Collin won’t be joining us for LDOC festivities tomorrow.

17 comments:

Any views expressed in these comments are solely those of their authors; they do not reflect the views of the authors of Signifying Nothing, unless attributed to one of us.

1. tuocs wrote @ Tue, 25 Apr 2006, 5:25 pm CDT:

So are the sorority types going to head up to Washington D.C. with their “innocent” t-shirts?

2. DevilAlumna wrote @ Tue, 25 Apr 2006, 5:35 pm CDT:

Well, DC could easily be referred to as “Duke North,” considering all the alums in the area, so maybe a road trip for current students isn’t necessary.

That said, by a July 10 trial date, I’m sure there will be plenty of Duke undergrad interns in the area anyways.

3. Skeptical-Hog wrote @ Tue, 25 Apr 2006, 6:28 pm CDT:

…“Rose and Valerie, screaming from the gallery, say he must go free”...

4. azbballfan wrote @ Wed, 26 Apr 2006, 7:24 pm CDT:

First news report speculating on timestamps

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1187945,00.html?cnn=yes

Cab driver’s story seems to exonerate Seligman, but may damn another. Probably better for all if Nifong just waits until after the election before doing anything.

5. tuocs wrote @ Wed, 26 Apr 2006, 7:49 pm CDT:

Hmmm….so that might answer the confusion over the color of the car. AV arrived in brown car and left in white one? This would indicate the defense may have phonied up the timestamp, or an innocent error?

It makes Reade look more innocent, but throws doubt on the defense tactics.

6. Skeptical-Hog wrote @ Wed, 26 Apr 2006, 7:59 pm CDT:

Quick! Was that car you saw three weeks ago parked outside your white or black? What did you eat for dinner three weeks ago? etc…

Every truthful witness is nonetheless going to make some errors in recall…. what’s likely here is that the cab driver is just mistaken about the color of the car, since it probably didn’t strike him as at all material at the time. Only in retrospect did that fact have any importance. Meanwhile, things like a guy leaving you a big tip after stinking up your car with fast food, or a bunch of drunken obnoxious Duke students saying something about “She’s just a stripper,” well, that’s the sort of stuff that is more memorable. But his failure to recall correctly the color of an otherwise unremarkable car….. that’s trivial, and proves nothing. Human memory is not photographic…....

7. tuocs wrote @ Wed, 26 Apr 2006, 8:05 pm CDT:

Agreed about the color of the car, I think. But it certainly sounds like he saw one of the dancers get in that car, which makes the timeline being used by the defense suspect. Or am I missing something?

8. Skeptical-Hog wrote @ Wed, 26 Apr 2006, 8:09 pm CDT:

You know, after reading that Time article [after posting the above, naturally! ;-) ], I’m not so sure my argument re: the color of the car is as compelling, given the actual circumstances at the time the cab driver saw the car….

Also, I found this extremely fascinating: the report that at least one defense atty. plains to make a complaint to the NC Bar re: the member of the defense team that leaked the photos. Just fascinating!

9. Skeptical-Hog wrote @ Wed, 26 Apr 2006, 8:15 pm CDT:

It would be quite a twist if one of the defense lawyers actually faced professional discipline once this is all over….. I’ll admit I didn’t see that coming.

Interesting also that investigators just came out and asked the cab driver if he was being paid to give an alibi…. no beating around the bush for them!

10. tuocs wrote @ Wed, 26 Apr 2006, 8:54 pm CDT:

A legitimate question to ask….I think. Rather strange…Seligman’s dad finds the guy first…then the legal authorities go talk to him.

Why do I think it ain’t going to be that hard to track down the four passengers in the cab on the second ride. Talk about twists and turns.

11. Dan wrote @ Wed, 26 Apr 2006, 9:30 pm CDT:

This guy obviously doesn’t have a photographic memory. I am sure that he screwed up the white car thing, but I don’t think that it kills Seligmann. This guy has his computer log record and it was as clear as day that Seligmann called at 12:14AM(Rita actually called the # on the log and Seligmann answered…she always forgets to mention this during her bombshells). Are you implying that Seligmann’s dad manfufactured the cab log, the ATM receipt and the dorm records? Seligmann will also get the tesitimony of the guy he took the cab with.

This case is weird. The prosecution is going to be attacking the defenses’ evidence and it is usually the other way around.

12. azbballfan wrote @ Wed, 26 Apr 2006, 9:35 pm CDT:

Did the article say that the person in the driver’s seat wasn’t the second dancer?

Maybe another lax player was helping out?

13. Thinking in Jerz wrote @ Thu, 27 Apr 2006, 6:37 am CDT:

Seligman’s dad found the guy first because no matter what happened that night we have learned that this DA and it seems the Durham police, are completely and utterly incompetent.

14. Lourdes wrote @ Mon, 1 May 2006, 8:24 am CDT:

Not only did the cab driver screw up the car color the accuser screwed up the bathroom rug color – search warrant said blue but the rug was green.

15. Double Standard wrote @ Mon, 1 May 2006, 8:31 am CDT:

Why is it OK that OJ may have murdered two people, Kobe may have raped a white girl, Michael Jackson may have molested countless children…? No one saw the Black Panthers white counterpart the KU Klux Klan holding protests at any of those trials. The African American movement is dismally immature they don’t care about justice. They don’t care that OJ probably got away with murder ( no white riots where there? ). I wonder if the Black Panthers are man enough to apologize if the defendents are found innocent.

16. Olivia wrote @ Mon, 1 May 2006, 8:36 am CDT:

How weird is it that the accusers co-worker ( the other stripper ) you know the one who chose to dump off her passed out friend at the Kroger supermarket an hour later ( wow that was kind! ). Anyway what is her trip? We know she is an embezzler that is bad enough. A proven criminal. But she stated that she considers this an opportunity! How can any decent human being consider an alleged rape an opportunity that they can profit from?

17. Bad Act wrote @ Mon, 1 May 2006, 10:03 am CDT:

Ok then why did the co-worker of the accuser ( the one who is also an embezzler ) dump her off at a Krogers Supermarket? If I had someone in that condition ( at the time she did not think she had been raped but was drunk )I would have taken her to my house or her house and helped her sober up or I would have taken her to a hospital. But no the sista’ just took her to the grocery store. She does not sound like such a nice person. Also what kind of decent human being would consider an ALLEGED rape to be an opportunity? She sees this as something to profit from. She seems to have fantasies of becoming rich and famous because her fellow sista’ may have been raped!!!!! She thinks that this tragedy is her golden opportunity. Now the accuser is no saint but certainly did not deserve to be raped and if she was the accused must be locked up. However, if the accuser is lying then she should be locked up. We do not know what happened. It sounds like at the very least there was a nasty verbal exchange and anyone who used racial slurs should be ashamed that includes the sista’s. It could be that this is vengence on the accusers part but she claims she was raped and the justice system must explore this and find out who is telling the truth. Those of you who want the accused to be found guilty because you get pleasure in seeing priviliged white boys locked up ( even if they are innocent ) well then you are guilty of being immature.

Comments are now closed on this post.