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Judge tosses Duke party citations
Oh yeah, I know. Duke sucks. But they swallow.
😉
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun
jstevenson@heraldsun.com
Nov 8, 2005 : 9:36 pm ET
DURHAM -- Durham District Court Judge Craig Brown put in writing an order he issued verbally last week, tossing dozens of underage-drinking citations against hard-partying Duke University students.
Afterward, District Attorney Mike Nifong said his only options were to appeal Brown's ruling or dismiss the citations.
He chose the latter.
Meanwhile, what would happen with underage-drinking citations recently issued at other Duke student party houses remained unclear.
Defense attorneys contend those cases also should be thrown out because the circumstances were the same as what occurred in the cases Brown tossed, which came from an incident on Markham Avenue.
But Nifong said that unless officers are willing to admit shortcomings like the ones that tripped up the Markham Avenue citations, the other cases must be argued in court.
In his ruling, Brown said State Alcohol Law Enforcement agents acted illegally by failing to get a search warrant before raiding a Markham Avenue house where the students were partying in August.
The agents also failed to inform suspects of their rights before citing them, he said.
As a result, Brown declared, evidence obtained in the raid was not admissible in court -- including evidence of what the officers observed, heard, smelled or seized, along with statements by the students and the results of breath tests.
Nifong and one of his assistants, Phyllis Tranchese, who handled the cases, said they weren't sure how many citations were squelched.
Tranchese still was counting late Tuesday afternoon, but she said it would be accurate to number the dismissed charges in the dozens.
Even if the cases hadn't been tossed, most of the students were eligible for a so-called first-offender program and would have escaped criminal records anyway, Nifong added.
The program allows first-time, low-level, nonviolent offenders to keep their records clean by performing unpaid community service work.
The lessons learned will be up to individual students, he said.
"I would imagine most would learn from it, and we won't see them in court again," he said. "It's up to them."
Judge tosses Duke party citations
Oh yeah, I know. Duke sucks. But they swallow.
😉
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun
jstevenson@heraldsun.com
Nov 8, 2005 : 9:36 pm ET
DURHAM -- Durham District Court Judge Craig Brown put in writing an order he issued verbally last week, tossing dozens of underage-drinking citations against hard-partying Duke University students.
Afterward, District Attorney Mike Nifong said his only options were to appeal Brown's ruling or dismiss the citations.
He chose the latter.
Meanwhile, what would happen with underage-drinking citations recently issued at other Duke student party houses remained unclear.
Defense attorneys contend those cases also should be thrown out because the circumstances were the same as what occurred in the cases Brown tossed, which came from an incident on Markham Avenue.
But Nifong said that unless officers are willing to admit shortcomings like the ones that tripped up the Markham Avenue citations, the other cases must be argued in court.
In his ruling, Brown said State Alcohol Law Enforcement agents acted illegally by failing to get a search warrant before raiding a Markham Avenue house where the students were partying in August.
The agents also failed to inform suspects of their rights before citing them, he said.
As a result, Brown declared, evidence obtained in the raid was not admissible in court -- including evidence of what the officers observed, heard, smelled or seized, along with statements by the students and the results of breath tests.
Nifong and one of his assistants, Phyllis Tranchese, who handled the cases, said they weren't sure how many citations were squelched.
Tranchese still was counting late Tuesday afternoon, but she said it would be accurate to number the dismissed charges in the dozens.
Even if the cases hadn't been tossed, most of the students were eligible for a so-called first-offender program and would have escaped criminal records anyway, Nifong added.
The program allows first-time, low-level, nonviolent offenders to keep their records clean by performing unpaid community service work.
The lessons learned will be up to individual students, he said.
"I would imagine most would learn from it, and we won't see them in court again," he said. "It's up to them."
