The North Carolina justice system is broken, corrupted, and hijacked!

PART ONE

PART TWO

Word count: 1,112

Instead of “equal justice for all,” North Carolina follows a tenet of “selective justice based on Class and Color.” This is manifested by the fact that it is broken, corrupted, and hijacked.
That the system is broken is undeniable in lieu of the numerous incidents of innocent individuals being unjustly incarcerated for months and years, only later to be exonerated. Of few of North Carolina’s wrongly incarcerated include Erick Daniels, James Arthur Johnson, Floyd Brown, Alan Gell, Carletta Alston, and Kenneth Kagonyera.

Distinguished UNC-Chapel Hill law professor Rich Rosen, in a recent paper, cited that the Tar Heel state lagged only behind the states of Illinois and Louisiana in the number of death row inmates found later to be innocent of committing capital crimes.

Of those innocents who have been wrongfully sentenced to death or life include Darryl Hunt, Glen Edward Chapman, Levon “Bo” Jones, Gregory Taylor, and Joseph Sledge… all of whom have been deprived of precious decades of freedom… lost years in the prime of their lives for which no amount of money can compensate.

That the system is corrupted is plainly evidenced by the facts surrounding the trumped up criminal charges against Duke Lacrosse victim/accuser Crystal Mangum. Incarcerated for 689 days prior to making bond to await trial for first degree murder in the death of her boyfriend Reginald Daye, Ms. Mangum was the true victim of a vendetta prosecution as payback for her role in the Duke Lacrosse case.

The events surrounding Daye’s death clearly show that Mangum was physically assaulted in a domestic violence incident and that she stabbed Daye in self-defense. Facts point out that the prosecutors, in charging Mangum in Daye’s death, used a false and fraudulent autopsy report produced by the North Carolina Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Clay Nichols.

Discrepancies in the medical findings are readily apparent between the autopsy report and all of the other medical records, including the operative report, orthopedic consultation
report, EMS records and other documents found in prosecution discovery.

Comparisons can be made on the following directory which includes the autopsy report as well as other medical records. Clicking the “Notation” button will highlight important passages. Clicking the “Clear notes” button will return to the previous directory where another selection can be made. After completion of viewing the documents, click the “Proceed” button to continue with the flog.

Another problem with the autopsy report is its conclusion that Daye died due to “complications of a stab wound to the chest.” This is not merely misleading or disingenuous, but an outright lie… but a lie that Prosecutor Kelly Gauger required in order to charge Crystal Mangum with murder following Daye’s death. No nexus is presented by Dr. Nichols between the stab wound and Daye’s death.

All indications are that the emergency surgery, for the wound that was not considered to be life-threatening, went well with Reginald Daye’s prognosis for a full recovery.

Dr. Nichols conveniently omitted the events that contributed to Daye’s death that included delirium tremens, an esophageal intubation that precipitated cardiac arrest and brain death, a weeklong comatose state, and the elective removal from life support by the medical staff at Duke University Hospital that resulted in Daye’s demise.

The autopsy report can be compared with other medical records and documents in order to support the premise that the true cause of Daye’s death had nothing to do with the stab wound, but rather the errantly placed endotracheal tube.

That the North Carolina justice system has been hijacked is realized by the fact that the mainstream media, politicians, civil rights organization, and community leaders, despite having full knowledge of the significant problems with the autopsy report and prosecution’s case against Mangum, have elected to remain mute and idle… acting as enablers or conspirators after the fact. No one has Nifongian courage to challenge the blatant and disparate legal mistreatment of Crystal Mangum by the state.

This is the same thing that happened to then Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong six years ago when he prosecuted the Duke Lacrosse case. The state worked with the media in disparaging Mr. Nifong and raining in public contempt against a man who was merely doing his job, but in a dedicated and independent manner.

The subsequent persecution of Mr. Nifong pulled a shroud over the state’s justice system, and it is therefore no wonder that Dr. Clay Nichols would rather commit a criminal act than go against the wishes of the Powers-That-Be… those who have stolen from Tar Heelians the reins of justice.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper and former Governor Bev Perdue were made aware of allegations of fraudulence in the autopsy report by Dr. Nichols. The state’s Medical Board was notified about Dr. Nichols’ fabricated autopsy report and has determined not to take action against him. The North Carolina State Bar received complaints against Durham Prosecutors Gauger and Charlene Coggins-Franks and it, likewise, decided not to proceed.

Currently North Carolina is a state where those in positions of power and those with a voice feel compromised because of the example made of Mr. Nifong. The State, the media, and even the defense attorneys for Mangum have as their number one priority to protect the medical examiner and Duke University Hospital… even if it means an unlawful felony conviction and years of imprisonment for an innocent African American mother of three… Mangum.

All avenues at the state level to rectify the injustice against Mangum have been extensive and have been exhausted. It is time for the Federal government to get involved because the state is the problem.

Consider the following for example: this state absolutely adores former Senator Jesse Helms, an unrepentant racist. The media refers to him in glowing terms while ignoring his bigoted past… Congresswoman Renee Elmers wants to name a Federal Building in downtown Raleigh after him. Not only that, but the General Assembly nearly unanimously paid tribute to him (one negative vote), however, this same body cannot drum up enough votes to grant a pardon to former Governor William Wood Holden who had the audacity to confront the Ku Klux Klan and prevent its lynching of African Americans in the 19th century.

Furthermore the state is tossing out the Racial Justice Act and rushing forward to actions necessary to commence executions of the African American majority of death row inmates.

The case against Crystal Mangum is clearly one that represents the state’s justice system of one which acts selectively based on Class and Color.

Lady Justice is demanding that the Federal government intercede on behalf of the defendant, and justice itself. 

Plea deal effort made in order to keep exculpatory evidence from Mangum

Word count: 1,461

It is obvious that Woody Vann, the defense attorney appointed to represent Crystal Mangum, is leading a full-court press in his attempt to pressure his client into accepting a plea deal… one that would be to her detriment and a salvation to Orange County Medical Examiner Clay Nichols, Duke University Hospital, the city of Durham, and prosecutors Kelly Gauger and Charlene Coggins-Franks.

Mangum, the Duke Lacrosse victim/accuser, has been incarcerated since April 3, 2011 on an initial charge of assault with a deadly weapon for the stabbing of Reginald Daye. An alcoholic, Mr. Daye was heavily intoxicated when in a jealous rage he began physically abusing Ms. Mangum by repeatedly punching her in the face and head, spitting on her, pulling out her hair, and kicking in the bathroom door in order to get at her. It was Daye who brought a set of steak knives from the kitchen into the bedroom, where most of the horrific abuse took place, and began throwing them at her. According to Mangum, he was choking her with both hands when she desperately grabbed a knife lying around and stabbed him once.

Prosecution photographs recorded the injuries sustained by Mangum at Daye’s hands, displays the clumps of her hair lying on the floor at the scene, and shows the battered locked bathroom door that Daye had kicked off its hinges.

These photographs have been turned over by prosecution to Ms. Mangum’s defense attorneys (Chris Shella and Mr. Vann), but they have withheld them from her despite her requests to have copies. Her requests for this specific prosecution discovery have been denied by her defense counsel for more than a year.

After Reginald Daye was taken to Duke University Hospital with the non-life threatening wound, he underwent successful emergency surgery by the trauma team and was on his way to a full recovery. On the third postoperative day, however, complications from alcoholic withdrawal led to his transfer to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. It was then that a decision to intubate him was made in order to administer concentrated oxygen and protect his airway… but, unfortunately the esophagus was intubated instead of the trachea, and the lungs were deprived of oxygen for an extended period of time. This medical malpractice by Duke University staff resulted in Daye’s brain death, and after a week in which no improvement was observed, he was removed from life support and died.

The following day, Orange County Medical Examiner Dr. Nichols performed an autopsy and dictated an Autopsy Examination Report dated April14, 2011. This report, which was released to the public four months later, contained findings of injuries that were not supported by the operative report and other medical records… and many of the reports findings were contradicted by the other documents. Nichols’ narrative omitted mention of problems with delirium tremens which were manifested in Daye, omitted mention of problems with the intubation and re-intubation during CPR, omitted mention of Daye’s weeklong coma, omitted mention of the fact that Daye died after he was taken off life support, and the omission of other pertinent and important facts.

Along with the myriad of false findings and glaring omissions, Dr. Nichols then somehow magically reached the conclusion that Daye died due to “complications of a stab wound to the chest.” No where in the document does the medical examiner even attempt to construct a nexus to support his conclusion. A reasonable person with full knowledge of the facts would immediately realize that Nichols’ conclusion in the autopsy report was reached for the sole purpose of allowing Durham prosecutors to charge Crystal Mangum with Daye’s death… to shift the true responsibility for Daye’s demise from Duke University Hospital staff where it belongs onto Crystal Mangum.

After reviewing the autopsy report by Dr. Nichols, I knew immediately that it was impossible for Daye to have sustained all of the injuries listed (perforations to the left lung, diaphragm, left kidney, fundus of the stomach, spleen, and splenic flexure of the colon) with just a single stab wound with a steak knife. At some point, the State Bureau of Investigation began doing some mysterious experiment that I have been led to believe had to do with the entry wound and its trajectory within Daye’s body. I am not sure what its intention was to prove or to disprove. But, if conducted objectively and scientifically, it would undoubtedly conclude that it was impossible for a single stabbing with a steak knife to inflict the injuries reported by Nichols.

From what I have been told, this mysterious report by the SBI (which has been under scrutiny for many of its unorthodox testing, i.e. markings on bullets, blood spatter, etc.) was conducted over an approximate twelve month period. Crystal Mangum has repeatedly requested to have a copy of this report, as well, but her attorney, Woody Vann has refused.

On May 24, 2012, I showed Mr. Vann the faults within the Nichols autopsy report, and the many discrepancies between it and other medical records. This motivated Mr. Vann to consider having an independent forensic pathologist review the April 14, 2011 autopsy report, and around June 16, 2012, a judge ordered payment for such an expert witness… Dr. Christena L. Roberts.

Crystal Mangum told me that Mr. Vann had received the report from Dr. Roberts but that he would not allow her to see it or give her a copy until after she was released from the Durham County Detention Center. He gave no reason to her for his decision. This important document will undoubtedly refute the determination made by Orange County M.E. Clay Nichols that Reginald Daye died due to complications of a stab wound to the chest. The report by Dr. Roberts would effectively take the murder charge off consideration and destroy the prosecution’s case against Mangum. Crystal Mangum has repeatedly asked Mr. Vann for this document, and he as consistently refused.

Crystal Mangum has been denied the opportunity to see these vital pieces of documents which represent exculpatory evidence. The prosecution is prohibited from withholding such evidence from the defendant, but in this peculiar situation, the defense attorney is the impediment.

As I have said for some time, the truth will set Ms. Mangum free, despite the obstructionist and counterproductive activities of Mangum’s counsel to undermine the strength of her defensive position. Woody Vann, along with prosecutor Charlene Coggins-Franks, is working in conjunction with the mainstream media to keep the truth under wraps. Mr. Vann has no intention of ever allowing these pieces of evidence to ever see the public light of day. The photographs, for example, would heavily lean towards Mangum’s claim that she had been abused and acted in self-defense. The report from the SBI would cast doubt on the numerous injuries listed in the Nichols’ autopsy document, and the report by Dr. Roberts would poke huge holes into the April 14, 2011 report’s findings and conclusion about the cause of Daye’s death. The very credibility of the Nichols autopsy report would be irreparably damaged.

With the annihilation of the Nichols’ report, the prosecution’s case against Mangum would go up in flames as well. As a result of this revelation, Crystal Mangum would be viewed by the public as a victim of Reginald Daye, and a victim of a conspiratorial justice system with heavy collusion from the biased mainstream media. Reputations of the medical examiner, Duke University Hospital, Durham prosecutors, and defense attorneys would also take a beating if the truth were known.

Mr. Vann’s objective now is to keep the truth from being known. To achieve that, he has been seeking to get a plea deal with Ms. Mangum… for her to plea to a felony assault charge in exchange for time served. This would allow the true criminals in this intrigue to escape from the hook, and for the damning prosecution discovery to be disposed of, unseen.

What is truly sad and unfortunate is that Mr. Vann is using his position of trust as attorney for defendant Mangum, to her disadvantage and to the benefit of the prosecution… and he is doing it with the blessing of the North Carolina State Bar. (It seems as though the State Bar is more interested in going after laypersons trying to assist – within the bounds of the law – Ms. Mangum.)

The desperation by the prosecution and its surrogate Vann is evident when he tells Mangum that if she does not accept the plea deal, she is unlikely to get into court before April 2013. This is just one of the scare tactics used by Vann in his bid to protect the prosecutorial conspirators, shield the exculpatory evidence, and really put the screws to the Duke Lacrosse accuser. 

Complaint filed with A.G.O. against Durham prosecutors

Word count: 984

Within hours of posting this blog, Sidney B. Harr, the Lay Advocate for the Committee on Justice for Mike Nifong, filed a formal complaint with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office against Durham County prosecutors Kelly Gauger, Charlene Coggins-Franks, and Orange County Medical Examiner Dr. Clay Nichols. Dr. Nichols authored the April 14, 2011 Autopsy Examination Report on Reginald Daye which contained may discrepancies in its findings when compared with operative and consultative reports. Furthermore, the conclusion arrived at by Dr. Nichols – that Daye’s death was due to complications of a stab wound to the chest – is without support or documentation. No nexus is established by the medical examiner between the stab wound and Daye’s death.

Filing of this complaint was made with great sadness and reluctance, and unfortunately deemed necessary in the pursuit of justice for Crystal Mangum, the Duke Lacrosse victim/accuser who is wrongfully charged with Daye’s death. Many communications were made with prosecutors Kelly Gauger and Charlene Coggins-Franks, beseeching them to dismiss the baseless charges against Mangum. Letter upon letter was hand delivered to the office of the Durham County District Attorney’s office requesting him to prevent reputations from needlessly being smeared and lives destroyed… but to no avail. Even reaching out to the state’s highest elected executive official, Governor Bev Perdue, went for naught as she ignored the frequent communications pleading for the innocent victim of a vendetta prosecution to be cleared of frivolous charges and granted precious freedom so that she could finally be reunited with her three children.

Problems abound with not only the first degree murder charge, but with the little known/rarely used “larceny of chose in action” charge, as well. Prosecutors provide no credible evidence that Mangum took two cashier’s checks and lack credible evidence that she had intent or made any effort to unlawfully convert the checks for her benefit. In addition, both charges lack motive. Fact is, that like the 2010 arson case, on April 3, 2011, Crystal Mangum was the victim of an assault by an intoxicated Daye. Mangum was noted to have small lacerations around her left eye and a swollen lower lip. In addition, clumps of her hair were found at the scene, and the bathroom door she locked behind her in seeking refuge from Daye, was kicked in by him. What more is necessary to suggest physical abuse? Instead of charging Reginald Daye with domestic violence, assault on a female, false imprisonment, and placing him under arrest, Daye is not charged with a crime and is determined to be a victim of domestic violence.

What happened to Crystal Mangum should bode ill for advocacy groups such as the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence. However, despite attempts to get the Durham-based activists involved in the injustice, they, like so many others, have elected to remain on the sidelines as spectators. They are ignoring the message being sent by prosecutors that if a spouse is being physically abused and he/she fights back in self-defense, they run the risk of being labeled the aggressor. I am betting that the people at the Coalition believe, however, that the treatment of Crystal Mangum is singular and not a widespread likelihood… something that they can live with as most Durhamians possess animosity towards Mangum as it is.

Attorney General Roy Cooper dismissed charges against the Duke Lacrosse defendants claiming that there was no credible evidence. The question with the prosecution of Crystal Mangum for murder and larceny is where is the credible evidence against her? Regarding the larceny charge, the prosecutors would be hard pressed at best to even prove that a crime was committed.

In dismissing the charges against the Duke Lacrosse defendants, A.G. Cooper questioned the credibility of Mangum, the accuser. In the current murder case against Mangum, there is no doubt that the Autopsy Examination Report of April 14, 2011 by Dr. Clay Nichols is false, misleading, and fraudulent in its findings and conclusion. Mr. Cooper should be questioning how the prosecutors could bring such a charge based on an autopsy report that is totally lacking in credibility… grounds for immediate dismissal.

The number of 106 fatal victims of 2011 North Carolina domestic violence probably erroneously included Reginald Daye. Truth is that Daye’s death should be categorized under “deaths due to medical malpractice.” Mangum prevented herself from being a statistic of domestic violence fatalities when she fought back against her attacker by stabbing him… a non-life threatening wound. The attorney general’s concern about the high incident of deaths due to domestic violence should encourage him to protect all victims of physical abuse, including those who fight back in self-defense.

Although the Duke Lacrosse defendants never spent a day in jail, the day of the filing of the complaint with the A.G.O. marks the 470th wrongful day of incarceration of Crystal Mangum, a true victim of domestic violence and a victim of a vendetta prosecution by Durham prosecutors bent on carrying out a misguided mission to exact retribution against Mangum for her role in the Duke Lacrosse case. It is needless to say that such a perversion and miscarriage of justice against Mangum would not be occurring if Mike Nifong were still the Durham district attorney.

Whether Attorney General Cooper will allow the Durham prosecutors to continue to throw away precious taxpayer dollars on a Carpetbagger jihadist inspired vendetta against Mangum remains to be seen. Hopefully the state will be able to resolve this problem of imperfect justice without interference from the federal government and the national attention that accompanies it. For the sake of Crystal Mangum, victims of domestic abuse, Lady Justice, and all Tar Heelians, A.G. Roy Cooper will do the right thing and see that all criminal charges against Crystal Mangum are dismissed. 


Click on the link below to view the Formal Complaint filed as well as related documents:
LINK: http://www.justice4nifong.com/legal/cgm/agoCOdirec.htm

What really happened in the wee hours of April 3, 2011

 The biased mainstream media has unfortunately flooded the newsprint and airwaves with false declarations that the stab wound inflicted by Duke Lacrosse victim/accuser Crystal Mangum during the early morning hours of Sunday, April 3, 2011, resulted in the death of Reginald Daye. This myth has been adequately debunked by the previously posted blog which has gone into depth with medical records about how and why Daye died. The short version is that an intubation tube was misplaced by the staff at Duke University Hospital, resulting in lack of oxygen to the lungs, bloodstream, and eventually the brain cells. The brain cells died and Daye lapsed into a comatose state… and unlike brain damaged inmates Joshua Wrenn and Timothy Helms, who both regained consciousness after months in a coma, Daye was removed from life support after only a week. He died shortly thereafter and as a proximate cause of its removal.

The medical examiner reached the conclusion that Reginald Daye died “secondary to complications of a stab wound to the chest” in order to provide Durham Prosecutor Kelly Gauger with a basis for charging Crystal Mangum with murder. He did so with full knowledge that the stab wound had nothing to do with Daye’s death, and made no attempt to develop a nexus between the stabbing and Daye’s brain death or actual death. The mainstream media, however, attributes Daye’s death to the stabbing, and does its best to keep hidden from the public the fact that a Duke University Hospital staff member is the one who should take the blame for Daye’s demise… not Crystal Mangum.
 

But, even if the stab wound was directly responsible for Daye’s death, there is plenty within the prosecutor’s discovery to support the fact that Crystal Mangum acted in self defense when she stabbed Daye. The two, who had been in a brief relationship at the time, were living together in Daye’s apartment along with Crystal’s three children. She contributed financially to help pay the rent for the apartment which had fallen into arrears due to a recent layoff at his job. However, he was now back at his job, and Daye purchased a money order on March 25, 2011, and one on April 1, 2011, both totaling $700.00 – rent for the month of April. Daye was scheduled to work on Monday, April 4, 2011, leaving at six in the morning and returning home after five in the afternoon. Because he would not be at home during the office hours of the rental company, he gave both cashier’s checks to Crystal prior to April 3rd with instructions to drop them off at the rental office the following Monday. Mangum placed both checks in her purse for safekeeping.

 On Saturday, April 2, 2011, Crystal Mangum had a couple of drinks whereas Reginald Daye imbibed quite a bit of alcohol… enough to the point that he became heavily intoxicated. Daye became upset with Crystal because she was not totally attentive to him, and this led to an argument. Although Daye’s nephew stated that the two were fussing over rent and money, this was definitely not the case according to Ms. Mangum. The argument between the two was strictly due to personal relationship issues.


Early in the morning of Sunday, April 3, 2011, the argument became physical as Reginald Daye started punching Crystal in the face and pulling her by the hair. To escape him, she sought refuge in the bathroom and she locked the door behind her. An out of control Daye proceeded to kick in the bathroom door, then grabbed Crystal by her hair and took her to the bedroom. Sometime during this horrific altercation, Daye brought a bunch of steak knives from the kitchen and started throwing them, using Ms. Mangum as a target. These knives ended up being scattered all over the bedroom, as was noted in a later police report. The struggle came to an end as Daye was astride Mangum with both of his hands on her throat choking her. She managed to grab one of the steak knives that was lying around and stabbed him once in the left torso. No “defensive wounds” were sustained by Daye to his left upper extremity as was stated in the April 14, 2011 Autopsy Examination report.


Prosecution discovery documents scattered knives throughout the house, the damage to the bathroom door, notes clumps of Crystal’s hair by the bathroom door and in the bedroom, in addition to physical signs of injury she sustained which included a cut below her left eye, a swollen lower lip, a lesion to the back of her left hand, torn clothing, and blood on clothing (most likely from Daye when she stabbed him while he was atop her).



After stabbing Daye in self defense, Crystal grabbed her purse, which happened to contain the two cashier’s checks, and made her escape from Daye’s apartment and went to her aunt’s house. There she was later apprehended after calling 9-1-1, and the two cashier’s checks confiscated. The presence of these two cashier’s checks in Crystal Mangum’s possession would be the basis for Prosecutor Kelly Gauger to file two counts (one for each check) of larceny even though Daye gave them to Crystal, she did not take them from him, and she could not convert them to cash for her own personal use because she was not listed as the payee or remitter.


Daye’s blood alcohol was 296 mg/dL, a level which would put a non-alcoholic adult into a stupor. No alcohol, toxicology, or blood testing was conducted on Ms. Mangum, most likely due to lack of suspicion of her possibly being intoxicated.


That the stabbing was self defense is a logical conclusion from the evidence and investigation provided by the prosecution alone. Chris Shella, Mangum’s defense attorney, who claims to be working Pro Bono on her behalf, had not conducted any investigation into the incident, and the only thing he did was weaken the self-defense argument by seeking a mental health evaluation for his client.



The link below will connect to a directory of prosecution documents supporting the veracity of events as described above. When taken in conjunction with the previously posted blog and its link to the medical records, one cannot help but come to the following conclusions regarding the incident that occurred in the early morning of April 3, 2011:

(1) Crystal Mangum was the victim of domestic abuse at Reginald Daye’s hands;

(2) Crystal Mangum stabbed Reginald Daye in self-defense;

(3) the stab wound to Daye was non-life threatening;

(4) Duke University Hospital staff’s misplacement of the endotracheal tube was responsible for Daye’s brain death;

(5) Reginald Daye’s death was due to his elective removal from life support by Duke University Hospital staff with the consent of Daye’s family;

(6) the Autopsy Examination Report of April 14, 2011, in listing injuries to Daye that were fabricated and not inflicted by the stab wound, did so to make the stab wound appear more serious than it actually was;

(7) the autopsy reports, in listing “complications due to a stab wound to the chest” as the cause of Daye’s death, did so fraudulently and for the purpose of providing a basis for first degree murder charge against Ms. Mangum;

(8) Daye gave the two cashier’s checks to Mangum with the intention that she would drop them off at the rental office while he was at work on Monday, April 4, 2011;

(9) Mangum could not have converted the checks to cash even if she wanted as she was not listed as the payee or remitter; and

(10) Crystal Mangum is innocent of the murder of Reginald Daye and both counts of larceny, and both charges against her should be dropped and she should be immediately released from custody.

 The date of this blog posting, April 22, 2012, is day 385 of Crystal Mangum’s wrongful incarceration. This, more than any colorful language used by former Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline in her public feud with Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson, is what puts the Durham County and Tar Heel state’s justice system in disrepute. It is apparent to anyone with a modicum of knowledge about recent Durham history that the actions against Ms. Mangum are motivated by her role in the Duke Lacrosse case. Because this African American woman made accusations of sexual abuse against three student/athletes from families of wealth, power, and privilege, destroying her life and keeping her behind bars is the retribution being sought by these Carpetbagger families in their Jihadist agenda against those they deemed to be on the wrong end of the Duke Lacrosse case.


In order to carry out the diabolical plot against Mangum, many individuals had to collude in a grand conspiracy… some of the conspirators being as follows:

(1) Durham prosecutor Kelly Gauger who had Ms. Mangum indicted for murder on a fraudulently false autopsy report;

(2) Medical examiner Clay Nichols, M.D. who provided the April 14, 2011 Autopsy Examination Report that contained erroneous findings and conclusions;

(3) Dr. Andrew W. Buck who authorized the flawed autopsy report of April 14, 2011;

(4) the doctor who authored the April 13, 2011 Autopsy Investigative Report whose name was not typed on the report and whose signature was not legible. The conclusions he/she reached were misleading and in agreement with those of Dr. Nichols in supporting the prosecutor’s bogus murder charge against Mangum;

(5) defense attorney Chris Shella, who volunteered his Pro Bono services to Crystal Mangum, is an enabler who allowed Prosecutor Gauger to proceed with her prosecution of Ms. Mangum. Representation of Mangum by a capable and dedicated defense attorney would have been enough to prevent Gauger from pursuing the murder and larceny indictments, and would’ve brought the prosecution of Mangum to a halt;

(6) Judge Osmond Smith III, who should have recused and disqualified himself from hearing a motion by Shella for a bail reduction from $200,000 to $100,000, was predisposed to maintain Mangum’s bail at a high enough level to prevent her from satisfying bond; and

(7) the media, mainstream and otherwise, by heavily reporting the false conclusions of the autopsy-related documents that attributed Daye’s demise to the stab wound, and by fiercely keeping from the public the fact that the autopsy reports and their conclusions are spurious.



However, the media’s role is quite insidious and represents one of Prosecutor Gauger’s most powerful allies in the malicious, vindictive, and unfair war against Crystal Mangum. The media kept quiet for the entire week that Reginald Daye was in a coma, only mentioning it after he had died. The media showed absolutely no curiosity about the unexpected and unusual etiology of Daye’s lapse into a comatose state. The media even kept the fact that Daye was on life support hidden from the public and that it was only after he was electively removed from it that he died. The media has downplayed Reginald Daye’s state of intoxication the morning of the incident and has suppressed informing the masses of the injuries sustained by Mangum at Daye’s hand. The media did not attempt to find the basis for the charge of larceny. Because the case against Mangum was so weak, many of the media-types restricted reporting on the case in order to keep its weaknesses concealed. This accounts for a disproportionately large part of articles about Mangum/Daye being devoted to rehashing the Duke Lacrosse case… and reminding the people of Mangum’s role as the “false” accuser.



Although anti-Mangum media reporting is punitive in large measure to retaliate for her part in the Duke Lacrosse case, another significant motive is likely due to financial reasons. By blaming Daye’s death on Crystal Mangum’s actions, it takes away the real responsibility from Duke University Hospital for malpractice that led to the loss of Daye’s life… and Duke University advertises heavily in state’s media markets (with the exception of African American newspapers).

 Politicians and so-called “civil rights organizations” which possess knowledge of the injustice against Ms. Mangum and elect to remain quiet and do nothing out of fear and/or apathy, are culpable in this conspiracy of enormous size and intensity. As long as the conspirators keep rank and their deeds remain secreted away, minorities will continue to suffer throughout North Carolina. As long as those with the knowledge of the injustices stay on the sidelines and apart from the struggle for equal justice for all, the unholy persecution of Crystal Mangum will continue, Erick Daniels and Shawn Massey will be deprived of the pardons they deserve, Duke University will continue to discriminate with impunity against Nifong supporters and African Americans, and the GOP will proceed with its onslaught against the Racial Justice Act.


In the post Duke Lacrosse era, Crystal Mangum has emerged the true victim of a broken North Carolina criminal justice system. Innocent of any crime and a victim of domestic abuse, she approaches 400 days in jail with a bail that is higher than Sanford, Florida’s George Zimmerman, who targeted, stalked, and killed 17 year-old Trayvon Martin. The media is generously providing its contribution by vilifying and demonizing Crystal Mangum while holding this revenge-driven grand conspiracy against her together.



LINK: http://www.justice4nifong.com/legal/cgm/pddirec.htm

Conspiracy in the charges against Crystal Mangum

(Link at end of the blog article)

There is no doubt in my mind that the flimsiness of the prosecution’s charges of first degree murder and larceny against Crystal Mangum, the Duke Lacrosse victim/accuser, that are associated with the death of Reginald Daye requires the collusion of both prosecution and defense attorneys in order to move forward. I believe that Chris Shella has allowed his client to sit in jail for more than a year with no end in sight because he is working with prosecutor Kelly Gauger to in effect have Crystal Mangum serve a sentence without even going to trial.

To date she has served one year… and for what? On April 3, 2011, Ms. Mangum was beaten by Reginald Daye, and in self defense she stabbed him with a small knife… once. Daye only sustained internal injuries to the splenic flexure of his colon and a small lesion to his spleen. On the third postoperative day, Daye, who was also fighting delirium tremens, was having respiratory difficulty and a decision was made to make diagnostic tests that required oral contrast. After the contrast was introduced through a naso-gastric tube (a tube that runs from the nose to the stomach), Daye had some emesis. In order to protect his airway and to administer high concentrations of oxygen, the decision was made to intubate Daye. Unfortunately the intubation tube was placed in the pharynx instead of the airway, and as a result oxygen was prevented from entering his lungs, and subsequently his bloodstream became oxygen deficient. The brain cells, which are extremely sensitive to oxygen deprivation, died quickly, whereas the cardiac heart cells responded to the decreased oxygen level by going into cardiac arrest. With the arrest, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was begun and at this time the endotracheal tube which had been mis-positioned was removed, and another one re-inserted… however this tube was properly positioned. With the tube in the airway, oxygen flowed into the lungs once again and the blood received oxygen. The cardiac cells recovered with the fresh flow of oxygenated blood, but the brain cells had already died and could not be revived… accounting for Daye’s comatose state. After a week on life support, Daye’s family consented for the life support measures to be removed, and subsequently and as a proximal result, Daye died.

Daye’s death was due to his removal from life support. Daye’s brain death was due to medical staff error in placement of an endotracheal tube.

Recently I visited with Crystal Mangum at the Durham Detention Center in Durham, NC. She told me the following about the cashier’s check for which she was charged with two counts of larceny:
1. prior to Sunday, April 3, 2011, Reginald Daye purchased two cashier’s checks totaling $700 to pay for the rent of his apartment that he was sharing with Crystal and her children;
2. both cashier’s checks were made out to the apartment rental company and both had Reginald Daye listed as the remitter;
3. prior to Sunday, April 3, 2011, Mr. Daye gave both of the cashier’s checks to Crystal with the understanding that she would drop them off at the rental office on Monday, April 4, 2011… this arrangement necessary because Daye was scheduled to leave for work that day at six in the morning and would be returning home after five in the late afternoon. In other words, he would be at work during the office hours of the rental agency;
4. prior to Sunday, April 3, 2011, Ms. Mangum put both cashier’s checks in her purse for safekeeping;
5. late in the evening of Saturday, April 2, 2011, Daye and Mangum got into an argument about personal relationship issues. At no time was the argument about finances or money;
6. in the early hours of Sunday, April 3, 2011, the argument between Reginald Daye and Crystal Mangum turned physical, with him dragging her by her hair and punching her in the face;
7. in self-defense, she stabbed him once in the torso with a small kitchen knife, grabbed her purse (which contained the cashier’s checks), and quickly left the premises;
8. hours later, when police found Crystal Mangum at her aunt’s residence, she was taken into custody and the two cashier’s checks that were in her purse were confiscated;
9. despite the fact that: (a) both checks were given to Ms. Mangum by Reginald Daye; (b) their argument had nothing to do with money issues; and (c) due to the way the cashier’s checks were filled out, Ms. Mangum could not convert them to money for her own personal use, Durham prosecutor Kelly Gauger proceeded to charge Crystal Mangum with two counts of larceny… one for each cashier’s check.

Both criminal charges against Crystal Mangum are seriously flawed and any attorney worth his salt would have filed a motion immediately to have both charges dismissed. The murder charge should be dismissed because (1) Ms. Mangum acted in self-defense; (2) the autopsy reports were criminally fraudulent themselves; (3) Daye’s brain death was caused by error in endotracheal tube placement by Duke University Hospital staff and not related to the stab wound; and (4) Daye was electively removed from life-support with the consent of his family.

Regarding the larceny charge, it should be dismissed because both cashier’s checks were given to Mangum by Daye, and because they were useless to her as she could not convert them for her own use.

Other than the extreme weakness of the charges against Ms. Mangum, other issues suggestion collusion between the two parties is that no action has taken place on the prosecutor’s side, and there is nothing in play on the Court calendar in the foreseeable future. This reinforces my contention that prosecution’s plan is to have Ms. Mangum serve a sentence of as many years as possible without even being taken to trial (similar to the prosecution strategy used in the James Arthur Johnson case).

That Crystal’s defense attorney Chris Shella has not filed any motions on her behalf also speaks of his culpability in this nefarious scheme. Why has he not filed for the dismissal of these merit-less charges? She’s sat in jail for more than a year, and during that time, Crystal told me, Mr. Shella has been to visit her three or four times, and that the visits last from five to ten minutes. She said that even though she has requested since May 2011 to see all prosecutorial discovery, he has withheld much from her, including photographs.

That is why Ms. Mangum was desperately seeking assistance and asked me to help her with motions to have the charges dropped. In communicating through intermediaries, I asked her to send me the discovery so I could help her draft the motions, as she had no access to a law library, internet or laptop. She sent me the discovery and signed the documents, and because she was being held in jail and could not be allowed to walk to the courthouse to file the motions herself, I filed them on her behalf.

I strongly believe that Chris Shella was furious because the motions were filed, and that went against his agenda to keep Crystal Mangum isolated with no legal activity. Like the prosecutor, Mr. Shella wanted Ms. Mangum to quietly serve out her jail sentence of several years, and when time for trial could no longer be pushed back, force her to accept a stringent plea deal.

Now Chris Shella is seeking retribution against me by asking the North Carolina State Bar to investigate me for violating laws against practicing law without a license. But which is the bigger crime? Trying to help a young mother who has been vilified by the media and who is being falsely held in jail on bogus charges, or being party to a conspiracy to hold that innocent mother in jail, away from her three children? I submit the North Carolina State Bar should be directing its attention towards Chris Shella and Kelly Gauger, not me.


Click on the link below to access a directory to documents that support the fact that the Autopsy Examination Report, upon which the murder charge against Ms. Mangum is based, is false.
http://www.justice4nifong.com/legal/cgm/mddirec.htm

It’s a crime to steal from yourself!

“Drats!” I can almost hear one of the executives of the Prison Industrial Complex now muttering as on February 22, 2012 a felon slipped through its greedy grasp to gain his freedom. Anxious to build its prison population to expand its bottom line the correctional facility failed to reel in the potential boarder in large measure because he was not a person of color. The fact that he was a retired Cary police officer most assuredly helped him wiggle off the hook. The News & Observer article of February 23, 2012 by Amanda James titled “Artist off the hook for theft charges” detailed the story of one, Keith Adams… artist turned felon. His crime – collecting his artwork from a restaurant that had closed.

According to the article, the Angier artist loaned 26 of his paintings to Bistro 155, an Apex restaurant that was shuttered in January 2012. Keith Adams, who valued his paintings at more than $5,000, was advised by the building owner’s lawyer to wait until inventory was taken before collecting his pieces. However, concerned that some or all of his paintings might be stolen, he entered the restaurant, gathered his paintings, took them home, and then alerted police authorities. He didn’t want the police to think that they had been stolen. With that information, or confession, in hand, the Apex police promptly placed Mr. Adams under arrest and charged him with larceny… for stealing his own property.

At a hearing in the Wake County Courthouse on February 22, 2012, Assistant District Attorney Jeff Cruden informed the court that charges against Adams, larceny and breaking and entering, were being dismissed. It was a rare act of sanity in the Tar Heelian justice system that deprived the Prison Industrial Complex of some income for its insatiable fiduciary appetite.

Unfortunately the Assistant District Attorney of Durham County, Kelly Gauger, lacks the wisdom, sense of justice and courage to do the same in the case against Crystal Mangum, the Duke Lacrosse victim/accuser. In essence she is charged with two counts of larceny, one for each of the two money orders that she purchased and took with her after she stabbed Reginald Daye in self defense. (Note that it was not mentioned that Keith Adams was charged with 26 counts of larceny… one for each of his works of art.) Instead, Ms. Gauger is moving forward with the prosecution, along with a first degree murder charge which totally lacks merit. Gauger is doing her part to appease the Prison Industrial Complex which is after taxpayer money and to sate the Carpetbagger Jihadists’ call for vengeance against anything and anyone considered to be on the wrong end of the Duke Lacrosse case.

The larceny charge against Mangum is unwarranted because she paid for the two money orders, which were made out to Daye’s landlord, with her money even though Daye was listed as the remitter. Reginald Daye was placed on the money orders because he held the lease to the apartment which they shared. Because of the notoriety surrounding the bogus and trumped up arson charge against Ms. Mangum, she was unable to find anyone to allow her to rent an apartment.

Daye wanted the money orders for use to purchase alcohol, which was the basis of the hours long argument that preceded the stabbing. If Reginald Daye had the money, he simply would not have paid for the money orders and instead would’ve wasted the money on booze sans input from Crystal Mangum. Daye did not pay for the money orders and he was not entitled to them.

Now the biased mainstream media wants the public to believe that Crystal Mangum stabbed Reginald Daye with a knife in order to steal two money orders that Daye purchase which were made out to the landlord and ones which she could not convert to cash as her name was not even listed as the remitter.

But, then, the prosecution is desperate for a motive in the stabbing and a reason for keeping Crystal Mangum behind bars. Prosecutor Gauger is focused on punishing Crystal Mangum by doing the dirty work for the Carpetbaggers. Justice… that’s not in the prosecutor’s purview.

And, like in the James Arthur Johnson case, and many others like it, prosecutor Kelly Gauger will drag out the proceedings as long as possible to assure that Crystal Mangum serves a term in jail without even being convicted. That’s the way North Carolina’s selective justice based on Class and Color works.

An action such as prosecuting a person for “stealing his/her own property” is what makes North Carolina’s justice system the laughing stock of the country and brings it into disrepute. The larceny charge against Ms. Mangum makes no more sense than the larceny charge against artist Keith Adams. At least the Wake County assistant D.A. had the common sense to drop the larceny charge against Mr. Adams.

Unfortunately, even though the charges against Mr. Adams have been dropped, he is still recorded as a felon. However with a little effort and money, he should be able to have those charges expunged. One lesson he could take away from this is to undervalue his works that he loans out so that if it becomes necessary for him to retrieve them in the future he will only be charged with a misdemeanor. 


Coming soon: Currently work is being done on an interactive flog that should be uploaded in about two weeks and is focused on the marked disparity in the application of laws in the Tar Heel state. Don’t miss it!

Why Tracey Cline should be reinstated as Durham D.A.

Readers of my blog and viewers of my flog know that I am no fan of suspended Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline. As the county’s head prosecutor, I believe that she should have stepped in and dismissed her Assistant D. A. Angela Garcia-Lamarca’s 2010 vendetta prosecution of Crystal Mangum, the Duke Lacrosse victim/accuser. Likewise, I feel she should have moved to force prosecutor Kelly Gauger to drop the murder and larceny charges against Ms. Mangum related to the April 13, 2011 death of Reginald Daye. Despite the fact that D.A. Cline is a friend of former Durham D.A. Mike Nifong and has treated him with civility and respect, I am nonetheless not an ardent backer of her.

You may then query, why do I advocate for her to be reinstated as Durham district attorney? The answer is surprisingly simple and devoid of political prejudices. Tracey Cline should be reinstated as the district attorney because she was overwhelmingly elected to that position by the people of Durham County. In other words, the people had spoken… people who Ms. Cline represented. Her job, and that of any other elected official, be it municipal, county, or state, should not be threatened because of a single individual’s discontent.

Durham defense attorney Kerry Sutton is certainly not an objective bystander when it comes to D.A. Cline. Attorney Sutton had sparred with Cline numerous times within the confines of the courtrooms housed in the Bull City’s justice building. The News & Observer even intimated that Ms. Sutton may have political aspirations and be considering a run for the state senate. Wherever the truth lies, her motives for launching the attack against Ms. Cline can be brought into question.

I am also bothered by the fact that a “little known law” that is on the books and one that is rarely used is the basis for the removal of Ms. Cline from elected office. Not only that, but the law is ambiguous, vague, and subject to a wide range of interpretation. Yes, I am concerned that a “little known law” is being used in an attempt to oust from office the county’s highest ranking prosecutor.

Ms. Sutton seems to be especially offended by the language Tracey Cline used in going after Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson. She refers to it as “venom.” However, Cline supporters may construe this same language as a yardstick to measure her passion for vigorously prosecuting those charged with crimes. Her supporters may attribute her defiant and unyielding stance against Judge Hudson to be an indication of her dedication and determination in the conviction of her beliefs.

In a way, and to an extent, I can appreciate Ms. Cline’s actions in going against the superior court judge… although I would never advise it. I agree that, as human beings, judges make mistakes and that none are infallible. For example, in my civil rights discrimination lawsuit against Duke University, Magistrate Judge P. Trevor Sharp, in a Recommendation, misstated facts about the case; inaccurate and prejudicial “facts” which he attributed to me. He stated that I represented that “after an interview with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer concluded, I began passing out my business cards.” This was totally incorrect, false and misleading. Specifically, in my Complaint, I mentioned that “while waiting for the interview to begin I passed out a few cards to some individuals I had engaged in conversation.” Kerry Sutton and others may consider my use of the accusatory term that he “lied” to be venom. I would say that it is possibly a “politically incorrect” term… but it is nevertheless the truth. Should I have used a less inflammatory term to describe the magistrate judge’s misstatements? Possibly. But like Ms. Cline, I am extremely passionate about the anti-Nifong discrimination to which I was subjected by Duke University and I do not feel that I should be sanctioned because of it.

The fact that Judge Robert Hobgood, who is charged with overseeing Sutton’s complaint against Cline, decided to immediately suspend Ms. Cline as Durham district attorney does not bode well for her. Doing so automatically prejudices the case against her by implying that the action taken was a safeguard to prevent Ms. Cline from pursuing a course that would result in an imminent threat or peril. Without an explanation from Judge Hobgood about his decision for immediate suspension, it is not unreasonable to believe that he caved to The News & Observer-led media vendetta against Ms. Cline.

It has been evident for months that the Triangle area newspaper had Tracy Cline in its crosshairs… just like it did her predecessor, Mike Nifong. The three part series by the N & O, titled “Twisted Truth” was a pathetic bid to stir the public into an anti-Cline frenzy, just like it had successfully accomplished against Mr. Nifong. In its rare exception to the PAPEN (Protect All Prosecutors Except Nifong) policy, the newspaper was at the vanguard of the media offensive against Cline. It highlighted a few instances in which it alleged the prosecutor had withheld evidence and misled the court… dramatizing them as if they were singular events throughout the state’s history of juris prudence. Had the media been conscientiously objective, then it would have produced three-part series about the following legal luminaries: Wilson prosecutor Bill Wolfe for his mishandling of the case against James Arthur Johnson; Wake County prosecutor Tom Ford and his misconduct in Gregory Taylor and Carletta Alston cases; prosecutor David Hoke’s withheld exculpatory evidence in the Alan Gell case, and many others. Note, that although The News & Observer did extensively cover the Alan Gell case and its associated prosecutorial misconduct, it went out of its way to shield the prosecutors and take the focus away from their misdeeds.

Without doubt the media’s attacks against Tracey Cline are rooted in the Duke Lacrosse case and are a part of the seemingly endless and ubiquitous vindictive web cast by the Carpetbagger Jihadists in an attempt to ensnare those considered by the Powers-That-Be to be on the wrong end of that case. For example, the discrimination against me by Duke University had its origins from that case, as well. That the repetitive onslaught to remove Ms. Cline as Durham district attorney is vindictive and politically motivated is clearly evident.

Do I agree with Ms. Cline’s repeated attacks against Judge Hudson? No.
Do I believe her disparaging confrontations against the judge are productive? No.
Do I agree with the way her assistant prosecutor Garcia-Lamarca handled the 2010 case against Crystal Mangum? No.
Do I agree with the ongoing prosecution of Mangum by her assistant Kelly Gauger? No.
The most important question is, however, do I think Tracey Cline should be removed from office because of my disagreements with the way she has conducted herself as Durham district attorney? No. Because the people of Durham elected her to the office of Durham district attorney, the people should be the ones to remove her, if so inclined… not a single individual who may or may not have an ax to grind against Ms. Cline.

I submit that instead of using a “little known law” that is rarely used to remove Tracey Cline as Durham district attorney, Kerry Sutton should have taken the more appropriate and responsible track of initiating and circulating a recall petition amongst the Durham County electorate… allowing the people to determine the destiny of their elected officials instead of a single person. 

2010 Mangum prosecutor scolded… a warning to Kelly Gauger

In a January 14, 2012, News & Observer article by J. Andrew Curliss titled “Chiding prosecutor, judge resets sex-offender case,” the former Durham prosecutor in the 2010 case against Crystal Mangum, Angela Garcia-Lamarca, was rebuked for vindictive and improper actions against a fifty year-old man accused of child molestation decades ago. Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson stated that he would enter a written order that Ms. Garca-Lamarca, who resigned from the Durham District Attorney’s Office last month, violated ethics rules for lawyers while dealing with a heavy-handed plea deal. Durham defense attorney Kerry Sutton claimed that the assistant district attorney acted vindictively in seeking harsh charges against her client because he (the defendant in a sex abuse case) refused to accept a plea deal for time served. Although he denied the defense’s motion to have the case dismissed entirely, Judge Hudson refused to allow the defendant to face the more serious vindictive charges that Prosecutor Garcia-Lamarca had subsequently filed.

It was this same prosecutor who, in February 2010, prosecuted Crystal Mangum, the Duke Lacrosse victim/accuser on a series of trumped up charges. The prosecution against Mangum was “payback” for her role in the Duke Lacrosse case. Among the initial charges leveled against Ms. Mangum was attempted first degree murder (with the weapons used being listed as her hands and feet), assault (although it was her ex-boyfriend who initiated physical interaction by repeatedly punching her in the face), communication of threats, identity theft (a charge abused by the prosecution as Ms. Mangum made no attempt to fraudulently misrepresent her identity in order to gain property unlawfully), child abuse, and a slew of other charges.

During that February 2010 incident, in which it was crystal clear that Ms. Mangum was innocent of committing any crime, the Durham Police vindictively wanted to saddle her with a serious charge that carried a lengthy prison sentence, so under the pretense of smelling smoke, the apartment was emptied by the officers which presented them with the opportunity, to go along with the means and motive, to set fire to clothes in the bathtub. The police then closed the door without making any attempt to extinguish the blaze they had ignited, and allowed smoke to damage the apartment while waiting for several fire trucks and two dozen firemen to come to the scene in the middle of the night to douse some flames that had scorched some articles of clothing. Keep in mind that the police did not set the building on fire, so the charge at best should have been nothing more than vandalism… not arson. And since everyone but the arsonist officers had vacated the building, it was not even a first degree felony as charged against Mangum.

In addition to first degree felony arson, Prosecutor Garcia-Lamarca also charged Mangum with three counts of “contributing to the delinquency of a minor,” asserting that the potential of destroying the apartment would make it more likely that her three children would run afoul of the law. As tenuous as the charge was, it was indisputably linked to the arson charge. This was borne out by a statement by the presiding judge, Superior Court Judge Abe Jones who ruled that the three charges of contributing to the abuse or neglect of her children would rise and fall on how the jury handled the arson charge. He promised to dismiss the abuse charge if the jury doesn't find Mangum guilty of arson. Judge Jones’ statement makes perfect sense. It’s crystal clear.

Yet, the jury, after a mistrial on the arson charge of nine to three in favor of acquittal, went on to unanimously convict Mangum on the charge related to the child abuse/endangerment/neglect. What was this jury thinking? Did the jurors not understand what Judge Abe Jones said prior to their reaching a verdict? As a result, the only true bogus charges for which Crystal Mangum was convicted was (1) injury to personal property for allegedly slashing the tires of her ex-boyfriend’s car and breaking its windshield; and (2) resisting a public officer (for allegedly struggling during her arrest and giving officers her sister's name and birth date). As most people are aware, the resisting a public officer charge is one that is used most commonly to tack onto other charges to make an offender’s offenses seem worse, or to make an arrest of an innocent person who has not committed a crime.

At the time of the prosecution, Prosecutor Garcia-Lamarca was far along in her pregnancy, and could take solace in knowing that she would be on maternity leave well before the case went to trial… leaving the unscrupulous dirty prosecutorial work to fellow Durham prosecutor Mark McCullough. Because of Garcia-Lamarca’s vindictive misconduct, Ms. Mangum served three months in jail, during which time she suffered the following: (1) lost her job; (2) lost her apartment; (3) lost custody of her children; (4) was kicked out of the Masters program at NCCU; (5) lost much of her personal property; (6) her father passed away; and (7) she lost her independence as a productive citizen moving positively towards turning her life around following the Duke Lacrosse incident. Quite a legacy, that Angela Garcia-Lamarca built for herself, and one in which Mangum’s current prosecutor is currently following.

Prosecutor Kelly Gauger has charged Ms. Mangum with first degree murder in the death of Reginald Daye, a man who was electively removed from life support by the medical staff at Duke University Hospital. Mr. Daye was taken off support after being declared to be “brain-dead”… the cause of which is either unknown, undisclosed, or both. What is clear is that Daye’s comatose state had no nexus to the stab wound inflicted by Ms. Mangum… and therefore, she is not responsible for Daye’s death. The comatose state could be explained by medical malpractice or possibly even a hospital homicide, but the Durham Police Department is loathed to even take such a possibility into consideration.

According to my reliable sources, Daye admitted to police that prior to the stabbing that he had “dragged Crystal by her hair and slapped her around.” So, after an involvement in a lengthy argument, it is very likely that the stabbing by Mangum was the result of self defense. The murder charge by Gauger is ludicrous and is not even supported by a motive.

Prosecutor Garcia-Lamarca has already been called out by Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson for her vindictive prosecutorial approach, similar to the one she used against Ms. Mangum in 2010. Prosecutor Kelly Gauger is following the same disgraceful path as her recently resigned colleague. And even though Ms. Mangum is getting what I believe to be, once again, less than adequate legal representation, prosecutor Gauger should heed the actions taken by Judge Hudson against Garcia-Lamarca. Gauger needs to consider that the biased mainstream media and the misguided anti-Nifong public sentiment cannot indefinitely hold back the march of Lady Justice in meting out “equal justice for all.” The day of reckoning for anti-Nifong legal eagles is close at hand. That much is crystal clear. 

Unanswered questions about Reginald Daye’s death

Reginald Daye was a middle-aged Durham man who was in a symbiotic relationship with Crystal Mangum, the Duke Lacrosse victim/accuser. The events surrounding his death, beginning with his April 3, 2011 stabbing by Ms. Mangum and extending to his death ten days later, are shrouded in mystery and intrigue. What some may consider equally baffling is the mainstream media’s apathy towards unraveling the bizarre and inexplicable sequence of circumstances which shortened Daye’s life.

Of this much we are certain: (1) At approximately 3:00 a.m. on April 3, 2011, Mangum stabbed Daye in the left torso with a kitchen knife (paring knife according to friends of Mangum and supported by autopsy reports); (2) Although the blood alcohol level coursing through Daye’s veins was at a stupor-level of nearly 300 mg/dl, he was awake and coherent when transported by ambulance to Duke Hospital; (3) Daye underwent emergency surgery to repair the stab wound to the splenic flexure of his colon within hours of the traumatic insult; (4) Postoperatively the following day, the surgery on Daye was proclaimed to be successful and the patient was expected to make a full recovery; and (5) On the 13th of April, ten days following his stabbing and surgery, Daye was taken off life support and pronounced dead.

The autopsy reports of April 13 and 14, 2011, which were released in mid-August 2011, four months later, shed only a modicum of light on what transpired during Daye’s ten day hospitalization. It appears that on the evening of the third postoperative day, Mr. Daye went into a deep and irreversible coma; the etiology of which was never determined and/or released to the public. The mainstream media kept Daye’s comatose state hidden for a week, and mentioned it only after his death. In addition, only one media source mentioned that Reginald Daye passed away after life support was electively removed by the Duke Hospital medical staff. Although it can be assumed that Daye’s next of kin were involved in the decision to remove him from life support, it is unknown whether the prosecution or defense attorneys were consulted or notified beforehand. The disconnection of Reginald Daye from life support was the proximate cause of his death, however, neither report even mentioned this. Instead of solving problems surrounding Daye’s demise, the autopsy reports of April 13th and 14th usher in questions about it on an even grander scale.

Both autopsy reports are vague, inadequate, misleading, and unprofessional, with the report of April 13, 2011 (Report of Investigation by Medical Examiner) being more accurate and reliable regarding injuries sustained by the single stab wound than that of the latter document. The description of the body and the body diagram of this report are deferred to the report of April 14, 2011 (Report of Autopsy Examination). What is most puzzling about this report of the 14th is that it includes a multitude of injuries not mentioned in the report of the 13th, which cited only the lesion to the colon. However, in the report of the 14th, Dr. Clay Nichols, the medical examiner, mentioned additional gross anatomical injuries to the following organs: lower left lung, diaphragm, left kidney, spleen, and fundus of the stomach. As a retired physician, I believe that it is impossible for a single stab wound from a paring knife (which entered at the seventh intercostal space of the left side of the torso and proceeded in a downward trajectory) to inflict wounds to all of the organs as described in Dr. Nichols’ report. However, it is not at all unreasonable to believe that such a stab wound would lacerate the splenic flexure of the colon only.

Although I believe the report of April 14, 2011, to be criminally fraudulent, I do not fault the medical examiner for making false claims because he undoubtedly has learned from the example that the state and the media made of former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong… which is that the consequences of not “going along with the program” can be excessive and severe. The purpose for fabricating these injuries in the latter report is to make the damage caused by Mangum’s stab wound appear to be much more extensive and serious than it actually was… to persuade the public that the inflicted wound was capable of causing death. The biased anti-Mangum media did its part by upgrading the status of the diaphragm, which is a large muscle, to that of being an organ, and counting it as such in proclaiming that “Fatal stab wound in Crystal Mangum case punctured six organs.” The media entirely ignores the more reliable report of April 13, 2011, which documented injury to only the large intestine.

Questions continue to swirl around Daye’s death and its aftermath. Why the major discrepancies between the report of the 13th and 14th? What was the cause of Daye’s lapsing into a coma and how was it related to the stab wound? Why is Crystal Mangum being charged with first degree murder when Daye was electively removed from life support by Duke’s medical staff? Was medical malpractice or a hospital homicide responsible the unconscious state which led to Daye being declared “brain dead” and taken off life support? Why has Mangum’s attorney not filed a motion to have the murder charge dismissed? Perhaps, most mind-boggling of all is why does the mainstream media lack curiosity about these unsolved mysteries?

Being a cynic of mainstream media’s dedication to report fairly and without bias, I do not find it surprising that the media would bury its head in the sand when it comes to the state’s illegal and unjust mistreatment of Crystal Mangum. After all, the media, like Durham prosecutor Kelly Gauger and the medical examiners, is part of this very broad based anti-Nifong conspiracy. 

Transitioning to a new year

2011 – a year in review

2011 was a dynamic year for Tar Heelians with respect to social justice, economic, and political issues. It was also the year that ushered in the “flog” – a portmanteau of Flash and blog – an animated video format in which to present blog-like material… essentially, being an interactive documentary. Economic disparities were brought to the fore with the emergence of the Occupy Movement this year. The discontent with the status quo of the few rich getting richer while more and more individuals and families fall into the depths of poverty. Big corporations like banks, which unabashedly steal real properties and funds from its customers and anyone else they can, merge for the purpose of increasing their bottom line for the benefit of the executives and upper echelon, by creating monopolies to increase the cost of their services and products through loss of competition, while decreasing their bottom line by laying off employees. Environmentally, a new threat has emerged in the form of “fracking,” which threatens to pollute the groundwater with chemicals and carcinogens so that natural gas energy companies can increase their bottom lines. Politically, politicians, such as Renee Ellmers and Stephen LaRoche, are behaving hypocritically and unethically, serving their own needs and not those of the people who put them in office, and putting lobbyists before their constituents… just like any other year.

The most noteworthy stories of 2011 are listed below in the order of their significance. Story Number One – the charging of Crystal Mangum with first degree murder in the death of Reginald Daye. This media controlled story is the height of vendetta justice and is being muzzled by news outlets on a local and national basis. The main problem with this case, which is being prosecuted by Durham Assistant D.A. Kelly Gauger, is that Reginald Daye was removed from life support, after which he died. The fact that he was in a coma for a week prior to the plug being pulled was kept from the public. There was never any explanation as to how Daye slipped into a coma on his third postoperative day following emergency surgery for a stab wound to the left torso… nor has there been any curiosity about it by the media. Two autopsy-related reports have major disparities, with one being criminally fraudulent in its representation of multiple alleged injuries that could not possibly have come from a single paring knife stab wound. Again, no curiosity by the media. There is no nexus between the stab wound to the body and the comatose condition of Daye, and yet despite all of the above, the autopsy reports concluded that Reginald Daye’s death was due to complications of a stab wound to the chest… this after his emergency surgery was considered a success and he was expected to make a full recovery. The media, the politicians, the NAACP, and other civil rights organizations are working together in an effort to allow our criminal justice system to saddle Ms. Mangum with a murder conviction… one which she did not commit. Even her attorney Chris Shella is complicit in this travesty for he has yet to file a motion to have the murder charge against his client dismissed. The larceny charge Ms. Mangum faces from the stabbing incident of April 3, 2011 is flawed, as well. Mangum was charged with two counts of larceny for taking from the scene of the stabbing two money orders… money orders for which she paid. The remitter was listed as Reginald Daye as the money orders were to go towards rent in a symbiotic relationship in which she and her three children were to secretly share his apartment. Daye wanted the money orders to go towards beer and booze, and this was the crux of that fateful evening’s argument. Common sense suggests that had Daye had the money to purchase the money orders, then he would have used it to purchase beer, and there would have been no confrontation. Again, the media is not curious on this point.

Story Number Two – the racist pardon policies of Governor Bev Perdue. Earlier this year, in February, the Governor’s Executive Clemency panel denied the pardon of Erick Daniels without explanation. He was denied a pardon because he is an African American. Erick Daniels needs the pardon so that he can receive monetary compensation for the more than seven years for which he was wrongly imprisoned for an armed robbery that he did not commit. When pressed by Harr for a reason for the denial of his petition or a pardon, the General Counsel for the governor stated that it had conducted its own investigation which generated questions as to Daniels’ actual innocence… an investigation in which it could not share any results due to “confidentiality concerns.” In addition, another African American, Shawn Massey, who was unjustly incarcerated for twelve years, was denied a pardon. And, Glen Edward Chapman, a black man who was sentenced to death in 1994 for a murder he did not commit and was released from death row in 2007, applied for a pardon from the governor on March 21, 2011. No word yet, as the governor continues to drag her feet with the apparent strategy of not granting a pardon by indefinitely delaying a ruling about it. While these race-based injustices continue, the NAACP, other civil rights groups, and politicians enable the injustice by looking away and keeping mum.

Story Number Three – Harr’s discrimination lawsuit against Duke. This legal filing is basically the result of a big institution (Duke University) trampling on the rights of an ordinary individual. Duke, like many mega-corporations, believes that it can do so with impunity because it has big bucks and the media in its back pocket. As its ally, the media kept Duke’s egregious mistreatment of Harr secreted from the public… this to prevent public pressure and embarrassment from forcing it to do the right thing. That Harr has filed Pro Se had forced Duke to rely upon the Courts, as Magistrate Judge P. Trevor Sharp was quick lie about the facts of the case in order to mislead the Court into ruling in favor of Duke’s Motion to Dismiss the action by Harr. Duke’s discriminatory and malicious actions in its plan to have Harr arrested for being a Nifong supporter, the media’s collusion in preventing the public from learning about it, and the magistrate judge’s unethical misconduct on behalf of the Duke defendants, is an affront to the civic, fair-minded citizens of this state. Although this drama has not played out, if there is any justice, then Harr most definitely will prevail… and Harr will not be the only winner. It will keep establishments and institutions from being able to perform acts of discrimination against individuals based on a person’s beliefs, thoughts, opinions, and/or allegiances.

2012 – looking forward

In the coming year, this blog site will update the three important stories listed above. It will continue to cover as many instances of injustice as possible in order to bring awareness and enlightenment about stories which the mainstream media tries to conceal and keep hidden. The bulk of these blogs and flogs will be devoted to criminal justice issues and cases, with those related to Duke Lacrosse/Nifong having precedence. In addition, some entries will tend to focus on economic, environmental, and political injustices as they are all, to an extent, intertwined.

The introduction of the flog in 2011 was a major boon to the presentation of news and opinion. Its main advantage is that it is a perfect format for the reading challenged. In addition, its interactivity enables the viewer to peruse important documents and look over diagrams, photos and other images which support the narrative. Despite its major advantages over the read-only blog, its main drawback – the fact that each flog takes a lot of time and effort to produce – will limit the number of flogs produced in the coming year. Experimenting with an all flog site this past year, reduced the blog site output drastically which resulted in the inability to cover many important stories. Mind you, flogs will continue to be posted on this site, but not as frequently. It is my plan to publish one to two blogs a week, with an occasional flog thrown in. Still in the pipeline is my epic flog about one of the worse, if not worst, instance of injustice in Tar Heel criminal law.

This coming year I will also try and reply to more comments than I have in the past. As I do not have internet at home (too expensive), my time online at the public library, though free, is limited. I continue to welcome all comments regardless of their position, and appreciate the commenters making the effort to give feedback about the postings.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and Christmas-related holiday, and I wish you all good health and much happiness in 2012. For my part, I will try and bring you vast amounts of enlightenment in the coming year. 

Another featherweight defense for Crystal Mangum in her upcoming trial for the murder of Reginald Daye?

Interactive Flog
Running time: 25 minutes

http://www.justice4nifong.com/direc/flog/flog9.html

NOTE: Click the link above to access the flog, or read the script below.

Tracy E. Cooper was a correctional officer with fifteen years of service in the state of Illinois. Tragically, on September 28, 2010, at the age of 42, Officer Cooper passed away. Records acquired online state that he died as a result of an assault that was alleged to have occurred months earlier.

According to documents, on January 25, 2010, Cooper escorted a convicted felon to court, at which time the judge ordered for the felon to be unshackled. Upon being freed from his bonds, the young man bolted in an attempt to escape. Officer Cooper subdued the would-be fugitive by wrestling the convict to the floor, during which time he injured his left shoulder.

When his traumatized left shoulder failed to heal, it was later determined that Cooper had torn his left rotator cuff. Approximately eight months later Cooper underwent surgery to repair the damaged shoulder. Unfortunately he never emerged from the general anesthesia, and he was pronounced dead the following day.

The Illinois Department of Corrections has recorded the cause of death to be an “assault” and the weapon used, a “person.” In other words, the inmate who attempted to flee in January 2010 is being held responsible for the death of the correctional officer in September 2010… eight months later.

I have a problem with this reasoning on many levels. My reading of the incident suggests that the inmate was attempting to escape and that Correctional Officer Cooper executed his job appropriately by its prevention. The injury to Cooper’s left shoulder was plainly work-related and not a result of an assault. It might be different had the inmate charged at Cooper and knocked him to the ground… but that did not happen.

In addition, it is obvious that the proximate cause of Officer Cooper’s death was due to a complication in surgery, most likely due to a problem with the administration of the anesthesia. The injury sustained eight months earlier had nothing to do with Cooper’s passing.

With Cooper’s death being attributed to the incident eight months prior, and it being deemed to be due to an assault, then the inmate, for attempting to flee the courtroom, could be charged with murder… a totally ridiculous and inappropriate charge.

This is the same emotionally irrational logic used in Reginald Daye’s death. The stab wound by Crystal Mangum had absolutely nothing to do with Daye’s death… and everyone knows it, including the prosecutors, the medical personnel at Duke University Hospital, the medical examiners, and the media.

A stab wound made by a paring knife that only damaged the splenic flexure of the colon should have been easily managed without residual effects… Reginald Daye should have made a full recovery.
The pathetic autopsy reports purposely shed no light on the cause of death in Daye’s case, giving us no more information than was initially available from the media on April 13, 2011… that Daye sustained a stab wound, and that he died. For the medical examiner to say that he died of “complications of a stab wound” provides not a scintilla of enlightenment. The links connecting the stab wound to Daye’s death ten days later are omitted… again, on purpose.

I no more agree with the Illinois DOC that the cause of Tracy Cooper’s death was due to an assault eight months earlier, than I do with Durham Assistant District Attorney Kelly Gauger’s position that the stab wound to Reginald Daye resulted in his demise ten days later. The cause of death in both cases is folly and lacks serious merit and consideration.

The amazing cases of Cory Harrison and Joshua Wrenn

On life support, twenty-one year-old Cory Harrison was not expected to come out of the coma, and his doctor in Spain recommended that no heroic measures be taken if he were to contract a life threatening infection. The coma was the result of severe head trauma he sustained when he landed on it after falling from a second story balcony onto a cobblestone pavement while working at a summer job in Spain. In addition to a skull fracture, he had fractures of his ribs and vertebrae.

Although many neurological practitioners did not expect him to recover consciousness, Cory Harrison did just that… but only after more than seven weeks in a comatose state. Currently he is undergoing rehab and physical therapy to help him regain use of his extremities and the ability to speak. Because he was not pulled off life-support prematurely, Cory had the opportunity to emerge from his comatose state.

On April 3, 2011, 29 year-old Joshua Martin Wrenn was arrested on a warrant for assaulting his wife. Shortly after being booked, Wrenn was involved in an altercation with correction officials during which he lost consciousness. He, like Reginald Daye, was taken to Duke University Hospital and placed on life support in its intensive care unit.

Doctors told Wrenn’s mother, Kathy Treadway, that her son was brain dead. However, on the advice of an attorney, the family would not allow doctors to remove him from life support… because that would prevent them from filing a lawsuit against the state for inflicting wounds that rendered Joshua comatose.

Then, on May 30, 2011, approximately eight weeks after being beaten into unconsciousness, Wrenn surprisingly emerged from the coma… no longer requiring the ventilator, making eye contact, and moving his extremities. He is far from being fully recovered as he is partially paralyzed, and has yet to talk… morbidity possibly in part due to several strokes he suffered during hospitalization. According to his mother, he is making progress, slowly but surely.

Now, contrast these two cases to that of Reginald Daye. For certain reasons, which have been concealed from the public by the Duke University Hospital staff and media, Reginald Daye went into a coma on the third post-op day. Prior to lapsing into unconsciousness his evaluation had him on the mend from the stab wound to the torso. Specifics surrounding his downward spiral and his week-long coma were shielded from media consumers, their first awareness that the hospital course of Mr. Daye had gone terribly wrong was with the announcement of his death.

Although I have not been privy to actual events, my sources have stated that Daye passed away shortly after he was taken off life support. In other words, the neurologists had determined that Daye had suffered irreversible brain damage – was “brain dead” in the layman’s parlance – concluded that he would never awaken from his comatose state, and electively removed him from life support with the consent of Daye’s family. The cessation of supportive measures by the medical staff was the proximate cause of Reginald Daye’s death and not any actions that preceded it.

Doctors are not gods and their prognoses are not 100% accurate. If that were the case, then Cory Harrison and Joshua Wrenn would both have been removed from life support and would have expired many weeks before their miraculous awakenings. Like Harrison and Wrenn, Reginald Daye deserved the opportunity to recover. However it was not to be because before a week’s time had elapsed, Daye was removed from life sustaining treatment at Duke University Hospital and allowed to die.

From media coverage just days following his emergency surgery the public had been led to believe that Daye’s course would be uneventful and his recovery complete. But that was not to be and mysterious events at the hospital resulted in a loss of consciousness as well a cardiac arrest. And while Daye lingered in a coma over a long seven day period, the media kept mum about the frightening and unexpected chain of events… with the public first learning of his condition after he was pronounced dead.

Why the rush to remove Daye from life support? Were there those with decision making powers who were concerned that he might recover and deprive the prosecution of charging Mangum with murder? The plug was pulled on Daye before the public even had an opportunity to enter into a debate about his comatose condition. With all certainty, Mangum was not responsible for Reginald Daye’s death or his coma.

If Cory Harrison and Joshua Wrenn could awaken from their comatose states and be weaned off life support measures, Reginald Daye should have been entitled to the same opportunity.

Mangum defense strategy: genius, inept, or Judas-like?

According to The Herald Sun, Crystal Mangum’s attorney, Chris Shella of Durham, entered a motion with the court on September 20, 2011, asking that his client be given a psychiatric evalution. Superior Court Judge G. Wayne Abernathy signed the order shortly thereafter for the purposes of supposedly determining whether or not she is mentally competent to stand trial for the murder of Reginald Daye.

This unexpected defense move was a surprise and one which I feel undercuts the original strategy which stated that she acted in self-defense. Shella had initially and repeatedly stated that Mangum stabbed Daye to prevent him from continuing to beat her up. It has been established that the two, prior to the incident, had been arguing about money orders which Mangum had purchased in the name of Daye to pay rent on the apartment the two symbiotically shared. Mangum wanted to use the money for rent, whereas Daye wanted it to purchase beer and alcohol.

Prosecutor Kelly Gauger and the state have never presented a motive for Mangum’s actions in stabbing Daye. Is the public to believe that she stabbed him without provocation in order to “steal” the two money orders that she had purchased? Or did she merely succumb to an underlying urge to kill boyfriends as the media would have you believe? The prosecution lacks a motive for the stabbing, while on the other hand, the self-defense argument for Mangum makes sense.

The prosecution has a weak murder case against Mangum, as a cursory look at the arrest warrant and grand jury indictment documents will show. Like the autopsy reports on Reginald Daye, both the warrant and indictment lack any information regarding the alleged murder and consist only of one generic sentence statements. Contrast it with the indictment of the trumped up case with which Crystal was charged in 2010.

Furthermore, you will notice that no where in the arrest warrant is there any mention of Reginald Daye being stabbed “seven times” or “multiple times.” ABC-11 News had frequently and erroneously stated that based on the arrest warrant Crystal Mangum stabbed Daye multiple times. This is simply false and misleading… and is typical of mainstream media reporting on this subject.

In addition to lacking a motive, discrepancies between the April 13th and 14th 2011 autopsy reports fail to provide a cause of death and introduces the strong likelihood of criminal fraud in the report of April 14th. There is nothing to support Crystal being driven by insanity to stab Daye, nor anything to suggest she is mentally unable to understand the charges that she faces or her legal situation. It seems to me that Shella undercuts Mangum’s self-defense position by suggesting that she is mentally incompetent and her mental status may have had something to do with her actions the morning of April 3, 2011. That is why his motion seeking a mental health evaluation is so troubling.

To my knowledge, Elisa Baker, who was convicted of killing, dismembering and burying her stepdaughter Zahra Baker, never had her mental faculties brought into question… she was never ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for competency.

My concerns about this psychiatric evaluation tactic venture far beyond legal matters. With her being transferred to Central Regional Hospital in Butner for evaluation, concerns about her well being and even her life are brought to the fore. Had a psychiatrist or psychologist been sent to Durham’s Detention Center for the evaluation, I would be far less anxious. Within the confines of a mental institution, however, where she is vulnerable to mind-altering drugs and treatment that is shielded by confidentiality policies, anything is possible… and I am fearful for her.

Transferring Mangum from Durham to Butner also deprives Crystal of what little access in visitation that she has to those who support her and care about her. How long she will be held at that institution is an unknown.

Weight of the prosecutor’s case

In 2010, the state of North Carolina’s trumped up case against Crystal Mangum had the weight of straw, and the prosecution was able to prevail in several misdemeanor charges which were: child endangerment, injury to personal property, and resisting a public official. Despite a feather-weight defense by attorney Mani Dexter, the
prosecution was unable to convict Mangum of the felony charge of arson. The jury deadlocked because a few of the jurors with a conscience refused to convict her when they had doubts about her responsibility for setting clothes ablaze in a bathtub. Fact is that the Durham Police officers were the only ones with the motive, means, and opportunity to set the fire.

Crystal Mangum now faces murder charges for a prosecution case that has the weight of dust. The question is whether Mangum will get another featherweight defense performance. Initially I had hopes when attorney Shella challenged the state regarding its murder charge because an autopsy report had not yet been released that specified a cause of death. My hopes were bolstered when he told the media that Crystal acted in self-defense. I have been sent into a tailspin by his recent motion to the court seeking mental evaluation for his client.

A more effective and appropriate tact would be for Shella to ask the court to dismiss the murder charge as the autopsy reports clearly fail to show a nexus between the stab wound and Daye’s death, the discrepancies between the two reports strongly suggests biased criminal fraud, and the elective removal of Daye from life support by hospital staff automatically exempts Mangum from responsibility for his death.

The lack of curiosity on the part of the media and the inactivity on the part of politicians and community leaders reinforces their willingness to allow the state to continue to purse its ruthless persecution of Crystal Mangum as retaliation for her role in the Duke Lacrosse case.

Recently a reliable source stated that prosecution notes handed to defense as discovery, contained a written interview with Reginald Daye in which he admitted that prior to being stabbed he had dragged Crystal Mangum by her hair and “slapped her around.” This admission should be more than enough to have made the prosecution entertain the likely possibility that Ms. Mangum acted in self defense the morning of April 3, 2011. However, despite this, Prosecutor Gauger has pressed forward with her prosecution of Mangum in this case… a waste of county resources and taxpayer dollars, and a slap in the face of Lady Justice.

I have been taking action on behalf of justice by enlightening the people with flogs and by writing letters. Also, I have filed a formal complaint with the North Carolina State Bar against prosecutor Kelly Gauger for her malicious and merit-lacking prosecution of Crystal Mangum.

I am in a quandary as to what to expect next of defense attorney Chris Shella. Whose interests will have his highest priority… his client Crystal Mangum, or those of Duke University Hospital, state medical examiners, the powerful Carpetbagger families of the Duke Lacrosse defendants, and the state? Only time will tell.

A time when the Bench needs to step in and toss out

Because prosecutors often pursue criminal charges against defendants that are totally without merit, vendetta-based, and/or frivolously pursued, judges in the state of North Carolina have the ability to dismiss charges before they even reach the jury.

In a recent Durham case, Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson felt compelled to dismiss murder charges against Michael C. Dorman II because Durham police had allowed crucial evidence to be destroyed. In this particular instance, the judge issued his order following a hearing brought by a motion presented by the defendant’s attorney. The charge was dismissed despite the fact that Dorman was in possession of the murder victim’s skeletal remains and an alleged confession to another party.

On July 7, 2011, Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Gessner dismissed a murder charge against Antonio Smith because the prosecutor failed to present any evidence that Smith committed the stabbing death for which he was standing trial. The charge was dropped even though Smith had previously been charged with another murder.

As in the aforementioned murder trials of Dorman and Smith, the trial judge in the murder case against Crystal Mangum would be well within justifiable bounds to dismiss the murder charge against Mangum in Reginald Daye’s death. The basis for dismissal would be as follows: (1) the major discrepancies between the investigative report of April 13, 2011 and the autopsy report of April 14, 2011; (2) that the autopsy reports were totally inadequate, full of omissions, did not express a specific cause of death, and did not link the stab wound to Daye’s death; and (3) Crystal Mangum had nothing to do with the removal of Reginald Daye from life support, the true and proximate cause of Daye’s death.

Prosecutor Kelly Gauger’s case is further weakened by the fact that the prosecution has offered no motive for the homicide, and the fact that public sentiment fueled by the mainstream media has insidiously tainted the public and the state’s attitudes against Ms. Mangum.

I believe that Mangum’s attorney Shella should have filed a motion long ago to have the murder charge dismissed. Because it seems to me that such a motion is not forthcoming, it is my hope that Judge Abernathy will take the initiative to step in and toss out the murder charge against Crystal Mangum… a charge that should never reach the hands of a jury. 