History Repeats Itself: White Liberal DA Salivates at Prosecuting a Rich White Guy With a Black "Rape Victim," Only to Have the Case Explode in His Face

In 2007, a white District Attorney saw his chance for liberal glory, perhaps even beatification, for righteously, determinedly prosecuting some rich white men for raping a poor black working woman.  This prosecution would make the DA's career; he would become the living equivalent of Atticus Finch, aka Gregory Peck, the sainted attorney who took the case of the poor black man in To Kill a Mockingbird, framed for an interracial sex crime he did not commit.

Well there were a few differences in the DA's hoped-for scenario.  He wasn't defending someone accused of a false, interracial sex crime, he was prosecuting someone, namely, members of the Duke University Lacrosse Team, for (as was later proven) a false, interracial sex crime.  Unlike To Kill a Mockingbird, however, the innocent party was not an unfortunate man of color, but three white college students, accused of rape by a black stripper who performed at their party.  Mike Nifong, the DA, no doubt imagined himself packaged in a gleaming suit of armor, on a white horse, who would soon be wafted to Heaven by the accolades and praise of a grateful nation.  Besides, he needed this legal win to be re-elected as district attorney.

Nifong wanted this legal victory so bad that he ignored exculpatory evidence (indeed, he withheld such evidence from the defense) and pushed the case forward in spite of it.  When the case finally exploded, the black woman accuser was found to be a liar and the alleged rapes only a fantasy.  Duke University's website describes the outcome:

On the legal front, in June 2007 a N.C. State Bar disciplinary panel concluded after a trial that DA Nifong had made inflammatory and prejudicial comments about the case, intentionally withheld DNA evidence and lied to court officials. The panel called for his disbarment and Nifong resigned his office.

Nifong is now making a living as a used car salesman in Dubuque, Iowa.  (Kidding, but he may as well be.)

Now comes 2011, and another District Attorney, Cy Vance of New York City, sees the same temptation:  a rich white guy is accused of rape by a black hotel maid.  The ghost of Gregory Peck rises once again, and another Knight in Shining Armor sees his chance for liberal glory and sainthood, pursuing a case that titillates the fantasies and reinforces the bias of every left wing liberal in New York City (approximately 98.6% of the population there).

There is one problem:  the Head of the Sex Crimes Unit of the DA's office, one Lisa Friel, believes that the maid is lying and warns Vance to wait for more evidence before presenting the case to the Grand Jury.  Instead, Vance boots Friel off of the investigation and continues his rush to indict.  

Instead of waiting to investigate the credibility and background of the accuser, the DA Cy Vance, sensing glory, ticker-tape parades and the adulation of the masses, immediately pushes for indictment of the accused, one Dominque Strauss-Kahn of France.  Strauss-Kahn is a perp designed to draw copious amounts of drool from ambitious, liberal DA's.  He is a white, older male of wealth and privilege.  He is head of the International Monetary Fund, a political superstar in his home country where he is expected to become the next president.  Strauss-Kahn is arrested from his airline passenger's seat and led hand-cuffed off an Air France plane just minutes before its departure back to France.

Strauss-Kahn is humiliated, excoriated in the press, made to surrender his passport, wear an electronic ankle bracelet, and be watched by guards (at his own expense) to prevent an Escape From New York.  His burgeoning political career and future role as President of France appear dead, dead, dead and deceased, or as they say in France, mort, mort, mort and kaput.

Now, based on news reports, it appears that the accuser, the pretty black hotel maid, is a liar, an illegal immigrant and a hooker.  Lisa Friel's reservations about the case have been vindicated. New York officials in the DA office report that the maid's credibility is so compromised by facts coming to light that they have no chance of a successful prosecution.  The case is self-destructing like a drunken teenager in a hot rod speed race after his tires blow out on a sharp curve overlooking a steep cliff.  In the rain.  On a road filled with black ice.  Okay, I think you get the picture.

When this situation was disclosed, District Attorney Cy Vance threw down his lance, pulled off his suit of armor helmet (the one with the flowing, red ostrich plume) and exclaimed, "Oh DAMN, damn, damn, damn, damn!  There goes my 'Man of the Year' cover in Time!  There goes my future as Mayor of New York!  There go my lucrative speaking fees! How will I explain this to Harper Lee?  How will I keep up the payments on my white horse?  Oh boo hoo hoo hoo hoo!"

Read the whole sordid tale of woe here.

Related Posts:
Also see VFR's post, citing insider information, here, and a discussion of Lisa Friel here.

From Bare Naked Islam:  MUSLIM MAID who falsely accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn is still turning tricks in a hotel paid for by NYC taxpayers