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To: KLP who wrote (276245)	10/23/2008 2:02:52 PM
From: Ruffian	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793927

Duke lacrosse accuser maintains she was assaulted. By MARLON A. WALKER, Associated Press Writer Marlon A. Walker, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 52 mins ago Crystal Mangum, the alleged victim in the Duke lacrosse rape case, wipes away a AP – Crystal Mangum, the alleged victim in the Duke lacrosse rape case, wipes away a tear during a press … . DURHAM, N.C. – The woman who North Carolina prosecutors determined falsely accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her at a team party maintains in a new memoir that she was attacked. Crystal Mangum, who appeared publicly Thursday for the first time since making the allegations more than two years ago, says in her forthcoming book she is not "looking forward to opening old wounds" but that she had to defend herself. "Even as I try to move on with my life, I still find it necessary to take one more stand and fight," she writes in the book, "The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story." "I want to assert, without equivocation, that I was assaulted. Make of that what you will. You will decide what that means to you because the state of North Carolina saw fit not to look at all that happened the night I became infamous." Mangum told police that she was attacked at a March 2006 lacrosse team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper. After a disastrous local prosecution that eventually led to downfall of the district attorney, the state attorney general's office concluded there was no credible evidence an attack ever occurred. An attorney who defended one of the players in the criminal case quickly denounced Mangum's remarks, saying her allegation hurt the accused players, the state and all women who have been victims of sexual assault. "If Crystal Mangum truly wants to heal, get on with her life and have others learn from her experiences, she would admit her lies and the damage they did," Joseph Cheshire said in an e-mail. "The fact that she will not do that makes all of her motives and self-possessed desire to explain herself another lie. This is about money and lies. Pure and simple." Mangum declined to answer specific questions about the details of the case on Thursday, and the publisher of the book said repeatedly "the case is closed" and she accepts the conclusions of state prosecutors. "At this point, it doesn't really matter," she said Thursday. "What matters is for people to know my account of what happened and for all of us to learn from it." The state's investigation found there was no DNA or medical evidence, or witness accounts, that confirmed Mangum's story. The inconsistencies in Mangum's account, the state found, "were so significant and so contrary to the evidence that the State had no credible evidence that an attack occurred in the house that night." The Associated Press had not previously identified Mangum per its policy of not naming people who say they are victims of sexual assault, even after public statements clearing the players. The AP decided to name Mangum once she came out publicly on her own. Mangum's version of the alleged assault varied in the number of assailants, and whether she was ever assaulted at all. At one point, state prosecutors noted, she said that photos taken at the party that contradicted her story were altered. The biggest change in her account came in December 2006, when Mangum told an investigator for former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong that she could no longer be sure the attackers had raped her. Nifong then dropped the rape charge against the three indicted players, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans, leaving kidnapping and sexual offense charges in place. The case continued to unravel, and state Attorney General Roy Cooper eventually declared the players innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse" in April 2007. Nifong was later disbarred for more than two dozen violations of the bar's rules of professional conduct in his handling of the case. He ultimately spent one night in jail for lying to a judge. Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans filed a federal civil rights lawsuit last year accusing Nifong, the city of Durham, police investigators and others of conducting "one of the most chilling episodes of premeditated police, prosecutorial and scientific misconduct in modern American history." The families have not sued Mangum. ___ Associated Press Writer Aaron Beard in Raleigh contributed to this report. Collapse Article

To: KLP who wrote (276245)	10/23/2008 2:34:10 PM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793927

Roubini Says `Panic' May Force Market Shutdown By Alexis Xydias and Camilla Hall Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Hundreds of hedge funds will fail and policy makers may need to shut financial markets for a week or more as the crisis forces investors to dump assets, New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini said. ``We've reached a situation of sheer panic,'' Roubini, who predicted the financial crisis in 2006, told a conference of hedge-fund managers in London today. ``There will be massive dumping of assets'' and ``hundreds of hedge funds are going to go bust,'' he said. Group of Seven policy makers have stopped short of market suspensions to stem the crisis after the U.S. pledged on Oct. 14 to invest about $125 billion in nine banks and the Federal Reserve led a global coordinated move to cut interest rates on Oct. 8. Emmanuel Roman, co-chief executive officer at GLG Partners Inc., said today that as many as 30 percent of hedge funds will close. ``Systemic risk has become bigger and bigger,'' Roubini said at the Hedge 2008 conference. ``We're seeing the beginning of a run on a big chunk of the hedge funds,'' and ``don't be surprised if policy makers need to close down markets for a week or two in coming days,'' he said. Roubini predicted in July 2006 that the U.S. would enter an economic recession. In February this year, he forecast a ``catastrophic'' financial meltdown that central bankers would fail to prevent, leading to the bankruptcy of large banks exposed to mortgages and a ``sharp drop'' in equities. Bear, Lehman The comments preceded the collapse of Bear Stearns & Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. as well as the government seizure of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a benchmark for American equities, has lost 37 percent this year, including its biggest daily drop in more than twenty years on Oct. 15. The Dow average rose 2.5 percent to 8728.73 as of 10:55 a.m. today in New York. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi roiled international markets on Oct. 10, first saying world leaders were discussing shutting down global financial exchanges, and then saying he didn't mean it. ``In a fairly Darwinian manner, many hedge funds will simply disappear,'' Roman said, speaking at the same event as Roubini. The hedge fund industry is stumbling through its worst year in two decades and posted its biggest monthly drop for a decade in September. Hedge funds are mostly private pools of capital whose managers participate substantially in the profits from their speculation on whether the price of assets will rise or fall. `Very Ugly' ``Things are getting very ugly also in the emerging markets,'' Roubini said. ``The usual saying is when the U.S. sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. Unfortunately, this time around the U.S. is not just sneezing, it has a severe case of chronic and persistent pneumonia. It's becoming a mess in emerging markets.'' Developing nations' borrowing costs jumped to the highest in six years today as Belarus joined Hungary, Ukraine and Pakistan in seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund to help weather frozen money markets and a slump in commodities. Argentina risks defaulting for the second time this decade. ``There are about a dozen emerging markets that are now in severe financial trouble,'' Roubini said. ``Even a small country can have a systemic effect on the global economy,'' he added. ``There is not going to be enough IMF money to support them.'' Roubini, a former senior adviser to the U.S. Treasury Department, earlier this month said that the world's biggest economy will suffer its worst recession in 40 years. ``This is the worst financial crisis in the U.S., Europe and now emerging markets that we've seen in a long time,'' Roubini said. ``Things will get much worse before they get better. I fear the worst is ahead of us.'' To contact the reporters for this story: Alexis Xydias in London at axydias@bloomberg.net; Camilla Hall in London at chall24@bloomberg.net.