Reply #26: He said he turned over everything he HAS

[TorchTheWitch]

Nifong said he turned over everything he HAS, not everything there is. And he certainly could be either lying or mistaken about that. Mistaken because he didn't copy the file himself and has no idea what the secretary copied and mailed, or lying because that's nothing new... dueling discovery is normal and expected in practically every case. It could also be that the defense was given the report and are grandstanding about it being "missing" for their own purposes... nothing new there either. If every single piece of discovery was exchanged immediately by both sides I'd be shocked.

Nifong CAN back out now or the day before trial if he wants simply by convincing the accuser that she should and publically blaming her as the reason the case was dropped. No big deal, happens all the time. He'd convince her to drop the case in a private meeting and then go in front of the cameras and tell the world he can't go forward with the case even though he wants to because it's the decision of the accuser whether or not to go forward and he's respecting her decision. It's sneaky and pretty evil, but it's done all the time. The fact that he hasn't dropped it already by now just tells me that he has a good case that he wants to go forward with. Wouldn't even surprise me that after the beating the accuser has taken in the press and that she's so frightened for her safety that she keeps moving around that Nifong has been urging her to NOT drop the case.

As for the toxicology test, as I said, I'd find it really bizarre if one wasn't done. Samples would have been taken for it anyway as part of the exam either by the initial ER or the SANE, but probably by the initial ER. Whether or not those samples were tested is up to the accuser, and I see little reason why she would refuse... the doctors and police would have made it clear to her the importance for consenting to the test, and she'd already know it was obvious she was impaired by SOMETHING, so what would she be trying to hide? Even if at the time she was so worried about them finding she was impaired by an illegal substance, she would have been assured at the time and later that it wouldn't be something to worry about, and since the samples were already taken, a test could have been done on them.

Since she was so impaired at the time, I also don't see a reason why she would be so worried about the test being done since she wouldn't have been thinking clearly at that time anyway. I just see no reason that she would have not consented to having the test done either at the time or later on, and the test not being done out of negligence would be such an odd circumstance I just don't see that happening.

It is also possible that at the time BECAUSE she was so impaired it would be unethical to try to obtain her consent to having the test done at the time... it's not a matter of her just saying yes or no, she would have had to sign a consent form, and obtaining the signature of someone who is so impaired they probably can't even sign their name properly may be unethical. Since the samples for a test would have been taken, her consent to the testing could be obtained later. BUT, the SANE would have done her exam while the accuser was still impaired, so AT THAT TIME it's possible that no consent to a toxicology test would have been given, so the SANE would have to report that correctly... doesn't mean a test wasn't done later. Seeing as hospitals and doctors need to cover their butts for anything they could be sued for, it very well may be SOP to obtain consent for testing when the patient is sober... as long as samples are taken at the time, there's no emergency to go ahead with testing without the patient's consent.