Durham Police Report

The Durham Police have issued their official report on their handling of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Hoax. As you may remember, this is the case where despite overwhelming evidence of innocence, Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong charged Duke students and Lacrosse players Reade Seligmann, Colin Finnerty, and David Evans with rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping, and the legal battle lasted for over a year. Unsurprisingly, the police report does not fault any of the police conduct in the case. One claim in the report:

"Investigators made consistent attempts and were always interested in obtaining exculpatory information. Claims that have been made to the contrary are simply unfounded."

Oh really? For example, did the investigators attempt to check out the exculpatory information that was broadcast on 60 Minutes? Did they follow up on the exculpatory leads that were broadcast on ABC News? Did they check out the exculpatory leads in the Wikipedia article on the case? Did they try the standard investigative technique of contacting the cell phone service provider for Reade Seligmann to see if they might have any evidence, exculpatory or otherwise? Did they ever ask Crystal Magnum about the endless inconsistencies in her various stories about the "attack"? Did they fail to notice the exculpatory results of the prosecution's DNA tests? Did they check out the exculpatory story of cabbie Moez Elmostafa, when they were arresting him on a trumped up shoplifting charge? Did they check out the endless exculpatory evidence presented in KC Johnson's Blog? Did they notice the exculpatory fact, mentioned in the report itself, that Crystal Magnum couldn't identify any suspects on her first six attempts to do so? Did they ever interview Julie Manly, who performed the rape exam on Crystal Magnum, to see if she might have any exculpatory information? Did they try a google search on "Duke Rape", to see if that might bring up any exculpatory hits?

The report spends two pages talking about supposed police attempts to obtain exculpatory evidence. But it does not mention any police attempt to check out these obvious exculpatory leads.