Ray Gronberg of The Herald-Sun has a story today (sorry, been busy or would have linked to it sooner, especially since it’s one of the few H-S scoops since the fake 911 calls story at the very beginning) revealing a meeting of Mayor Bill Bell, City Manager Patrick Baker and Police Chief Steve Chalmers two days before the tainted photo lineup that resulted in the indictments of three players.
That’s some interesting timing. Bell says in the story that he was concerned that racial unrest would erupt in Durham as a result of the allegations and the fact that no progress had been made in the investigation. According to the story, “with the case attracting national headlines, Bell urged police to get to the bottom of it rapidly.”
Which begs the question: Did Bell urge/order the police to get some indictments quickly as a means of quelling the racial strife he feared? If he didn’t explicitly urge it, did he imply that? Is that why there was such a rush to hold a lineup that was rigged to produce only lacrosse players as alleged assailants?
I’m sure the lawyers for the Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans families will be trying to pin that down.
