ABC's Chris Cuomo and Lara Setrakian's Exclusive, "Duke Lacrosse Grand Jurors Speak Out," did not say so, but still confirmed that if the Duke case were to proceed to trial instead of be dismissed, either voluntarily by the prosecution or by the court, upon motion, pursuant to North Carolina statutory law, as it surely should, a change of venue would be essential:
Feb. 6, 2007 — In the spring, a grand jury in Durham, N.C., indicted three Duke University lacrosse players on charges of rape, sexual offense and kidnapping of an exotic dancer.
Now, for the first time, members of that grand jury have broken their silence.
In an exclusive interview with ABC's 'Good Morning America,' two grand jurors described how they felt about the twists and turns that had rocked the case in the more than 10 months since a fateful lacrosse team party in March 2006.
Fearing reprisals, the two grand jury members chose to remain anonymous, asking that their faces not be shown and their names be withheld, given the controversial and high-profile nature of the case.
If a grand juror feels it necessary to be anonymous for saying that, in hindsight, the grand juror regrets voting to indict, imagine the courage it would take for an identifiable trial juror to vote to acquit!
Anonymous (and fearful) grand juror: ""Knowing what I know now and all that's been broadcast on the news and in media, I think I would have definitely … made a different decision."
Good thinking!
A second grand juror also required anonymity, even though that grand juror did not regret the decision to indict, and merely had "new doubts based on what he had learned as the case had unfolded."
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.
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