Steve Dunleavy

Stephen Francis Patrick Aloysius Dunleavy (born 21 January 1938, in Sydney, Australia) is a US-based Australian journalist best known as a columnist for the "New York Post". He was a lead reporter on the US tabloid television program "A Current Affair" in the 1980s and 1990s.

He is a political conservative and wrote columns critical of the Clinton administration throughout the 1990s. He has been particularly criticized by Gene Lyons and others for his coverage of the Wayne DuMond story [http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/210393/] which resurfaced during the 2008 Presidential election. Questions were raised over the behaviour and political motivations of Republican candidate Mike Huckabee in securing DuMond's parole whilst Governor of Arkansas.

Early career

He began his career in Australia as a copy boy for the (Sydney) Daily Mirror, an evening newspaper then owned by Ezra Norton.

He joined the New York Post as a news reporter after Rupert Murdoch purchased the newspaper in the 1977. Previously Dunleavy has been a stringer in New York for London papers and a wire reporter. Like Gordon Eliot, another Australian television personality, he helped create the US tabloid television market in the 1980s; both were reporters for "A Current Affair".

The Wayne DuMond controversy

Wayne DuMond, a convicted rapist, was convicted of sexual assault for a rape perpetrated in Arkansas in 1984. The victim, 17-year-old Ashley Stevens, was a third cousin of then-Governor Bill Clinton."Dumond's Prospects for Parole 'Bleak'," March 19, 1997. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.]

After he was elected president, a right-wing campaign alleged that Bill Clinton had framed an innocent man for rape. ["Clinton's Biggest Crime", by Dunleavy, New York Post, March 15, 2000. ] ["Where's the Pardon for Wayne DuMond DuMond?", by Dunleavy, New York Post, February 21, 2001] Prominent among those pushing for DuMond to be pardoned were Guy Reel, author of "Unequal Justice: Wayne DuMond, Bill Clinton, and the Politics of Rape in Arkansas", Dunleavy and Jay Cole, Baptist pastor for the Mission Fellowship Bible Church in Fayetteville, who had championed the cause of Wayne DuMond for more than a decade on his radio show. [http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=154e1aad-fd18-4efd-8d80-b5dab8559419 "Dumond Case Revisited"] , Arkansas Times, Sept 1, 2005.]

Many of the arguments advanced by DuMond's supporters have since been shown to be incorrect. Dunleavy claimed that:
# DuMond was a "Vietnam veteran with no record" despite arrests for violent crime and previous rape charges going back to 1972;
# the rape victim "failed to identify Dumond in two lineups," although she had in fact identified him in the only lineup where he was present:
# the victim had "identified two other suspects, one an ex-boyfriend," although she had never in fact identified anyone but Dumond;
# DNA evidence had exonerated DuMond, although no such definitive evidence existed;
# Bill Clinton had personally intervened to keep DuMond in prison, despite the then Governor's explicitly recusing himself from the case due to his distant blood-ties to the 17 year-old victim. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199910/ai_n8875958 "Bill Clinton's biggest crime"] by Steve Dunleavy, October 8, 1999, in Human Events.] Dunleavy also referred to the young woman, a minor at the time of the assault, on the record as the "so-called victim," and asserted "That rape never happened."

At the time of the trial, only ABO blood typing evidence was presented, which indicated that DuMond, along with 28% of the population, could have produced the semen. In 1987 the victim’s jeans were given to an expert, Dr. Moses Schanfield. Using protein-based immunoglobulin allotyping, a technique less specific than current standard DNA tests, Schanfield examined a semen spot on the jeans."Huckabee doubts based on evidence judges didn't buy" by Joe Stumpe, October 2, 1996, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.] Dunleavy claimed Schanfield told him, "No way, zip, nada. No way DuMond was the donor of that sperm. Not in a million years." However, the court documents do not accord with that. In "DuMond vs. Lockhart," the Court wrote:

"Dr. Schanfield had genetic allotyping performed on the semen found on the victim's pant leg. Schanfield concluded that based on the test, there was a ninety-nine plus percent probability that DuMond was not the rapist because the semen lacked a genetic marker which DuMond possessed. However, Dr. Schanfield's conclusion was based on the assumption that vaginal fluids were not mixed with the semen used for the test. If the semen was intermixed with vaginal secretions, Dr. Schanfield reported that the results would be inconclusive."

Contrary to Dunleavy's claim that the victim had first identified two other men as her rapist, then failed to pick Dumond out of a lineup, the Court wrote in the background to its "Dumond vs. Lockhart" decision:

"During a photographic show-up, the victim indicated that Ricky White resembled the assailant. However, White was working in another part of the state on the day of the rape, and she did not identify him as the rapist at a one-person lineup. Later, Walter Stevenson, who matched the assailant's description and worked near a restaurant which the victim frequented, was placed in a lineup. She did not identify Stevenson as her assailant. Woodcutters working near the area of her home on the date of the rape were also brought in for lineups but none were recognized by the victim. On approximately October 29, 1984, the victim observed Dumond driving a pick-up truck on a Forrest City street and immediately identified him as the perpetrator of the crime. Dumond was taken into custody, placed in a lineup, and identified by her as the man who kidnapped and raped her." [http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:a-hICvEVX84J:bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/ca08/885.F2d.419.89-1234.html+DuMond+vs+Lockhart+schanfield+semen&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a "Dumond v. Lockhart"] , 885 F.2d 419 8th Cir. 1989 No. 89-1234.]

The victim would later tell Huckabee, in a personal meeting at which she, her family, and the prosecuting attorney in the case pleaded with him to reverse his decision to release Dumond, “This is how close I was to Wayne Dumond. I will never forget his face. And now I don’t want you ever to forget my face.”

Books

In 1977 Dunleavy published the tabloid style mass market paperback "Elvis - What happened?" (ISBN 978-0345272157) which, investigates the life of Elvis Presley behind the scenes. It was published on July 12, just weeks before Presley's death on August 16.

References

External links

* [http://www.nypost.com/news/columnists/dunleavy.htm Dunleavy's column in the New York Post]
* [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/07/how-anticlinton-zealots-_n_75833.html "How Anti-Clinton Zealots Pushed Huckabee to Let a Rapist Free"] , The Huffington Post
* [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/04/documents-expose-huckabee_n_75362.html "Documents Expose Huckabee's Role In Serial Rapist's Release"] , The Huffington Post, Murray Waas, December 4, 2007
* [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,311890,00.html "Hard-Hitting Newsman"] , Entertainment Weekly
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0242427/ Biography and media apprearances on IMDB]