Patrick Kane legal saga creating drama like Duke lacrosse, O.J. trial

As this Patrick Kane legal matter in Western New York drags on and on, it reminds me in its absurd melodrama and speculative lunacy of two things: The Duke lacrosse witch hunt of 2006 and the O.J. Simpson murder trial, which ended almost exactly 20 years ago.

This is not to say the police investigation of the Blackhawks star has anything to do with overt lies or capital offenses or social protest or larger issues beyond an ugly he-said/she-said, what-happened mess.

But already we have apparently leaked police information and accusations of evidence tampering and extreme victim-bashing. And — really special! — we have a Bozo family attorney who resigned Thursday night because he was duped or he’s a con man or maybe because wearing those big floppy shoes wore him out.

Nor does this include the celebrity-mania frenzy or the rush-to-judgment opinions everywhere in the media that plagued those other two incidents.

We know almost nothing for a fact in this Kane thing.

I’m not even sure the idiot who held a news conference Wednesday, claiming the official police “rape kit’’ bag was stuffed between the storm door and front door of the alleged victim’s mom’s house, is who he says he is, attorney Thomas J. Eoannou. What if he’s really Johnny Knoxville in disguise? That would be more believable.

Now, the real district attorney in this case (I think) is holding his own news conference Friday at

10 a.m. to maybe help clear up some of the rampant b.s. that shelters this non-case. His name is Frank Sedita — we’ve been told — and God bless him if he can bring this thing to a head.

Indeed, either bring charges against Kane, Mr. DA, or call this “situation’’ off.

In the Duke case, many innocent people were grievously harmed, college employees cried out false charges, the DA went to jail and was disbarred and the accuser eventually stabbed her husband to death.

In the Simpson trial, all sanity disappeared as the court case became not a matter of justice but a nightmarish seminar on race relations and police brutality in this country. I was there at the courthouse in Los Angeles when the verdict came down, and I saw the disbelieving and/or triumphant faces of the people in attendance.

Let’s hope this Kane thing ends soon, one way or the other.

Side shows should only be in carnivals.