Posted on 04/19/2006 9:33:10 PM PDT by Howlin
(04/19/06 - DURHAM) - An attorney for one of two Duke University lacrosse players charged with raping a stripper at a team party on Wednesday strongly rejected any sort of deal with prosecutors, proclaiming again his client's innocence.
Cotter represents Collin Finnerty, who along with fellow sophomore Reade Seligmann was indicted Monday on charges of first-degree rape, sexual offense and kidnapping. Each posted $400,000 bond after their pre-dawn arrests early Tuesday, and both were released within hours.
School officials have declined to say whether it plans to discipline either of the players, although they have noted the university has historically suspended students charged with a felony.
Cotter said Wednesday that Finnerty, of Garden City, N.Y., has left Durham, although he wouldn't say where he went. Attorney Kirk Obsborn, representing Seligmann, of Essex Fells, N.J., declined to say whether his client has been suspended.
Seligmann and his father spent much of Wednesday working from the law office of attorney Robert Ekstrand, who represents dozens of uncharged lacrosse players.
District Attorney Mike Nifong, who has not granted interviews in weeks and said Tuesday he planned to make no comments about the case outside the courtroom, has said he still hopes to link a third man to the alleged attack.
He did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment about that effort, or about searches by Durham police Tuesday night of Seligmann's and Finnerty's dorm rooms.
Warrants authorizing the searches had not been returned to the court clerk's or magistrate's office by Wednesday evening.
"I can imagine they never quit investigating, but I think it's unusual to be executing search warrants after they've indicted," Cotter said.
Defense attorneys have said they have time-stamped photos from the party, bank records, cell phone calls and a taxi driver's statement to support Seligmann's claim of innocence.
A person close to the case told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the cell phone records show Seligmann called for a taxi at 12:14 a.m., and that according to sworn testimony he left in the taxi at 12:19 a.m.
The bank records show he stopped at an ATM five minutes later, the person added, while information provided by Duke shows he swiped an ID card to enter his dorm at 12:46 a.m.
A member of the defense team, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because the defense is working with players who could still be indicted, showed photos to the AP on Wednesday that show the accuser on the back porch of the off-campus house, with her clothing intact. She is smiling and looking through her purse.
The defense team member said the digital photos were taken at 12:30 a.m., citing an electronic time-stamp known as metadata. Such time-stamps are not visible on the photos. They are created, though, when digital photos are taken.
The accuser, a 27-year-old student at a nearby college, told police she was attacked by three white men at a house where she and another woman were hired to dance at a lacrosse team party. According to defense attorneys, DNA tests conducted on all the players failed to connect any of the team members to the alleged rape.
"I would have to say she is definitely making it up," Cotter said.
Nifong has ordered additional DNA testing, which was originally performed at the state crime lab. Cotter said he believes those results should be "back any minute."
Ekstrand said the defense has also not yet received a report from authorities about any photo identifications of suspects made by the accuser. "I think we're entitled to the report of the identification procedure, and the results of the photo identifications she did," he said.
The allegations of rape led Duke to cancel the highly ranked lacrosse team's season, accept the resignation of the team's coach and begin a series of internal investigations, including one into the behavior of the lacrosse team.
Actually the player that 'Cuse already said they will not accept is not indicted. I suspect 'Cuse will back off this stance and these student/athletes will ultimately have good options. But clearly they know that they are hated as a group by some and in the case of Duke an influential group on campus.
LaCrosse players may not have good options outside of loony left schools like Duke etc. But basketball players do. And basketball may well be where this hurts Duke the most.
"Actually the player that 'Cuse already said they will not accept is not indicted. "
I wonder how on earth they justify making a statemnt like that prejudging someone who has not even applied. That's awful.
ABSO. They can dance around the issue sayin' "stickin up for the sista's against the white man," but it could come down to lookin' out fo' yo' peeps.
They said something like he committed to Duke even though we offered to take him earlier. Weasel-ly words.
Sorry I missed this thread earlier. I actually tuned into Greta on FOX tonight....a rare occasion.
This whole thing is insane. I have hung out with people like those on the Lacrosse team.
I know they can create mischief, but not to this level.
As I remember one poster mentioning....they should have a hearing before a judge with all the facts presented before issuing an indictment.
So far, this is a farce of justice.
Who needs physical evidence when TV Cameras are around???
It's this idiot prosecutors time on the stage, and he doesn't want to lose it, ESPECIALLY with a tough election going on...
Conversely, the University is terrified to be seen as racist, or supporting racist, so they are running scared from the same tv cameras....
In the end, the EVIDENCE (or lack thereof) will prevail, but the damage will already be done to these kids for a lifetime...
Welcome to the modern age....
Kinda like "Bush Lied"- No evidence needed, execute immediately....
The problem with this case is that TV cameras showed up in DROVES, and now the media is driving everything.....
Exactly, black or white, it has to look to a young potential male recruit in any sport like some guys getting railroaded and Duke doing nothing for them.
They did some thing...they washed their hands. Worse than nothing.
Fox had a reporter on (Susana Meadows, the first name is spelled wrong, but her last name is Meadows. She was on Greta.
This woman is PURPOSELY forwarding false information. She continually says on National TV that there's a 27 minute window and then she goes on to say the Pictures don't mean much. She reviewed the pictures (she was one of the first), yet she hasn't mentioned in any of her TV interviews about the woman smiling in the FIRST picture after the 27 minute gap.
Smiling is not consistent with the accuser report (from the DA's own interviews). He left us and the media with the impression that she was fighting to breath and she had to run out of there to escape with her life.
So, if you couple the accounts from the Nifong's media tour with the smiling picture - something is seriously wrong. But, Susana Meadows must not think that's worth reporting.
Dan Abrams (liberal, if anything) described her as smiling coyly in the first picture and that window. In his analysis, he says there was, at most, a 7 minute window.
Fair enough, they failed to help them out. That is important given how much college coaches in revenue sports recruit by telling parents, they will take care of their kids when he is away from mama.
(By that I mean the coach quit and they cancelled the season) "Oh we didn't realize how bad it was...horrible, despicable, unthinkable. Gasp, wail, nashing of teethe...the whole shebang."
They scrubbed the program. They forced the coach to resign, cancelled the season, they admitted guilt by their actions..."something horrible happened" What happened to the team stickin' together? Management didn't even wait for a better offer. They just bent over for the quick fix. Washed their hands.
My reason for asking is that they might come out of this episode, not with their lives ruined, but rather with a good opportunity for a career in politics.
They can become symbols of Political Correctness and Liberalism gone wild. A Liberal DA chooses to ruin the lives of two innocent boys in an effort to advance his own career.
Actually, I think "slut" is a nice way to put it - too nice. I think "lying whore" is more accurate.
I don't know either player. I haven't talked to either player.
I do know that inquires into the DC/Georgetown prior incident with Finnerty show it was very minor. The victim stated that Finnerty didn't call him any names. The victim also was NOT gay and the police officer that made the report didn't think it was gay bashing. Gay was used as a term like teenagers call their friends. It can mean sentimental, caring, or an unusual interest in floral displays.
The Police in that area said there are at least 10 of these type citations written each night in that highly populated area so popular with young people.
.
I live in Iowa where really REALLY good highschool kids have been removed from the prom court and forbidden to play baseball just because a year old photo surfaced of them holding beer cans. If just a year old photo can change so much than just the fact that the lacrosse team team had a druken party with a stripper should ruin these college students. And NO means NO means NO! IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO OR WHAT A PERSON HAS DONE IN THE PAST! If the stripper said NO the guys should have backed off.
I would like to see Scottie2Hottie burned at the stake, too, but not because he cheated on Laci.
Yeah, they're not exactly experts on military personnel documents, lol!
No. The Press would have fired up their opinion writers, college teachers, social activists to write those pithy hateful articles about why women are so oppressed. Crap, in other words.
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