Posted on 05/15/2006 7:14:12 AM PDT by pissant
DURHAM - A Durham grand jury is scheduled to meet today, and the session could mean new charges in the investigation of a reported rape at a Duke lacrosse team party.
Two of the team's players were indicted in April on charges of first degree rape, first degree sex offense and first degree kidnapping. They are accused of assaulting an escort service dancer in a bathroom of a house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. Their lawyers say the men are innocent, and lawyers representing dozens of team members say that no sex or assault occurred at the March 13 party.
But the woman says she was attacked by three men, and Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong said he has been working on bringing charges against a third person.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TODAY? If Nifong decides to submit the case, police investigators and possibly other witnesses will try to convince grand jurors in a secret session that the state has probable cause to bring a case forward. Grand jurors will hear only the prosecution's side of the case. The standard required for a true bill of indictment is far lower than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard required for a conviction.
IF INDICTMENTS ARE ISSUED, WHEN WILL THEY BECOME PUBLIC? On April 17, a judge ordered the indictments in the lacrosse case sealed. The names of the players who were indicted were not released until 5 a.m. the next day when the players surrendered at the Durham County jail. If Nifong again requests that the indictments be sealed, the law allows a judge to keep them secret until the person is arrested or appears in court.
WHEN WILL ALL THE EVIDENCE BE REVEALED? State law requires prosecutors to turn over all of their case files to defense lawyers, but nothing requires the evidence to be turned over to the public. In open court hearings, lawyers often discuss some of the evidence, but the state's case may not be revealed until trial. No trial dates have been set. When a report on the DNA testing is complete, Nifong is required by law to turn it over to all 46 members of the lacrosse team who submitted DNA samples.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? The cases against Reade William Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y., are moving forward. Finnerty has a court date in June. Seligmann is scheduled to appear in court Thursday. His attorney, Kirk Osborn, has filed a series of motions challenging Nifong's handling of the case and asking a judge to bar the prosecutor from further involvement.
Except maybe to the defendant whose DNA was found under her fingernail.
A DNA link is not clear cut with the type of test used in this case, DNA experts told ABC News. ABC News spoke with DNA analysts, including Brian Meehan, head of the Burlington, N.C., laboratory that conducted the set of tests used in the case. All of the analysts agreed that the most one could say about a specific person the alleged third attacker in the Duke rape investigation was that he could not be ruled out, but also could not be definitively ruled in.
I can't stand that woman/nazi for more than 30 seconds so I never watched a whole show of hers.
PATTI WOOD, BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT
She really has a BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT! on her show?!!
Yes, it could be.
Now I don't know if you are a woman, but if someone tried to force me to have oral sex, let's just say he wouldn't have sex again, because he'd be minus the part....
...but that is about the stupid fingernail, not about the rape kit.
Thanks. I might of mistook the 90 percent thingy. But she did ID him and they did find DNA under her fake nail thingy.
We'll see what happens.
Does anyone else get the feeling that Nifong is losing it?
He shouted obscenities to Kerry Sutton within earshot of reporters this morning, then cranked out this pathetic press release tonight. Not very stable behaviors, especially for a DA.
From Freeper maggief post #1058 above
Pirro on Greta ...
The DNA was supposedly on top the press-on nail?
So what, you're a believer as to Bill Clinton? Oral sex isn't sex and forcing someone to give them oral sex isn't rape?
Seriously, I don't want this case to go to trial, but I do relish the thought of 'lil Kim on the witness stand.
Seems odd to be so incredibly ill informed and off base so late in a thread.
Her story is it was her vs. three men in the bathroom... please.
No of course forced oral sex is rape but there has to be oral penetration for it to be rape. He didn't just wave it in her direction. Crystal said she was orally, vaginally, and anally raped not just orally.
NO no no. She said in the photolineup she was ninety percent sure, if he did not have a mustache.
She is definitely not smart. She couldn't write a book if her life depended on it.
She is a pawn. I'm not sure she can pull the plug if she wanted to.
She is up to her ears in lies. If too much scrutiny comes down on Durham I believe she will be in danger.
"Seems odd to be so incredibly ill informed and off base so late in a thread."
What? It seems odd that I don't believe everything coming out of every defense atty and their client's mouth? Please, I wasn't born yesterday.
Most welcome. :o)
Yes. I don't normally even post to these types of threads after I was browbeaten for saying the runaway bride was a flippin farce. (of course I was spot on. ;o))
Hey you two. Am I going to have to interverne. LOL
Well I'll put it this way, if he does not have much more (something spectacular, something more than what has been divulged to the public, Nifong is well on the road to being committed to an asylum.
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