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.
She works for a Distric Attorney
or she did.
The other thing she was REALLY wrong about was when she sneered that NC certainly DOES have a right to a speedy trial.
i can get this at CourtTv
i'll take a break
I want to see if she presents sworn testimony under oath. Until then, I really want to keep an open mind.
I want to believe in the ideal that truth and justice really mean something.
Maybe I'm naive.
I hope we can revive these threads when the trial is over.
I may find I'm eating crow for holding to those beliefs, but I really feel I'm not.
Can you understand why?
Oh, I want to see it play out now; believe me, I want it to go all the way now; I don't want the charges dropped.
They must be proved INNOCENT beyond a reasonable doubt now.
And this girl is going to be destroyed and, if there is any justice in the world, so will Nifong.
But the biggest loser is going to be the next girl -- the one who is really raped -- because nobody is going to believe her.
You people with some kind of agenda in this story can be real proud of yourselves.
That's what I mean. She's sounding unhinged. One would think she'd check her facts first. But we'd have expected that of Nifong too!
Leading police on a 30 mile chase, while driving drunk with a revoked license on the wrong side of the road with lights off, and then smiling as she almost mowed down a cop can't happen everyday.
That's why I think Nifong was already familiar with the accuser when this case arose, as he would have negotiated her 2002 sweetheart deal, since that was his job at traffic court.
I can't imagine what took him to make a third indictment. 90%, mustache, and partial DNA on a fingernail from a bathroom garbage pail. He must really be sure the good folks of Durham will come through for him.
He entered a diversion program. A judge felt his charges should be upheld because of the new stuff. The law is the law.
Maybe he should have fought the assault charge outright instead of entering into a diversion program.
That was his decision.
Someone used the word TROLL, in Marajade s other postings tonight, she is arguing we should take care of all the illegal immigrants. Why come to a conservative forum
if you do not have Conservative ideas?
I am a Doctor, Marajade do you like confrontation?
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To: A CA Guy
"They are not our responsibility to educate..."
They may not be, but we do have education laws to the contrary do we not?
Either we are a nation of laws or we are not.
92 posted on 05/15/2006 11:23:44 PM EDT by marajade (Yes, I'm a SW freak!)
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Ahem, she's already given sworn testimony under oath. Twice.
And both times what she had testified to is impossible to have occurred or to be true.
I want to believe in the ideal that truth and justice really mean something.
You call this justice? I saw a young man from a good family who had his whole world in front of him indicted today because a woman said he had a moustache and he didn't and never has.
Of course, you do realize, don't you, that because Nifong refused to even LOOK at those pictures that Cheshire tried to show him that this entire indictment can be thrown out, right?
That's UNETHICAL, as was the lineup, as was sending detectives over to the dorms to surprise the players when he KNEW that they had lawyers, as was arresting a cab drive after he didn't change his story about the Duke race case, as is calling the accuser a "victim," as is putting out pamphlets that say a rape DID OCCUR, et al.
What the HELL kind of justice do you believe in?
Well the defense is the one who leaked the DNA tests. I don't seem to recall a judge in this case saying they were sealed?
Material? Nancy Grace was calling it "human flesh" tonight.
I'm glad you brought this up. I haven't seen much speculation on here about the first player who was indentified.
Why didn't the investigator follow up the identification with a question about how certain she was? He did with the three players who have been indicted.
We do not drag arguments from thread to thread.
Thanks troll.
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To: A CA Guy
"They are bringing down the education of our citizens and are eating up costs of $14,000 a child a year."
Where? And what do you propose? We change education laws to not include ILLegals? Isn't education a benefit to all?
66 posted on 05/15/2006 9:48:21 PM EDT by marajade (Yes, I'm a SW freak!)
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He entered a diversion program because that's what ALL first time offenders do. So he wouldn't have a record.
I'm surprised at you; I know you have worked in the law; why are you being deliberately dishonest about this boy?
"But the biggest loser is going to be the next girl -- the one who is really raped -- because nobody is going to believe her."
I would hope without a doubt that that is not true.
LOL I caught a few minutes of NG tonight with Wendy Murphy!
That was mindboggling! Dumb and Dumber
well the problem is a lot of people make their decisions based upon what they hear on Nancy Grace and Kimberly Gilfoil.
Marajay repeated the exact same statement Wendy Murphy said tonight on Nancy Grace.
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