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.
/Mangum will break from the pressure and confess that she's lying.
If the AV breaks from the pressure, she is likely to say that she has told the truth, but has decided not to proceed because of the stress.
Not to mention that a 90% DNA match is not a match at all.
http://www.nbc17.com/news/9221911/detail.html
Accuser's Father Has 'No Doubt' His Daughter Is Telling The Truth
Third Duke Lacrosse Player Indicted In Alleged Rape
POSTED: 12:57 am EDT May 16, 2006
EXCERPT
The accuser's father showed his face and talked about his daughter minutes after one of the men accused of raping her claimed to be completely innocent.
"It makes you mad. It makes you angry. They say she's a false accuser before this has even gone to trial," he said.
Dave Evans, the third Duke Lacrosse player to be arrested and charged with the crime, spoke out on live television before turning himself in on Monday. Evans said that none of the suspects had done anything wrong and that the accuser had told a lie.
"No. No. She would never do something like that. She would have no reason to," her father said.
The accuser's father said that if his daughter had her way, all of this would be over and she could get on with her life. He said she is pressing on with the case because it is the right thing to do.
The accuser's father called Monday's gathering at the jail nothing more than a sick performance.
"Nothing he said gives me any doubt of what my daughter said. I'm wondering why the other two boys haven't come forward and said the same thing before they got him. It just doesn't add up to me," the accuser's father said.
He said that his daughter has been telling the truth all along and that eventually it would be proven in a court of law.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/14531935.htm
Durham mayor has questions about Duke's report on lacrosse case
AARON BEARD
Associated Press
DURHAM, N.C. - Police did not tell city leaders they had any concerns about the credibility of a woman who said she was raped at a party thrown by Duke University's lacrosse team, Mayor Bill Bell said Tuesday, adding he's seen nothing to suggest officers haven't vigorously investigated the case.
But Bell directed the city manager to ask police about a report released Monday by Duke, which concluded the university's administration was slow to respond to the allegations in part because city police initially said the accuser "kept changing her story and was not credible."............
"I'm wondering why the other two boys haven't come forward and said the same thing before they got him. It just doesn't add up to me," the accuser's father said."
He's already started with the "Why didn't they say they were innocent" line regarding Reade and Collin....
They both should have made strong statements as well.
How many times have they picked her up and let her go?
I'm laughing at the "She sometimes screams when she sees a white man". Will she sue for loss of income?? Because that kinda eliminates her white cliental.
She must scream a lot then, since she was gang raped by three black men as well.
Something smells really **bad** about the Durham "government".
No, no! Don't forget Chalmers. He came up regularly at one point in our research threads. I don't immediately recall his "role" in this disgusting piece of injustice on display; but his ties need to be re-looked at.
But they did. Reade Seligmmann signed an affidavit saying the same thing and CF said, through counsel, the same thing. But they don't have to say anything, they are innocent.
Thanks, maggie. Noticably missing from both of this morning's articles about Baker is whether Duke officer Day's recollection of Durham PD's Sgt. Shelton saying the accuser original claim that 20 players raped her was in error.
Baker can chide Day for eavesdropping and only hearing "one side of the conversation", but that doesn't mean Crystal didn't say exactly what Shelton told his watch commander back at the station she had said.
Why didn't the DPD take Kim's name at Kroger's, or search her car?
Crystal's father is DOCUMENTED, heavily, as changing his "story" at every twist. He is not credible.
I have a question about Pirro's assertion that the DNA was on top of the fingernail. How would she know this and why wouldn't Cheshire say that yesterday?
Not the same as standing up in public and looking people in the eye, though. Not the same effect.
Didn't the father say that one of the 3 boys in the "early rape" case was her brother?
I simply don't believe much of what the press has reported. They do "excerpts" and that puts things out of context.
I have wondered the same thing - what if a DA has a breakdown or hallucinates and presses absurd charges, what recourse is there? Does the state take over? Or does everybody stand back and let the guy run wild as he/she takes people with solid alibis to trial and ruins them not just financially?
Because at the time Kim was telling a "good Samaritan" story that she found Crystal wandering by the side of the road. The DPD let her go with that. Only later did they come to understand her deeper involvement in the evening.
I believe it was a boyfriend in the earlier case.
Hopefully, she will stay true to form and bail on her accusations. Except that she may be in too deep herself this time.
I kind of want a trial now. That will clear the air and the player's names.
So in other words.
If Evans had a brother at the house in the last week/month (college guys are slobs you know) that could be the source of the DNA on the nail.
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