Grand jury may consider new charges in Duke case

Raliegh Observer ^ | 5/15/06 | Ben Niolet

[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.

[Publius22]

Not good news for Nifong that even the lefties are finding it increasingly diffcult to support him.

Talk Left

"This was the most compelling and believable public statement of denial I have ever heard. Dave Evans' parents should be so proud of him."

[ltc8k6]

Do we know where at 610 the makeup bag was found?

I ask because the picture stamped at 12:30 shows the AV outside the house with the makeup bag. If the bag was seized inside the house, how did it get back in there?

Also, who robbed the AV? None of the LAX players are charged with robbery. Does this mean the DPD figured out where the money went?

[darbymcgill]

most of what Kim says, comes from her own troubled mind.

She does appear to have issues.... And if she would steal $25K from her legitimate employer that she knew, why would we think she wouldn't steal $2K from the AV whom she supposedly just met and was passed out drunk in her front seat... you know... for the thrill of having another little secret....

[Sacajaweau]

That was a high school mark. Do high schools work on a College marking system down there?

[Sacajaweau]

Whoops...Meant: I hope that CRYSTAL (not Kim) made a phone call from the bathroom to find out what to do. This was her first party.

[darbymcgill]

Do we know where at 610 the makeup bag was found?

If you will notice in the 12:30 pic, she is carrying 2 bags, my guess one is a purse, the other a makeup bag..

Supposedly one of the pictures in the 12:37 or so range shows her lying on the ground and various items scattered around her. What we don't know (I don't anyway) is what happened to the purse and who brought the other items back into the house...

Some of us have notions about who took the money... Why would the guys leave $160 in twenties along with the rest of the AV's stuff in the house it they had already robbed her of the $2000 or $400 or however much she lost....

[Publius22]

Considering that the LAX player's posted their $400,000 bail with cashier's checks, to charge them with robbery would be pretty absurd.

Of course, why would three collegiate athletes rape a "stripper" when they could have had sex with beautiful, young coeds?

This is a demonstration of how entrenched the feminist notion that "rape is not about sex, but about power" has become.

[Sacajaweau]

Looking at everything said; I'd said that at the end of the day, NiFong is up the creek.

Of course, he will say "Well, Crystal lied". Her "Truth" is the basis of the case.

Then Crystal will say "He told me to lie" and we all know that you doubt a liar...even when they finally tell the truth.

I hear the sound of a little girl and a wolf.

[ltc8k6]

It wouldn't be absurd to Nifong. He'd have charged them if he could.

[Locomotive Breath]

I think that the defense has contended at one point that, in an as yet unreleased photo, that, in the photo where she's fallen, the purse can be seen on the ground nearby.

[ltc8k6]

I wonder if the DPD now knows that Kim took the money?

The bag could have been seized from the ground outside. The warrant included the grounds.

If one of the LAX players picked it up and put it in the house, that would certainly not be the action of gang rapists.

[za_claws]

To me this is one of the most telling pieces of this story. It seems to show where the prosecutors are with this case. They gave Time this article thinking it would blow Reade's alibi. I put part of the Time article up against Dan Abram's tearing it apart. My question is could the prosecutors in this case be as naive as it appears here?
Time Magazine Article		The Abrams' Report
The crucial photo was taken, defense sources say, at approximately 12:41 a.m., and shows the accuser calmly being helped into a car to leave the party. Taken together with other time-stamped photos from earlier in the evening, it is crucial to the defense argument that there was not enough time that night for a rape to occur. In fact, prosecutors will argue, that photo actually shows the accuser being dropped off at the party, not leaving it, and that it was taken well before midnight. In that photo, the accuser is shown in a black or dark-colored car, which matches a description of the car defense and prosecution sources say dropped her off at the party. The person in the driver seat of that car allegedly is not Kim Roberts, whom prosecutors will argue drove the accuser away from the party after the alleged rape. Prints taken from digital cell phone cameras have time stamps, but can be altered, according to digital photography experts. Only the cameras themselves have true embedded time data to correspond with photos taken. "If the prosecutor can discredit that photo, or one photo, their meanings are all suspect," another lawyer in Durham says. But one defense attorney scoffed at the notion the photo's time stamp was altered or that prosecutors could argue confusion over the two cars. "If it doesn't come out before the trial, if there is a trial,irrefutable evidence will show the photo is correct and the navy blue car is what matters." Abrams also said that the prosecutors went to NBC17 to get copies of the photos, that they did not go to him, I wonder if they only had the cropped images and not what Abrams showed during this show.	This image is the one that has been published around, The one that Dan showed in this show, was not cropped and it showed all of her leg w/ bruises and cuts as well as he being barefooted	One particular photo in question, this one, of the alleged victim in a car, now presumably the car of the second dancer, Kim Roberts. But according to “TIME” magazine, prosecutors will argue that the alleged victim is actually being helped out of the car. That the picture shows her arriving, not leaving. And that it is not the second dancer, Kim Roberts in the car. Now since we are the only ones with the photos let‘s take a closer look. The arm of the young man appears to be helping her into the car, not out, but that‘s open to debate. As for the part, the prosecutors will argue the second dancer, Kim Roberts, is not the one driving the car, if you look closely enough you can see, first, that the driver is a female because we can see her bra strap. There were reports that the accuser was dropped off by a man. But (B), she has the same skin tone as Roberts. Finally and most importantly, if they say she‘s arriving at the party, it would be pretty coincidental that she‘s clearly seen with no shoe on her right foot, the same right foot that‘s missing a shoe in the picture of her on the back porch time stamped 12:30:12 a.m., after the party started.... All right. Mr. Fulton had you been able to see the pictures as closely as we‘ve just laid them out before writing the article? GREG FULTON, “TIME” MAGAZINE: Yes, sir, I have. We do have our own set so to speak. And I‘ve seen them published elsewhere as well, yes. ABRAMS: They actually haven‘t been published anywhere else apart from here, but the right shoe, the fact that there‘s nothing on her right foot, that wasn‘t mentioned in the article, not relevant? FULTON: Relevant indeed. You make a very good argument to open the show. ... ABRAMS: I just can‘t see them making this argument. I mean it just - for example, you write in the article, the accuser is shown in a black or dark-colored car, which matches the description of the car defense and prosecution sources say dropped her off at the party. The problem is that Kim Roberts, the second dancer, also has a dark Honda.

[Publius22]

Oh, I agree. I meant that Nifong doesn't think he could gain a conviction for robbery. After all, it would be the word of a stripper against 3 rich boys that they robbed her of 400 dollars. Highly unlikely.

Yet, when it comes to Seligmann and Finnerty, he has no more evidence of rape than he does of robbery....just her word.

[darbymcgill]

in the photo where she's fallen, the purse can be seen on the ground nearby.

Agreed, but in the items taken during the execution of the search warrant, the makeup bag and ID are found, but no mention of the purse..

This could be nothing more than semantics, but I can clearly see 2 bags in the 12:30 photo... We know Kim was in the backyard immediately before the 12:41 photo or immediately before when the 2nd cab arrived around 12:45ish because he saw her coming around from behind the house. If the AV was incapacitated and had to be helped into the car by one of the players, it stands to reason that Kim may have been carrying her purse...

[Carling]

The victim is going to testify under oath as sworn evidence. Are the defendants' other than in front of the microphone in front of the media

Clearly your mind is made up. What makes your view different than mine? A mountain of exculpatory evidence on the side of the defense.

[Sacajaweau]

Noticed how the entire case now surrounds this one player. I'm so glad the other 10 players (all seniors) were with him at the news conference. This is what good soldiers do BUT if anyone of them had a doubt (and they do speak for the whole team), NONE OF THEM would have been there.

[snarkytart]

Yes, he did say that. No matter what, it will show up.
___

RE:Sexual predators database.

This is not true, Mort was mistaken. That database is strictly for persons convicted of sexual crimes.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

I find it very odd the DPD did not take her name or run a check on her car. Isn't that standard procedure?

I don't kow if that speaks to the skills of Kim or the cops...

Point well taken, Darby. Anyone who dismisses Kim as simply a stupid liar is underestimating her - she is quite manipulative, and she is not stupid. I believe she is smart enough to distinguish between lies that she uses routinely to manipulate people, and lies that if told would get her in serious trouble. I think she will be even more sensitive to this since she has already been burned in the embezzlement case. I expect that she will prove an evasive witness on the stand insofar as the defense is concerned, but not an outright liar.

I also suggest it is too simplistic to view the Durham police department as a monolith that either, depending on the poster, dismisses Crystal as a crazy nut they are well familiar with and don't take seriously, or else accepts every word Crystal says at face value while consciously ignoring all mounting evidence to the contrary.

The truth is undoubtedly that the DPD includes officers with different perspectives on this case; the first officers on the scene may well have concluded that since she appeared drunk or mentally ill that various things she was saying were not credible and therefore not taken seriously; those officers who patrol the district where Crystal lives or who have had contact with her in other situations may view her as a not very credible person; and yet it does seem clear that the investigative team under Gottlieb appear to take Crystal's version of the evening as gospel, and have credited any evidence that might be interpreted to support that version and have discredited or ignored any evidence that would contradict it. And I keep wondering if there is a personal connection between the Crystal or her boyfriend and a person or persons within the police department that would explain the investigators' behavior in this case.

However, I also wouldn't discount simple incompetence as an explanation for at least some of what the Durham police have done in this case.

[Sacajaweau]

They have it wrong. Digital cell phone times come from the provider's station and cannot be altered. My regular camera has a date/set option.

[Locomotive Breath]

Well I'm thinking that when they picked Crystal up they also picked up everything around her and put it in Kim's car. When Kim made her escape from Kroger, all that stuff was still in her car, there went all that.

You're assuming that the smaller of the two bags she's seen riffling through in the photo on the back porch is the same one found later in the bathroom. Do we know that?