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.
I'm thinking it was picked up in the yard by where it's listed. It's listed first, and all the stuff in the bathroom is listed last, with the electronics in between.
As I recall Gottlieb also busted a major case involving local gang members.
Durham is really not all that big a place, especially if you narrow it down to the city limits and then to those neighborhoods where the police devote a disproportionate amount of their activities.
Between his domestic violence cases and the local gang investigation Gottlieb must have developed an extensive personal familiarity with quite a number of the people who live in Durham's worst neighborhoods. I wonder if that included Crystal and/or her boyfriend.
Yes they did... here's the inventory
That means the bag sat in the yard for 2 days, though.
I guess it could have.
Check out all the junk in the yard in the 4th photo:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1617550/posts?page=1013#1013
Yep, and none of it would still have been there if a gang rape had been carried out.
Interesting, very interesting. - Sherlock Holmes
That's a lot of junk.
No, we don't for sure.. We know they found a makeup bag and we can see inside the one bag she's holding on the porch and there appears to be makeup looking stuff in there... That's all I know...
The initial police report says that she was robbed of $2000 and her Sanyo cell phone worth $300. The police list a couple of cells phones in the inventory and have later stated they recovered her makeup bag, cell phone, and other items from the house.
I know again this could be semantics, but I looked up the Verizon model numbers listed on the inventory and none appeared to be Sanyo models...
Since the search warrant only claims to be looking for $400 and none of the cell phones found were Sanyo, could this possibly mean that at some point the AV changed her story???
Dad: "She would never do something like that." [Make a false accussation.]
_______________________________________
This is pretty rich from a guy who claims there was no rape the last time she went to the police and reported she was raped.
The poster was just willfully uninformed.
Has anyone seen this fact about the DNA being on the OUTSIDE of the nail reported in an actual news article or disclosed in a statement by defense lawyers?
I heard Jeanine Pirro say this, and then I heard Susan Filan say it. Did people here just hear it from these two, or is there an original source for this?
The nail helps the defense in three different way. First, it shows how extraordinarily sensitive the tests are, as the nail picked up dna from multiple sources. As such, it remains patently unbelievable that her other nails, clothers, body and so forth did not pick up any DNA. While the spinning experts say sometimes there is no DNA, I have yet to hear one explain how there is no DNA on her but on the nail. Second, it has multiple people but not CF or RS and as such you would have to conclude that if she was held down by three people, they have two of the wrong guys. Finally, it is not on the underside of the nail, and so it does not confirm her story.
I am sure there is more but the one thing you will never hear is a pro-prosectuor explaining, even as a workign theory, how all of this fits together with her story.
That's gonna leave a mark. LOL.
JLS should be put in charge of preparing the cross...
Even more important to me is that there was none of her bodily fluids found in the bathroom- if such a rape really occurred, it is hard to see it happening without any blood or vaginal fluids both in the bathroom or on her clothing.
Good points.
I think it's the over active imaginations of the talking heads... Unless they have more information than the defense attorneys... I listened to Chesire's statements and he alluded to the condition or location of the DNA but as best I can recall he did not say it was found on the outside of the nail... I have it on TIVO, I'll listen again later...
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