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.
Good question! If she had MORE nails on (in the SANE report) than she did in the time-stamped photos--Uh-oh.
My point was that a million dollar house in Bethesda would not be top of the line. I know it's very expensive.
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oh yes, this is true.
Here's what I find interesting. She supposedly has on bright red fingernails when she gets there. Some of the 12:00ish photos are described as indicating that some of those red nails were missing.
When she leaves, according to those who've seen the originals, she has on pink fingernails and there are matching pink smudges on the hand rail after she fell down the back porch.
I wonder why she just didn't replace the ones she had missing? Why take off all of the bright red ones and put on new ones to paint pink? Were the pink ones really red like the ones they found in the trash? There's something about those extra fingernails and the pink/red polish that has me bumfuzzled...
I'm sure the girls were insulted because the boys realized that they hadn't got what they half-paid for and started mocking the girls.
Crystal, despite all her experience with low life, didn't know what to do. I'm hoping that the smile on her face on the porch was "confidence" because she had called her BOSS from the bathroom at a time that will make the whole thing fall apart.
I hope there is GPS data attached to her cell phone calls.
Add Lavonia Allison and Investigator Williams into the mix and it really gets smelly.
I seldom listen to Nancy Grace for obvious reasons. I read the transcript of last night's show, and that is where I saw her multiple times use of "flesh" to denote the DNA on the fingernail. She needs to go...off the air imo.
The facts are there was no MALE semen from any of these boys either in/on her and none of her fluids on the rug.
Do you think any one of these boys would risk HIV or anything else she might be carrying??
Yes, and no mention of condoms in statements or warrants.
Any GPS data will only be to the nearest cell tower which could be a mile or two away, although not likely since the house is near the Duke campus.
Even if 911 activated, then next generation locating tools (currently not widely available if at all) will only get you in the 50 - 200 ft range.
You don't let her know who is behind the effort to buy her story. You go in with an agent representing an entity that cannot be traced to the Dukies to negotiate a deal. Front end money will close this deal. Wave a few hundred grand in front of her and see how fast you get her tied to a book deal with exclusive rights to "tell" her story.
Nothing illegal or unethical. And once she's sold her story, the criminal case is OVER.
Many GPS phones now have actual honest-to-goodness satellite GPS receivers in them. A guy here used to work at a cell phone manufacturer so I'm going to take him as an authority. They formerly used triangulation off the cell phone towers and called it "GPS" (hence the confusion) and the position accuracy was not too good. Clearly, much depends on the phone in use. The accuracy for real GPS is much tighter on the order of 5-10 meters depending on loads and loads of variables. If they took her specific cell phone back to the particular location they could tie it down closely.
Whew, I'm back. Are we safe from marajade for the moment?
I've always thought that the DNA they found on the nail was going to be from the top and the bottom because Cheshire described the boys picking them up (he said more about them cleaning the bathroom later and never got to it) and also that they handed them to the police. I think this is where the "tissue" vs dna comes in. I'm guessing that the DNA found on the nail was from the wastebasket or from sweat/fingerprint-cells when it was handled. That dna would be on the top and bottom of the nail and would not be complete dna like one would get from semen or blood or spit.
I'm still a little curious about the semen on the floor and the towel. If it wasn't the guys living in the house that seems a little odd. Not being male, it's hard for me to imagine getting stuff in other guy's bathrooms. It didn't even match the team. Not important just odd.
3rd a million dollar house in Bethesda would be extremely middle class. Maybe that is from the sales record several years ago. People with million dollar houses in Bethesda don't send their kids to Landon.
That has been my position from the very beginning. I have maintained that there is absolutely no way that any of these guys, drunk, sober or asleep would have touched her in a million years. That, to me, has been the hugest hurdle to my believing even the possibility of her story.
An interesting off topic note... GPS works using clocks.. FYI..
The DNA on the floor seems to be an invention.
I can only find mention of DNA on a towel.
Not semen, just DNA.
The DNA didn't come from the accused. It is almost certainly from the guys who lived at the house.
Come to think of it, it's a bit silly to look for dna on the floor, isn't it. It's covered with everybody's DNA anyway. I suppose if you have an obvious stain, you'd swab it.
In any event, I don't think any DNA was taken from the floor.
GPS is awesome. If I become doubtful, I get on a "Government established" point to check it. Even my little hand held one is within 20 feet if I run it long enough.
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