I don't kow if that speaks to the skills of Kim or the cops...
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0405061duke4.html
I thought a revisit of this probable cause statement would be timely.
It wasn't Evans who called the strippers, but Flannery.
The AV's claim is indeed that the nails broke off while she was scratching at her attacker's arms.
This affidavit says 4 fingernails were found. The warrant says 5 were found.
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.