Attorney: Date-rape drug test negative in lacrosse case
BY WILLIAM F. WEST, The Herald-Sun
August 30, 2006 10:12 pm
DURHAM -- A date-rape drug test reportedly involving a hair sample of the alleged Duke lacrosse victim has turned up negative, one of the defense attorneys said Wednesday.
According to Kirk Osborn, he and fellow defense lawyers learned the result from Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong at a meeting last week with Judge Osmond Smith about the case, in which three lacrosse players are under indictment on charges of sexually assaulting an exotic dancer at an off-campus party in March.
Attempts to obtain comment from Nifong's office were unsuccessful Wednesday.
Osborn told The Herald-Sun he wasn't surprised at the outcome of the test.
"We knew that was going to happen," he said. "It certainly eliminates whatever Mr. Nifong hinted to Newsweek magazine [in April] that they slipped her a date-rape drug."
The dancer says she was attacked when she and another dancer, Kim Roberts, performed at a team party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., across from Duke's East Campus.
A Durham County grand jury indicted Reade Seligmann, 20; Collin Finnerty, 19; and David Evans, 23, on rape, kidnapping and sexual offense charges. The three players say they are innocent.
Osborn, in court papers in June, cited medical records showing that the accuser gave conflicting accounts about her consumption of alcohol and drugs that day.
He argued in court that the woman:
-- Told one doctor she had used no alcohol or drugs.
-- Told the sexual assault nurse examiner in training that she had had one drink of alcohol and was taking Flexeril, a muscle relaxant.
-- Told another doctor that she was drunk and had consumed "a lot of alcohol."
-- Told a police investigator that she had consumed a 24-ounce bottle of beer and two 22-ounce beers.
Roberts has contended in published reports that when the alleged victim arrived at the party, she was sober, but that when the alleged victim left, she appeared to be under the influence of some substance.
After the party, the alleged victim ended up at a Kroger supermarket.
One of the security guards, Angel Altmon, told The Herald-Sun that when she called police, she told the dispatcher the woman was sitting in a car and was "intoxicated, drunk or something."
"Somebody must have slipped her something, because she wasn't drunk," Altmon told the newspaper. "If she was drunk, I would have smelled something."
Osborn, who represents Seligmann, declined to answer additional questions about the date-rape drug test, except to say he hasn't received a written copy of the report and that Nifong didn't share the news before the meeting with the judge.
The Herald-Sun couldn't reach attorneys Joe Cheshire and Brad Brannon, who represent Evans, for comment Wednesday. Attorney Bill Cotter, who represents Finnerty, said he won't discuss the evidence in the case.
Forensic consultant Shannon Miller, also a physician and associate professor of psychiatry at Wright State University in Ohio, said conducting date-rape drug testing is standard procedure.
Negative results, he said, don't necessarily mean no substances were used. That's because some drugs can wash out of the body quickly, he said, also citing the importance of the timing of the test.
But Miller said the bottom line is that the defense can reach back and cover a fair chunk of time and say, "Look, there were no drugs there."
URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-765602.html
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/480871.html
Trip to cabbie's trial a waste, with meter on
Ruth Sheehan, Staff Writer
-snip
"nstead of showing a cab speeding away from the scene of a crime, the tape showed the shoplifter hiding her bags behind her hip, then getting in the backseat and closing the door. Then the cab pulled away from the curb."
-snip
http://dwb.newsobserver.com/news/ncwire_news/story/2999614p-9424322c.html
Rain puts damper on Duke-NCCU student get-together
A little eye-opener this morning, lol...
http://www.chortler.com/24333nancygrace.shtml
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains.
Very interesting that Sheehan implicitly calls for the case against Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann to be dropped but smears the three in the process. That is ultimately what Nifong will do. Sheehan is a lowlife to smear the players and the cabbie in her article.
One might think that not guilty would be 99.99% of the time not guilty in America. But not to the PC, I guess.
Only a bunch of true leftist idiots would think false rape charges are a good reason to have a NCCU/Duke get together.
It is NOT like the lacrosse team set out to hire a NCCU stripper. It is NOT like this will cause anyone to become best buds who would not have a natural inclinnation to seek each other out.
The fact that Mangum CLAIMS to be a NCCU student is just an accident. It has no meaning. NCCU students ON AVERAGE live very different lives and have very differrent interests than Duke students ON AVERAGE. I am sure some meet each other and become friends every year. I am sure that number is very small. This case nor for show get togethers will not change that.