Posted on 10/11/2006 1:52:56 AM PDT by abb
DURHAM -- A CBS "60 Minutes" segment on the controversial Duke University lacrosse rape case is expected to air Sunday evening and will include interviews with all three indicted players and Kim Roberts Pittman, the second dancer at the party where the attack allegedly occurred.
CBS would not comment on the show. The network's normal practice is to withhold information about "60 Minutes" broadcasts until a few days in advance.
But Pittman's lawyer, Mark Simeon of Durham, confirmed Tuesday that his client was interviewed. But Simeon ended a telephone conversation before fielding a question about what Pittman told the interviewer.
An exotic dancer at the time, Pittman was with another dancer who claimed she was raped and sodomized by three lacrosse players during an off-campus party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in mid-March.
Pittman since has been quoted as saying the rape charges were "a crock." She also told police in a March 22 handwritten statement that she and the accuser ended their performance when someone at the lacrosse party "brought out a broomstick and ... said he would use the broomstick on us."
"That statement made me uncomfortable and I felt like I wanted to leave," Pittman added. "I raised my voice to the boys and said the show was over."
Pittman said she then asked the alleged rape victim to leave the party with her. But she said the accuser "felt we could get more money and that we shouldn't leave yet."
According to Pittman, the accuser "began showing signs of intoxication" early in the dance performance and was "basically out of it" by the time it ended.
Pittman finally drove the other dancer to a Hillsborough Road grocery store, from which a 911 call was placed to police.
There is nothing about an alleged rape in Pittman's written statement, which is included in public-record court files.
All three defendants also were interviewed for the "60 Minutes" segment, sources told The Herald-Sun. The interviewer is veteran reporter Ed Bradley.
The three -- Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans -- remain free under $100,000 bonds as they await a trial that is expected to occur next year. Each maintains he is innocent.
Neither they nor their families could be reached Tuesday for possible comment about the CBS show, and their attorneys had no comment.
Defense lawyers apparently will not appear on the television program. Neither will District Attorney Mike Nifong, who has been widely criticized for allegedly rushing to judgment in the case and making inflammatory public statements before he had sufficient evidence.
For the past four months, Nifong has not discussed the situation publicly. He was out of town on business and unreachable for comment Tuesday.
Benjamin Himan and Mark Gottlieb, police investigators in the lacrosse case, also could not be reached. But sources said the two had not been interviewed by "60 Minutes" as of Friday.
The Police Department repeatedly has declined to discuss the lacrosse incident.
It could not be determined Tuesday if a one-time driver for the alleged rape victim, Jarriel Lanier Johnson, was among those Bradley contacted.
"I have nothing to say about it," Johnson told The Herald-Sun by telephone before hanging up.
But Johnson gave police an April 6 handwritten statement about an "appointment," "a job" and a performance the accuser had at three different hotels in two days not long before the alleged rape.
Johnson also said she had sexual intercourse with him during the same time period.
URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-777449.html
Darby, what I'm saying is that she has not changed her accounts to the police with regard to what Mangum says happened to her. There is nothing at Johnsville News that says differently.
It sure is a bad and iffy way to run the business of LE. But NC presents an unusual set of legal circumstances and procedures that leaves cases like this unchecked.
The people of NC should be up in arms and writing to their legislatures to make the necessary changes in the laws such that a runaway freight train like Liefong can only get so far down the tracks before the plug gets pulled on his steam engine. Doing away with the mandatory-for-felonies indicting grand jury with no probable cause hearing would be good for starters. Another change that should be considered would be something that at least provides for a nod at the Sixth Amendment.
I really hope the 60 Minutes piece allows folks to meet these kids. I'm worried because some people are so much better in person than on TV, especially young people.
No I missed O'Reilly too. I am on a deadline. I can have sports on and work but not politics or this situation on. Thanks for the update on Kendall. She has been pretty fair about this case after the initial period was over.
The Durham Mayor speaks: [Associated Press]
"Obviously people will try to position themselves," Durham
Mayor Bill Bell said.
"Some people who are going to form judgments have already
formed those judgments, and that's their prerogative to do
that. But nobody knows for sure what happened in this
case but those involved, no matter what is said on '60 Minutes."
http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061013/
APS/610132499&cachetime=5
Here is a clickable link:
http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061013/APS/610132499&cachetime=5
It is ironic how Durham/DPD/Nifong sound like defense attorneys arguing that something might have happened and nobody knows but those who were there.
I'm surprised at Bernie. The black lawyer is probably Ted Williams, and he has demonstrated a racial bias in favor of the lying whore throughout the discussions on Greta. None of the attorneys on there have been well informed about the case and none of them have even tried to connect the dots except what's-his-name from MI - a rat who defended Kevorkian and also ran for governor of MI and lost - he has said all along the case is BS and Nifong just did it to get elected, but he isn't on the show all that often.
Yeah, it was Dave. He lost a job with a NY investment bank - I think it was JPMorganChase.
Reade and Collin are juniors this year. Well, if they were allowed to go to school.
She doesn't have the cojones to admit she's wrong. She just avoids the topic. So does Wendy Murphy.
That's not true at all. In fact, it's a legal absurdity. An accusation alone is not enough to take a matter to trial. Think about it and you will see how ridiculous a proposition that is. Anybody who had a vendetta against somebody could make an accusation and cause the person untold and everlasting grief if it had to go to trial. It is the duty of the police and the prosecutor to ferret out such false accusations.
He seemed very positive about 60 minutes. Let's hope...
I'm a little worried too. But Dave has very good composure. The day he was indicted he delivered that statement incredibly well. He's an impressive guy. I think Reade should be okay too. He can talk about his alibi and that will be very persuasive to people - phone records, ATM pictures and receipts. You can't beat that.
I'm most nervous about Collin. He has the most baggage because of the DC conviction and he's not going to talk about his alibi. Don't get me wrong, I think it's smart not to reveal the alibi. It's the right decision legally but maybe not personally. Know what I mean?
Kin cut off from gang-rape accuser
By DAN E. WAY : The Herald-Sun
Oct 13, 2006 : 9:47 pm ET
DURHAM -- The woman who accused three Duke lacrosse players of gang-raping her has not had contact with her immediate family in about two months.
Her father said Friday he still believes his daughter's account of a brutal sexual assault while she performed as an exotic dancer -- despite her estrangement from her folks and statements by a second stripper that contradict key parts of the accuser's story.
"That girl that was with her, she keeps changing her story," the father said of Kim Roberts Pittman, the dance partner of the accuser. "She's not a credible person to me."
Pittman will appear Sunday night on a special, two-segment story on "60 Minutes." Publicists for the show say she offers different versions than the accuser about events at a lacrosse party house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. the night of March 13-14, when the forced sex and physical abuse allegedly occurred.
"From what I've seen of it, I'm already shocked [by Pittman's statements]," the accuser's father said of the "60 Minutes" promotional clips that the network has broadcast. He said he will watch the show to see how she characterizes events now.
Pittman's story has wavered over the past months, at times appearing to support the accuser and on other occasions contradicting her.
But just a few days after the lacrosse party, the accuser's father said, Pittman came to his house, blaming herself for an attack on her dance partner.
"She was crying. She said she hates that she left her there by herself. She apologized to us for letting her there by herself," he said. "She said if she would have known what was going to happen, she would have stayed with her."
Meanwhile, the father said, he does not know where his daughter is staying or whether she is back in school at N.C. Central University.
"I haven't heard anything from her. I haven't seen my grandbabies or anything," he said.
He wonders if the public nature and media scrutiny of the case have played a role in the damaged family dynamics.
"She got kind of mad when we started talking to the media," he said.
He said he saw his daughter about two months ago, when they had a chance encounter in traffic. He had just enough time to ask how she was doing.
"She said, 'Fine,' and then they drove off," he said.
"I am worried about her. The whole family misses her. We just wonder what's going on right now," he said.
Even her attorney has not returned phone calls asking about her welfare, he added.
Meanwhile, "60 Minutes" released further information about statements the three accused lacrosse players make to Ed Bradley on Sunday's show. The three have been indicted and are awaiting trial while free on $100,000 bond each.
"Your whole life you try to, you know, stay on the right path, and to do the right things," says Reade Seligmann. "And someone can come along and take it all away, just by going like that. [Points his finger]. Just by pointing their finger. That's all it takes," he tells Bradley.
Seligmann tells Bradley he was never questioned by investigators from the prosecutor's office or police after the accuser picked him out of a lineup.
"[The police lineup] felt like Russian Roulette. It could have been any single one of us. Kids were even calculating their chances -- the percentage -- that you would get picked," Seligmann says.
"To see my face on TV [after he was indicted] and above it saying, you know, 'Alleged rapists.' You don't know what that does to me and to my family and to the people that care about me," he says.
"This woman has destroyed everything I worked for in my life," David Evans says. "She's put it on hold. She's destroyed two other families and she's brought shame on a great university. Worst of all, she's split apart a community and a nation on facts that just didn't happen and a lie that should have never been told," Evans tells Bradley.
The third player indicted, Collin Finnerty, said the indictment will follow him forever.
"I never expected anyone to get indicted, let alone myself. It's changed my life, no matter what happens from here on out. It's probably going to be something that defines me my whole life," Finnerty tells Bradley.
But such statements don't shake the faith the accuser's father has in her story.
"I still believe my daughter because I saw her when she came here from the hospital," he said. Her face "was all bruised and swollen, and then she couldn't hardly walk."
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-778472.html
* Counter-attack begins----
Yep.
I agree! Where the HELL is the prosecution bar in all this?? None of them have come out against Liefong. Sickening, isn't it?
Make that "legislators", lol!
Someone needs to tell that dumbass mayor that it is the prosecutor's responsibility to KNOW what happened BEFORE he indicts somebody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Liefong can't even prove that a crime was committed, let alone who committed it! He has no business seeking an indictment against an amoeba, let alone real people.
Hopefully the dipshitz in TV land who routinely watch crap like 60M will be able to put together that since the lying whore identified them and says they all raped her at once, if one can prove he wasn't there, then it didn't happen and, THUS, the other two are also innocent.
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