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
Good thought.
I was thinking today that the worst thing that can happen to these boys now is if the lying accuser refuses to testify.
That would give Nifong the out he wants and he could still insinuate they were guilty and he could have proved it.
I wondered yesterday on these threads if they have ANY recourse against her or him when this is over.
If the case is dropped and if there is a way, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see them sue somebody.
Ain't that the truth, LOL!
I should know better than to say "I need a life."
I think most likely it's both of them, if the CBS hype is true.
Exactly! We have heard Kim's statement and some statements from the players in previews and teaser, but no preview of the interview from Brodhead or information regarding the whole "presumption of guilt" aspect. I don't know what it will be axactl but something much bigger than Kim's statement is coming.
I hope they can sue somebody.
That is the best thing that can happen for them, because they don't have to waste years of their lives on trial where there is a chance they can be convicted.
No, it is not; because people will always say that somebody bought her off.
Don't forget her big mouthed cousin has been telling anybody who will listen that "they" offered her $2,000,000 to drop the charges.
It may have transmitted through Gottlieb. Gottlieb is probably still working overtime to cover his butt, not yet realizing the depth to which Liefong has sunk him - or he let himself be sunk.
And the trial is a better alternative? In Durham? Give me a freaking break already.
That's totally ludicrous.
If the case is dropped, there is NO way for them to clear their names......unless they sue the hooker and Nyfong and perhaps the county and/or the state.
The whole sorry lot of them should be sued, including Nifong, DPD, Duke, Brodhead. There needs to be accountability when all is said and done. ANd yes, they can be held legally accountable. Prosecutors have wide immunity but not from making knowingly false public statements, and Brodhead has been sued before for precisely this kind of miscondut. I still shake my head in disbelief that Duke hired him after knowing his track record at Yale for ruthlessly and wrongly throwing people under the bus based upon lies.
The first lesson I learned when I got involved in local politics (against a very liberal establishment) is that you have to be willing to inflict more pain than you can accept. In this instance, pain is defined as putting these clowns under oath, forcing to tell what happened, and publicly exposing them.
They have no choice now; they HAVE to clear their names.
Do you expect them to jump for joy if she backs down and go on with their lives?
Their lives are in ruins and they have to do something to reclaim them and prove their innocence.
It's naive to think they will let this go.
There are unsubstantiated rumors that the $2M offer cousin Jacki discussed was actaully the asking price from the FA to go away, and that is the big bombshell on 60 minutes.
I told you before and I'll say it again: these families are MAJOR players; they will not stand for this being brushed under the rug on a technicality like her not testifying.
They are some VERY powerful people and they have VERY powerful friends; these are the kind of people who sweep into two in a new administartion; they hang out with Ben and Sally Bradlee; they ARE going to prove their sons innocent beyond any doubt. IMO, of course.
If they are not interested in the money, they could sue just the FA in court, and then force the sorry lot of characters to produce discovery, testify, etc. You get no money but can pinch them good in a very public manner.
It's like the country judge. He demands to hear the district attorney's case, then slams the gavel down. "Guilty!" he says.
The defense attorney says" Wait a minute - do we get to tell our side?" "Go ahead," says the judge.
After the defense attorney presents his case the judge says: "Damn! Now he's innocent!"
I doubt that is true; Bradley seemed to indicate the bombshell is Kim's "new claims."
I'll be more than glad to jump for joy with you if that's what it is though.
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