Posted on 11/04/2006 1:31:54 AM PST by abb
Joseph Neff, Benjamin Niolet and Anne Blythe, Staff Writers DURHAM - Four days after she said she was raped, the accuser in the Duke lacrosse case told co-workers at a Hillsborough strip club that she was going to get money from some boys at a Duke party who hadn't paid her, the club's former security manager said.
"She basically said, 'I'm going to get paid by the white boys,' " H.P. Thomas, the former security manager at the Platinum Club, said in an interview Friday. "I said, 'Whatever,' because no one takes her seriously."
On March 14, the woman said she was assaulted and raped by three men at a lacrosse team party that began late on the night of March 13. Three players -- David Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md.; Collin Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, N.Y.; and Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells N.J. -- have been charged with rape, sexual assault and kidnapping. All three have declared their innocence and called the accusations lies.
Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong declined to comment on Thomas' recollections. Thomas said he had not previously come forward on the advice of lawyers.
Nifong has said in court that nearly a month after the party, the woman was in his office and appeared too traumatized to talk about what had happened to her. Nifong said that throughout the April 11 meeting with Nifong and police investigators, the woman seemed near tears and had trouble making eye contact.
But less than a week after the party, Thomas said, the woman seemed fine, and weeks later, he realized a friend of his had a video of her dancing at the club in the early hours of March 26.
The accuser never gave any indication that the party was a bad time, let alone that she was assaulted or raped, Thomas said.
"She was as regular as pie," Thomas said. "She didn't do anything different."
The News & Observer generally does not identify the complainants in sexual assault cases. The woman could not be located for comment Friday.
On March 17, the woman showed Thomas a hospital bracelet and paperwork. While she talked about being owed money, the accuser never gave any word or indication of being hurt, he said.
"The other girls would have known if something had happened," Thomas said. "If another dancer had been beat up or raped by a bunch of white boys, there would have been a ruckus."
Records show she had been seen at Duke and UNC Hospitals on March 14 and 15.
Thomas said dancers must sign in when they take guests into the club's VIP room. He said those sheets show that the woman had signed in March 17 and 18. He said she also danced the following weekend.
The club's owner, Victor Olatoye, said the club's records show the woman was dancing at the club March 23, 24, 25 and into the early hours of March 26. Olatoye has no record of her working the previous weekend.
Olatoye said he had given a sworn statement to an investigator in Nifong's office last month initially saying that he had not seen the woman since February.
That night at the club, Olatoye checked his records and called the investigator back to change his sworn statement.
Olatoye said he has not seen the woman since March.
Thomas said he worked as security manager at the club from January through April. He said he had little to gain by coming forward because of a pending cocaine possession charge. Staff writer Joseph Neff can be reached at 829-4516 or jneff@newsobserver.com.
What's the law about campaigning near the polling place?
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=17913
The Rape of Justice
by Thomas Sowell
Posted Nov 07, 2006
Nothing should be surprising any more about the Duke University rape case. Still, it is a little staggering that, after all these months, District Attorney Mike Nifong has still not interviewed either the accuser or the accused.
Rape is a felony with serious consequences for all concerned. You might think that the District Attorney would have some interest in determining whose story is credible and whose story is full of holes.
But that is only if he is interested in seeing justice done. This column predicted, months ago, that Nifong would let this case drag on until the public loses interest in it and then let it quietly fizzle out after the media spotlight is gone.
After all, the case has already served his purpose in getting him his party's nomination for District Attorney. It has also served the purposes of local racial activists by giving them an occasion to march, shout, denounce and threaten.
It has served the purposes of the Duke University faculty by allowing them to come out on the politically correct side of the issue by condemning the upscale white guys and showing solidarity with the black accuser.
Why ruin all this by getting bogged down in facts?
While the law enforcement officials have apparently been too busy to interview either the accuser or the accused, they have had time to spend hours grilling a black cab driver who said that one of the accused was in his taxi, going to an ATM, at the time when he was supposedly committing rape.
Bank records corroborate what the cabbie said. But being hassled by the cops when he would rather be out working to earn some money may make him less ready to say it again to the media.
Such harassment can also serve as a shot across the bow of anybody else who might be thinking of coming forward with facts that undermine the District Attorney's version of events.
While District Attorney Nifong is at the heart of this tawdry perversion of the law, many others have joined in the rape of justice.
A local newspaper responded to the recent "60 Minutes" expose of how phony the rape case is by editorializing that the Duke lacrosse players are not model citizens. Their neighbors have complained about their playing loud music and one of them got into a brawl somewhere.
Surely no one is so feeble-minded as to believe that playing loud music or even getting into a brawl proves that you are a rapist. But it shows how desperate some people are to take sides instead of wanting the truth to come out and see justice done, whatever that might turn out to be.
It is especially painful to see the local NAACP joining the stampede to convict the Duke players, not only without evidence but in defiance of a growing body of evidence that points in the opposite direction.
How many black men have been railroaded to jail or even to the gallows by the same lynch mob mentality, whether carried out by a jury or by the Ku Klux Klan? And is all that the NAACP has learned from this tragic history is that it just depends on whose ox is gored?
Anyone who expects either higher intellectual standards or higher moral standards from the academic intelligentsia should be disabused of such notions by the way so many Duke University professors and administrators have kow-towed to the shrill shouters and threateners, on and off campus, by joining in the lynch mob rhetoric.
It would be sad enough if this was just about three young men at Duke University. Unfortunately, this shabby episode is only one sign of a much more pervasive moral dry rot in our academic institutions and in our other institutions.
It took centuries to establish the rule of law, at the cost of painful struggles, blood and tears. Nor did the blood and tears end when law was established, for maintaining the rule of law requires fighting those who wish to pervert the law for their own purposes and who will abuse their power to do so.
Will we destroy this and other pillars of our civilization even before our enemies have a chance to finish us off?
I like Bob Harris!
The River Church - stats as of October 17, 2006
Precinct 23 -- 3,945 total
2,984 Dem -- 460 Rep -- 501 Una
2,650 Black -- 1,139 White
From TL.
From a poster at Talk Left:
The River Church - stats as of October 17, 2006 Precinct 23
3,945 total
2,984 Dem
460 Rep
501 Unaffiliated
2,650 Black
1,139 White
Nifong probably brought a tape measure with him...
Thanks. I've grown so cynical about anything about Nifong and Durham that I suspected the church door's being locked on purpose, so that there would be an excuse to protest and get permission to stay open later....and report returns later....and have a chance to fiddle w/the bottom line.
The River Church is definitely
Committee territory.
This may be their insurance policy.
They keep their own running precinct
counts throughout the day.
An extra hour of flushing the party
members and handing out completed
sample ballots this evening after
work could be useful. They try not to
overdo it and look too obvious.
Freda Black took three days to concede
the primary. The Herald-Sun never said
what the problem was.
And with Cheeks not really running there is no one to contest any fraud.
Channel 14 results:
Exit polling by news organizations?
Snap poll- won't include early votes, etc.
If they broadcast this at 5 pm and 6 pm,
it may discourage people.
Looks like an error. They have it listed twice too, with different numbers.
ROTFLMAO!!!!!
Tense Exchange Between Nifong, Duke Sports Voice
WTVD By Tamara Gibbs
(11/07/06 -- DURHAM) - Politics turned personal today as Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong greeted voters - - some with very strong opinions about the Duke lacrosse rape case.
Eyewitness News cameras were rolling when Nifong tried to shake hands and say hello to Bob Harris, the voice of Duke sports.
Harris was in his car as Nifong walked up.
"You've got to be nicer than that," Nifong said.
"Get out of here," Harris said. "Don't pull this crap."
"This isn't about Duke," Nifong said. "This isn't about Duke at all."
"No," Harris said. "It's about honesty. You're not honest."
Nifong is running for district attorney against Lewis Cheek, who says he will not run if elected, and Steve Monks, a write-in candidate. Embattled Nifong met with voters heading to the polls in Durham.
"I've had more smiles than scowls, but I've gotten a little bit of both," he said.
No smiles from Tony McCurdy - - for him the election is all about the Duke lacrosse rape case.
"[Nifong] went overboard in prejudging a certain situation, which I feel, with the evidence coming out, is not quite the way it was portrayed at first," McCurdy said.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=local&id=4738144
ABC 11 clip of exchange
coming up at 6 pm.
Bob Harris was pissed.
Nifong looked like a gloating fool.
This will go national.
Nifong looked like a gloating fool.
He was strutting around like he owned that parking lot. I hate the way he says Duke. "This isn't about Dewk."
I'll be happy when his day comes.
Harris was in his car as Nifong walked up.
"blah,blah.blah," Nifong said.
"Get out of here," Harris said. "Don't pull this crap."
"blahblah," Nifong said. "blahblah."
"No," Harris said. "It's about honesty. You're not honest."
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