Posted on 04/11/2006 8:28:30 PM PDT by Asceticon
The Durham County district attorney said today that the woman who accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her at an off-campus party last month had identified at least one of them in a photo montage last week........... "There was no identification of any member of that lacrosse team until last week," the district attorney, Michael B. Nifong, said at an informational meeting today attended by more than 400 people at North Carolina Central University, where the woman was a student. He was answering a question about why no one has been arrested.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Who knows.
But from what I've read on here, the agency gets their money up front........but whose credit card would they have used? I heard they used fake names to hire her.
She's Horrible!!! I didn't know her name , but when I heard her response I nearly fell down...The fact that she was banged up when she arrived didn't matter?? What lawyer would say that?
FYI--Hannity going to cover the Duke case as well..
The bias is awful---did you see Sunday's NYTimes? Today's NYTimes has a commentary on the front page of the sports section.
By Michael Biesecker, staff writer
DURHAM -- An interfaith prayer vigil on the steps of Duke Chapel today promoted healing at the university and in Durham in the wake of the rape allegation that has rocked the city.
Duke students read from the Bible, Quran, Torah and other scared texts, asking God in several languages for guidance and peace.
Give us wisdom from above, strength from one another, grace from beyond and courage from within, asked Sam Wells, the dean of the universitys landmark gothic chapel.
About 40 people linked hands and bowed heads during the brief event, which was recorded and observed by a gaggle of media that outnumbered the participants. By all means, join hands with a camera if you want to, said Wells, as he urged the worshippers to form a circle.
Jane Stancill, Staff Writer
Relatives and supporters of Duke lacrosse players have hired a high-powered Washington lawyer who used to represent former President Clinton.
The group, calling itself the Committee for Fairness to Duke Families, has retained Bob Bennett, a well-known trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor. Bennett was Clinton's personal attorney in the Paula Jones case and recently represented Judith Miller, a former New York Times reporter, in the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity.
Bennett said he was hired Tuesday by a small group of relatives of lacrosse players, former lacrosse players and supporters of Duke athletics. He said that he was contacted by about a half dozen people but that he expects more to join the group.
"What the concern is, you know, this thing is getting out of whack," Bennett said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
The lawyer said he will not represent individual players in any possible criminal proceeding but will counsel the families as a group.
"They need advice on how to handle this situation," Bennett said. "They felt their positions were not getting out there."
Forty-six lacrosse players were ordered to give DNA samples in an investigation into a woman's allegation that she was raped and beaten at a team party last month. No charges have been filed, but the case remains under investigation.
Bennett said the lacrosse team had been painted with too broad a brush.
"Let's calm down," he said. "Let's let justice work itself, in an individualized process, and not have guilt by association."
WOW--Nifong's definitely out of his league now.
A man hater.
Wendy and Nancy have never seen a man they don't think should be in the electric chair.
Prayer vigil scheduled at Duke Eyewitness News and The Associated Press
(04/12/06 - DURHAM) - An anonymous staff member is giving a detailed account of what happened the night a stripper said she was raped.
"She was hysterical. She was crying. She was pretty banged up. She said she was sexually assaulted, but she didn't say by whom," the staff member told ESPN The Magazine's Eric Adelson.
The staff member went on to say the sexual assault nurse found injuries in the woman's pelvic area.
"She never said one thing about Duke, any athlete or anything," the source said. "She just kept hollering and screaming. She never said who did it."
Standing before a mostly black audience, the district attorney in charge of the Duke University rape investigation said Tuesday he does not need DNA to bring charges and vowed, "This case is not going away."
District Attorney Mike Nifong spoke one day after defense attorneys said DNA testing failed to connect any of Duke's lacrosse players to the alleged attack on a black stripper who said she was raped at a party by members of the nearly all-white 47-man team.
Nifong stopped short of confirming the defense assessment of the DNA results, but said the case would not be hampered by a lack of DNA evidence.
"It doesn't mean nothing happened," Nifong said at a public forum at North Carolina Central University, where the 27-year-old alleged victim is a student. "It just means nothing was left behind."
No charges have been filed.
Nifong said prosecutors were awaiting a second set of DNA results, but did not say how those differed from the tests reported Monday. Nifong added that in 75 percent to 80 percent of sexual assaults, there is no DNA evidence to analyze.
The district attorney said a rape case can built on testimony from the alleged victim and other witnesses. Nifong also said the hospital exam of the woman has led him to believe a crime occurred at the March 13 party.
According to court documents, a doctor and a specially trained nurse found the alleged victim had "signs, symptoms and injuries consistent with being raped and sexually assaulted."
"My presence here means this case is not going away," Nifong said to applause from an audience of about 700.
The allegations have led to days of protests on and off the Duke campus and heightened racial tensions around Durham.
Some students at North Carolina Central, a historically black university a few miles away, assailed Nifong for his handling of the case and the media for its portrayal of the alleged victim.
"You all know if this happened at Central and the young lady was from another school or another `persuasion,' the outcome would have been different," said Toloupe Omokaiye, suggesting to applause from the crowd that the alleged attackers would have been jailed already.
Nifong said that he has never engaged in racial favoritism and that arresting suspects too quickly could harm the case.
"I have been criticized by both sides in this case," he said. "There have been people who have said that I should have given up this case a long time ago, and there are people who have said I should have already indicted, moved against somebody with some charges. The fact is that this case is proceeding the way a case should proceed."
Nifong later told a questioner, who asserted the victim had positively identified her three attackers, that her information was wrong.
The district attorney faces two challengers in a May 2 primary election. Asked by a member of the audience about the campaign, he said: "As the district attorney, you do not get to choose what crimes occur and when they occur. This is not about an election. This is about justice."
Nifong refused to take any questions from reporters after the forum.
Bill Thomas, a defense attorney for one of the team captains, urged the accuser to recant, saying he believes she made up the allegations to avoid a charge of public drunkenness.
"It is my sincere hope that she comes forward and tells the truth in this matter and allows these young men to go on with their lives and for this community to heal," Thomas said.
Ted Kennedy too?
Don't know about Wendy, but I think Nancy was devoted to one man...her fiancee, wasn't it? After he was killed, seems like she went off the deep when it comes to any other. Do I have it right? Do you know if she's replaced that fiancee with another relationship? I haven't looked at her personal life.
Boy, that ought to be a real in-depth coverage. (BARF)
The player would be suspended until the investigation was completed. This has been the routine treatment of many football players at many different schools.
........... thin weak lips on a woman is one sad thing.
This seems rather silly. They are lacrosse players and they all likely have bruises and scratches all over. It's like seeing if a hockey player has all their teeth.
Most dancers think they are entitled to a gratuity in addition to the fee.
Possibly the duke players did not think she earned a gratuity at which point she may have gone bonkers and cooked up this to get even.
LOL
I'm just interested in the media coverage. Several of the team members are from my area.
Sharpton to lead protest
Protestors have been gathering at the house at 610 Buchanan Blvd. for two weeks. The Rev. Al Sharpton plans to show up at a protest Sunday morning. The neighborhood was quiet Tuesday. Only one protest sign hung from the railing on the front steps, saying, "Nifong, admit how wrong you were. How stupid. Stop while you can save face and apologize. Lacrosse deserves it.
Durham DA candidate forum Wednesday
The three candidates running for Durham district attorney will take public questions at a forum Wednesday evening. The forum will feature District Attorney Mike Nifong, former prosecutor Freda Black and Keith Bishop. It runs from 5 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. at the Durham County Courthouse.
The public is welcome. You can watch the forum live on abc11tv.com. Eyewitness News anchor John Clark will be the moderator.
It's all becoming clear. Having blown it by crawling way out on a limb with no visible way back, Nifong has been waiting for Big Al to come down and defame him, just like the Pagones case. That way when this all blows up in his face and he loses his job, he may still get a paycheck.
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