Posted on 04/18/2006 3:26:57 AM PDT by Mad-Margaret
DURHAM -- A day after a grand jury indicted two Duke University lacrosse players in connection with a reported rape, two men emerged from a sheriff's deputy vehicle and were led, handcuffed, into the magistrates office at the Durham County Jail at 4:54 a.m. today.
The arrests stem from a party that began March 13. The accuser, who is a mother of two, an N.C. Central University student and an escort service dancer, told police March 14 that she was sexually assaulted by three men in a bathroom at an off-campus house shared by three lacrosse team captains. The accuser is black; she said her rapists were white.
Defense lawyers said players maintained that there was no sex at all. They said the accuser concocted the story, that she was drunk and injured late March 13 when she arrived at the three-bedroom house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.
"... Two young men have been charged with crimes they did not commit. This is a tragedy," Bob Ekstrand, who represents team players, said Monday in a prepared statement. "For the two young men, an ordeal lies ahead. They do not face it alone; they face it with the love of family and friends and strengthened by the truth. They are both innocent."
Superior Court Judge Ronald Stephens sealed a manila envelope containing the indictments shortly after the grand jury finished its business Monday. The judge cited a state law that requires everyone involved in a case, including witnesses, to keep the indictment secret until a suspect is arrested.
Last month, a judge ordered DNA tests on the team's 46 white players; he excluded the only black team member. The players' attorneys say the tests showed none of the players' genetic material on or in the woman.
Nifong, bolstered by a medical exam that found injuries on the woman consistent with sexual assault, says he is confident that she was assaulted in the university-owned house. Nifong said last week at a forum at NCCU that the accuser identified at least one of her attackers.
Until Sunday night, the only other witness, the second woman hired to dance at the party, had remained silent. In television interviews, she told her story.
The woman's attorney, Mark Simeon of Durham, declined Monday to make her available for an interview. She spoke on the MSNBC cable news network, which did not identify her and showed her in silhouette. Simeon confirmed that it was his client on MSNBC.
The woman told MSNBC that she did not witness a rape and does not know whether one occurred.
The woman said she arrived thinking that she would be dancing at a bachelor party of 15 people. She was not expecting a party of lacrosse players, many of whom she said were in a drunken stupor. The woman said she was infuriated to learn that some players photographed her dancing.
The accuser did not appear to be on drugs or to have been drinking when she arrived, the second dancer said. She was "absolutely fine and in control of herself."
When the accuser left, less than an hour after she arrived, she was incoherent and stumbling, the second dancer said.
"She couldn't really walk on her own," the woman said. "She really couldn't get her thoughts together enough to answer any questions. ... She was a different person than I met at the beginning."
The second woman said she was the person who called 911 as the party was breaking up, to complain that some lacrosse players had used racial slurs. "The boys hollered the 'N' word," she said. "I was upset and called 911."
She said she pretended to be a passer-by because she didn't want people in her life to know about her job as an escort service dancer.
It is unclear how that woman's story would affect the case. Players' attorneys have said she would only help them. By day's end Monday, Nifong left without talking to reporters; it remains unclear what evidence he has.
Throughout Monday, there were many more reporters on the sixth floor of the courthouse than the 18 members of the grand jury panel. Reporters tracked the district attorney's movements in minute detail. Just after noon, Nifong emerged from his office and walked across the hallway to the bathroom.
Reporters surrounded the bathroom door in a crowd that included five television cameras, three still photographers, sound men with boom microphones and at least a dozen print reporters. At the sound of flushing, the group tensed, raised cameras and prepared. Nifong did not emerge with news.
"I no longer get to go anywhere in my community without people knowing who I am," said Nifong, who faces two challengers in a primary election May 2. Staff writer Anne Blythe can be reached at 932-8741 or ablythe@newsobserver.com.
The judges wanted to notify you that your post has qualified for "Dumbest Post of the Day." We will let you know if you are the winner, and we'll provide a list of all the fabulous prizes.
You seem to like using "I" often.
I sure as hell know more than you do.
You're only here to disrupt.
Your statement is true insofar as it applies to whites. Any white who is accused of harming a nonwhite will probably be charged with a "hate crime" if the state has such laws on the books. A nonwhite who hurts a white is, of course, a "victim of oppression" and, though guilty, can claim victimhood due to past misdeeds of the white race: real, exaggerated, or fanciful. The nonwhite will probably not be accused of a "hate crime". After all, it is liberal dogma that only whites are capable of racism.
All I've done on this thread is point out the obvious...that the public does not know as much as those directly investigating the case.
I asked you a question and all you did was call me a troll.
I'll take that as my answer.
You don't know any more than anyone else here.
What is wrong with discussing this case....it's all over the MSM and will be the case du jour for months to come...and we are not allowed to discuss the evidence from both sides.....
"It's because you are positing illogical scenarios that you are becoming an annoyance."
What illogical scenarios have I positioned?
I have done my best NOT to make assumptions I cannot make without knowing all the facts.
And that is the sole point I am trying to make.
Why is this annoying to anyone?
Oh yeah, I feel really sorry for them.
Maybe they'll learn a lesson.
We're not saying we understand the case better than the DA. We're saying that the DA has political pressure to get a conviction here, due to the demographics of the area. We're saying the DA has a motive to lie. Which is an entirely different thing
Hey Howlin!
I fail to see your point since the accused are "Yankees" as well.
The charging of the boy with the previous assault record is to counter the information about the hooker's previous arrest and conviction record.
Precisely.
My understanding is that if a prosecutor claims a black woman can identify two white men who she claims raped her, with no evidence whatsoever, the offending ham sandwiches are to be swat-smacked at 4am and dragged away in handcuffs. This is entirely the prosecution's circus act. There is no need for evidence at this point. What is unusual is that DNA evidence, which normally takes a long time, seems to have excluded the boys before the grand jury even met to consider the charges. I guess when you have a claim of rape, and the victim says "there they are", you have to go forward...
Who cares about black-on-black crime? It's like that line in Police Squad, "Killing another black is a $10 fine, you can mail it in."
I imagine after the other boy is arraigned
_______________________
Thanks.
I heard on GMA, and someone else said Dan Abrams also reported one of the players indicted was not even at the party.
Wonder if this will pan out to be true?
Your smugness is rather ugly.
"I sure as hell know more than you do.
You're only here to disrupt."
Really?
Are you part of the investigation?
His record doesn't compare to her; and this very morning Rita Cosby dropped another bomb about her, without even realizing she has done it, I think -- she said she had had MAJOR problems with alcohol and that she has been a "dancer" for years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.