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.
Looks like at least one of the "boys" has a sociopathic issue
It was a bar fight; after the fact, the loser called hate crime. The boy was not convicted of that.
"Do you think Southerners appreciate the scope of racial tension in the North?"
I couldn't speak for southerners.
That's ridiculous. Most people are so furious about this case because if you've followed it closely at all one quickly realizes that these are trumped up charges by an overzealous DA. To suggest that this reaction is because of the race of the accuser is patently unfair and wrong.
We can only hope!
This is an interesting comment. I had the idea that most of the 'perps' were of Yankee origin.
And I think this has more to do with haves/have-nots and male/female control issues than the race thing. The race thing is - I believe - just the vehicle for the other issues.
I'm back.
Hey - thanks for that excellent post. I'd sort of remembered that but couldn't have articulated it as well as you did.
And then of course, the nanny police will just say we're speculating. LOL
"Why do you refer to yourself as a Yankee....I have never even considered that as a reference to myself..."
Why do you care how I refer to myself?
Oh really? How many of the judges do YOU represent "Sinkspur"???
LaCross IS a sport more common among prep school males in schools attended by the upper classes than High Schools for normal folks.
Have a nice day.
Exactly.
Well, the fireman's sons are the ones who have been accused. As for the two suspects, Reade and Collin, while Reade went to Delbarton, a private school with a tuition of $22,000 per year, Collin went to Chaminade, a Catholic school with only a $6600 tuition. Collin is from Garden City, average household income $104,176 (but keep in mind in NY that is a middle class income). Reade is from Essex Fells, NJ, average household income- $148,173.
Why do you care how I refer to myself?
I don't.....I've never heard people refer to themselves as Yankees or Southeners....that's all
"So now you have resorted to calling southerner's racists?
You are a disgrace to FR"
First of all...you never showed the illogical scenarios I placed.
Now this...where did I say southerners are racists?
I said there is racial tension which DOES NOT constitute the same thing as calling someone racist.
It is disgraceful to twist someone's word into saying something they haven't said.
Worked like a champ. Not one new thread started at FR concerning Cynthia McKinney since the 14th, and that one was just asking why there was nothing from the GJ.
That really irks me. She is skating out of this. The large papers and MSM did their one story or two, and they are letting it go. No pressure on the prosecutor, so I guess he too is letting it go. Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!!
Your ignorance is showing.
Most scholarships are need based.
I back you up. A really silly poster.
Has there been a press conference yet?
Oh yes, a college guy is in a fight outside a bar, clearly this is a sociopath we are dealing with here... very insightful.
NOT!
"Class warfare is a typical lib claim. Ugh."
How about "Limousine Liberal"???
I think Barry Goldwater coined that term.
And in some places people like the Whitmans, Keans, Kennedys, Gores, Corzines, Kerrys. etc. PERFECTLY fit that image.
So that makes me a "liberal"??
What's wrong with private schools? I sent mine to private schools.
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