Posted on 04/19/2006 9:33:10 PM PDT by Howlin
(04/19/06 - DURHAM) - An attorney for one of two Duke University lacrosse players charged with raping a stripper at a team party on Wednesday strongly rejected any sort of deal with prosecutors, proclaiming again his client's innocence.
Cotter represents Collin Finnerty, who along with fellow sophomore Reade Seligmann was indicted Monday on charges of first-degree rape, sexual offense and kidnapping. Each posted $400,000 bond after their pre-dawn arrests early Tuesday, and both were released within hours.
School officials have declined to say whether it plans to discipline either of the players, although they have noted the university has historically suspended students charged with a felony.
Cotter said Wednesday that Finnerty, of Garden City, N.Y., has left Durham, although he wouldn't say where he went. Attorney Kirk Obsborn, representing Seligmann, of Essex Fells, N.J., declined to say whether his client has been suspended.
Seligmann and his father spent much of Wednesday working from the law office of attorney Robert Ekstrand, who represents dozens of uncharged lacrosse players.
District Attorney Mike Nifong, who has not granted interviews in weeks and said Tuesday he planned to make no comments about the case outside the courtroom, has said he still hopes to link a third man to the alleged attack.
He did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment about that effort, or about searches by Durham police Tuesday night of Seligmann's and Finnerty's dorm rooms.
Warrants authorizing the searches had not been returned to the court clerk's or magistrate's office by Wednesday evening.
"I can imagine they never quit investigating, but I think it's unusual to be executing search warrants after they've indicted," Cotter said.
Defense attorneys have said they have time-stamped photos from the party, bank records, cell phone calls and a taxi driver's statement to support Seligmann's claim of innocence.
A person close to the case told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the cell phone records show Seligmann called for a taxi at 12:14 a.m., and that according to sworn testimony he left in the taxi at 12:19 a.m.
The bank records show he stopped at an ATM five minutes later, the person added, while information provided by Duke shows he swiped an ID card to enter his dorm at 12:46 a.m.
A member of the defense team, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because the defense is working with players who could still be indicted, showed photos to the AP on Wednesday that show the accuser on the back porch of the off-campus house, with her clothing intact. She is smiling and looking through her purse.
The defense team member said the digital photos were taken at 12:30 a.m., citing an electronic time-stamp known as metadata. Such time-stamps are not visible on the photos. They are created, though, when digital photos are taken.
The accuser, a 27-year-old student at a nearby college, told police she was attacked by three white men at a house where she and another woman were hired to dance at a lacrosse team party. According to defense attorneys, DNA tests conducted on all the players failed to connect any of the team members to the alleged rape.
"I would have to say she is definitely making it up," Cotter said.
Nifong has ordered additional DNA testing, which was originally performed at the state crime lab. Cotter said he believes those results should be "back any minute."
Ekstrand said the defense has also not yet received a report from authorities about any photo identifications of suspects made by the accuser. "I think we're entitled to the report of the identification procedure, and the results of the photo identifications she did," he said.
The allegations of rape led Duke to cancel the highly ranked lacrosse team's season, accept the resignation of the team's coach and begin a series of internal investigations, including one into the behavior of the lacrosse team.
Thanks for the ping.
She struck me as a heck of a good defense lawyer.
Bump for the Bill of Rights and the presumption of innocence for all those accused by the state.
Yep, she really showed herself to be a great advocate in the Faber v. Bryant cases.
bump to your ping
I stand by what I said long ago about why the stripper cried rape ... didn't get the shakedown raise in price so she howled. Sadly, race relations are now in the toilet in Durham, but hey, the democrat party has their talking point item for manipulating black voters don'tchaknow.
I jumbled it all up..
*** QUESTION:
This is how the media described the woman cheating on her husband and getting pregnant by another man while married:
Along the way, the woman became interested in another sailor, a man who would later father her children... The two separated (her and her husband) as the new relationship began... Six months later, she was discharged from the service. .
Now, I ASK YOU, do you think if a man had been unfaithful to his wife and got another woman pregnant while married - does anyone think the Media would've described it like this?
They almost make it sound 'romantic'
.
Apparently...NOTHING is her fault...it all just happened TO her.....ugh!!!!
Democrat or Republican, because there is a double standard by which the BM crucifies or mollifies people.
Lawyers almost never speak in such a direct way about a case. It has to be a slam dunk.
Crystal is a slut. There is no nice way to put it.
Frankly, I'm happy back here, away from the whackos and people who get on threads like these to work out their personal issues.....
:-)
This is Scott Peterson in REVERSE.
Peterson had an affair while his wife was pregnant.
Justifiably, he was the scum of the earth. Nancy Grace wrote an e-mail saying she was going to invite Scott over and skin him, I'm told.
But, this woman. You can just feel for her. She was in love and what could she do. No judgement whatsoever.
.
Yep, ones first reaction to these attorney is boy are they going out on a limb. But when the DNA came back, I figured they knew what they were talking about. I bet they had the team all take polygraphs?
And they've been talking like this all along.
As I have said before, in all my years, I've never seen attorneys are furious as these guys are; so much so that the attorneys for the players who are not indicted are now going to work on behalf of these two boys.
It's going to be a bloodbath -- and I have no doubt who is going to be left standing.
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