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. That's the most complete timeline of seen matching Seligmann's activities to the photo evidence. As far as he is concerned, case closed. He didn't rape that woman.
One thing I forgot to mention is that the lacrosse team's collective behavior had previously come to the attention of school authorities, and the university president had previously told the coach to clean it up. Apparently, he didn't, and this was the last straw. So it wasn't quite as simple as I first thought, that the program was dumped solely on the basis of this one incident.
After that DC detective's interview on BO last night, I have a feeling that Durham Police already know quite a bit about this woman.
The detective said that the police know where she was earlier in the evening and that she had been intoxicated before the party.
The more I think of this, instead of saying "No deal for players" the attorneys should be saying "No deal for prosecutor to get out of his bind"
Also, the fact that the Durham police are leaking to the detective tells us they aren't comfortable with the whole thing. They had to know he was going to appear on BO's show...
I said days ago dropping the charges will never be enough for these boys and their families; and the lawyers are furious -- they're as mad as any attorneys I've seen in all my days in court.
Could you please put me on your ping list?
Thanks. And hopefully, we will be able to view those warrants soon. But I was wondering if anyone knew if all previous warrants had been unsealed. Was the McFayden warrant the only one sealed and then later unsealed or were there more?
It was me. It was a TV interview at the NCCU hate fest. However, I'm not sure it was the C.O.P. See here for some links about that
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1615023/posts?page=146#146 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1615023/posts?page=44#44
That detective also stated that NOTHING SHE HAS SAID REGARDING THAT EVENING CHECKS OUT, and as far as they were concerned she has VERY LITTLE CREDIBILITY.
Duham PD knows where this is going and they don't want to be hit when the sh!t hits the fan.
Maybe links are goofed up:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1615023/posts?page=146#146
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1615023/posts?page=44#44
Sure.
You would judge them so? Fit for ruin over a single dalience? You're scales are crooked.
And NO means NO means NO! IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO OR WHAT A PERSON HAS DONE IN THE PAST! If the stripper said NO the guys should have backed off.
They will prove their innocence at trial, though it is shameful that they must.
Do you think there's any signifigance that they leaked to a black detective?
FWIW, I think that's very significant. They don't want to be in the way when the tree falls...
It is absolutely frightening to me that a DA, elected to be an advocate for the people of the community would do such a horrible thing for personal gain. He is blind with ambition. Hopefully more than 50% of Durham is sane and show up to get rid of this guy. BTW, are there any comments regarding this from 2 running against him?
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