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.
If just a year old photo can change so much than just the fact that the lacrosse team team had a druken party with a stripper should ruin these college students
No. It should not "ruin" these college students. We have a travesty of justice going on. Take up your problem with your High School's Prom in a separate thread, okay?
Preventing someone from attending their HS Prom is, shall we say, REALLY REALLY different from a FALSE ACCUSATION ruining the lives of some males who are innocent of rape.
Ya wanna talk morals? Be fair. Let's talk about the stripper's morals.
I think what the HS has done a hard thing, but appropriate. So, do you think the kids caught with 1 year old photos of them holding beer cans are going to be scarred for life? A false accusation?
You are presenting a false argument.
The word gay is used for so many things, like, "Why don't you go to the library and study." "No, thats soooo gay."
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE THAT ANY OF THESE BOYS LAID A HAND ON HER!!!!!!! NO means NO means NO does not apply here!
it astounds me the number of freepers who appear incapable of separating out IMMORALITY (or what they perceive as immorality) from CRIMINALITY. Just because you may be outraged by underage drinking and strippers, gives you no right to condone a false accusation of rape as a consequence fit to RUIN young men whose morality you disdain. well i suppose you DO have that right, this being a free country and all. but it also reflects on what sort of person you may be.
The ONLY illegal thing that went on at the party was the underage drinking.
I think I found my suggestion for a candidate to replace Scott McClellan.
The Duke players will be exhonerated, there will always be people who no matter what will always prefer to see them as guilty because they're white. I believe there are still alot of people out there with a functioning brain that will see this for what it was. In the long run I hope its Dukes reputation that will take longer get back. The behavior of the administration and a good number of the faculty has been horrible. Scholarship or not my kid wouldn't go there. BTW, my son DREAMS of playing for Coach K.
My son was thinking of Duke, no way I'd let him go to a school so willing to string up the students.
These boys have been stabbed in the back more from the school than the town.
There are two rape timelines- the extended periods when no pictures were being taken. The first started when the two strippers stopped dancing and locked themselves in the bathroom. At some point, Kim left and apparently went out to her car. The important point here- how long were Kim and Crystal in the bathroom together? If they were together for 5 minutes, that means the rape took 22 minutes. If they were together 10 minutes, that mean the rape had to happen in 17 minutes. Was there enough time for three guy to put on condoms, take her clothes off, rape her three different ways, put her clothes back on and send her outside. The second timelime starts when Crystal is standing on the porch looking in her purse. Seven minutes later we see her lying on the steps. The important point here- did she go back in the house in those seven minutes. If so, again, was there enough time for three guys to rape her three different ways and put her clothes back on.
Does anybody have a link to the editorial the President and the 90 professors wrote in the student paper? The student interviewed last night on O'Reilly was really hot over it.
Duke is a great environment for student athletes of all sexes and colors. This will eventually blow over.
Also, after the "rape", she put on fresh nail polish (which smeared on the railing when she fell).
Krankor ..
According to Abrams, whom reviewed the pictures personally, it's logical to assume there was only, at most a 7 minute window. This is because of the picture of the woman smiling does NOT comport with the description of the event. She was within minutes of death, she was fighting for her life and she ran out of there and left her shoe, purse, money and the fingernails she lost fighting off her attackers.
The window HAS to be AFTER the SMILE.
Thanks
This is an article about the cab driver who alibi's Seligmann.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=1864425&page=1
It may well blow over but there should be hell to pay over the way the administration has handled this whole thing.
My children (8 & 9) will NOT attend Duke if I have any say in it when the time comes. Of course my son is a football/baseball player - Duke is not exactly a power. My girl will probably play for Pat Summitt one day (she wants to have a career working with animals, and although Duke and TN are women's basketball powerhouses, something tells me Duke doesn't have much of an animal husbandry program) :)
Are you keeping a ping list for this? If so, please put me on it.
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