Posted on 04/21/2006 12:56:01 AM PDT by OakOak
Edited on 04/21/2006 2:52:00 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
At first, a stripper who performed at a Duke University lacrosse team party doubted the story of a colleague who told police she was dragged into a bathroom and raped.
Now, Kim Roberts isn't so sure.
"I was not in the bathroom when it happened, so I can't say a rape occurred - and I never will," Roberts told The Associated Press Thursday in her first on-the-record interview. But after watching defense attorneys release photos of the accuser, and upset by the leaking of both dancers' criminal pasts, she said she has to "wonder about their character."
"In all honesty, I think they're guilty," she said. "And I can't say which ones are guilty ... but somebody did something besides underage drinking. That's my honest-to-God impression."
Attorneys for the 46 players have aggressively proclaimed the players' innocence, citing DNA tests during a public campaign that has included describing and releasing photos from the party.
Those photos, the defense maintains, show the accuser was both injured and impaired when she arrived, and also support the claim that one of the two players who has been indicted would not have had enough time to participate in any assault before he left the party. The district attorney has said he also hopes to charge a third suspect in the case.
The attorneys claim Roberts at first told a member of the defense team that she did not believe the accuser's allegations. They say she has changed her story to gain favorable treatment in a criminal case against her. They note she also e-mailed a New York public relations firm, asking in her letter for advice on "how to spin this to my advantage."
"We believe ... her story has been motivated by her own self-interest," said attorney Bill Thomas, who represents one of the uncharged players. "I think that a jury will ultimately have to decide the question of her credibility."
Roberts, 31, was arrested on March 22 - eight days after the party - on a probation violation from a 2001 conviction for embezzling $25,000 from a photofinishing company in Durham where she was a payroll specialist, according to documents obtained by the AP.
On Monday, the same day a grand jury indicted lacrosse players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, a judge agreed to a change so that Roberts would no longer have to pay a 15 percent fee to a bonding agent. District Attorney Mike Nifong signed a document saying he would not oppose the change.
"It seems she is receiving very favorable financial treatment for what she is now saying," Thomas said.
Mark Simeon, Roberts' attorney, said the bond conditions were changed because Roberts is not considered a flight risk. Nifong, who hasn't spoken with reporters about the case in weeks, didn't return a call seeking comment.
Roberts' testimony could be vital during any trial of the two sophomores, indicted on charges of first-degree rape, sexual offense and kidnapping.
Other than lacrosse players and the accuser, a 27-year-old student at a nearby university, Roberts is believed to be the only other person at the March 13 party.
Roberts said Thursday she does not remember Seligmann's face, but said she recalls seeing Finnerty - whom she described as the "little skinny one."
"I was looking him right in the eyes," she said.
Although she would not talk extensively about the party, she confirmed some of what the other dancer told police - including that the women initially left the party after one of the players threatened to sodomize the women with a broomstick.
The players' attorneys have said their clients were angry and demanded a refund when the women stopped dancing, but Roberts disputed that.
"They ripped themselves off when they started hollering about a broomstick," she said.
The accuser told police that the women were coaxed back into the house with an apology, at which point they were separated. That's when she said she was dragged into a bathroom and raped, beaten and choked for a half hour.
Later, police received a 911 call from a woman complaining that she had been called racial slurs by white men gathered outside the home where the party took place. The defense has said it believes the second dancer at the party made that call.
Roberts then drove the accuser - whom she reportedly had just met that night - to a grocery store and asked a security guard to call 911. The accuser was described later by a police officer as "just passed-out drunk."
The defense timeline is backed up by a cab driver who said Seligmann called for a ride at 12:14 a.m., and was picked up five minutes later. The defense argues that if the dancers were performing around midnight, Seligmann would not have had enough time to participate in the 30-minute assault described by the accuser.
The cabbie, Moez Mostafa, also said he saw a woman leaving the party in anger, and overheard someone say, "She just a stripper. She's going to call the police."
"She looked, like, mad," he said of the woman. "In her face, the way she walked, the way she talked, she looked like mad."
On Thursday, authorities released warrants detailing their search earlier this week of Finnerty's dorm room. Seized during the search were a newspaper article and an envelope addressed to Finnerty.
Also Thursday, 5W Public Relations, a New York firm that specializes in "crisis communication," distributed an e-mail signed "The 2nd Dancer," and Roberts confirmed she sent it after learning the AP knew her identity.
"I've found myself in the center of one of the biggest stories in the country," she wrote. "I'm worried about letting this opportunity pass me by without making the best of it and was wondering if you had any advice as to how to spin this to my advantage."
Ronn Torossian, 5W's president, said he replied, but got no response.
"If this person is indeed who they say they are, I would be happy to speak with her," said Torossian, whose firm has represented the likes of Sean "Diddy" Combs, Ice Cube and Lil' Kim.
Roberts, like the accuser a divorced single mother who is black, took umbrage at the notion that she should not try to make something out of her experience. She's worried that once her name and criminal record are public, no one will want to hire her.
"Why shouldn't I profit from it?" she asked. "I didn't ask to be in this position ... I would like to feed my daughter."
Roberts is bracing for an all-out attack, but said she's almost past caring.
"Don't forget that they called me a damn n####," she said. "She (the accuser) was passed out in the car. She doesn't know what she was called. I was called that. I can never forget that."
Roberts, 31, was arrested on March 22 - eight days after the party - on a probation violation from a 2001 conviction for embezzling $25,000 from a photofinishing company in Durham where she was a payroll specialist, according to documents obtained by the AP.
Doubt it. This guy gets sworn in and on the stand, he's telling the whole truth. He will NOT risk perjury charges in any way, shape or form just because he's annoyed at his neighbors (who have since moved out).
See the article in post 139.
You might be surprised at the number of people who perjure themselves in small ways. Rarely is anything ever done about it. The thing with Bissey is, though, that he's on record saying a lot of things.
So, did the cabbie pull up in front of the house, or did her pick the guys up two blocks away? The reason that's important is that supposedly the cabbie saw a woman (Kim) coming from the side of the house wearing regular clothes, so she must have changed.
I heard about that part-missed the replay. What did the producer say or do?
His picture is here as well as his saying that after the apology that BOTH women reentered the house.
"The Media will NEVER be satisfied the boys didn't do this. They just won't."
And the media/DA have just created a few potential rascists. At minimum the team members are bound to go through life prejudging certain people.
Former homicide detective Rod Wheeler, who has spoken with investigators in Durham, cast doubt on the prosecution's case. "The police do not think the credibility of the alleged victim is very high. Police have been unable to corroborate many of the things she said and witnesses say the young woman was intoxicated the entire time, which shoots her credibility right out of the sky."
This is from O'Reilly on Wednesday night.
Mostafa picked up Seligmann and another man at 12:19 a.m., at the southwest corner of Watts and Urban streets, a block from the party
snip
While driving Seligmann home, Mostafa received a call at 12:29 a.m. from the cell phone of lacrosse player Tony McDevitt, requesting another ride from the party, the records show.
Mostafa, whose account appeared initially on national television and in The Herald-Sun, said that when he pulled up again in front of 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. some men were in the front yard and others were across the street and along the stone wall that rings Duke's East Campus.
"....to send kids with open container violations to Jail for 16-20 years?"
If this prosecution is successful, then it will result in a death sentence. These guys won't survive in any prison.
I'm thinking about all this. I'm thinking about also Kathleen Parker's article today by which she is defending FOR the rape shield laws.
IF the rape shield laws had NOT BEEN IN PLACE, the "trial by media" would have been far more honest. The Duke Boys wouldn't have been given an "unfair" trial in the media, but that's not true either. "Male" media figures would have known better than to have even remotely "commented" upon the past histories of the strippers.
And this is where the Feminists and Nifong factor in the "truth to power" on their side, IMHO.
Now that the past history of Kim is public, it's going to be used as a spear against any MALE public figure to speak "negatively" about the strippers.
Rape shield laws hobble honest debate. I've thought long and hard about Mrs Parker's point, about nuns, and innocents needing protecting against a "public".
Rape is a crime. It's not the "holy grail". So, yes, I beg to differ with her argumentation on this point.
Rape shield laws serve moreso to protect unlawful behaviors, than protect the innocent who are raped. It wasn't too hard for Freepers with a connection to get more data about the "allegations" and the accusers than the MSM. It's the MSM who need the "rape shield laws", ime.
Why is rape more "special" than identity theft, murder, etc.? Already, as David Limbaugh has penned today, and gay professors are trying to use "harassment" laws against a freedom loving, non-censorship person. You know what's got to be next... "SODOMY shield laws".
Besides, will there also be rape "shield" laws for those companies whose employees steal the identity of innocents? I mean, it like really makes the companies open to all sorts of "public" hostilities. Is that fair to the company and the people who employee that company? No.
He referred to Seligman by his first name - she blew up at that, implying he was humanizing one of the alleged perps. Also, the producer showed pics and assessed values of their parents homes. She didn't like that either because it showed they could hire as many lawywers as they needed to beat the rap...
Okay, thanks. What time did the cabbie drop Reade off? Reade opened his door at 12:46, so Mostafa dropped him off at maybe ...... 12:40? Got back to the house as Kim was coming out...........now I don't understand.
If Mostafa picked Reade up at 12:19, they're at the ATM 12:24, they go to the drive-thru, then back to the dorms. So, 16 minutes to go through the drive-thru and get to Duke where he drops Reade off.....at what time? There's a picture of Mangum being put in the car at 12:41, and Kim was already in the car, yet Mostafa saw Kim coming from the side of the house mad as he!! PRIOR TO THAT????
I wonder if the women didn't drive off right away. I wonder if Kim asked Mangum if she had her money. Maybe Mangum said "no", so Kim went back to demand it, and got really mad when they told her to hit the road, and that's when the words and name-calling occurred........and THAT'S what Mostafa saw?
I talked to a small, local media guy and he said that after Kim had her interview with the AP, a couple small local stations asked her a couple of questions when she was departing and he said she became contentious and got in a reporter's face.
It seems she brought up her "criminal past" during the interview with the big boys and a small-time reporter asked her, have you changed the way you live? Anyway, she took major offense to that question.
I guess they wanted to be able to quote her as saying she's changed or a different person, but she took it wrong and got pissed.
.
Well his first statement that he thought the two women arrived together contradicts what both the strippers and the defense are saying.
Frankly it sounds like he is not paying the closest attention and is assuming that both women are generally coming and going into and out of the house together.
And he may not in fact have as good a view of the back as he does of the front and alley.
Once under oath, and with the national news media hanging on his every word of testimony, I predict he will be much more careful in what he says he definitely saw versus what he is not certain of.
This guy is definitely lying. He says "And at that point, the young women were coming back out of the house, getting into the car and driving away" as if they just stroll back to the car. But at that point, Mangum is comatose and needs to be carried to the car. I don't trust anything he says. He probably saw her statement and wants to help out.
It is horrible that race is an issue here, but the DA and the Media have made it that way. The DA is going after these WHITE BOYS with such a vengence because he involved in an election of which the constituency is 46% black and he's the lone White guy running against a woman and a black man.
Rich white boys vs. poor, single mom, Navy vet, fulltime student.
Should be:
Immature college boys vs. adulterer, carjacker, stripper, hooker, waste case.
Bissey also says they arrived together
Makes one wonder if that was a cigarette Bissey said he was smoking outside the house.
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