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.
I don't know how he would know that to supply it.
He watched them all the time and when he wasn't, his wife did.
They had a running feud going. Bissey admits that. His wife said that they had written the School, the City, the previous owner about having a (defacto) Frat house like that in a residential neighborhood.
You can see how the curtains and yard looked. It looked REAL bad.
how do 3 boys rape someone in what was probaley a bathroom size of 3x4 space left when you take into account the tub,toilet and sink; did they suspend her from the light with a rope and twirl her around, alternating vaginally and anally raping her.
Anyone that works at Pop's grilling hamburgers would Detest these student-athletes with no money problems, for the most part.
On her arrival Crystal could have gotten into Kim's car to plan ....their "dance" routines? Renewal of old acquaintance? Comparisons/notes about past "customers" or their agencies? Possibilities at THIS appointment? Other?
Bissey has studied, and graduated, to be a chef: He likes to cook things up.
I think the RACE and SEXISM issues are HUGE in this case.
Frankly, I wouldn't be all that interested in this case if it was that, say, three white men in the Georgetown University Gay Society are falsely accused of molesting a white male stripper ordered from Barney Frank's basement.
But this case has the same political importance as Tawana Brawley, because it has the potential that a portion of the black community will have their eyes opened and begin to see the race hustlers for who they are, from the local Durham variety all the way up to Sharpton, Jackson, et al. That the power of these people rests on LIES and MANIPULATION. The MSM will want this case to go away once it becomes undeniable the lacrosse players were falsely accused. That's why it's important to pound the facts home continuously, the black community needs to face the truth about these race hustlers who are their self-appointed leaders and keep them emotionally tied to the Rat party.
And this case presents similar opportunities to discredit:
-- the radical left-wing faculties at universities like Duke who use their positions to propagate their anti-American political agendas and undermine traditional values and morality
-- the feminazis who manage to unfairly stack the legal system against men in sexual assault, paternity, custody, etc. cases.
... and orally.
figures..
Bissey also studied art history and his religion is given as Taoist. Is he single or married? 2 different accounts.
Glad that person lost their run for office.
This is getting sicker and sicker. First of all, I think Kim ripped off Crystal, then tried to dump her at Kroger's. Now that I've seen she was convicted of stealing 25k.
Now, she's trying to hire a public relations firm to cash in. This world has gone to hell. Community service? Martha Stewart did more time than that for a "crime" that should have qualified for probation/community service.
Not even good alibis are shutting up the howling, racebaiting moonbats! The guys seem to have good lawyers, and I hope they have something up their sleeves.
And whoa, Jason outta get a load of some of the "forced" section 8 houses in "good neighborhoods" since he's so touchy on the score of "how" appearances matter.
Like I said, I'm just looking and poking around the edges...
I read an interview given by Bissey's male housemate, so I don't think he's married.
Kim is definitely motivated by money.. I think she took the $800.00. She see's a woman almost passed out, with her background, if she see's an opportunity she's going to take it.
As far as Bissey.. I don't the transcript from what he told Rita Cosby.. I thought he said the arrived together.. Did he NOT? I do know this because I Tivo'd it and watched this VERY carefully. He said BOTH women went back into the house - he did NOT say one went back in.. which would lend itself to the prosecution's theory. I KNOW he told RITA both women went back into the house after one player encouraged them to come back in.
The guy on Cosby .. he said his WIFE? and then I thought she gave a separate interview the next night.
It's why I began asking questions about Bissey. But maybe, he was once single (one story) and is now married (two stories). Secondarily, I do come from a state in which the subculture worships at the throne of S&M parlors, group sex, intermarriage swapping, "keeping gay bathouses OPEN when the AIDS epidemic was first really notice, and the bathhouses were the biggest single place by which AIDS/HIV was being spread", etc.
Yeah.. it's in that comment sections where someone posts about coming over for a pajama party.
Bissey, 26, and his roommate, Derek Anderson, 23
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:p1ZAsOHzbfwJ:www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/ny-spduke0331,0,5098976.story%3Fcoll%3Dsfla-sports-front+%22Jason+Bissey%22+roommate&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a
Interview with Bissey's housemate:
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A30033
"Now, she's trying to hire a public relations firm to cash in."
On the basis of an email? That could have been you who sent that email to the PR firm.
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