Posted on 04/23/2006 8:52:59 AM PDT by TexKat
DURHAM -- Results from the second round of DNA tests in connection with the Duke lacrosse rape investigation will not likely be available before May 15, District Attorney Mike Nifong said Saturday.
Nifong also denied an allegation by some defense attorneys that the second exotic dancer at the March 13 party where the rape allegedly occurred received special treatment from Nifong's office so she'd cooperate with the prosecutor.
Kim Roberts, 31, was arrested March 22 -- eight days after the lacrosse party -- on a probation violation from a 2001 conviction for embezzling $25,000.
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. Nifong signed a document saying he would not oppose the change.
Soon after the rape allegation was made, Roberts told defense attorneys that she doubted the story of her colleague who told police she was dragged into a bathroom and raped. But in an interview last week with the Associated Press, Roberts said she thinks some players -- she's not sure which ones -- are guilty.
"It seems she is receiving very favorable financial treatment [from prosecutors] for what she is now saying," said Bill Thomas, a defense attorney for one of the lacrosse players who has not been indicted.
Nifong said Saturday that wasn't his motive in agreeing to change Roberts' bond from secured to unsecured.
"It's consistent with local bonding policy," Nifong said, when asked why he supported the change.
Nifong, who faces two challengers in the May 2 Democratic primary, attended a meet-and-greet with supporters Saturday at Joe & Jo's Downtown Restaurant and Pub, where he fielded a few questions from The Herald-Sun.
Nifong ordered the second round of DNA tests from a private lab after initial tests by the SBI crime lab in Raleigh failed to find DNA from any of 46 lacrosse players tested on or in the accuser, nor any of her DNA in the bathroom in which she said she was raped, sodomized, beaten and strangled for 30 minutes by three men.
Some defense attorneys had said they expected the new DNA test results last week.
Nifong, a white man who is running for election in a racially mixed county, hinted to NEWSWEEK that blood and urine tests of the woman would reveal the presence of a date-rape drug.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12442765/site/newsweek/
Some info in this article I never heard before...and some of the "facts" are wrong.
defense lawyer Bill Thomas told NEWSWEEK that in the first round some DNA showed up under the woman's fingernails, though tests were inconclusive about identity.
I didn't know this....maybe this is why the re-test is being done?
Well you know, if Mangum and Roberts had been sitting in the car with the engine running to keep warm (they had on nearly no clothes), he could have come out of his house and seen them turn off the car and get out and simply inferred that they had just driven up without actually seeing the car in motion.
If he had a tox report that helped his case, he'd have leaked it long ago. He's getting killed in the PR part of the case, which, IMO is more important than the legal part...
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True. Maybe he actually kept something secret from the press.
I will bet however, the TOX report will show some type of drug, and that's why NiFong won't let go of this case.
Even though people take drugs on their own, and there is no DNA, and the accused appear to have alibis.
Doesn't matter, Nifong is hanging on the medical tests with all hope.
Yes, the defense was very clear and I tend to believe them since I believe the lacrosse players vs. the stripper.
And regarding the date rape drug, if tox tests showed that such a drug had been used, I'm virtually certain Nifong would have found a way to leak it to the press to bolster his extremely weak case.
Sounds like Newsweeks words.
I could be wrong though.
I am sure the dna did not match any of the players.
However, there is still the matter of the other two people who were not members of lax team. The defense said that the DNA did not match any members. This would technically correct.
There were two people at the party who weren't members lf the lacrosse team? I wonder why their photographs weren't shown to the stripper.
What we have here is exactly what it looks like. Nifong's dug himself in too deep to back out. He read his own press clippings early on and talked himself into a dead end alley. Human nature is such that he cannot admit he screwed up. He'll ride it down into the ground...
Just like the DBM knows exactly why its circulation and viewership is declining. Deep, deep down they know. Oh yes, they know. But they'd rather wreck their companies and go out of business before admitting wrong.
Business history is chock full of examples of this happening...
On Tuesday, an attorney for The Herald-Sun questioned both Stephens and Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Orlando F. Hudson about the sealed warrant. The attorney told Stephens he planned to challenge the sealing in court Wednesday on the newspaper's behalf. Stephens then decided to unseal the warrant Wednesday morning.
I would imagine that the Herald-Sun got their information from a source, that source probably being someone familiar with the prosecution's case as it did nothing to help the players in the court of public opinion.
Sorry, I couldn't link to the story because it is no longer available.
yes that's what I found out after tracing back.
"At least one constitutional scholar, Durham attorney Thomas Loflin, says the DA may have to do without his DNA evidence anyway, especially if it confirms three suspects in the brutal assault.
Loflin says the non-testimonial order issued by a Superior Court judge compelling 46 lacrosse team members to give samples violated the North Carolina Constitution and the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution because it failed to identify specific suspects.
Anyone who gave a DNA sample to the police other than the three suspects the alleged victim claims raped and brutalized her, had their constitutional rights violated because the police failed to prove “reasonable cause” when 46 team members were tested en masse, Loflin says."
My question is where have you read that two people were at the party who weren't member of the lacrosse team.
I meant to say also - I don't need a link, just confirmation that you've read people not on the team were at the party.
And that really would surprise me because I'd think Nifong would have compelled them to provide DNA too.
Not doubting you, just not getting why Nifong excluded them from the lineup and photo id.
I'd never heard that before; thanks for posting that.
I will say this: I think Nifong is lying. Ask yourself why Nifong didn't get DNA or a photo lineup of those alleged (hehehe) two people who weren't members of the lacrosse team. It makes no sense. I think he's lying and used that excuse of two others outside the team as being at the party to cover himself should the DNA come back negative. Which it did.
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