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.
Yep, that FNC hostess was worried this story would slip through their fingers. HE MUST HAVE SOMETHING MORE.
I would like to be their and say to her, he does have something more you twit, a primary election.
Showing my ignorance, or naivete, here. Does someone who has taken the "date rape" drug remember? I thought there was no memory of events? Did I dream that? (haha) No joke intended....
I read it as well Peach. There were two people at the party other than Lacrosse players.
I wonder why; it just makes no sense. Unless they were black and then could be immediately eliminated.
I think I must have gone over to the dark side.....I was cheering Mickie Sherman, and I can't stand him under normal circumstances.
Someone pinch me!!
"According to a University of Florida drug hotline, "Roofies" are often combined with alcohol, marijuana, or cocaine to produce a rapid and very dramatic "high". Even when used by itself, users can appear extremely intoxicated, with slurred speech, no coordination, swaying, and blood-shot eyes...with no odor of alcohol. The drug has been added to punch and other drinks at fraternity parties and college social gatherings, where it is reportedly given to female party participants in hopes of lowered inhibitions and facilitating potential sexual conquest. Police departments in several parts of the country say that after ingestion of "Roofies" that several young women have reported waking up in frat houses with no clothes on, finding themselves in unfamiliar surroundings with unfamiliar people, or having actually been sexually assaulted while under the influence of the drug. "
http://www.emergency.com/roofies.htm
I understand that you are correct -- date rape drugs are amnesiacs. That is the point, the victim gets loopy and cannot remember what happened. Personally, any dirtball using them should go to prison for a long time. We are all speculating for a rational explanation for why Nifong is taking illogical and seemingly indefensible positions. There may not be a rational explanation, other than he let his rhetoric get ahead of the evidence and found himself in a position where he had to indict for political reasons.
If either of those indicted are acquitted or charges dismissed, the whole case is dead. At this point, Nifong will make a judge dismiss the charges. This gets more interesting if Nifong is bounced out of office.
How much contact does it take to have another's dna under one's fingernails? If fingernails were missing in the early photos, I have to wonder why. Seems odd to show up "for work" in that condition. So, did some type of contact take place either before or in the early stages of the "dance" that might have caused loss of nails/gain of dna? I would really like to have a sample of Kimmy's dna to test against.
Here's a possible scenario for the future. And this is only my speculatio, FWIW.
Nifong knows the defense can't let this ever get to jury deliberation. A Durham jury could convict, no matter the exculpatory evidence.
Thererefore, the defense will challenge every thing it can up front: linesup, evidence admissability, etc. But all this takes time and in the meanwhile theres no resolution. I.E. they're guility until proved innocent.
Assuming Nifong can get past May 2, he's still DA and in the spotlight. If the case is thrown out on technicality, he can say he was outspent on lawyers and can salvage his career.
What about civil suits by the allege perps against the DA, Durham, etc? By the time it gets to that, they may be too tired of it all and want it just go away.
What say y'all?
I'm trying to catch up tonight....I saw the Newsweek reporterette saying that there may be a date rape drup...then Micky Sherman hit it out of the park imho.....I am curious about these so-called tox reports.....
I don't know either, but I think you raise a good point and think you are right. Date rape drugs are usually reported as causing people not to remember what happened to them.
If this were a reasonable case invovling a date rape drug:
1. Name calling would not enter the matter.
2. The victim would not remember specifically but would have a vague feeling of something bad had happened.
3. Her coworker would remember as she did not drink her drink and would be the ID witness not the one claiming something bad happened but I don't know by whom.
4. There would be no story of fighting and scratching at rapists.
Who's Jason?
I am curious about these so-called tox reports.....
________________________________________________
I am too, but one reason he might not have leaked them is that the strippers showed evidence of usage of grass, crack and some date rape drug? How will that play on the stand?
I would really like to have a sample of Kimmy's dna to test against.
Well you can go collect it. I ain't touchin' her.
Jason Bissey, the neighbor who says he saw the women come and go, as well as overheard the racial slurs.
It's too bad this 2nd stripper didn't have a tox test done on her that night.....I'm sure if any of those tox tests come back positive for any drug, it will be blamed on the boys...
I must admit that I have had the thought that everyone involved would wish it would "just go away." (Well, maybe not Kimmie.) You said earlier, " 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..." I think that goes for AV, too. In an effort to protect herself from..who knows what...she concocted the story. Nifong, opportunistic jerk that he seems, ran with it. Kimmy found a way to possibly cash in. What a mess.
As reality has hit, the question is how to best extricate oneself from the mess. Concerned about the backlash once the case is dismissed, as someone earlier mentioned, the prudent thing to do is to wait until the semester is over (although, summer school students will still be around).
Meanwhile, the players get royally scr***d.
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