Lacrosse players face old charges (Nifong retaliates against Duke Lax)

DURHAM - District Attorney Mike Nifong plans to reinstate misdemeanor charges against a half-dozen Duke lacrosse players, saying a March 13 party where a woman reported a rape broke the deals that the players made with prosecutors.

Nifong's decision could affect players who, before the party, had entered agreements in which prosecutors would dismiss the cases if the players performed community service and stayed out of trouble for six months or a year. Among the first to have his charges reinstated was David Evans, one of the team captains who lived at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., the site of the party in which lacrosse players hired two women from escort services to dance. One of the women told police that she was raped by three men in a bathroom.

Two players, Collin Finnerty, 19, and Reade William Seligmann, 20, were charged last week with first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and first-degree kidnapping. Their attorneys say the men are innocent.

On Monday, an attorney for Seligmann filed a motion seeking information that would help attack the credibility of the woman, the only person, according to the defense filing, who says a rape occurred. The motion seeks information about the woman, including criminal charges, mental and emotional problems the woman has suffered as well as social services, probation, child protective services and victim's advocacy records.

Today, Finnerty is due in a Washington court where prosecutors in an assault charge are considering whether to revoke a deferred prosecution agreement similar to those affecting other players in Durham.

According to court records, 16 players were charged in the past three years with misdemeanor charges in Durham including noise violations, public urination and alcohol violations. The deals placed the men on probation for either six months or a year.

In other Durham NC news:

Man shot and killed in East Durham

A man riding home from work was shot to death in East Durham early this morning, according to police.

The 44-year-old man was riding with a co-worker on Fairfax Road just before 3 a.m. when a large, light-colored car came up from behind and began flashing its headlights, police said.

When the two workers pulled over, a woman approached the driver's side, while a man carrying a shotgun came up on the passenger's side and fired through the window, police said.

The driver, who was not hurt, drove the victim to a nearby Circle K convenience store on North Miami Boulevard and called for help. The victim was taken to Duke University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police have not released his name or any other information about him.

Investigators do not know the motive for the shooting.

Has this been posted?

Transcript from Abrams, Kim AP interview excerpt:

'The Abrams Report' for April 24
Read the transcript to the Monday show

(snip)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM ROBERTS, DANCER AT DUKE LACROSSE PARTY: I was there from the beginning to the end. The only thing I did not see was the rape, because I was not in the bathroom at that particular moment. Everything leading up to it I was there, everything leading from it I was there, and mind you, I believe I was the only sober person in the place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For them to say there‘s something wrong because she didn‘t tell the police until later that she had been raped.

ROBERTS: If you could have seen her there, it makes perfect sense to me. Because she—I don‘t even want to go into it. She was definitely out of it. It was hard to see. When the police got there, it was hard to see. I felt very guilty and bad at that moment. In hindsight, I look back and I don‘t even know how to feel about the fact that if something horrible did happen to her in that house and I was right there and I didn‘t help her, you don‘t know what that does to me. I‘m the one who has to live with that. My job is not to figure out if they are guilty or innocent, you know. Because my opinion has changed, the facts of the story will never change. The facts will never change, ever, ever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(snip)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Then they say they slipped a $100 bill under the door.

That‘s such a...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

ROBERTS: Under the bathroom door is what I heard. Lie, turkey (ph) lie, ain‘t going to go into it, turkey (ph) lie. They also said fingernails were painted while we were in the bathroom. I never—all I can say is I never saw any fingernails painted. Never saw it, that‘s all I can say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you go into the bathroom at all?

ROBERTS: (INAUDIBLE) I‘m not going to talk about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(snip)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: They say she was visibly intoxicated when she arrived. Everybody has heard that. Hasn‘t everybody heard that? She was visibly intoxicated when she arrived and the pictures will prove it. The pictures will prove she was visibly intoxicated when she arrived. Where is it? Where is the proof? Another lie.

I was basically told by somebody who actually saw the pictures before I actually saw the pictures myself that she looked at them and saw no bruises. Well I mean, I don‘t know what a bruise is to you, but you know I fell down and you know I scraped my knees here. I don‘t know if they would consider that a bruise, you know what I mean? So—and she saw nothing of the sort, so another lie that they were caught in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12480621/

The goal posts are moving around again as the emotionally invested in guilt come up with new ideas and theories as the old ones are destroyed by the evidence.
As to the date rape drug and its devasting impact please not the following:

Megan's report is based on the Newsweek article where Nifong is reported to have hinted to a date rape drug. The actual Newsweek reporter on Greta last night revealed that the hint was a reference to Kim's testimony change regarding the demeanor of the AV noted by Kim. So this is nothing new, just the discredited Kim.

Even if a date rape drug were found in her system by the tox screen-and believe me when Nifong was in publicity hound mode he would have been talking about this for days, there is no proof that the Duke defendants gave it to her. No drugs, no witness, no confession, nada, zilch. How can you charge some one with admistering a date rape drug when your only evidence of who did it is the statement of a discredited witness who only noted the AV was a lot more intoxicated at the end of the party than at the beginning.
Lack of DNA blew this case sky high, everything else is goal post moving.

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