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Posted on 05/11/2006 9:17:59 PM PDT by TexKat
DURHAM, N.C. -- A Duke lacrosse player whose DNA may match tissue found under the fake fingernails of an exotic dancer who claims she was raped was identified in a photo lineup with 90 percent certainty, sources tell NBC-17.
The Durham Herald-Sun reported Thursday tissue found under the accuser's acrylic fingernail came from the same genetic pool and was "consistent" with the bodily makeup of one of 46 lacrosse players who gave DNA samples for testing.
The paper cites several sources and said scientists also ruled out a possible match with any of the other 45 students, according to the sources.
If accurate, the fingernail tissue match would offer the first DNA evidence potentially linking the dancer and an alleged attacker.
But because a complete DNA pattern was not obtained from the tissue, it was not possible to match it with the nearly 100 percent certainty that DNA results usually offer, the sources added.
90 Percent Certainty
Now, NBC-17 has learned that the player is not one of the two already accused in the case -- Reade Seligmann, of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty, of Garden City, N.Y. He is, however, a player that the alleged rape victim picked out in a police lineup with 90 percent certainty.
The 27-year-old North Carolina Central University student told police she was beaten and raped by three lacrosse players while she performed at a March 13 team party. She said she clawed at the players in an effort to fight them off.
Never Applied?
Defense attorneys claim, however, that nothing about the reported possible DNA match means anything to the case if you look at the type of fingernails, where they were found, and if you look at a picture of the accuser's hand shortly after she arrived at the party.
According to defense attorneys, police found four stick-on acrylic fingernails in a trashcan at 610 Buchanan Street, the house where the party took place. The tissue connected to the possible DNA match was found under one of those fingernails.
But defense attorneys said the third player accused lived at the house and it is no surprise that trace amounts of his DNA could be found inside his own trashcan. They also said they don't believe the type of fingernails that were found -- the kind that are applied with an adhesive strip -- actually ripped off during an attack. They don't believe the fingernails were ever applied and they say they have pictures to prove it.
NBC-17 has seen a picture of the dancer's hand at the house when she performed her dance routine. It appears that long, fake fingernails were on some of her fingers in that photo, but not all of them.
Other photos show what defense lawyers believe is red fingernail polish on the walls of the house and on the railing outside the house. They believe the accuser was painting and applying her nails while at the party.
Defense attorneys admit that none of them have seen the DNA report the Herald Sun article is based upon, but they said if District Attorney Mike Nifong has the DNA report, their clients are entitled to see it.
Accuser's Father Responds
The accuser's father called reports of a DNA break in the case long overdue.
"I wasn't surprised to hear that. I feel like we should have learned it before," he said.
Kim Roberts, another dancer who performed at the party where the alleged attack took place, paid an emotional visit to the accuser's parents on Thursday.
"It was real emotional -- she was crying, my wife was crying. She said that she was sorry she left (outside) the house before my daughter did," the accuser's father said.
Authorities said they would know what the DNA shows by early next week.
Why wouldn't the presence of semen have been detected in the first DNA report the defense got? Cheshire acted as if this was news to him.
Do you think the owner of the found semen/DNA in her will ever be revealed?
Have they speculated about whose DNA it is? We still have three guys at the party whose name have not been mentioned or descriptions made, why? This is strange.
Post #854 - what does it mean? I'm lost on that one but think I'm caught up on the major stuff.
It was swell.
Maybe he was that young guy standing beside Butch Williams.
Yes, a reporette blurted out some name during the presser.
Nah. If its rich white boyz from Duke its a criminal case. If its a Durham city offical then its personal medical records.
Nifong even lied about when he got the report. He's a real SOB.
LOL..me too....better to be stuck here discussing lies, DNA; which could be snot or whatever on a crappy press on nail as told by a hooker/mother of the year; with a crooked DA, a lying press and rape femnazi's....yep...it's better here...ha.
I just hate it when I agree with Geoffrey.
me too, but he's been right on this case...in fact he thinks the defense lawyers should demand an immediate trial(their right) and I agree with him more than ever after tonights bombshells..
Did Cheshire say a player took the discarded nails out of the trash can and handed them to the police? Did the police ask them to do so?
Sure. Someone will leak it.
Cheshire also said that she IDed the 3rd guy with 90% certainity because at the time he had a mustache. The guy has never ever had a mustache. Nifong will apparently not tell the grand jury that tidbit.
He said they TOOK them to the DPD -- and I'm almost positive he said without being asked.
Nifong is stupid for waiting to prosecute this case. The more he waits...the more people will get nervous and begin to talk about all the little secrets that obviously exist in this case.....;)
Did you catch xoxoxox's posts?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?id=244442
I don't know about the mistress stuff.
UPDATED: 9:40 pm EDT May 12, 2006 RALEIGH, N.C. -- A second round of DNA testing in the Duke University lacrosse rape case came back with the same result as the first -- no conclusive match to any member of the team, defense attorneys said Friday.
Attorney Joseph Cheshire, who represents a team captain who has not been charged, said the tests showed genetic material from a "single male source" was found on a vaginal swab taken from the accuser, but that material did not match any of the players.
"In other words, it appears this woman had sex with a male," said Cheshire, who spoke at a news conference with other defense attorneys in the case. "It also appears with certainty it wasn't a Duke lacrosse player."
Cheshire said the testing did find some genetic material from several people on a plastic fingernail found in a bathroom trash can of the house where the team held the March 13 party. He said some of that material had the "same characteristics" -- a link short of a conclusive match -- to some of the players, but not the two who have charged with rape, kidnapping and sexual assault.
Two members of the team have been charged with raping a stripper hired to perform at the party.
The dancer, a 27-year-old black student at nearby North Carolina Central University, told police she was raped and beaten for a half-hour by three white men at the party. A grand jury has charged sophomores Reade Seligmann, of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty, of Garden City, N.Y., with rape, kidnapping and sexual assault.
Defense attorneys have strongly proclaimed that all the players are innocent, consistently pointing to an initial round of DNA tests they said found no match between the 46 players tested and the accuser.
District Attorney Mike Nifong did not immediately return a call to his home seeking comment Friday night.
After the first round of tests came back without a match, Nifong said that in 75 to 80 percent of all sexual assault cases, there is no DNA evidence.
"We had to deal with sexual assault cases the good old-fashioned way. Witnesses got on the stand and told what happened to them," he said.
Cheshire said the fact that the players turned over the fingernail shows they had nothing to hide.
"Is that consistent with someone that knowledgeably and knowingly committed a rape?" Cheshire said. "That they would leave fingernails that were ripped off a person in a violent struggle in their trash can after they're told there's an investigation and that police were going to come to their house, and when the police do, they give them the fingernails?"
The "single male source" who matched the genetic material found on the vaginal swab take from the victim is named in the report on the second round of DNA results, and "is known to the Durham police department," Cheshire said. He declined to give the man's name or comment on his relationship with the accuser.
"There is no indication that this man should have his name dragged through the mud," he said.
What I recall from the presser is the LAX players put the nails in the trash, later taking them out of the trash and giving them to the police after they players knew about the allegations.
"You noticed that also! I wonder what the f,,hell!"
Yeah, the good ol' press was sharpening the guillotine blade, or looking for a nice tree.......
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