Posted on 05/15/2006 7:14:12 AM PDT by pissant
DURHAM - A Durham grand jury is scheduled to meet today, and the session could mean new charges in the investigation of a reported rape at a Duke lacrosse team party.
Two of the team's players were indicted in April on charges of first degree rape, first degree sex offense and first degree kidnapping. They are accused of assaulting an escort service dancer in a bathroom of a house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. Their lawyers say the men are innocent, and lawyers representing dozens of team members say that no sex or assault occurred at the March 13 party.
But the woman says she was attacked by three men, and Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong said he has been working on bringing charges against a third person.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TODAY? If Nifong decides to submit the case, police investigators and possibly other witnesses will try to convince grand jurors in a secret session that the state has probable cause to bring a case forward. Grand jurors will hear only the prosecution's side of the case. The standard required for a true bill of indictment is far lower than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard required for a conviction.
IF INDICTMENTS ARE ISSUED, WHEN WILL THEY BECOME PUBLIC? On April 17, a judge ordered the indictments in the lacrosse case sealed. The names of the players who were indicted were not released until 5 a.m. the next day when the players surrendered at the Durham County jail. If Nifong again requests that the indictments be sealed, the law allows a judge to keep them secret until the person is arrested or appears in court.
WHEN WILL ALL THE EVIDENCE BE REVEALED? State law requires prosecutors to turn over all of their case files to defense lawyers, but nothing requires the evidence to be turned over to the public. In open court hearings, lawyers often discuss some of the evidence, but the state's case may not be revealed until trial. No trial dates have been set. When a report on the DNA testing is complete, Nifong is required by law to turn it over to all 46 members of the lacrosse team who submitted DNA samples.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? The cases against Reade William Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y., are moving forward. Finnerty has a court date in June. Seligmann is scheduled to appear in court Thursday. His attorney, Kirk Osborn, has filed a series of motions challenging Nifong's handling of the case and asking a judge to bar the prosecutor from further involvement.
Meanwhile, OJ walks the streets of Florida.
This might be a good reason why we should have a loser-pays system in criminal law. If a prosecutor invents some BS like this and brings frivolous charges and loses, he can pay the defendant's attorney's fees out of his paycheck.
I want justice. And from what I can tell, that would be the just outcome. I'll eat my ballcap if I'm wrong.
Just heard on MSNBC that the AV is going to testify to the Grand Jury.
An indictment is probable and the player will make a statement after it comes down.
Here's a brand new FRESH thread for today.
We're gonna need it!
We need a phone tree because I'm going to hang down at the pool. Knowing how these things work, it will probably be well after 2-3:00 before we have an actual press conference by this player who is expecting to be indicted.
Send me your number.........I'll call you........LOL
Done; freepmail
any lawyers out there.....Can a judge review this "case" and throw out the indictments?.....it seems there is no case and no evidence of wrong doing, except one word against the word of many others.....
YEAAAAAHHHH!! New thread!
We know what you think, Smithers. ;)
Calling the Village People
There is one fact that convinces me that this alleged victim's story is a complete fabrication- even more than the lack of DNA evidence and the corroboarative cab driver and phone logs - that is the testimony, or lack thereof, of the other dancer at the party. She initially came out saying that she didn't think there was a rape involved and later said that there could have been, because she wasn't with the victim the entire time. Well.... she drove the alleged victim from the party and you mean to tell me that this woman, who was supposedly gang raped by three men, didn't say anything about it to her!? The driver didn't like the white boys, so she makes an anonymous call claiming racial slurs. The call is ANONYMOUS and only mentions RACIAL SLURS??!! You mean to tell me that she had no clue that her dancing partner had been brutally gang raped? That this poor victim said nothing about it to her stripping "sistah"?... and the capper is that the rape story only comes up AFTER the alleged victim is confronted by police in a grocery store parking lot in an inebriated state and we learn that she has a history of alleging gang rapes.
This is BULL***T of the highest magnitude. This is Tawana Brawley times THREE!
Good morning everyone--
I've had my coffee, so my brain is functioning finally.
Do we know if the boy is Dave Evans?
I agree, but I think you are also falling prey to the piece-meal analysis on the news. Its not that that anyone "fact" cuts against her, its that there is literally all the evidence in its totality demonstrates that no crime ocurred. She claimed that the was violently beaten, strangled, robbed, raped orally, anally, vaginally for half an hour. This alleged horrific crime, denied by over forty people, left no trace. Even the so-called evidence on the fingernails undermines her claim. How could the boys commite this attack but leave no trace except on discarded nails, and those nails have the DNA on them of more than one person, and so they can't represent the attackers. All the "pro-prosecution" talking heads ever do is say how this thing or that thing can be explained away--the time stamps are forged, rape doesn't necessarily result in dna transfer etc. But the whole thing is mind boggling, it is fifty against one phony line up, dna against one phony line-up, cab driver and photos against one phony line-up and not a single talkign head has even positied a scenario that would fit with the known evidence.
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/439864.html
Link to new article...
Nifong isn't happy with Fridays news conference....Waaaaa..
In a private conversation that could be heard across the 6th floor, Nifong told lawyer Kerry Sutton that he was unhappy with a Friday press conference in which defense attorneys said a second round of DNA tests could not conclusively link any player to the March 13 incident.
and
This morning moments after Nifong spoke to Sutton, Raleigh lawyer Joseph B. Cheshire V, who represents a lacrosse team captain, tried to see Nifong, but was told that the district attorney was not available.
We're talking blood feud here.
That is but one of several head scratchers.
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