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.
I don't have a problem with anyone speaking but this leftist thing where they get to "Shout down" everyone else and keep them from speaking I don't approve of at all. You can't just scream out your views and demand that no one else talk.
"no blood as experts say there should be under the nail"
Howlin, remember when we were trying to find out anything we could about WHAT EXACTLY WAS THIS MATERIAL THAT PRODUCED THE INCONCLUSIVE DNA?
This Defender made that a huge point. He did not say what the material was but he did say THERE WAS NO BLOOD.
Which if it came from a scratch there would have been!
How could they avoid all these press conferences?
They evidently agree with the woman who attacked Cheshire.
Nifong ought to be reprimanded for bringing charges based on DNA found in a bathroom. Anyone passing through that room left DNA but it doesn't mean a sexual assault occured in that bathroom.
I'm pulling for SNOT!
ROFL!!! I needed that! lolling..
I just went and look in my bathroom trash can!
UGH. The stuff that is in there!
Evans behavior is not at all indicative of someone with a guilty conscience. He did everything he could to clear himself and his teammates and his coach. Not only did Nifong refuse to listen to the exculpatory evidence so did Brodhead.
Cheshire seems truly shocked that Nifong won't talk.
We all shed epithelial (skin) cells the time, and they do have DNA. Sticky fake fingernails could pick up such "matter" and there wouldn't be a drop of blood in them.
Good catch. I hope that purposeful omission was noted by Brodhead and Wasoliek.
Charles A Harris is the Grand Jury Foreman from the other indictments.
The voter registration lists 3 Charles A Harris
1 is White and GOP
2 are Black and Dems
What are the odds?
I had commented that how lovely she has such freedom to do such a thing. Freedom being, the operative thought. And no doubts that "rantivist" would still say that Blacks are OPPRESSED in America.
The punishment here doesn't fit the crime. In this case the "crime" appears to be giving a false name to the escort service, having a loud party with alcohol, making insensitive racial comments, and asking some paid strippers to take off their clothes. The main crime seems to be making insensitive comments which lead to a whole series of wholly improbable but very real consequences for these young men.
Barry just made this a specialty to make money. He just recognized it was going to be used in a high percent of crimes. He got the rep from OJ, continued it with the condemned but it's BIG money. He can pick and choose his cases. He doesn't want this case.
There's been so much race talk from Durham that I for one would like to know the racial profile of that GJ. I would be willing to bet that it is predominantly black.
Refused to see it.
This is not how it works. But Nifong put his nose in the air and all but declared---"I SHALL NOT BE TAINTED BY FACTS!"
Maybe that's the hair without the root...A nose hair attached to a snot ball....which by the way looks about the same as the nail sticky!!
As I said, things quieted down after that which I attribute to the national press rushing to interview her for the views of the "Black community".
I'm pretty sure that's going to turn out to be "making insensitive comments" in retort to a sexual slur.
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