Posted on 05/22/2006 4:05:16 PM PDT by zaxxon
Lawyers representing one of three Duke University lacrosse players charged with rape want details about any toxicology tests performed on the accuser, asking in a motion filed Monday whether such evidence even exists.
"No such toxicology report, if it exists, was provided to the defense," wrote attorneys Kirk Osborn and Ernest Conner, referring to nearly 1,300 pages of evidence prosecutors provided to defense attorneys last week. The attorneys represent Reade Seligmann, one of three lacrosse players charged with raping a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a March 13 team party.
Seligmann's attorneys want a judge to order prosecutors to provide any reports "generated from blood, urine or other biological samples" collected from the accuser. In the motion, they cited a story published in Newsweek earlier this month that said District Attorney Mike Nifong "hinted" such tests would reveal the presence of a date-rape drug.
Authorities have said a doctor and specially trained nurse performed a physical exam on the accuser that found evidence of sexual assault. But the nurse who filled out a report on that exam indicted no toxicology tests were performed, according to the defense motion.
Nifong declined to comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at abclocal.go.com ...
She apparently told police the lacrosse players had money belonging to her of, in the initial police report, $2000, and in the probable cause affidavit, $400. She also claimed the lacrosse players had her cellphone, makeup purse and ID. These were all things she undoubtedly dropped when she fell down the back stairs.
The theory that Kim picked up Crystal's purse, put it in the car and stole the $400 out of it during the time Crystal was unresponsive in the car afterwards makes a lot of sense to me.
The theory that Crystal was scared of her pimp because she didn't have the money is part of this absurd theory some have posited that between leaving the house and arriving at Kroger, Crystal and Kim met up with a pimp in a white car who beat and raped Crystal because Crystal was short of the money.
The story branded as having all the elements of a great tale — sex, race, class, privilege, as well as town-gown issues at an elite university in the South — has everything but the truth, which also includes this:
White males — descendant as they are of the imperialistic, colonizing, native-raping patriarchy — are the new culturally approved targets of the lynch mob.
The DNA from her "boyfiend" cancels out the "past history".
Have you read the probable cause affidavit in the search warrant? She clearly appears to have told police ALL $400 was left at the house.
What most likely happened to my mind, is that Kim took the money when Crystal was passed out. The police recovered her makeup purse at the house but apparently never recovered the SECOND purse Crystal is holding in the photo on the back porch at 12:31.
NiFong hasn't said much (if anything) about "TIME". He's just putting out what he wants potential jurors to hear.
Unless, of course, the cop was already familiar with Mangum. The cop radioed the dispatcher to have a unit stop by Charles Street to check on the youngin's.
Did Mangum give her name, address, the fact that she had two children, and give the cop a reason to suspect that they needed to be checked on?
Or was the cop already aware of Mangum, her substance-abuse problems, and that she had two children, so he determined that she needed to go to Durham Access and thought it best someone check on her kids, since lord knows who was watching them?
And do we know if she called her boyfriend? Could her boyfriend have been at Charles Street when the unit stopped by to check on her children?
The cops in our area know who all the hookers are. They rarely pull a raid but when they do, they do not publish the womens names...they publish the mens names. One of my bosses sons name got in the paper. I roared because he was a fresh, smart a** and his father was giving him a break letting him work for the company.
Yes, that's possible. Some personal connection between Crystal and the police would help explain the zeal of the police detectives in pursuing only evidence favorable to her and ignoring evidence in the other direction.
On the other hand, once Crystal was awake and in the back of the police cruiser why would she not give the police her name? When they told her she was going to the drunk tank, she may have pointed out that she had two children at home and she needs to be with them, in an attempt to persuade the cops NOT to take her to the 24-hour hold. Then perhaps the cops ran her name and turned up her record, and decided to take her to Durham Access. So maybe the cops were not persuaded to just take her home, but believing her story that the children were home (maybe she didn't tell the cops that her parents were in fact there to watch the kids) they sent someone to check on them.
That's an interesting thought - the boyfriend may have been at her parents' house on Charles street that evening, and when the cops came by to check on the kids, learned what happened and then headed to Duke Hospital to be with her.
I do think that once the defense gets hold of Crystal's cellphone log, we will learn that she tried to call her driver and/or boyfriend while she was in the bathroom with Kim, and probably again when she was standing on the back porch.
I understand all your points. But being found passed out and yelling and screaming certainly demonstrates a lack of inhibitions. Further, those are guidelines. They aren't hard and fast because people respond differently to drugs and alcohol, stress, and emotional trauma.
If the question is is it more likely the SANE nurse failed to do her job correctly or did Mangum refuse to take a tox test, I still think it's more likely that Mangum declined the test. But if the question is was there actual good cause to request the test be taken, we are both guessing. I base my opinion on what we do know - passed-out and then yelling and screaming. But I agree we don't know for a fact how she behaved in the presence of the SANE nurse, but surely the SANE nurse knew at least about the yelling and screaming. Rape victims typically withdraw - they don't yell and scream - and refusing to be touched by a male nurse seems contrived to me unless the person is under the influence of something, especially if she said she hadn't been drinking, and so it should to a nurse.
"Date-rape drugs are found in urine."
That is true.
It is also true that all drugs are present and therefore findable in blood, it is just a bit more expensive and requires a lab setup, rather than the usual UDT assembly line.
Think about it for a sec.....every drop of urine was shortly before it crossed the tubules was serum.....and, Dock routinely order blood-levels of a multitude of Rx'd medications.
All I'm trying to say is that if blood was drawn from her that night for whatever purpose *and the specimen remains*: it can be tested yet today for drugs......and if comtemporaneous blood exists, Kobilinski slyly and wisely qualified/parsed his answer to the question "could it be tested today"....he specifically began with "I think...."
It may take a Court Order to test it, but IF a specimen from March 14 exists, it sure CAN still be tested if it has remained in the tube and chilled. (they find drugs in bodies long dead)
Well, NC really treats probable cause with a nod and a wink, much to my shock.
As to your original question, since all the players were suspects at that moment and not under indictment, I don't believe that Nifong had a duty to disclose that semen from non-lax players was found - only that theirs was not. Once the three (well, first two, then another) were indicted and arrested, that particular piece of indormation became subject to the same rules of discovery as the other pieces, and there would not have been any extraordinary requirement to inform their attorneys about it except when submitted with the other discovery. The fact that Mangum had sex with other men prior to the alleged rape is not in and of itself fully conclusive that no rape could have occurred nor, in fact, did occur.
So the answer is no. ;>
Other drugs show up in hair. Do date rape drugs? If so maybe the defense could get a hair sample.
placemarker
NG's back tonite. betcha she dont mention dukelax...
Can't watch-hubby has tv as usual.
I don't think a hair sample can be very time-specific.....surely not to within a few hours......but it can tell if you had a load of some drug recently or in the not-so distant past, depending how far up the hair shaft the drug indication is.
BOR doing story now...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.