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Duke Lacrosse defense: Stories changed ("No one forced me to have sex")
Hearld Sun ^ | 5/26/06

Posted on 05/27/2006 5:24:47 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside

Lacrosse defense: Stories changed

By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun

jstevenson@heraldsun.com

May 26, 2006 : 10:20 pm ET

DURHAM -- Two weeks before identifying lacrosse player David Evans with "90 percent" certainty in a police photo lineup as one of her attackers, the accuser in the Duke rape case failed to pick him out in an earlier photo lineup, according to a defense motion filed Friday.

The motion hammered yet again at the prosecution, saying among other things that the accuser changed her story at least twice during the initial investigation, that the nurse who examined her in the emergency room was in training, and that police investigators failed to document their activities as required by law.

Many details in the motion, based largely on nearly 1,300 pages of documentation compiled by District Attorney Mike Nifong, were not previously made public, including a copy of police Sgt. J.C. Shelton's report detailing his dealings with the accuser in the hours immediately after the alleged assault.

Nifong said Friday he was "not going to comment on anything at all about this." A spokeswoman also said the Durham Police Department would have no comment, referring a series of questions to Nifong.

According to the motion, filed by Evans' lawyers Joe Cheshire and Brad Bannon, the exotic dancer viewed a police photo lineup on April 4 -- over three weeks after the alleged rape in mid-March -- and said Evans "looks like one of the guys who assaulted me sort of." Asked to elaborate, the woman said she was 90-percent sure but that the person who assaulted her had a mustache.

Defense lawyers have previously said Evans had no mustache on the night of the alleged crime, if he ever had one.

But when the dancer was shown a photo array containing Evans' picture on March 21, much closer to the time of the alleged assault, she failed to identify him in any way, the new motion says.

The motion includes a copy of the photo of Evans shown to the accuser, along with a written instruction form used in the lineup. Apparently affixed to the form is a Post-It note, in what appears to be the investigator's writing, saying, "Did not pick any."

"Thus, eight days after the alleged assault, and two weeks before the April 4 identification procedures in which she selected the Defendant with 90% certainty if he had a mustache, the complainant viewed a picture of the Defendant in this case and did not identify him as one of her alleged assailants," the motion states.

According to the motion, during the March 21 lineup and another one on March 16, the photos were divided into groups. It couldn't be determined from the filing whether either of the two other defendants, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, were in the group in which the accuser failed to identify any assailants.

Seligmann's and Finnerty's defense attorneys could not be contacted Friday afternoon to determine whether the accuser had identified either of the men in any earlier lineup.

Friday's defense motion also said there was no report about the earlier photo lineups included in the documents Nifong gave defense lawyers. But the April 4 session in which she identified the three suspects was videotaped, and both the video and a written transcript of the session were included in the material given to the defense teams.

The motion uses the apparent discrepancy in record-keeping as one example to suggest the defense hasn't yet been given all police records related to the case, even though Nifong said in a court filing May 18 that the state's "entire file" had been handed over.

"Multiple law enforcement officers who participated in investigative activities in this case did not record their activities as required by law, or they did not turn those records over to the Durham County District Attorney's Office as required by law, or the District Attorney's Office did not turn them over to the Defendant as required by law," the motion argues. It goes on to ask a judge to issue a series of orders ensuring that all records of the investigation are given to the defense.

Included with the motion, the handwritten report by Shelton, the Durham police sergeant, provides far greater detail than anything previously in the public record about the accuser's demeanor and statements on the night in question. Shelton was the first officer to arrive at the house where the lacrosse party took place at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. the night of March 13.

Police went to the home after an unidentified woman told a 911 operator that she was driving by when men began calling her racial slurs.

In fact, the woman, Kim Roberts, was an exotic dancer hired to perform with the accuser at the party. Roberts has since acknowledged contacting a New York publicity firm trying to capitalize on her involvement in the case.

According to Shelton's narrative:

-- Shelton left 610 N. Buchanan after finding no one home. A neighbor told him a "rowdy" party had recently broken up.

-- A few minutes later, police were called to the Kroger on Hillsborough Road because a woman wouldn't get out of another woman's car. Again, Shelton was nearby and was first on the scene.

-- The owner of the car told Shelton that she had been driving down Buchanan Boulevard and saw the other woman -- now in her passenger seat -- walking along the street and that a group of white men at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. were yelling racial slurs at her, so she offered her a ride to safety. (In fact, though, the car owner was Roberts, the second dancer.)

-- The woman in the passenger seat was "wearing a see-through red outfit, with no undergarments and one white high-heel shoe." She appeared unconscious, so Shelton got an ammonia capsule from his car. In response to the capsule, the woman began "mouth breathing, which is a sign that she was not really unconscious," Shelton wrote.

-- Shelton said he tried to pull the woman from the car, but that she grabbed the emergency brake handle to keep from being pulled out. He finally got her out and she collapsed on the ground.

-- Because the woman wouldn't tell officers her name or where she lived, they decided to take her to the Durham Access Center, a mental health and substance abuse facility. There, the woman said she had been raped at 610 N. Buchanan. So Shelton directed that she be transferred to Duke University Hospital's emergency room.

-- At Duke, the accuser told Shelton she was a stripper and had been hired to dance at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. After their show, she said, she and the other dancer got in a car to leave, but that some of the men wanted them to go back inside. "She said at the point some of the guys from the party pulled her from the vehicle and groped her. She told me that no one forced her to have sex," Shelton wrote.

-- Shelton went outside to call his watch commander to tell him the woman had recanted her rape allegation. But then someone told him the woman told a doctor that she had been raped. Shelton called the watch commander back to tell him "she had changed her story back to being raped."

-- Shelton went back inside and asked the woman "if she had or had not been raped. She told me she did not want to talk to me anymore and then started crying and saying something about them dragging her into the bathroom."

Shelton says he left the hospital after the watch commander told him the Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division had been notified.

About 36 hours later, the woman told investigators she had been raped, sodomized, beaten and strangled by three men in the bathroom at the lacrosse party house, according to police affidavits.

The defense motion filed Friday says that, "incredibly," the information provided by Nifong contains no record about the woman's time at Durham Access Center. Nor does it contain reports by two other police officers who were involved in the situation that night, the motion complains.

In addition, Nifong provided documentation pertaining to only five of 17 sections of a Sexual Assault Exam Report, the motion adds, indicating that the exam was performed by an in-training forensic nurse.

All three defendants are free under $400,000 bonds as they await trial.

Nifong has said he hopes to try the suspects together, possibly beginning in the spring of next year.


TOPICS: Local News
KEYWORDS: allegations; duke; dukelax; falseallegations; rape
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1 posted on 05/27/2006 5:24:48 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
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To: Mr. Brightside
Throw this b*tch in jail along with her defense lawyer.....
2 posted on 05/27/2006 5:28:00 AM PDT by rockabyebaby (Say what you feel, those that matter don't mind, those that mind don't matter.)
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To: Mr. Brightside

Why am I not suprised at any of this


3 posted on 05/27/2006 5:28:14 AM PDT by stm (Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence)
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To: rockabyebaby
Throw this b*tch in jail along with her defense lawyer.....

Well, the alleged victim and Mike Nifong.

4 posted on 05/27/2006 5:28:59 AM PDT by mewzilla (Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
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To: Mr. Brightside

I wish the investigation would just drop the Duke students entirely. Just arrest Nifong and the woman and investigate the hck out of them for the next couple of years.


5 posted on 05/27/2006 5:29:13 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Never question Bruce Dickinson!)
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To: Mr. Brightside

Time to prosecute the dancer, Nifong, and time to begin restoring the reputations of these boys.

Hard lessons need to be taught in this case in order to avoid future political witch hunts.


6 posted on 05/27/2006 5:30:08 AM PDT by milford421
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To: Mr. Brightside
"Nifong has said he hopes to try the suspects together, possibly beginning in the spring of next year."

The real reason for the delay in the trail start is to put distance between the publicity and the inevitable loss for the prosecution. Nifong is playing this to the hilt for his political advantage. In a just world he should be recalled and disbarred instead of being part of "OJ Justice II."

7 posted on 05/27/2006 5:31:38 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
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To: ClearCase_guy
I wish the investigation would just drop the Duke students entirely.

No kidding. I think it is obvious to everyone except Nifong that this girl made the whole thing up.

8 posted on 05/27/2006 5:33:09 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: Mr. Brightside
The case against the Duke players is worthless. The good lawyers that the player have hired will tear this case up. There is no chance that anyone will be found guilty of rape in this case.
9 posted on 05/27/2006 5:34:07 AM PDT by Ninian Dryhope ("Bush lied, people dyed. Their fingers." The inestimable Mark Steyn)
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To: Mr. Brightside

Memo to D.A. Nifong regarding your wish to try them together:

Wish in one hand and spit in the other and see which hand gets full first! This fool knows he doesn't even have a case but continues to make himself look stupid! Why?


10 posted on 05/27/2006 5:34:27 AM PDT by geezerwheezer (get up boys, we're burnin' daylight!!!)
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To: Mr. Brightside

If you book an exotic dancer, make sure she's white.


11 posted on 05/27/2006 5:35:38 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. Slay Pinch)
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To: Mr. Brightside
"About 36 hours later, the woman told investigators she had been raped, sodomized, beaten and strangled by three men in the bathroom at the lacrosse party house, according to police affidavits."

Not only was she completely trashed and changed her story multiple times, there is no way possible that the attending physician would have failed to spot physical signs on her body if any of these events had really happened.

I've been saying since the beginning that this entire thing was a hoax and I still stick to that. It's not only an election-year race card ploy, it's a witch hunt against three young men with no proof whatsoever they attacked her.

12 posted on 05/27/2006 5:36:28 AM PDT by cake_crumb (Drugs? Illegals? Legalize and Tax 'Em All, Right? Right??)
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To: bert
Lie Down With Strippers, Wake Up With Pleas [Ann Coulter]
13 posted on 05/27/2006 5:38:02 AM PDT by mewzilla (Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist. John Adams)
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To: mewzilla

One of her multiple stories is that she was dragged into a bedroom.


14 posted on 05/27/2006 5:38:11 AM PDT by Carolinamom
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To: geezerwheezer
"Wish in one hand and spit in the other and see which hand gets full first! This fool knows he doesn't even have a case but continues to make himself look stupid! Why?"

He's obviously a Democrat. The nature of the charges is more serious than the evidence to support them, so lets prosecute these rich white boys and everybody a lesson!

15 posted on 05/27/2006 5:39:36 AM PDT by cake_crumb (Drugs? Illegals? Legalize and Tax 'Em All, Right? Right??)
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To: Anti-Bubba182
I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that even under a broad definition, Nifong's handling of this non-case is prosecutable misconduct. Unless there is an OJII jury, this entire stinking mess will get tossed out, but the big question now seems to be, why is Mr. Nifong risking his career over something so completely flimsy?
16 posted on 05/27/2006 5:41:35 AM PDT by ishabibble
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To: zaxxon; Howlin

Oh what a tangled web we weave...


17 posted on 05/27/2006 5:41:35 AM PDT by SE Mom (God Bless those who serve.)
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To: milford421
Unfortunately, there is no complete restoration of their reputations after this. It's a sad fact that once a man has been accused of rape/domestic abuse/what have you, even if it is concretely proven to be false, people still hold it against him.

As an aside, I'm convinced that Nifong would prosecute his mother and grandmother if it would get him a few cheap headlines. What an utter @$$.

18 posted on 05/27/2006 5:43:28 AM PDT by Malacoda (The Posting Police need an enema.)
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To: Mr. Brightside; Alia

Sad to say, but this doesn't surprise me.

Thought you might be interested in this, Alia.


19 posted on 05/27/2006 5:45:15 AM PDT by TheSpottedOwl (If you don't understand the word "Illegal", then the public school system has failed you.)
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To: Mr. Brightside

Have you been watching Dab Abrams on MSNBC go nuts over this? That prosecutor better have a smoking gun that he is unlawfully withholding or he needs to drop this crap now.


20 posted on 05/27/2006 5:45:25 AM PDT by RDTF
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