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.
To get reelected as a Prosecutor is my guess. Nifong is pandering to the local African American resentment against Rich White College Pukes. Hell maybe the Students have some resentment coming, but not to the extent of a bogus rape conviction.
To quote Raymond Donovan from memory :"Where do I get my reputation back."
I don't think he plans to sacrifice his career. My best guess is that he knew this would make political hay during the election, and now he hopes it will quietly sink into oblivion. Once it's out of the headlines, it wouldn't surprise me if he dropped the charges. However, at least three lives have been ruined by these false charges, so I do hope that their lawyers keep it in the headlines. The more they do, the worse Nifong looks, and maybe they can restore a few shreds of these young men's reputations.
And note to college guys: hiring strippers might momentarily satisfy your raging hormones, but as has often been said, if you lie down with dogs, don't be surprised if you get fleas.
Ping.
Duke is one of the biggest losers in this disgusting circus. They threw the whole team overboard from the instance the accuser made her charge. I wonder if they would have done the same to their basketball team? Lacrosse is not a money sport for a university, so easy to demonize the boys as elitist. I doubt the Duke girls lacrosse team would have been so strong in their support if they had any reason to think that the boys were guilty of these charges.
Thank you, The Spotted Owl. :)
Me? I want the town of Durham investigated.
*****
I wonder what pressure this sergeant has had to endure in the past few months. He knew he was dealing with trouble from the first meeting.
Altogether now, say “Tawana Brawley”.
What civil suits? Sure, you could sue the hooker, I mean dancer, but to what end? The prosecutor pretty much has immunity and the judge obviously found sufficient probable cause to set a bail. When prosecutor goes wild the only real remedy is the ballot box unless you can show criminal corruption or repeated breach of ethics. These guys are SOL.
It's considered "controversal" in the "mainstream" to point out that these players are innocent.
Worth the ping list.
"The county or city should be liable for all defense legal fees after these statements were taken."
Agreed. In most jurisdictions, other than Durham, the District Attorney would never get personally involved in a case like this. He/she would want to be kept informed, but the police, the detectives, and the District Attorney investigators would be doing the investigation, with perhaps a lawyer from the DA's office giving advice and direction during key points of the investigation.
The problem is that Nifong is an elected official who became personally involved. And because he is an elected official, there is no one immediately above him to reign him in. Even if the officials of the City of Durham were unhappy with what he was doing, there was nothing they could do about it, and no one could stop him because he is autonomous. Nevertheless, his recklessness has exposed Durham to potentially catastrophically costly lawsuits, and he has exposed himself to potentially severely punitive disciplinary actions in future hearings regarding his own personal ethics and legal tactics.
Perhaps if something changed and the DA's position were appointive rather than elective then the officials could have more oversight. But then, favoritism and shenanigans then revert to the officials with the oversight. And any change might have to be made in the State laws regarding how District Attorneys are selected.
Is it any wonder that now, Nifong wants a gag order?
56 posted on 05/27/2006 6:31:27 AM PDT by Enterprise (The
"Nevertheless, his recklessness has exposed Durham to potentially catastrophically costly lawsuits, and he has exposed himself to potentially severely punitive disciplinary actions in future hearings regarding his own personal ethics and legal tactics."
Thanks for this info. I wasn't sure if this was possible.
Are you certain that Durham can be open to lawsuits?
I'm not too happy with Easley at the moment either. He appointed this idiot. There had to have been someone more qualified.
Well, David Duke and others try, but there is not any serious money in it. Black Panther types and NOI have small time success with the race hustle, but it is essentially a losers tactic. White people don't need it.
I think I saw that interview, and you're right, he did seem almost deranged. Power is a strong drug, perhaps.
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