Posted on 09/22/2006 1:20:40 PM PDT by Howlin
Three Duke lacrosse players took five to 10 minutes to sexually assault a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a team party, and not the 30 minutes she originally described to investigators, a prosecutor said Friday. "When something happens to you that is really awful, it can seem like it takes place longer than it actually takes," District Attorney Mike Nifong said.
Nifong's comments came as Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III denied a defense request that prosecutors provide a detailed accounting of the alleged assault, including the exact time, place and type of sexual act the accuser said each defendant committed.
A grand jury has indicted three lacrosse players _ Reade Seligmann, 20; Collin Finnerty, 19; and David Evans, 23 _ on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense. The accuser, a student at nearby North Carolina Central University, told police she was raped in a bathroom by three men at a March 13 off-campus party. Defense attorneys have strongly proclaimed the players' innocence.
Kirk Osborn, who represents Seligmann, said the defense needed the "bill of particulars" because the accuser has told several different versions of the alleged assault, and his client has a right to know which version prosecutors will present at trial. In search and arrest warrants issued early in the investigation, police stated the accuser told investigators she was assaulted for 30 minutes.
Nifong said he is not required to state the exact time of the alleged attack, but offered that authorities believe it took place between 11:30 p.m. on March 13, when the accuser arrived at the party, and 12:55 a.m. on March 14, when police arrived and found no one at the house.
Friday's hearing was the first since Smith was appointed to take over the case, and it was scheduled to continue Friday afternoon.
Before the hearing began, Nifong gave defense lawyers 615 pages of evidence, a compact disc and a cassette tape. He said it included much of what was requested by defense lawyers, who had asked for handwritten notes from police officers involved with the case, reports outlining procedures used at the labs that tested the DNA of the players and notes from a mental health facility where police took the accuser after the party.
All Nifong has is the weak "consistent with rape" SANE report and the AV's testimony, or lack there of.
He's toast.
I think he's counting on an OJ jury.
Bourlan said the boys refused to give DNA.....an absolute lie.
If his father was alive he could ask him about his birth....
Why hasn't this jackass been disbarred yet?
LOL! He probably still believes the stork brought him.
H&ll, maybe bird brains are delivered by storks.
I don't even think he has a SANE report that's consistent with rape. All it shows is diffuse edema and that could come from consensual sex. All the physical trauma it shows are a cut on the knee and another on the foot both of which were non-bleeding. All he has is the accuser's say so.
Crier did not refute his false assertions about that or that the guys did not cooperate w/the police. Is she not informed? As a former judge, she should be interested in getting at the truth on her program instead of allowing lies to be perpetrated.
Keep in mind that Court TV will make a lot of money if this goes to trial. They have a large interest in this case getting to trial, and would hate to see it dismissed.
He got the OJ vote.
***BTW, don't order those Duke bracelets; I ordered three of them and they debited my account but I never got the bracelets!!!
It apparently is a scam.
Yes. Plus how would Court TV get their intersting scoops if they angered the DA. (In the Scott Peterson case some one in the prosecution/police side violated the gag order to help Crier write her book.)
Is there any way the defense can subpoena the appointment book of Crystal's escort service to get the name(s) and time of her "appointment" just before she arrived at the Lacross team house?
Is that what the doctors and nurses really said in the report or is that how the affiant characterized the report?
Where is any medical evidence that the accuser had any anal trauma at all? According to the defense the exam showed no injury to the anus. Just diffuse edema of the vaginal walls.
Personally, I think the way the medical report was characterized in the affidavit for the search warrant may come back on someone in a big way. I think the medical evidence was mischaracterized by the prosecution in the affidavit.
When I see LAX, I think, "Los Angeles International Airport." Airline industry free-association.
I think of the airport too cause I live in LA.
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