'60 Minutes' interviews Duke lacrosse defendants (DukeLax Ping)

DURHAM -- A CBS "60 Minutes" segment on the controversial Duke University lacrosse rape case is expected to air Sunday evening and will include interviews with all three indicted players and Kim Roberts Pittman, the second dancer at the party where the attack allegedly occurred.

CBS would not comment on the show. The network's normal practice is to withhold information about "60 Minutes" broadcasts until a few days in advance.

But Pittman's lawyer, Mark Simeon of Durham, confirmed Tuesday that his client was interviewed. But Simeon ended a telephone conversation before fielding a question about what Pittman told the interviewer.

An exotic dancer at the time, Pittman was with another dancer who claimed she was raped and sodomized by three lacrosse players during an off-campus party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in mid-March.

Pittman since has been quoted as saying the rape charges were "a crock." She also told police in a March 22 handwritten statement that she and the accuser ended their performance when someone at the lacrosse party "brought out a broomstick and ... said he would use the broomstick on us."

"That statement made me uncomfortable and I felt like I wanted to leave," Pittman added. "I raised my voice to the boys and said the show was over."

Pittman said she then asked the alleged rape victim to leave the party with her. But she said the accuser "felt we could get more money and that we shouldn't leave yet."

According to Pittman, the accuser "began showing signs of intoxication" early in the dance performance and was "basically out of it" by the time it ended.

Pittman finally drove the other dancer to a Hillsborough Road grocery store, from which a 911 call was placed to police.

There is nothing about an alleged rape in Pittman's written statement, which is included in public-record court files.

All three defendants also were interviewed for the "60 Minutes" segment, sources told The Herald-Sun. The interviewer is veteran reporter Ed Bradley.

The three -- Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans -- remain free under $100,000 bonds as they await a trial that is expected to occur next year. Each maintains he is innocent.

Neither they nor their families could be reached Tuesday for possible comment about the CBS show, and their attorneys had no comment.

Defense lawyers apparently will not appear on the television program. Neither will District Attorney Mike Nifong, who has been widely criticized for allegedly rushing to judgment in the case and making inflammatory public statements before he had sufficient evidence.

For the past four months, Nifong has not discussed the situation publicly. He was out of town on business and unreachable for comment Tuesday.

Benjamin Himan and Mark Gottlieb, police investigators in the lacrosse case, also could not be reached. But sources said the two had not been interviewed by "60 Minutes" as of Friday.

It could not be determined Tuesday if a one-time driver for the alleged rape victim, Jarriel Lanier Johnson, was among those Bradley contacted.

"I have nothing to say about it," Johnson told The Herald-Sun by telephone before hanging up.

But Johnson gave police an April 6 handwritten statement about an "appointment," "a job" and a performance the accuser had at three different hotels in two days not long before the alleged rape.

Johnson also said she had sexual intercourse with him during the same time period.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2622829
Report: Second Duke dancer contradicts accuser
ESPN.com news services

In June, a second exotic dancer in the Duke University sexual assault case called the accuser's allegations a "crock." Now, she's going into detail.

In an interview set to air Sunday on "60 Minutes," Kim Roberts, who danced at the same party where the sexual assault allegedly took place and who goes by the stage name Nikki, directly contradicts a statement the accuser gave police.

"In the police statement, [the accuser] describes the rape in this way: 'Three guys grabbed Nikki.' That's you," correspondent Ed Bradley asked Roberts. "'Brett, Adam and Matt grabbed me. They separated us at the master bedroom door while we tried to hold on to each other. Bret, Adam and Matt took me into the bathroom.' Were you holding on to each other? Were you pulled apart?"

"Nope," Roberts replied, who added that she was hearing that account of events for the first time.

Roberts also denied that she had tried to help dress the accuser after the assault and said, "She obviously wasn't hurt ... because she was fine."

On June 8, lawyers for Reade Seligmann, 20, one of three team members charged in the case, filed court papers citing a statement from Roberts calling the accuser's allegations a "crock."

According to a March 20 statement written by a Durham police investigator, Roberts "stated that she heard that [the accuser] was sexually assaulted, which she stated is a 'crock' and she stated that she was with her the whole time until she left."

The defense lawyers argued that prosecutors omitted that statement when they got court permission in March to obtain photographs and DNA samples from team members.

Both women had been hired to perform at the party as exotic dancers.

In an April interview with The Associated Press, Roberts said she initially doubted the accuser's story but had changed her mind.

"I was not in the bathroom when it happened, so I can't say a rape occurred -- and I never will," Roberts said. But she added, "In all honesty, I think they're guilty."

The accuser has told police she was dragged into a bathroom and sexually assaulted, beaten and choked for a half-hour.

Also included in the June 8 filing were 23 pages of sealed medical records regarding a medical examination of the accuser. In their filing, defense lawyers said the examination showed only a small scratch on the accuser's knee, a cut on her heel and vaginal swelling.

The lawyers also said the accuser told a nurse who examined her that she was not choked and that no condoms were used by her attackers. Defense attorneys have said that DNA tests showed material recovered from the victim matched a single male source who was not a member of the lacrosse team.

Seligmann, of Essex Fells, N.J., and two other players -- Dave Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md., and Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y. -- have been charged with first-degree rape, sexual offense and kidnapping in the case.

The three men are free on $400,000 bail each. Their trial could begin in spring 2007.

Defense attorneys have said they believe Roberts changed her story to gain favorable treatment in a separate criminal case. She was arrested March 22 on a probation violation stemming from a 2001 conviction for embezzling $25,000 from a Durham employer.

In April, a judge agreed to drop a requirement that Roberts pay a 15 percent fee to a bonding agent to get out of jail, with district attorney Mike Nifong signing a document saying he did not oppose the change.

The papers filed June 8 also raised questions about the accuser's sexual activities in the days leading up to the party. A police statement says the accuser told him "she had not had sex a week prior to the incident" but that she did perform for a couple in a hotel room in which she danced and used a sex toy on herself.

The court papers included a five-page handwritten statement from a man who said he accompanied the accuser to three "appointments" at area hotels during the weekend prior to the team party. The man also told investigators he had sex with the accuser, though he said that took place more than a week before the party.

Defense attorneys have suggested that any evidence of sexual activity on the accuser's part may have resulted from encounters before the party, not an attack by team members.

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