Posted on 10/11/2006 1:52:56 AM PDT by abb
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.
The Police Department repeatedly has declined to discuss the lacrosse incident.
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.
URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-777449.html
Anybody see Lis Wiehl on Fox a few minutes ago claiming Kim has no credibility because she's told multiple stories? But no mention of the FA's dozen fairy tales. Idiot.
Limbaugh just said the case is falling apart and play a Pittman clip. He said it was obviously political from the start.
Yes, wasn't that disgusting. I give Bradley credit, he backed her up and that was the end of it. Maybe, just maybe, the boys will get a fair and balanced report -- that's all you ask for -- just a thorough, fair and unprejudiced look at the facts. Geez! It seems so simple to me.
Whatever happened to these guys anyway? Were the charges dropped?
They will be tried in the spring, barring some very good luck.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/sports/14dukecnd.html?ei=5094&en=54705b31f0cf2373&hp=&ex=1160798400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1160763205-SHDsDS2TCc31go7PEDrkhg
Dancers Latest Account in Duke Case Is at Odds With Accusers
Well, there was an athletic-looking young man (who looked like a college athlete; I thought he might be a football player for Rutgers) helping out there, and after an hour or so I asked him where he was in school and if he played ball for them...he said he played ball, but lacrosse was his sport. I told him that our family was a lax family (one son and two daughters play) and then asked him where he went to school, and he said he was between colleges. I asked him where he had gone to high school, and he said Delbarton.
I then said, "Hey...that's where that Duke lax guy played his high school lax..." And he looked at me and said "That's me." (Reade Seligmann).
I told him about FR and the support this board has given him and his mates. I cannot and will not report on what he said or didn't say for obvious reasons, but rest assure that I asked him no questions re that night.
What a kid--I was most impressed. And make sure all of you watch 60 minutes.
abb is off for some rec time so I've got the ping list for the next week. I probably won't be as diligent as "it-is-my-business-to-know" abb at finding all the new articles that are published so give me a ping when you find something and I'll ping the list.
Excellent, Pharmboy. Glad you made him aware of his efforts. Shortly, Mrs. Abb & I are headed south to the Redneck Riviera for the week. Y'all think about me while you're watching 60 Minutes tomorrow nite. Locomotive Breath and Howlin will handle the pings while I'm gone. See y'all in a week...
abb
See Ed Bradley interview at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/11/60minutes/main2082140.shtml
OMG, how interesting. And I am so glad you were there to tell him that other people, people he doesn't even know, are supporting him.
I hope it gave him some comfort.
And good on you.
Excellent!
Thanks for this report. If you two cross paths again, despite the dark clouds that are hanging over his head, please emphasize to him again that he had more friends and supporters than he can possibly imagine.
Just updated...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/11/60minutes/main2082140.shtml
Duke Players: Lives Have Changed
Ed Bradley Also Speaks To The Other Dancer
The NYT must be deaf dumb and blind, or paid off....
Thanks, LB. Thanks a lot.
I gave him FR's url and even told him your screenname and how to search for the Duke lax threads. This was a very well-brought up young man.
And don't forget to watch 60 Minutes.
My screenname? Yikes. Do you think a lot of people look for me???
Anyway, if he happens upon this thread, I hope he knows that almost everybody down here is behind him and is outraged by this travesty!
I finally got my DUKELAX wristbands and you cannot believe how many people actually ask me what it is -- and then, when I tell them, they all complete 'go off' about Nifong and the whole case; people are infuriated!
I know that isn't much of a consolation for him, but maybe it will help.
"Seligmann says he has an alibi bolstered by photographic and electronic evidence. He says neither investigators from the prosecutor's office nor police have questioned him about the night of the alleged crime since he was picked out of a line-up by the accuser, an exotic dancer performing at a lacrosse team party where she says the rape occurred."
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