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
Licking their wounds. Grace is a disgrace on other counts, too. I think she is about finished.
Certainly your and mine points can coexist quit happily. I just like to remind myself from time to time that normal logic does not apply to what Nifong is after in this situation.
Yes, and in some cases it would fly, but not in this one. There has been enough microscopic examination, with more to come, that the denials will be seen as the transparent technicalities they are. Professional investigative practices and evidentiary policies were violated beyond the point of being able to be deemed minor oversights. Plausible deniability will only provide minimal cover this time.
A shame that Grace has taken such a view on this case. She has been effective in exposing corrupt judges and fighting for victims. The other day she had Anna Nicole's mother on who believes her grandson was murdered and she is not the only one - Anna Nicole hasn't even bothered to bury him.
The problem is is that filing a false report is a low-grade misdemeanor. Ramp that up to a 2nd or 3rd degree felony, and things will change. Talk to your legislature about that.
:>
I have to believe that most of our nation's CJS has built in checks for abuse such as Nifong's. Unfortunately, parents have no way of knowing when they send their son or daughter off to school that their greatest danger could be from a college town DA.
Did anyone else see the sendup that Saturday Night Live did on Nancy Grace during last week's season premiere? One of the best things they've done in a long time. Even made fun of her hair.
Good, and it's the right decision. This has been going on for years and has been held by the courts as permissible.
Well, she's been wrong about a lot of cases. She never admits her mistakes. She's rude to guests, rude to her staff, and just generally is a very tacky person. She has a history of operating on the edge, and has no regret about the damage she causes from that precipice.
I am grateful that she is on TV instead of in the courtroom in her old job as a a prosecutor; lest she operate as another Liefong. The best way to contain people like her is to let them rot on some little-watched show on some backwater station just as she is.
I have not. Link?
You are dead-on right.
No, dang, missed it. Can you give a synopsis?
Thanks.
LOL! New term coined by LB, folks! Yeah, "Implausible deniability."
Perfect. Luvvit. :>
The fact that the opinions Kim has offered differ from what the facts she reports would logically support are easily explained by the disagreements that occurred between her and the boys that night, as evidenced by the 911 call claiming the "N" word was shouted at them when, in fact, Bissey does not report hearing that - just the cotton shirt remark. In other words, she can opine that more than underage drinking went on because she has a grudge against them over money and name-calling, but nothing in the facts she actually reports support that opinion.
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