Posted on 04/13/2006 3:21:02 PM PDT by ghost of nixon
DURHAM, N.C. -- A woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by members of Duke University's lacrosse team was described as "just passed-out drunk" by one of the first police officers to see her, according to a recording of radio traffic released by Durham police on Thursday and obtained by The Associated Press.
The conversation between the officer and a police dispatcher took place about 1:30 a.m. March 14, about five minutes after a grocery store security guard called 911 to report a woman in the parking lot who would not get out of someone else's car.
The officer gave the dispatcher the police code for an intoxicated person and said the woman was unconscious. When asked whether she needed medical help, the officer said: "She's breathing and appears to be fine. She's not in distress. She's just passed-out drunk."
The black woman, a 27-year-old dancer and college student, told police she was sexually assaulted and beaten by three white men around midnight at an off-campus party thrown by Duke's lacrosse team. The racially charged allegations have led Duke to cancel the highly ranked team's season and accept the resignation of its coach.
No charges have been filed, but district attorney Mike Nifong has said he believes a crime was committed. Attorneys for the players have said DNA tests failed to connect any players to the alleged attack, and they have urged Nifong to drop his investigation.
The radio recordings, obtained by the AP through a records request, are the first instance in which police or anyone connected with the investigation has said the woman appeared to be intoxicated.
Defense lawyers, however, have said time-stamped photographs taken by the players show that the accuser was drunk and had already suffered some injuries when she arrived at the house for the party.
The recording is consistent with "what I have seen of the photo evidence before," attorney Kerry Sutton said. Those photos, she said, showed that she was "way beyond where you would put somebody behind the wheel of a car."
The description of the woman's medical exam -- which Nifong has said is his basis for believing a rape occurred -- does not mention her being drunk. It states only that the woman's injuries and behavior were consistent with having been raped, sexually assaulted and having suffered a traumatic experience.
The woman has told police she and another dancer hired to dance at the party arrived at 11:30 p.m. March 13. The pair reportedly left the house a short time later, fearing for their safety. The accuser told police the two were coaxed back into the house with an apology, at which point they were separated. That's when she said she was dragged into a bathroom and sexually assaulted, beaten and choked for a half-hour.
At 12:53 a.m., police received a 911 call from a woman complaining that she had been called racial slurs by white men gathered outside the home where the party took place.
The defense has said it believes the second dancer at the party made that call. The 911 call from the grocery store security guard was placed at 1:22 a.m.
In it, the caller says, "Um, the problem is ... it's a lady in somebody else's car and she will not get out of their car. She's like, she's like intoxicated, drunk or something. She's, I mean, she won't get out of the car, period."
A police spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the radio traffic.
The case has focused intense national scrutiny on Duke and the lacrosse players and has sparked protests on the elite private university's campus and elsewhere in Durham. The school last week canceled the highly ranked team's season and coach Mike Pressler resigned after the release of a vulgar and graphic e-mail sent by a team member shortly after the alleged assault.
Several of the defense attorneys say they expect the district attorney to ask a grand jury on Monday to issue charges in connection with allegations.
"Rest up on Sunday," Sutton said.
There has been no official word, however, on whether Nifong intends to present the allegations Monday. His next opportunity would come two weeks later.
If you hire a stripper, it will be abundantly reasonable to insist on VIDEOTAPING absolutely everything she does while working.
" How stupid can this DA be? "
We assume that the DA knew about 3 eyewitnesses who claimed the vic was passed out drunk approximately 1 hour after the alleged rape.
Dan Abrams played the 911 call and the person whose car she was in ( the other stripper ?) said she was passed out drunk,
the security guard making the call said she was passed out drunk and then later,
the responding officer.
They said on Abram's show that she was not examined at the hospital until hours later- so, no tox screen may have been done. And by then, the values would have changed.
Unless there is more to this then we know- all the DA has is the victim - a passed out stripper .
Who just an hour or less earlier,claimed that she was fighting for her life-kicking and screaming.
If the stripper was smart- she would have said she was slipped a roofie and didn't remember anything.
But, since she has already described her version, that won't wash-although, I wouldn't put it past Difong to claim that was the reason that she was later passed out.
I think they hired a white stripper, then, when the black one showed up, they vocalized their displeasure.
Realizing they had been had, they paid the $800 and decided to chalk it up to a lesson learned.
That is why no DNA was found.
When a nurse chooses to specialize in this area, I think odds are overwhelming that she is emotionally wrapped up in rape and "women's issues." That is a generalization, of course.
Yesterday WPTF was reporting that the rev al was coming to town on Sunday but today they said he isn't it was just a rumor.
Here's what someone on another thread with emergency room experience had to say on the question of whether she would have been tested:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1613923/posts?page=14#14
Here's my theory - she showed drunk and beat up looking. Maybe something crude or racist was said to her, but they basically told her to go away. They wanted a decent looking stripper and got a drunken slob. If anyone apologized, she did, so she could earn some money. They felt sorry for her and let her in. Once in, she acted drunk and stupid and couldn't perform a decent stripping routine and the guys wouldn't pay her and told her to get the hell out of there. She left and ended up at the convenience store. The cops found her, and she made up a drunken lie. Just a theory though.
No girl deserves to be raped, drunk or not.
If she was so pitiful, why was "Kim" wanting her out of her car? If she was suffering, why wouldn't she have asked Kim to take her to the hospital?
Why was she in her nightgown? She left the party in her dance costume which was a body suit with some lingerie over it. Where'd the nightgown come from?
Anybody have any ideas? Did she borrow it from Kim? If so, did she deliberately tear up the costume she left the party in? Did it come from doing her last trick before the party or after? Was it checked for foreign DNA? If anybody's DNA except hers is on the nightgown, it might be a big clue as to who did what to her, if anything, and when.
What good is the grand jury testimony of a drunk ho? There's no case here at all.
We were foster parents to the child of a drug dealing/drug using stripper in Atlanta. She was arrested when she abandoned the baby in a crack house. She went to jail for 18 months.
Just when you thought Rev. Al had no standards. If the race pimps aren't showing up, even they know this investigation is B.S.
I don't know if the players would want to be tried in Durham. I don't believe they would receive a fair trial- keep in mind that most students would be in the jury pool (and may be excluded), since traditionally jury pools are selected from voter registration and driver license lists, and most students are license to drive and registered to vote where their parents live. Most working people tend to avoid serving on juries, so who's left? A pool made up disproportionately of the underclass, many of whom strongly resent Duke and its students. Did you see the community forum? A question about why the accuser wasn't flown to Wake or elsewhere because Duke's hospital would tainted the DNA sample was taken seriously by the crowd. That is your jury pool.
It might be in the lawyers interest to demand a speedy trial if an indictment goes down. Otherwise Nifong will drag it out till after the election before dropping his losing case.
I doubt that. Nifong will manipulate the GJ with his prima facie case and they will rubberstamp whatever he feeds them. If they don't, he can place the blame on them. They won't want to take the heat. Either way, it's a win-win for him, whether he goes to the GJ next week or the next GJ two weeks later.
Does anybody know how he's doing in the polls there (if there are any polls)? Does he have much of a political machine behind him?
Nancy Grace will say that she was drinking to mask the pain of being raped.""
Unless Nancy Grace is speaking in the first person, and it has happened to her in the past, I suggest she STFU.
Getting drunk enough to pass out in less that an hour and a half when you want to be lucid to speak to the cops isn't the best offense, IMO.
Perhaps a few days later, when the pain and embarrassment hits her, perhaps then. But NOT right in the middle of the problem.........
LOL
That is a bad misread of why people are interest in her state of intoxication. People don't think it would be okay to rape her if she was drunk.
When people go to trial for a major felony, the totality of the circumstances need to be understood in the effort to fit the pieces together in some comprehensible way.
Hey--I'm with you on this. The whole thing stinks to high heaven...all I was saying is that the drunk thing doen't necessarily fall in the accused's favor. What needs to be known is where she was in the hours before she went to the LAX house.
People don't think it would be okay to rape her if she was drunk.
** You'd be surprised.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.