Posted on 04/16/2006 9:05:32 PM PDT by Michael2001
With a grand jury now expected to convene Monday to weigh indictments of two or three of the Duke lacrosse players tied to allegations of raping an exotic dancer, defense lawyers say they fear their clients are being targeted in a setup or sting operation possibly perpetrated by law enforcement. The lawyers have advised the players not to trust or respond to any e-mails sent to each other, one attorney tells Time.
The explosive allegations stem from an e-mail message sent in the last few days to several players from the e-mail address of another player, stating he was going to tell the police a crime occurred and implicate key players. The player denies he sent it. This comes after the recent revelations of the now infamous email sent by a Duke player hours after the alleged crime, in which he joked he was going to have more strippers over and "kill the bitches'; defense lawyers do not dispute that message's authenticity, though they insist it has no bearing on their clients' culpability. "The police said (the new e-mail) came from a confidential informant, but we have reason to believe it came from the police, hoping it would make all the players nervous," says one defense lawyer. "That didn't work." A spokesperson at the Durham Police Department would not comment on the allegations of a set-up, and said she would not forward Time's inquiries to any of her superiors over the holiday weekend. No one at the Durham County District Attorney's Office could be reached for comment Friday.
The lawyers' unsubstantiated accusations came on a busy Good Friday in Durham, when it became known that Durham police investigators had attempted the night before to interview some players on campus about the case. Meanwhile, defense lawyers tell Time they spent part of Friday trying unsuccessfully to talk the Durham County district attorney Michael Nifong out of taking the rape case before a grand jury after the Easter weekend. "What I wished and hoped he would do is conclude there is not enough evidence to proceed," says one defense attorney.
Despite the highly publicized lack of initial DNA evidence linking any player to a crime, grand jurors will be presented with the accuser's statement, her visual identification of the players from photos and a police report from a hospital examination stating "injuries consistent with being sexually assaulted vaginally and anally." Nifong is also still awaiting results of DNA analysis from a private lab in North Carolina to compare with those already received from the state's own crime lab. Blood was taken from the three captains of the team. Saliva cheek swabs were used to gather DNA from 43 players; the lone black player on the team was not tested, as the African-American accuser has said her attackers were white. So far none of the Duke players have been subpoened to appear before the grand jury as witnesses, nor has a second woman also hired as an exotic dancer at the team's Spring Break party at an off-campus house on the night of March 13.
On Thursday, Durham police released the audio tape of a dispatch call made by a responding officer from a Kroger parking lot about four miles from the house where the team party took place. The officer, responding to a 911 call, noted that the accuser was in a drunken state. "She's just passed out drunk," the officer says. D efense lawyers also point to the officer's statement that he has a "24- hour hold" situation — meaning possibly a night in jail on a drunk and disorderly charge. Defense lawyers tell Time they will argue that it was expressly to avoid that possibility that the accuser fabricated the rape charge. "I know which I'd choose," says one defense attorney.
Harder to explain away is the hospital examination report. Defense lawyers will try to poke holes at it by searching for a lag time between the 911 call and the accuser's arrival at the hospital. The district attorney's office has not made public the police report stating time of arrival, and neither has the hospital.
Lawyers say a photo taken of the accuser at 12:40 a.m. shows her being helped into the car by some of the Duke players. The 911 call was made at 1:30 a.m., and she reportedly left the hospital at approximately 11 a.m. later that morning after spending five or six hours there.
Defense lawyers tell Time they also have pictures, not yet turned over to the DA's office, of the main room at the party showing the players sitting in a semi-circle "watching the show." "They are bored, they're practically yawning. This is not a group of rowdy, dangerous people," says one of the attorneys.
No one should be surprised that District Attorney Nifong is proceeding with the case despite the lack of initial DNA evidence. Nifong made his intentions clear on April 11, the day after the initial DNA results went public, at a forum at North Carolina Central University, where the accuser is a student. "Anytime you have a victim who can identify her assailant, then what you have is a case a judge must let go to the jury," he said.
What astounds me more than anything about this case is
from what I've seen NO Freeper has yet put up a pic of
this supposed "Exotic Dancer." ???
What semen? The semen on the towel?
I was replying to #6 who stated there was semen evidence.
I was replying to #6 who stated there was semen evidence.
I KNEW there was something they were leaving out regarding that e-mail!
"Given that she identified her "assailents" AFTER their pictures were printed in the Sunday paper, this case has nothing."
_____
Agreed. Not only were their names and pics in the paper but all over the internet, and as Howlin said flyers were out up by the zealots.
She took three weeks to finally figure out who they were.
Yea uh huh.
In the Kobe Bryant case, it was the girl who was lying, she was after money, her past was scrutinized, why did she go to his room, why didn't she immediately call the cops, it was her fault, she asked for it, she's racist, she used poor judgement, she made it up, on and on.
Kobe is a nice man, he wouldn't do that, he's happily married, he has money and can buy all the sex he wants, she led him on, he made a mistake that's all, blah, blah, blah.
Reverse the races of the participants and it gets interesting. Especially how the press covers it.
Morning Nothern Alliance,
Your point is a good one. A complete and thorough investigative process would have resulted in the DA asking or obtaining a court order that all the players on the team,regardless of race to give a DNA sample.
If the alleged (vic) were so intoxicated, she may not have known who were her alleged rapist(s)
It is called eliminating suspects and substantiating if this case is founded or unfounded.
The truth will either be for or against the alleged (vic) or (perps).
In my opinion, the DA is a complete fool for not asking or obtaining a court to have (all)players tested.
My theory is this whole facade of a case was planned by the alleged vic and some "HASOPA" to generate some "long green" in their unviable fanny-pack coffers.
Even if these young men are found to be completely innocent, the race baiters will cry foul as usual.
The truth is the ultimate quest here and I hope that justice will prevail either for or against all involved.
As I See It,
NSNR
I remember hearing the hospital did not do a tox screen on her, which I thought really odd. I mean you come into the ER looking like hell and say you were raped, surely they would want to make sure you weren't drugged as well. And DNA can come from hair, skin and saliva, not just sperm yet they can't find a trace of anything on her. She showed up hammered, she was partying somewhere before, who was she with?
A search warrant for the house
With respect to the DNA there was a "letter of intent". The DA wrote to the players lawyers that, if they didn't come in and get tested, he "intended" to get a court order to force them to get tested. So strictly speaking they came in "voluntarily" under the threat of a court order.
"This doesn't make sense. Of course she can identify some of the young men. They all agree that they were together as she stripped."
________________
This is true. An ID in this case is not as effective, because she waited so long to ID someone..after their pics and names were everywhere.
Also, the players admit they were there with her in the house as she stripped, so you are correct, all an ID means is she pointed the finger at someone who was in the house. Nobody is denying she was in the house with the players.
This case is going to NEED physical evidence.
IMO
Good catch.
Excellent post! If we can determine when the e-mail was sent, we can see if the cops could have sent it from the student's computer when they searched the room.
Somewhere on this thread, I think it was mentioned that Abrams said the student was in class at the time the e-mail was sent.
[And] The rest of us have put ourselves in a spot of believing too fast.
That about sums it up. Good post.
Oh, I wondered about that! You are right. Not hard at all.
Creeps.
I'd certainly be trying to sue if they tested my son as a suspect in an aledged crime at the scene of which my son was known not to be present. If that is a "reasonable" search, then the term "unreasonable search" has no meaning.Why weren't they testing the DA and, for that matter, the judge - and a bunch of women too, while they were at it. Of course the women couldn't have done it - but then, men who weren't there couldn't have done it either.
It is better for the people who are under suspicion if other people have suspicion cast on them, too. It would be in the interest of the Duke boys if everyone in the country was tested.But it would have been an unreasonable search for the black guy, exactly as it was an unreasonable search for anyone who was not present - such as members of the team, of whatever race, who were not present at the time and place of the alleged crime.
Why stop there? It could have been any man who can't produce an ironclad alabi for the night in question. If indeed it was anyone at all . . .
That being the case, the fact that there were no matches from the team member's DNA is certainly damning to the DA's case.
Was Kobe there?
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