into toilets, wipe down surfaces with 
, and stick around. This is going to get interesting.
Posted on 04/18/2006 3:26:57 AM PDT by Mad-Margaret
DURHAM -- A day after a grand jury indicted two Duke University lacrosse players in connection with a reported rape, two men emerged from a sheriff's deputy vehicle and were led, handcuffed, into the magistrates office at the Durham County Jail at 4:54 a.m. today.
The arrests stem from a party that began March 13. The accuser, who is a mother of two, an N.C. Central University student and an escort service dancer, told police March 14 that she was sexually assaulted by three men in a bathroom at an off-campus house shared by three lacrosse team captains. The accuser is black; she said her rapists were white.
Defense lawyers said players maintained that there was no sex at all. They said the accuser concocted the story, that she was drunk and injured late March 13 when she arrived at the three-bedroom house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.
"... Two young men have been charged with crimes they did not commit. This is a tragedy," Bob Ekstrand, who represents team players, said Monday in a prepared statement. "For the two young men, an ordeal lies ahead. They do not face it alone; they face it with the love of family and friends and strengthened by the truth. They are both innocent."
Superior Court Judge Ronald Stephens sealed a manila envelope containing the indictments shortly after the grand jury finished its business Monday. The judge cited a state law that requires everyone involved in a case, including witnesses, to keep the indictment secret until a suspect is arrested.
Last month, a judge ordered DNA tests on the team's 46 white players; he excluded the only black team member. The players' attorneys say the tests showed none of the players' genetic material on or in the woman.
Nifong, bolstered by a medical exam that found injuries on the woman consistent with sexual assault, says he is confident that she was assaulted in the university-owned house. Nifong said last week at a forum at NCCU that the accuser identified at least one of her attackers.
Until Sunday night, the only other witness, the second woman hired to dance at the party, had remained silent. In television interviews, she told her story.
The woman's attorney, Mark Simeon of Durham, declined Monday to make her available for an interview. She spoke on the MSNBC cable news network, which did not identify her and showed her in silhouette. Simeon confirmed that it was his client on MSNBC.
The woman told MSNBC that she did not witness a rape and does not know whether one occurred.
The woman said she arrived thinking that she would be dancing at a bachelor party of 15 people. She was not expecting a party of lacrosse players, many of whom she said were in a drunken stupor. The woman said she was infuriated to learn that some players photographed her dancing.
The accuser did not appear to be on drugs or to have been drinking when she arrived, the second dancer said. She was "absolutely fine and in control of herself."
When the accuser left, less than an hour after she arrived, she was incoherent and stumbling, the second dancer said.
"She couldn't really walk on her own," the woman said. "She really couldn't get her thoughts together enough to answer any questions. ... She was a different person than I met at the beginning."
The second woman said she was the person who called 911 as the party was breaking up, to complain that some lacrosse players had used racial slurs. "The boys hollered the 'N' word," she said. "I was upset and called 911."
She said she pretended to be a passer-by because she didn't want people in her life to know about her job as an escort service dancer.
It is unclear how that woman's story would affect the case. Players' attorneys have said she would only help them. By day's end Monday, Nifong left without talking to reporters; it remains unclear what evidence he has.
Throughout Monday, there were many more reporters on the sixth floor of the courthouse than the 18 members of the grand jury panel. Reporters tracked the district attorney's movements in minute detail. Just after noon, Nifong emerged from his office and walked across the hallway to the bathroom.
Reporters surrounded the bathroom door in a crowd that included five television cameras, three still photographers, sound men with boom microphones and at least a dozen print reporters. At the sound of flushing, the group tensed, raised cameras and prepared. Nifong did not emerge with news.
"I no longer get to go anywhere in my community without people knowing who I am," said Nifong, who faces two challengers in a primary election May 2. Staff writer Anne Blythe can be reached at 932-8741 or ablythe@newsobserver.com.
The university's lack of support for their team--in the absence of any evidence whatsoever--has bothered me from the beginning. The president has behaved shamefully. If these young men are shown to be innocent, he should leave. He has no business running a university.
That's the equivalent of saying she deserved to be raped because she was a stripper. NOT a very christian way to look at things, if you are a christian.
Thanks.
I heard that term 6 times in a span of a few minutes at the playground this weekend. I didn't call 911. I just didn't want that little black girl who was so liberally using the word arrested.
Thanks for the response--you answered my question--Drive by jerk
Eith that kind of history, I think a conviction WITH DNA evidence would be difficult.
It is possible that one or more of those men raped the woman. But for that to be true, we have to believe that 30-40 people are lying. For the girl's story to be false, only one person needs to be lying. I have a hard time believing that every single guy at the party would lie about a rape being committed. I think at least one of them would have remorse and admit it.
I'd like to have heard Cheshire because he certainly wasn't terribly literate to read :-)
into toilets, wipe down surfaces with , and stick around. This is going to get interesting.
This woman is starting to remind me of the one who found a finger in her Wendy's chili!! Look what Wendy's had to go through before the truth was exposed.
I find it far more probable that the guys were pissed about the show and didn't pay them so she made up the story than the fact no one is talking means it didn't happen. These guys are on a team. Its their life. If one of them talks, they may as well leave school, their life will be over.
It sounds like Cheshire is saying that the suspects were at the party, but perhaps not at the time the alleged rape occurred.
Your friends' anecdotes are not data. Your friends *may* be biased.
Go to the Duke website and you will see, one-third of the student population gets financial aid. In addition some get academic scholarships and athletic scholarships.
LOL
If he was a bigoted drunk I wouldn't ask for it.
So, assuming someone's a "bigoted drunk," they're not entitled to the protections of the Constitution and the law? They deserve no sympathy for having their lives torn apart by false accusations and race-baiting prosecutors? Sounds Orwellian to me.
I find it interesting that you're so disgusted by "bigoted drunks," but you don't seem willing to consider that the worst "bigoted drunk" in this case just might be the stripper/accuser.
There is no more team. The school released incoming players from their letters of intent and they are not recuiting lax players who are high school juniors. The programs may very well be finished no matter what the outcome.
Oh lordy. Rita Cosby was almost swooning when the report came in about semen in the panties in the Kobe case. Wait until she reports about semen in the towel! Someone standby with the smelling salts!
Good point.
Here's the Prez' statement (whenever I hear politicos talk of bonds and lessons and communities and dignity and respect, I automatically go into sniff, sniff, sniff mode...)
"For the past month, Durham and the nation have followed the allegations of a serious crime involving members of the Duke men's lacrosse team. The emerging story has taken new twists and turns virtually every day. In this situation of inflamed passions and painful uncertainty, I have emphasized the importance of not rushing to judgment and allowing the legal system to establish the truth. I'm grateful that other Durham leaders, notably Mayor Bell and North Carolina Central Chancellor Ammons, have urged patience as well.
Today the case has taken a new turn: the grand jury handed down indictments against two students who have since been arrested. District Attorney Nifong will now have an opportunity to present his case, and we will learn on what basis he has pressed his charges. We also move from unfocused speculation about 46 members of the team to the court of law where the guilt or innocence of the individuals charged will be established. It is worth reminding ourselves that in our system of laws, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Many lives have been touched by this case. It has brought pain and suffering to all involved, and it deeply challenges our ability to balance judgment with compassion. As the legal process unfolds, we must hope that it brings a speedy resolution and that the truth of the events is fully clarified.
In the meantime, we have important work to do. The Duke and Durham communities must restore the bonds this episode has strained and learn whatever lessons it affords. Building upon the progress that has been made over the past decades, we must work to create a community that assures respect and dignity for all."
http://www.wral.com/news/8798788/detail.html
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