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.
Yeah, Kobe raped her, and then she went and had consensual sex with yet another man. She was a groupie who had consensual sex with Kobe and cried wolf.
And what adults do consensually really isn't your (or my, or the government's) business. This matter is a special case because Duke, as a private university, has the right to impose moral and social codes on its students. If they violated it by hiring a stripper to perform at a party, the university can punish them accordingly.
The idea of imposing strict social codes via the government is abhorrent. I think you'd feel more at home in Singapore or under the Taliban.
ROFL. I'll never, ever forget Rita the night she misreported the SCOTUS ruling in Gore v Bush. She's unwatchable, imo.
That was a night to remember...I had to turn on MSNBC to get the facts....
Would that explain why the defense attorneys would not divulge the ATM receipts and cab ride information until after the two were charged? After all, Nifong wasn't interested in seeing the time-stamped pictures.
Also, if a rape had occurred, it's likely the guys would just have claimed it was consensual. After all, the stripper is one step up from a prostitute and it wouldn't have been far fetched for them to claim consensual sex.
But they all claim that no sex took place that night with the stripper.
When all is said & done, these boys should avail themselves to every legal option available to hold Nifong accountable.
I skimmed through the thread, the part about the boys not being there....did the defense attorneys try to tell Nifong that or was this a sort of trap? IOW, did they hold onto this information until after the indictment just in case?
Clue: their lives, for all intents and purposes, are destroyed.
IIRC, the school is honoring the scholarships, just ending (for at least next year) their program. Those who wanted to transfer to another school with a lacrosse program will allowed to do so.
Some of her fake nails were found in the bathroom at the house. She claims she fought off the 3 men in that bathroom as they raped her vaginally and anally.
If that is true, their DNA would be under her fingernails.
And photographs show that she walked into the house missing some of those fake nails.
Swifter is a life saver....a Freeper must have...
I think they have video.
How often does the average male college student wash linens?
Should they be cleared or, heaven forbid, if they get put in the Kafka-esque situation of having to prove their innocence - as opposed to having the DA prove anything, I expect it would be hard to wash the grime off. Maybe they could get a good attorney and counter attack.
He has got to go.
Exactly. And what makes them think her memory will get better a month later? I think the DA is looking for someone to talk (which won't happen imo because there's nothing to talk about).
Some of her fake nails were found in the bathroom at the house. She claims she fought off the 3 men in that bathroom as they raped her vaginally and anally.
You can't tell me there would be no DNA in her after that!
She was late, after all. It showed that she had "relations" with someone. Bf/john/pimp is loooong gone.
Sad thing is that most of these women use drugs/alcohol to cope, or get into the business to feed an existing habit.
I'm betting the Seligmann family will be "exonerated".
This entire thing is just as absurd and ugly as the Libby thing.
this will prove how far the DA has over-reached once and for all
And I have just about every swiffer product ever produced just for days like this.
Thanks for the information. I've got two in college right now. Ouch!
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