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.
Seriously.
And we need to contemplate this: Durham loves TV trials!
How often does the average male college student wash linens?
.....only when his mom(me) reminds him to bring them home...LOL
How does the kidnap charge figure in? That they took her from one room to another? (Serious question-I am a legal dummy, LOL!)
Good for her!! How did she do??
I believe this explain that fury of the defense attorneys.
Kim mentions the possiblity of video here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12366767/
NBC VIDEO
• Speaking out
April 17: The second exotic dancer that was at the Duke lacrosse party talks about that night with MSNBC-TV’s Rita Cosby.
MSNBC
Even if they used condoms, there would be DNA. Under her nails. On her clothing. Which would be torn but weren't. Their hair on her body or clothing. Something.
And she walked in with bruises on her and then when she left tripped on the steps and fell and bruised herself some more.
"How often does the average male college student wash linens?"
About the time it achieves motility.
I agree; in all my time in the legal system, I've never seen that many attorneys come out and unequivocally state that NOTHING happened.
I had the same question....but retstraining a person falls under kidnapping....
In one of his versions, her father said that he took her "to the store" to get sodas and treats for her kids. Who knows but what she got 'something' else at the store too? Does SHE have receipts to back that up? (Using same methods of requiring proof on HER.)
Fox reporting there are credit card receipts, ATM receipts and cab records!
I'm praying it's televised. Politics are boring me right now so a good trial will be just the ticket.
I just don't understand why this one incident has caused the school to virtually drop the lacrosse program. They wouldn't shut down the basketball program if a player was accused of rape. No way on earth. College athletes commit crimes all the time, and schools don't shut down the programs because of it. After all we've all heard of the Florida State Criminoles. (To be fair, most athletic programs probably have several instances of either rape, or theft, or DUIs, or assault, etc, over a period of a few years.) I can think of several players up here at the UW have been acused and/or convicted of various crimes, including rape.
LOL!
LOL!!!!
Someone said once on another thread,but a little bleach in the toilet--the family will think you have been cleaning.
I can attest to the truthfulness of that statement. LOL!
And don't forget "orally". It's hard to picture a man with a desperate fighting, clawing woman trusting her not to add "biting" to her repertoire.
I hadn't heard that aspect of the story. That father has changed his story a few times but I'll try and start paying more attention to his interviews.
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