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.
Was Jesse Jackson there? Does he have any way of knowing what really happened?
Were the people demonstrating in front of the house for the last five weeks there?
Was the stripper's father there? Yet he has been on TV making statements, and I don't hear you going on about how inappropriate that is, to be all over the TV defending her. You presumably allocate him that right, but the father of two young men whose crime apparently was to be members of the lacrosse team and present that night does not have that right, because those boys were obviously exhibiting trashy behavior.
I don't hear your concern that Jesse and the population of Durham are making racist statements and drawing unwarranted conclusions. Where is your concern about that?
I'd say it was black opportunism.
Then I'll just have to contact the ghost of Jim Valvano to tell him of your support of Duke. :-)
Lighten up, would ya? Too much coffee today?
The Sheriff's Department picked them up, NOT the Durham Police Department.
So they avoided that little "chat" we all know they get from the officers who pick them up.
:-)
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.
Lighten up??
Not good I would feel ................... but little of this "publicity" would have seen the light of a good day without this weird D.A.
You MIGHT have to alternate positions of the mop & bucket... you know, rear door one day, bathroom a day later... but it's not too hard to move the bucket. You can do it as you get a refresh on the coffee and get back on FR;)
STOP FEEDING THE TROLLS!
That just means the document was filed with the court, but not signed until the 12th. There is nothing unusual about that. Judge's usually don't sign documents until they are filed unless it is and emergency and then they are filed just as soon as they are signed.
Assuming N.C.'s like California, our first indication would probably be them waiving the arraignment. I think they'd go for the prelim, 'cause they'll pin down the DA further, and they've got a solid chance of getting it kicked on a motion at the end. Any idea what the NC speedy trail definition is? It's usually X days. Bet you whatever the limit is, the first day of the prelim will be after 5/2.
YOI!
Uh oh. The Finnerty house is located in a neighborhood of million dollar houses. He MUST be guilty. /s
I can't believe that no one leaked.
So that's really why the police pulled that stunt at the dorms last Thursday? They were trying to find out who was at the party on the eve of the GJ hearing? It really WAS desperation!
Next court date is set for May 15.
And the speedy trial thing is done on a case by case basis, but it's 60 or 90 days.
And the clock started ticking today.
"What about the e-mails from one of these young paragons of virtue concerning skinning a black woman??"
That email may be a sting....
http://time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1184007,00.html
Thirteen days after the election, huh? How convenient.
Actually, they were in church - the entire team, praying
ZULU, I'm disappointed at your uncalled-for sarcasm.
Since the beginning, the students have said that half of the players had left by the time the strippers arrived.
Some of them took cabs home, some of them might have used ATMs at the time that alleged rape took place.
It's quite possible that the stripper identified two players who had already left the party by the time the strippers arrived.
I think Finnerty has proof he wasn't there. First, he could have avoided appearing in court this morning, I think I heard, as Seligmann did, but there he sat looking relaxed. Then this CNN article shows Finnerty and his lawyer calmly walking by reporters. I heard Seligmann left out the back. If either of these guys who were picked out with absolute, 100% certainty is shown to have been elsewhere, then it destroys any other id the accuser made imo.
http://www.cnn.com/
That's only because you don't live in the state of Washington. Just wait until you see what I will be posting tomorrow; my declaration of probably cause for my citizen's arrest of the chief justice of the Washington State Supreme Court on May, 9, 2006, at 1:30 pm.
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