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.
Could be!
Are you sure?
Good for you.
Well, I don't do drugs these days, but back in my mid-20s GHB was something that I self-ingested a few times at rave parties. A small amout "loosens you up" w/out the after effects of alcohol.
Just because she has rohypnol in her system does not mean that she was 'drugged'. I know first-hand, and I know about 50 other people that I used to party with that would testify to this use of the drug. It is hypothetically possible that she self-ingested too much GHB in order to help her "perform" for the Dookies.
Regardless of any rohypnol, the lack of DNA will make this case almost impossible to prosecute.
yes
Isn't Finnerty the one charged with the most offenses?
Sure, why not? The party was at a private residence - not in a dorm.
College kids party - that's what they do.
Attachment For Application For Search Warrant
4. Property belonging to 27 y/o B/F victim to include but not limited to a white 6-inch shoe.
Description of items to be seized
7. Property belonging to --------------to include but not limited to a purse, wallet, make-up and make-up bag, cellular camera telephone, and a shoe.
In the inventory of seized property there is no mention of the 6 inch shoe having been found.
I wonder where it went?
No problem here.
I bow to both your housefaking,
hhmm,
HouseKEEPING skills :)
She was photographed at the door with her purse. But maybe the description of items just said purse because cops don't know the diff between that and a make-up bag which she did leave behind.
WOW! I leave for a couple of hours and look what happens.
Now what happens Howlin??
If there is evidence that the two indicted were not there when Kim and Cyrstal arrived, will their defense attorneys ask for charged to be dismissed???
One of the attorneys, Cheshire, made is sound as if they were going to trial.
I certainly wouldn't do that and risk getting a bias jury.
She didn't have it on in the very first picture; for all we know, she didn't bring it.
Housefaking. ROFL. I love that.
that's why one should always smile when being photographed. Tom DeLay got it right.
BTW, she first told them that she was missing $2000.
That $2,000 she claims she was missing is the one thing that makes me think she has a john and she stiffed him. Pardon the pun.
I think he shot it all today.
Anyone notice that the motions for the sealed indictments were dated April 12?
(Or has this been discussed? I'm playing catchup.)
I don't know. This NYT article quotes Kerry Sutton as being told by Nifong that all three captains living in the house have been cleared. Interestingly, Seligmann is one of the six players the captains told LE wasn't at the party. Sutton said the defense lawyers thought "Who?" when he was named. How odd.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/sports/18cnd-duke.html?ex=1303012800&en=7e1ffdf11a4daa51&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
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