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.
Which leads me to believe that she took something in the bathroom. I friend of mine used to date a girl that did that. She would be perfectly lucid at the beginning of dinner but would be totally incoherent 40 minutes later with just a glass of wine and a visit to the bathroom.
It doesn't make any sense to drug a stripper that makes house calls.
This one?
---
Bill Thomas, a defense attorney representing one of the team captains, said Tuesday that neither Seligmann nor Finnerty had any contact with the woman that night. “We are ... actually shocked,” he said. “We always thought she would pick out someone who at least had a conversation with her or paid her.”
Thomas said “multiple witnesses and a commercial transaction” indicated one of the charged players wasn’t at the party. And defense attorney Robert Ekstrand, who represents other players, said neither Seligmann nor Finnerty was at the party “at the relevant time.”
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12366767/
1,239 posted on 04/18/2006 1:36:23 PM CDT by maggief
Is this something new or has she said this before? re being drugged...
And is it really possible Crystal went from smiling as she left the house and talking on a cell phone to basically passed out?
If Kim was alone and separated from the AV for that 20 minute period, why aren't there any pictures of Kim alone. There's a 20+ minute gap in which no pix were taken. That seems to support the boys' side that the two women were in the bathroom.
I wish to heck Rita would ask Kim what they did in the bathroom for 27 minutes.
Also, the 20 minutes Kim said she didn't see Crystal doesn't make sense. People who have viewed the photographs say there is only 7 minutes when the accuser isn't photographed, excluding the 27 minutes both girls were in the bathroom together.
Also, why was the accuser smiling and talking on a cell phone as she left the house but shortly after that, Kim says she couldn't even talk in the car?
They have pics of that don't they?
I think this interview was a reply from the other day because I thought freepers were discussing that now date rape drugs were being discussed. But I'd never seen that particular segment of Kim's interview.
I picture you as this sweet Freeper lady...
Where *do* you get the slang I've seen on this thread???
LOL =;-0
Pinz
That doesn't make sense to me either. The DA might have worked on Kim, if you know what I mean.
I dunno about that. When I got busted for posession and assaulting an officer (crazy days in HS) I deliberately picked my nose for the mug shot. The cop laughed but let it go thru. It covered up a bruise on my jaw, though, so maybe that was why he let it go.
Yes, they do. And Dan Abrams has seen them.
:-D
This started a few days ago when the 911 the Kroger security guard and the dispatch conversation with a policeman at the scene where released with characterized the accuser as "passed out drunk".
It's actually a pretty clever move as there is a hysteria over date-rape drugs.
"....Kerry Sutton as being told by Nifong that all three captains living in the house have been cleared."
I love it.
Did anyone see Wendy Murphy last night, with that smirk on her face, mention the two captain's NAMES, saying that that their DNA was "all over the bathroom where she was raped." She was implying that they will probably be the ones arrested. (And she's the one who insisted all along that the DNA found on the towels was semen.)
:-) Oops - I'm going to lose my reputation, aren't I?
Cop shows have taught me nearly all I know about this other world. That's probably not a good thing.
If Kim was alone and separated from the AV for that 20 minute period, why aren't there any pictures of Kim alone. There's a 20+ minute gap in which no pix were taken. That seems to support the boys' side that the two women were in the bathroom.
Im getting confused...are we talking about 2 20min gaps or 1 20min gap with two versions of what was happening?
I think that both she and the security guard have had a lot of pressure from their community. Both have modified their original statements.
B-U-R-N!!!
:-)
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