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.
Seligmann wasn't there, so this must be about Finnerty:
At least one of the two players charged today will be able to show an ATM receipt and a record that he called a restaurant to order food and then picked it up before the alleged assault, according to a defense attorney who is involved in the case but did not want to be identified because the two charged players are not clients.
Forty-one of the lacrosse team's 47 players attended the party last month, according to police interviews with three team captains, Dan Flannery, Bret Thompson and Matt Zash, who told the police that only members of the team were present.
And frankly, I've wondered if Crystal might be faking to cover up her not getting the full $400......to keep from 'dancing' more (lazy), to keep boyfriend/pimp from getting angry (fear), and to get back at 'dem white boys who 'disrepected' her. Then the hysterics when she learned she might be going to jail. If true, it could get an Oscar.
Wow Wendy Murphy claimed their DNA was all over THEIR bathroom and yet failed to mention a lack of DNA on/in the accuser or under her fake fingernails.
Selective commentary.
Yes - they have modified their original statements. That's reason #1 why I haven't believed the stripper since shortly after this was reported.
Description of items to be siezed:
11. United States Currency totaling $400.00 or portions of said currency (all twenty dollar bills)
Inventory of siezed property. $160.30
Can you point me to the the affidavit where she said $2000 was missing?
If she really did fall down the stairs could she not simply have suffered a head trauma? Could account for both her state in the Kroger parking lot as well as here carrying on at Duke Med Center.
the 27 minute gap in the picture timeline.
I can't imagine a more bitter and miserable person than Wendy Murphy. Well, besides Nancy "my fiance was killed so any man accused of a crime is guilty" Grace.
I think that's how it played out too and will only add it's possible she was raped or beaten by her bf before the party started, since she showed up bruised and missing nails.
Under normal circumstances, they shouldn't, but this is a case that is in almost a bizarro world. The Defense's best strategy is to lean on the facts of the case, while DA's is to get the jury to believe that "something happened" in order to get a guilty verdict.
And it doesn't make any sense at ALL to drug only one of them.
That's a possibility.
Also, this is the first I've heard Kim say that she couldn't see Crystal for some extended period of time. And it certainly doesn't comport with the photographs which are timestamped.
When did she first mention that she had been raped....to the security guard or the police officer responding to Kroger's call?
Probably because they are the company that won't allow employees to display patriotic items at their desks in support of our troops.
Nancy Grace and her ilk will say that this proves guilt as they were obviously trying to create an alibi. She and Wendy Murphy will say this is all a little too convenient and shows that they are closing rank.
$2000 stolen? was listed on the search warrant....see it at Smokinggun.com
Do we know for sure whether the hospital did tox tests or not?
Okay, thanks....so the boys say they were in the bathroom for 27mins...Kim says she didn't see Chrystal for 20 of those 27mins........hmmmmmmmmm
The captains apparently said he wasn't there re the NYT, but I haven't heard either attorney say their client wasn't there at any time that night.
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