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.
It is going to be SO satisfying to see the idiot Wiley E. Nifong get his butt handed to him.
Maybe Chrystal's last name is Meth.
What did Cheshire mean when he said if she had sex after 6:00 or before 6:00. A.M. on the 14th or pm? I didn't get it.
If there in fact was $2000 in her possession....then obviously, she had made a few stops BEFORE she got to this gig...leaving a lot of doubt about what really happened....
lol
Maggie and JeffAtlanta linked me on the alibi.
I honestly can't believe that Nifong is blustering about charging a 3rd team member. If the defense has what they say they do, this is an absolute miscarriage of justice.
I'm betting that he will be defeated in his primary.
Are we now at the point in the saga when the defense has access to the accuser's phone records?
And who was suppose to pick her up?
Exactly - agree 100%. Just wait though, these alibis will be questioned as a little too convenient and the leap will be made that they were staged. They will be compared to Scott Peterson's boat trip.
:-)
Look, I think she is a lowlife and a liar myself, but if you are going to spew crap like this, then don't get all indignant when people play the race card. You bring out stupid slurs like this and you forfeit any right to comment on idiots like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton (who will doubtlessly show up when the moment is right).
Keep it straight. Is she lying? Is there evidence to convict these guys of being more than a bunch of priveleged kids with too much swagger, money, and power? If not, say so, but leave the racial slurs somewhere else. No one, white or black, likes that kind of needless gratuitious comment.
Are we now at the point in the saga when the defense has access to the accuser's phone records?
That I do not know....maybe someone else can answer that.
LOL! That won't be necessary -- he has shown that himself, several times!
If the charges ARE baseless, I agree with you.
Since there has been no trial as of yet, the jury is still out.
No?
I'd say that's a racist statement - and that's coming from a white guy.
Supposedly to the second officer on the scene at Krogers when he was talking her to the psych ward.
Of course, she only claimed rape -- they didn't get the "details" about who or where for 31 hours (after "subsequent interviews" say the DPD.)
Considering she admits to doing one on ones (whatever THOSE are), and that she showed up drunk and injured and missing fake fingernails, it wouldn't surprise me if she'd been at least roughed up at her earlier job that day.
Any links to inidicate his "weirdness" aside from your disagreement with this case?
Seriously.
I'm interested.
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