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.
ALWAYS try to get the case dismissed first!
Unlike a prosecutor who "won" in the eyes of the public if he drags a defendant through enough mud before an aquittal, a defense attorney can't claim victory if he makes the prosecutor look like an idiot but his client goes to jail.
I don't get CNN and I don't give a damn if it came after she cavorted across the living room floor flashing pictures of Eldridge Cleaver at them while chanting black power slogans.
I don't think they did it, however, I think for being "America's best and brightest" that they are a bunch of naive, sheltered, oversized toddlers with ZERO common sense.
Anyone with an ounce of street smarts would not put themselves in a position like this. They need to grow up and this will be the hardest lesson of their lives.
I've always questioned the accuracy these nurse's exams. How can they tell if the guy just wasn't well endowed or the girl suffers from lubrication issues? (sorry if to explicit)
Oh, so a woman can hurl any insult at a man and he can't respond? Brother.
I have to wonder if she would have slapped him if they were in a club where she could have gotten her butt fired.
Put themselves in a position like this? A position like hiring a stripper? Kids at college do it all the time.
What would a street smart guy have done differently?
I barely recall a thread here within the past month along those lines. You weren't allowed to smile or something like that. (Was it Canada?)
Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be brief. The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests - we did.
But you can't hold a whole lacrosse team responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole Duke University system?
And if the whole Duke University system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general?
I put it to you, luthers_inkwell - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society?
Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America.
Gentlemen!
Kerry Sutton: What I'd like to think is the DA has stated the investigation is going on and as he continues to investigate that he'll uncover a lot of the things we already know and decide it's not a good idea to proceed.
Abrams: Is he the kind of guy to do that.
Sutton: I think if it comes down to that, that he believes that, he would.
Abrams: He put out a statement today that he'd like to find the third assailant.
Sutton: No chance he's gotten any one to turn because there's nothing to turn on.
Hey, these guys sound like racist jerks, no question. I wouldn't to have dinner with anyone of them knowing what they really think about black people, as a black person. But being a racist jerk isn't a crime. A rape conviction will mean that they will spend at least 12 years in prison. Even an hour in prison is too long for someone who is innocent. So you and I must put our feeling of dislike aside.
My fear is that jurors in Durham will hear that these white players called one or both strippers a racial slur and then will not hear the evidence in favor of the defendants. Justice is especially important when the defendant are unlikeable.
Ask yourself one question. If it happened to them, could it happen to me? Could I be accused of someone I didn't do, all to fulfill someone's political agenda, or to appease a mob? If we don't speak out for these guys, who from all appearances are innocent racist jerks, then we allow the government to have total control over us.
I agree. And no problem.
No, not at all. What I'm saying is, HOW could there be a rape without DNA? I don't know, that's why I want someone to try an answer, if no DNA was found how could there be a physical rape other than what you might have described? It would seem pretty hard not to touch someone even if you're trying to do the things you've suggested.
Call the cops as soon as the "victim" became incapacitated.
A man doesn't have to use a penis in order to rape. That's how you can have a rape without DNA.
I remember that Delay purposely picked a friendly department so that his mugshot would not make him look like a serial rapist.
She was smiling and on her cell phone as she was leaving. Once she got outside, she fell down and became incapacitated.
' I'm not a lawyer but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn. And watch cop shows. "
Then perhaps you can solve this puzzling aspect of the ID situation :-).
On the Abram's Report, April 3 this was said:
NIFONG: Well, if you are being forced to have sex against your will,
you may not necessarily notice whether or not somebody behind you is using a condom.
If someone is assaulted from behind by multiple attackers and each attacker performed a different act-how is it possible for the victim to identify who did what ?
And how one can say for sure if there were three attackers , two attackers and one holder or just one attacker and two holders ?
The more I read about this case-the less sense it makes.
But she didn't claim that an instrument was used on her.
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