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.
A friend of mine had a sexual harrassment complaint filed against him (it was dismissed) because he was sitting in his cubicle at his pc with one hand resting across the inner part of his thigh; a woman came in to ask him a question, saw him sitting like that, and thought he was being lewd. She was a dingbat, a man-hater with a bad history with men.
cyborg - I pretty much agree with that. However, she claims that three men raped her for a half an hour both anally and vaginally and that she fought them off. Surely their DNA would be under her fingernails. Their hair should be on her clothing. And the timeline gives them 7 minutes to do all this without tearing her clothing which was intact when she is photographed leaving the house.
I think that too. She arrived at the party bruised and drunk and I think something happened at a previous engagement.
Where do you want me to start?
"You add absolutely nothing cogent except an extreme class animus selectively applied and reasoned"
That's a good day for me, usually there is no selectivity to my animus.
But she should be able to know whether there were two or three, unless the poster above who mentioned something I won't go into is correct.
She would want to avoid the tests if she was abusing perscription drugs, whether they were her perscription or not.
Or she had sex prior to the party with her boyfriend or a "one on one."
Never said that. I personally don't believe there was a rape and I think (from what I know now) that Nifong is a dolt. What I AM saying is that these kids are archetypes, just as a pimped out cadillac with JayZ blaring at 10K decibels is a picture of something else.
People don't sit around a sofa and say "lets invent a stereotype, ok?" Stereotypes exist for a REASON, whether they represent ghetto trash or arrogant snooty preppies. I think a girl who goes and dances in her nighties effectively forfeits much credibility in a rape case. I also think that an asswipe who yells out something so demeaning is not a "victim" in this case, although he may be innocent of the particular charges. BTW, this comes from someone who yelled out at a black guy (with whom I subsequently fought), "None of you people know who your daddy is!" That kind of hateful arrogant stuff forfeits any pity I have for these kids, although I DON'T want them convicted for something they didn't do. I really don't want them convicted of anything, truth be told. I would prefer to let one of them walk down Buchanan St late at night and catch one of my employees one on one. Can't always get what I want, though, can I?
Say it ain't so, Joe! ( Snide reference to baseball. Don't panic. )
These guys are all from up North. The MSM knows that racist bigots live only in the South!
How can this be?
If our oldest daughter Dukie is from a family with a rich Daddy I want to be the first to know about it!
That's not so awful, in fact there have been studies that have shown that people have a more difficult time identifying someone outside of their race than someone who is of their race. So it not inconceivable that a black woman would be able to make a clear ID of a white rape suspect and vice versa. That's why the physical evidence (or lack thereof, in this case) is so important.
I suppose.
Oh brother. That's just ridiculous. Before my husband retired, an employee of his had a picture of his teenage daughter in a swim meet in her bathing suit. A female employee complained and the guy was forced to remove the framed photo from his credenza. Ridiculous.
Lack of physical evidence is a big problem. The accuser says that she struggled for 20 mins but there is no physical evidence to reflect that.
Then at what time is Nifong stating the rape occurred? This makes no sense at all. Is he sitting on some sort of bombshell?
Did the cops gather up DNA in the dorms and then ship them to the private lab? Nifong has to have SOMETHING on these guys, doesn't he?
Nobody. I wondered out loud why the prosecution would not want to see evidence obtained by the defense that pokes holes in his theory. I would, if I were the prosecutor.
So, I was thinking that maybe the prosecution knew something we didn't -- that this type of evidence is maybe inadmissable for some legal reason, so why bother looking at it.
I'll tell you another thing doesn't ring true.
The 2nd dancer said in her interview that she was FURIOUS when she HEARD they took pictures of her. HEARD. So, she didn't see them doing it.
I know a guy that had 2 strippers (not these two) from the same agency (Allure). They brought up the pictures when he inquired. They told him the strippers pose with customers after the performance. The agency said many people create DVDs of their pictures and then share them with friends and buddies.
The guy that had 2 stippers from Allure, did indeed, have a
CD made - and I saw it personally. The women sat around nude (with Legs spread) and drank beer with the guys before taking individual poses with the men. The pictures also showed one dancer using a sex toy on the stripper - and later - it was reversed. These sex toys being harder than human tissue can and do cause this microscopic damage to tissue. They also leave no DNA.
Sorry for being so graphic.
.
I'm not disagreeing with you.
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