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.
Every time I see something like this, I want to answer...but then again I feel like we've said it so many times before...
DNA is not necessarily semen. There was no sign of ANYTHING!
No semen, no hair, no perspiration, no blood, no tears, no skin cells, no fibers and no latex evidence. That means there was no sign of anything, not even the broom handle. Okay? What was your point?
NO, please don't get me wrong. I went back to look at my post and see why you've written your response the way you did, I'm not debating, or think I know anything about DNA, I'm asking, "If DNA is supposed to be so ironclad and get people off and out of jail for proving they didn't commit crimes, and no DNA has shown up in this case, how is the prosecution going to persue rape charges?
Good article, Carolinamom. Jackasson does need to go away.
Do you type like a gazillion words a minute?
I watching Abrams and your transcript is on the money.
The purported rape victim told the DA that a lacrosse player did the deed. As it's appearing today she was not able to ID the people she says attacked her. So the DA sent a "letter of intent" to all the lacrosse players saying that he would get a court order to compel them to have their DNA taken. Faced with that letter all the players came in and gave DNA. That's right - you got it - he forced a DNA test based on group membership. Beggars belief doesn't it?
I'm not arguing with you. You don't have to get nasty. Sheesh. Should have known better than to post in this thread.
Excellent information contained in that post. Even if it is lurid; you handled it well describing how this sort of thing works.
No, Nifong doesn't have to have anything on these guys.
He could have simply believed the woman (and she had microscopic tissue damage to her privates) and did 70+ interviews condemning these players and saying they're guilty.
Now, he's seriously at risk (for making those public statements) if he later says there's no case. I think he simply believed the woman and got enthralled with the Cameras and celebrity and now he has just gone too far. It is MUCH EASIER for him to take them to court and lose than for him (in this climate he created) to charge no one and say we just didn't have enough evidence.
.
ROFL!!!!!
Howlin ~~LOL~~
Would your definition of 'street smarts' be something along the lines of 'common sense'?
When they start to crackle when they hit the floor. LOLLLL
Far less often than they generate...er...um...ah...DNA.
Just start with a brief list.
I can see the DA saying that the red nail polish could be blood.
Close enough, I guess. Some days my fingers work and other days they don't :-)
I've been playing an internet game called Tiger Shark Deluxe that helps make you type faster; it's fun.
Oh, and I meant close enough to what Abrams said. Not that I type a gazillion words per minute. BTW, gazillion is one of my favorite words :-)
*Sneer*
I agree with both of you. One must train their kids to immediately ask for their parent or guardian, upon contact with LE, and keep their mouths shut. Beyond that, so many people have been railroaded because they were innocent and "believed in the system".
This has turned into a system of "By the Lawyers, For the Lawyers". Generates tons of revenue as well...
Remember Tom Delay's mugshot...he was smiling...LOL
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