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.
Thank you, the media conveniently leaves that part out; just like the first e-mail where the boy was actually quoting a movie line.
There was no DNA under the nails. What they should test for is whether HER DNA or anything but the adhesive that comes with the nails (it's reported that they are Lee Press-on Nail) to see if they were ever even actually on her fingers, or if they were new and had NO DNA or adhesive on them. Since they are painted, they can test the polish with that on the handrail. She would have to have painted them after they were on because she would not have been able to press them on with the polish being wet. So, if the only material under the nails is adhesive, and not even her DNA is under them, it tends to show that she was putting them on in the bathroom.
I know many people from the "Heartland" that would be totally F$%^ed if they were dropped in the South Bronx or many parts of the typical inner city.
Many of these college kids, especially the ones I meet, are totally clueless and not prepared for the real world. They have ZERO street smarts and were never allowed to experience what goes on in the street. The parents think they are doing a good thing by that, but they are not.
Did you go to college? The party is pretty common, and was even back when I went to college.....35 years ago.
After they graduate.
That's not what I read, but after all the story changes, who knows any more. In any event, there wasn't enough room in there to do what she claims was done.
The things I have learned on FR............LOL.
Please! I understand what you're saying, but are you trying to insinute she was raped without being held down or confined in some manner?
Check this Out. The indictments were signed by Nifong on
April 12th - APRIL 12th.
Here's a timeline surrounding that date:
April 11
At a public forum at North Carolina Central University -- where the alleged victim is enrolled -- Nifong tells the crowd that the investigation "is not going away," and that more DNA tests could be possible.
April 13
Durham police detectives visited Edens Dorm, where they spend more than an hour attempting to question students as a part of their ongoing investigation.
If she was seaually assaulted with some object, that object would have some of her DNA on it. It appears that the search warant did not even mention any such object. That being the case, she obviously did not allege some 'object' was used.
There are so many holes in her story, they can possibly be plugged.
NO I'M NOT! Sheesh.
What we are interested in here is NOT the web's definition of rape, but what NC state law defines rape as. And in NC, rape is ONLY VAGINAL INTERCOURSE.
http://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_14/GS_14-27.2.html
Sure I went to parties, and sure we did a lot of things, but we never ever got caught, we never ever put ourselves in danger, always always always had back up three four deep.
Half the people I grew up around are in jail or under indictment, many are close to it.
We partied, but never ever figured we would have defense lawyers there to bail us out.
Did we drink underage? Sure, but we never acted in public in a way to draw attention or in a way that if people started S$%^ we could not stomp them down.
These kids today have no fear because they don't know what is capable of happening to to them. How many do you think ever knew someone who went to jail or got stomped in the street?
How many do you think know people who are capable of serious violence?
Until you realize that this stuff is not just in the movies, you just can't comprehend what is out there.
Not very "street smart" are they?
Chris1,
You're blaming the Victims - the Lacrosse team.
Victims of charged Felon 8yrs their senior.
.
If you want to prove nothing happened because of time constraints, you have to prove the pictures chronicled the full time she was there.
You have no idea. They make me ill. Most are a bunch of spoiled rotten panzies who walk around in flip flops and drive a BMW that their daddy bought them while they are off to the country club.
Don't get me started on that bunch. As bad as the guys are, the women are typically a bunch of biaches and C%^& looking to spend every last dime their husband slaves to make and don't even give him a smile, let alone an ounce of respect.
Well it's taken about a dozen posts and you've made your point. Will there bring anything else?
I think the defense lawyers DID try to tell Nifong about the alibi documentation, and I say that because of the late week evening foray the DPD detectives made into the dorm to corner some players to get them to say who all was at the party. By then, the defense lawyers already had the names of those to be indicted, so they probably tried to tell Nifong he was barking up the wrong tree. Instead of looking at the alibi evidence, Nifong sent the detectives into the dorm in the evening to circumvent the defense lawyers, probably hoping they would not be reachable by their clients at that time, to pressure them into telling who was there or asking if Finnerty and/or Selighmann were at the party.
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