Indeed.
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.
What and where exactly is the real world?
"be anything else"
They were physcos and violent animals who I was smart enough to avoid yet at the same time not be victimized by.
The reality is that bad stuff happens all the time. However, based on our own actions and precautions, bad stuff is either more likely to happen or less likely to happen.
I know many people from the inner-city who would be very uncomfortable after being dropped off on a dirt road in Southeast Alabama. Many of these inner-city punks, especially the ones that I know, wouldn't last 15 minutes without crapping their pants. They're just not prepared for the real world that is Southeast Alabama. Their parents think they did right by their kids by keeping them out of Alabama, but they were wrong.</p>
I didn't see the first 15 minutes of the show, so you're probably right. I will watch the full rerun starting in a few minutes.
I've just figured out why you're such a tight-ass in political matters.
You think anybody who's got a dime more than you do fits an uppercrust stereotype.
You suffer from plain old envy, one of the seven deadly sins.
Indeed.
Jevin Miller reported that NO foreign DNA was found. He stated this a coupld days after the DNA results came back and the lawyers had the results. My sense from his reportage was that he had seen the results. No male DNA found at all.
8 minutes from smiling to passed out? Who was she talking to on the phone? I mean of course before she passed out... It wouldn't matter what kind of sleeves these guys were wearing. I've seen fights where sleeves get ripped right off the garment. I wouldn't be surprised if someone didn't give her stupid butt instructions over the phone before she "keeled over".
LOL! That should be "Kevin" Miller.
My point, and obviously I didn't make it very well, is how do you think it happened without any evidence of DNA or holding her down?
Do you think a gun might have been held to her head?
She's been changing her story to match the evidence coming out from the defense for about a week now.
Seems that you've got a little bit of a chip on your shoulder.
Dealing with reality of life. I had a college intern in my office this summer, could barely talk on the phone coherently, could barely write, etc etc.
My friend was dating this girl going to college while he worked as a painter for an artist. He made good money while her prospects we like 30k per year doing what she was going to do. She could not believe it fair that my friend without a college degree earn a lot more than her. Yet, this girl, on her best day, was maby qualified to be a babysitter.
The real world is that you must be prepared to get beaten down, stomped, romped, kicked, punched, and pick yourself up again without crying how unfair it is.
The real world is that just going to college does not guarantee a good job with nothing else, you have to hustle and make things happen.
They don't teach this in school because most of the teachers themselves never had a real job. Most went straight from College, to Masters, to PHD without ever being in the private sector, never having had a sales or commission based job, and have ZERO experience running a business.
"They have been arrested. They were accused. Let the case
proceed and the facts will, hopefully, fall into the open as the evidence is examined.
If they WERE innocent, and they had never gotten involved in something as stupid as having an Animal House Party, complete with strippers, this never would have happened."
So post after post after post after post by you has implied that they are less credible because a) they must be rich boys because they play Lacrosse and go to a moderately-expensive school and b) they had strippers over while drinking beer.
Post after post after post after post you deny the conflictions in the accuser's story of which said details are more abundant.
Instead you reason that "If they WERE innocent....this never would have happened." So hence you believe in their guilt yet open your post by saying, "Let the case proceed and the facts will, hopefully, fall into the open as the evidence is examined." Ya, whatever.
So if the accuser is lieing how about this: "If they ARE innocent....this NEVER happened."
You have absolutely no legs to stand on. You contradict yourself in the very same post, you have a clear rich-kids-suck-so-they-must-be-guilty chip on your shoulder, ignore every confliction in this accuser's story and show no concern about the very strong possibility that these kids are falsely accused and could be wrongly jailed for between 12 and 15 years.
I would call your reasoning pathetic except that that would be insulting to pathetic reasoning.
Don't you think that's the FIRST thing she would have mentioned?
I agree 100%. I am a fish out of water in Alabama, but am smart enough to know if I find myself there not to bring attention to myself by hiring local strippers to entertain me while I am drink.
It would be My Cousin Vinny, which is a lot like me.
Then he needs to go squirt some blood reagent on it and find out. I hope the defense lawyers have had it photographed and scrapings taken for future testing if that need arises. With the race-bating Rev. bennett conducting vigils in front of the Buchanan house, I can easily see somebody just going up on the porch and scraping it off, using the crowd as cover.
We should have a Separate thread where we predict what NANCY GRACE will say tonight.
"Didn't Scott Peterson offer a ticket for an alibi?"
"These guys look a lot alike, he could've gave his Credit
Card to someone else to establish an alibi"
"I'm sorry NO woman would put herself through this if it wasn't true"
"Nifong has the evidence, we just don't know what it is - But, he has it"
"These Rich Kids thought they were untouchable"
"Maybe a Duke scientist Developed a condom that is totally untraceable and invisible"
"Maybe these guys had root beer in that Keg and the Evil geniuses faked their way into underage drinking and open-container violations in order to pull off the perfect crime"
"She is a Single, Mother of 2, WORKING her way through College."
"Has anyone checked to see if these boys are direct descendants of Adolf Hitler?"
"I wonder if these boys aren't serial killers"
"You know what, I'm suspicious when someone can account for their whereabouts all the time"
"Lady Justice must crush these White, privililedged males"
"When I was a prosector, I had a case just like this and those sick men were guilty there too"
"Why did God create Men anyway?"
.
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