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.
Do you think the rest of us were born with silverspoons in our mouths?
Actually, I am grateful for not having that stuff growing up because I have more drive, initiative, and determination than typically 10 people because I am not in line for a trust fund or anything like that.
I had a Monte Carlo, and now I have three cars. A sports car, an SUV, and a bomb to knock around in.
So, you are wrong, dead wrong, again.
No kidding. Crap happens. This crap happens to be knee deep. Sort of like when they went and tracked down Otis Day and the Knights ;-D
I think that's what we're watching tonight.
Shades of the Kobe Bryant-Kate Faber case. Her bi-polar diagnosis and history of near nymphomania was off limits, but the prosecution was digging like mad to find something on Bryant, which, apparently, they never did.
You're really serious, aren't you?
I would NEVER dis football, my son plays, in fact he's at weight training/conditioning right now.
Well, I think the purported rape victim's activities before and after the party will be allowed.
I went to Elon -- I know from Yankees........LOL.
And my first husband was from New Hampshire.
Oh, I hope you're right.
I'm glad those attorneys are going to work as a team! That's excellent news.
I'm sick at what this has done to their lives. Maybe years from now they'll get over it, but probably not.
I hope the defense investigators have the snap to check out any open bottles of cough syrup in the meds cabinet in the frathouse bathroom to see if the accuser's DNA is present; either those boys slipped her something or she was having her own party in that bathroom ingesting whatever she could get her hands on, Kitty Dukakis-style.
I respect anyone in sales because sales is the most important part of any business. Essentially it is what I, just with a different focus. Sales requires brains, smarts, angles, and a good mind for chess.
Actually, I think a sales job should be required for most college kids since it gives you many skills that go in to other areas of life.
So, we may disagree on much, but respect anyone in sales since it is not only a difficult job, but requires a lot of character to succeed.
As far as self defense goes, I have a personal friend who was shot in the street by what he thought was a begger he was trying to help out.
I come across many dangerous people daily that are capable of a lot of bad things. Am I biased, yes, but sometimes I have to be.
ROFLMAO!
I really think this law needs to be changed. Pronto. But given today's feminazi/PC charged atmosphere, there's little hope of that.
You obviously have enough money to get that insecurity complex treated. You might want to think about it. As my grandmother used to say "money can't buy good breeding". And that includes people who never had any money and then got some and people who always had money.
It would have been nice if they would have included an observation as to whether any of the players visible in the photos were wearing long sleeves.
As to Finnerty's record..
I read (I KNOW I READ) that the victim said Finnerty did not make any of the Gay comments to him. He said Finnerty was a minor player.
.
Its reality, we all have a choice. To either strive or to complain.
I choose to try to make things better for myself by working hard, hustling, etc.
I will admit, I have had some bad experiences with spoiled people from wealthy families. Its just sickening and most could use about 6 months of Marine Boot Camp.
FNC: Guest on Brit's show says that DNA was found on the accused bu tno match with lacrosse players. She says that pubic and head hair was taken from players and is being compared to a hair found on accused as well. She thinks results will be in tomorrow.
"If we were discussing an invasion of Iraq by cocaine-doped Iranian Islamic fanatics, we wouldn't have wasted as much time and energy on this subject.
I said what I thought, other people said what they thought."
What is your problem. You really lack a grasp of reality. Certainly you are in the top 5 if not THE top poster on this thread. By your own admission you "wasted...much time and energy on the subject" by ridiculing the side of the argument that has almost every point swaying their, and the accused's, way.
To sum up your argument:
1 - They must be rich kids because they play lacrosse
2 - The kids were idiots to put themselves in the situation
therefore....
3 - The accuser probably is telling the truth and these snotty, spoiled-brat, rich kids are probably guilty.
"When its all over, we'll see what the real story is - hopefully."
And if the real story is that she was lieing you will never be able to shed your obvious class hatred reputation solidified today.
Zulu - you wore no clothes.
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