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.
That's true, but they were also looking for a history of abuse of women in Bryant's past. I don't remember that they found any complainants except one, and she was not credible.
There was a comment a few days ago from the defense team saying they had heard from some civil attorneys that the fabricator and her family were looking for representation.
Male pubic hair in a bathroom of a house occupied by male college students; and with the way most guys keep house? What a shock.
hmmm...Justice for Her is a documentary...dang
Next we will hear it was not a broom, but a hanging chad.
Timeline fill-in coming from Abrams:
1:22 Kroger call
1:49 Arrive Durham Access (medical facility, including mental health services)
2:31 Arrive DMC
2:50 Call status changed to rape
When did Crystal get the nightgown?
I am not bitter, I am just realistic as to why things happen, fair or not.
What should happen is not what always does happen.
It stinks what is happening to these guys, but is this any different than anything else that goes on every day?
How many poor whites and blacks do think could afford an army of defense lawyers in a case like this?????
Most guys, most of the time, would hang in a case like this. Were it not for the resources these kids have, thank God in this case!, most guys would go to jail.
I do think these guys will walk, rightfully.
LOL!!!!
Justice4Her: http://www.freewebs.com/justice4her/
I've been thinking how to delicately post this....
One article described the "dancers" doing the nasty to each other.....would that include some kind of "device"?
Supposedly, this type of "entertainment" is quite popular...so I was told, on another board.
Agreed, but the goal should be to get the charges dismissed in the furtherance of justice before there ever is a trial.
Yessssss!! That's it!
You are more obsessed with money and social position than people who have it.
I think this case will drop off the map soon as more comes out. However, this should serve as a lesson for college kids not to be naive and believing things will always be fine.
I think that's entirely possible. And plausible. And how the stripper got swelling in the area that made the nurse think she'd been raped.
One reason the stripper may be holding back on fingering the third kid is that her team is hoping the defense will publicly release the photos.
That way, they can figure out which kid is helping her into the car and ID him, thus avoiding another missed shot in the dark.
Correction (sorry):
1:22 Kroger call
1:49 Transport to Durham Access
1:55 Arrive Durham Access
2:31 Arrive DMC ER
2:50 Intox person changed to rape
But it doesn't list them all....maybe it's been cleaned up.
I may be proven wrong but I suspect these two are being fingered for some other reason than for attempted rape.
Perhaps the gal is just taking a stab in the dark or maybe she is thinking these are the two who made racist remarks or perhaps were most vocal in demanding their money back?
I fear these two boys are going to be branded for life as rapists when they may have done nothing worse than behaved in an uncouth manner at a party with strippers.
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