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.
The kids knew the strippers were black when they hired them. It was a conscious decision based on cost and the type of entertainment they were seeking (ie. duo show with inanimate objects).
I don't know why people are jumping all over you. Anyone who has personally experienced the corruption of the courts has every reason to be cynical; including the seeming immunity of those within governemnt and those well connected.
I am experiencing it now. Even the federal courts cover-up corruption by state officials on a regular basis. I just caught a federal judge destroying court records that directly implicate him in violations of the federal RICO statutes, along with the governor and CJ of the Washington state supreme court. The US Attorney won't do anything about it, so I am going to arrest the CJ of the state supreme court on 5/9/2006.
If I can't get justice from a judge, I will get it in front of a jury where they can't continue to hide my case from the public.
"Good post.
Like I said, as soon as two black strippers walked in to this house, the guys should have escroted them out. Nothing good could come out of that. Is it fair, no. Is it is pc??? No. But look at the pandoras box it opened?"
Well, really. Whether the stripper is black or white - this type of situation can escalate whenever 1 or 2 young women are disrobing in the company of young drunken men.
If she lied, she should pay something toward them.
I have been bashed and trashed for my thoughts, but race is always an issue when it is present in a situation.
Failing to recognize that is potential suicide.
The assessed value of their homes is around 1.5 million each (one ID I am not sure about). Not mansions, but not shacks either.
Yes. I think the father also said he learned about the rape from the media.
@@@@
I saw a video clip of the father saying this, not sure if it was live, but it was early on in this saga.
That's true to an extent, but those values don't give them the street knowledge needed to deal with racist bastards who are out to get whitey.
ATTENTION WORLD!! ATTENTION WORLD!! Especially we of the male persuasion: Stay home and don't answer the door or the phone, until such time as Chris1 finally has written and you have received and committed to memory, his how to book "Street Smarts for Idiots"
Write fast Chris1! I for one, am anxious to get about the business of comforting all those lonely women out there.
If you believe that, you are a fool.
Happened to me too, about 3 times.
Hey, she and her co-stripper made $12,000 per hour!!
Where he was from had NOTHING to do with it....ya know?
In fact, being from the South, I loved New Hampshire!
Am I jaded and biased? Yes. But I see these things from the inside out, unlike most here.
Many people are completely delusional thinking they will get "justice" in courts of law in the way they think.
I deal with what is, not with what should be, could be, or what may be.
Most people have never had experience with the legal system and are completely shocked when they do and realize how ugly it can be.
This case is no different. Many prosecutors, like this one, indict, arrest, and ask questions later, not before.
YECH! the visual.
Based on what I have learned about the escort service, what other dating company shares/shared the same phone number, what they advertised for on the net: it is more than my idle speculation that more than one dancer is a hooker.
So yes, a device would not surprise me.
LOL! You just prove the fact that you have issues
What site?
Maybe we need to start a thread with all the internet evidence of the boys' phtos and their families having been posted, and WHEN they were put up, to the extent that can be learned. Anybody interested?
Brilliant. The point is not to put yourself in a situation where it is easy to be a target of the legal system.
Having two black strippers in an all white frat house is not too smart a thing to do. If you disagree, fine, we disagree.
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