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.
Twenty years ago I was a rich, spoiled brat in college. All of my friends were rich, spoiled brats, some of them played lacrosse, I didn't. I spent summers at my parents country club. My friends and I did a lot of questionable and stupid things (drugs, drove drunk, etc.) because we knew that our parents could buy our way out of it AS LONG AS NOBODY WAS HURT. However, we never had the attitude that we could cause seriously serious harm to somebody and get away with it.
Nobody I grew up with has ever been accused of something like this. There is one fear that rich, spoiled brats have that overrides all else, and that is the fear of losing everything.
You don't have to convince me.
When I tell people just how corrupt the courts are in Washington state, they look at me like I am crazy. Until one has a person experience with it, it is hard to believe. There is nothing someone could tell me about their experience that would lead me to say, "I don't believe it." My inclination is that they are telling the truth.
Fine, I have issues, when are you stopping by?
"If she falsely accused those young men, it shouldn't be. She should be brought up on charges and made to reimburse the young men's legal fees."
Ya think ole Jesse might spring for that after he gets through payin' for her education??? ;-)
You put it better than I could.
That's why I don't see how they have any evidence of the rape other than the stripper's drunken description.
If you think someone who is disgusted with judicial tyranny and corruption has issues, I have 'issues'. chris1 talks from personal, real-life situations; and so do I.
LOL! The internet tough guy.
My favorite of the flame warriors.
OH, I definitely agree with you, they are there, I was just trying to say that many of these kind of predicaments can be avoided, by kids that are of morally sound character, that wouldn't be worrying about this, if their behavior followed a path unlike that which seems to easily include those without this parental direction.
Look at how I was pounced upon.
How many of those people have been in Bronx Criminal Court, civil court, etc etc.
Probably only a few. They don't see that side of things and don't want to hear the reality of things.
It should be like medieval England. If she doesn't have the money, they should lock her in a workhouse doing manual labor 15 hours a day eating bread and water until she earns enough to pay their legal fees off.
I am very accessible, very available.
I have been called all sorts of things, yet I say something, I get pounced upon.
But if it makes you feel better to flame me, that's fine.
Okay, but when Black men rape White women, it's NEVER reported as racial and it's not reported like
A black man raped a WHITE women in Newark..
In this case, the Media inserts race into every report.
@@@@
In Baltimore a few years ago, a (black) woman was raped at a bus stop, and reported that a (black) man raped her. The Major in charge of the Police District put out a directive to look for black men in the vicinity.
End result in Baltimore: the Major was fired for insensitivity. I'm not sure if he was black or white, but he was well-respected by most Baltimoreans, except for the race hustlers.
I have a petition to recall Christine Gregoire as Washington governor in the state supreme court. I was supposed to have a hearing on it months ago. They are now trying to 'handle it' on their motion docket and aren't even listing it as a matter before the court on their web site.
Why? Because if there was an actual hearing, I would expose the racketeering that goes on n the courts of Washington, including the state supreme court, and a lot of judges would eventually be going to prison.
The governor and state AG argue that the separation of powers doctrine prevents the state from prosecuting judges who commit crimes.
But I've read that they were disappointed that they were black. It was discussed on one of the talk shows.
I would be interested to know your source, not as a challenge, but to clear up this point.
Just out of curiosity, Chris: If the Frat House wuz up theah in Nu Yawk and them frat boys wuz all un biazed Nu Yawkahs an' them cullud gal strippuhs wuz frum Hawlum, wud them boys still be dum' fo' pullin' a stunt lik' this?
Judicial corruption was not the subject of my comment
I think you're missing the point. It's not that they had strippers there that caused the trouble. The problem is that the strippers were black.
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