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.
You said chris1 was a bluffer. I don't think so. He offered you the opportunity to put up or shut up. Personally, once I get my legal stuff resolved in the next few months, I would consider a trip to NY just to meet chris1. I think he is my kind of guy.
Even if she can't pay now, having a judgment following her for years will make things difficult for her - unless she decides to remain a prostitute and stripper all her life, which probably won't make for an easy time in her golden years, LOL! If that's her plan, I see some unemployment in her future.
I didn't miss the point, I know the strippers were black.
I'm only making the point that anytime young women disrobe in the company of drunken rowdy young men...everyone there is in a potentially damaging situation.
The girls could get manhandled, or the guys could get accused of manhandling them.
I haven't been following your dialogue. Are you saying other posters don't realize that the essential basis of this case is race?
Would it be fair to say that your reputation with judges is that you do not put up with B.S. rulings and decision?
I read the N&O original interview with him done several days, perhaps a wekk, after the party. He was completely clueless. Now he's claiming different knowledge and involvment that is impossible in light of his first response of surprise at the entire matter.
Try not to run over anyone while you back peddle, Chris.
Afraid Carling might take you up on your offer?
Huh? Now they're trying to prove...what?, that there was some kind of sexual contact between two men!? WTF?
Glad to learn I'm not losing my mind, at least what's left of it.
My stepdaughter just sold her house here in RDU for a million.
I doubt they'd be able to come up with the legal fees these families are going to have.
LOLOL!! Yet, I don't thibk he's ever felt the same way about the color blue!
From the way Bubba's bin lookin' and soundin' lately, that rocking chair may look real good to him.
Not only that, they allowed her stay despite noticing that the bruises on her body- most black people don't bruise that easily so they must have serious. They should have just given her money and sent her on her way. Now they face a situation where their fate depends on a jury who likely won't feel an ounce of sympathy for rich white guy from Duke who yelled racial slurs at the accuser and the other stripper. Even if someone justice prevails and they are acquited, they may have financially ruined their parents in defending.
The richest people in the world aren't usually accused of stuff like this.
You seemed to have overcome your "disability" pretty well though. :-)
Found yourself a role model, have you Connect?
Well, that, and the fact that the whole justice system is totally corrupt. I think that's the gist of all of his posts.
Another "wishful thinking" momemt, if you ask me, along with "when one of them comes forward."
LOL!
He's depressing the hell out of me.
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